V8 Vantage - European Tour
Discussion
Just back from our latest 'Research & Inspection' tour: -
16 days,
5 countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France),
Over 20 Alpine passes,
2687 miles,
21.8 average mpg,
41 mph average.
Overall the car was faultless, and received admiring attention everywhere we went.
This was our first 'big' European tour in our V8 Vantage, and it was an absolute pleasure to drive, and according to Blondemoment, an absolute pleasure to be a co-pilot in
A Great Drive - that didn't leave us Shattered!
On returning, the car had it's 10,000 mile service, which showed no ill-effects from it's 'adventure'
If you would like to see a selection of pictures from the trip, please click here - best viewed as a slide-show (click on the picture, then click slide-show button)
16 days,
5 countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France),
Over 20 Alpine passes,
2687 miles,
21.8 average mpg,
41 mph average.
Overall the car was faultless, and received admiring attention everywhere we went.
This was our first 'big' European tour in our V8 Vantage, and it was an absolute pleasure to drive, and according to Blondemoment, an absolute pleasure to be a co-pilot in
A Great Drive - that didn't leave us Shattered!
On returning, the car had it's 10,000 mile service, which showed no ill-effects from it's 'adventure'
If you would like to see a selection of pictures from the trip, please click here - best viewed as a slide-show (click on the picture, then click slide-show button)
whoami said:
Bonne Route said:
21.8 average mpg,
WOW - how did you manage that??
Seriously, I've no idea. I just re-set the computer before we left.
We mainly drove 'Squirrelly' back roads to complement the passes. When we had to drive on the motorway (mainly in France), it was the French holiday season, with Jean Claud Gendarme in abundance, so no more than 100 leptons, interspersed with coffee, fuel and pee stops!
Edited by Bonne Route on Saturday 1st September 19:42
F355spider said:
My v8 has its first European road trip at the end of this month. Will be taking it and the wife down to monaco for a long weekend, and likely to knock up 2000 miles over four days.
Sounds great! Provence in late September/early October is IMHO the best time of the year to visit.bogie said:
As an all round touring car it was excellent for luggage space and comfort..and always got a lot of attention at the hotels we stayed at.
I completely agree
No idea on mpg at all (the joys of a fuel card!) ...it does tend to burn a little oil (about 5L in 13K miles now over 4 months)
we didn't use any over the whole trip
The instructor I had for the day was well impressed with the way it was set-up and the brakes in particular. He said you dont normally get many road cars that can cope with 20mins or so...apparently even things that you expect to have good brakes like 360s and CSLs are quite poor and only last a few laps whereas the V8s were lasting 7-8 laps of Snett before feeling a little wooden.
Agreed again. Even after a succession of fast downhill pass sections, the brakes never seemed to suffer from any 'fade'
So overall, Im really chuffed with it as an overall package, and its got to be the most viable alternative to a 997 there is (if you dont need the back seats of the Porker) - for a daily driver sportscar, that you can go touring in and do the occasional trackday its great
I completely agree
No idea on mpg at all (the joys of a fuel card!) ...it does tend to burn a little oil (about 5L in 13K miles now over 4 months)
we didn't use any over the whole trip
The instructor I had for the day was well impressed with the way it was set-up and the brakes in particular. He said you dont normally get many road cars that can cope with 20mins or so...apparently even things that you expect to have good brakes like 360s and CSLs are quite poor and only last a few laps whereas the V8s were lasting 7-8 laps of Snett before feeling a little wooden.
Agreed again. Even after a succession of fast downhill pass sections, the brakes never seemed to suffer from any 'fade'
So overall, Im really chuffed with it as an overall package, and its got to be the most viable alternative to a 997 there is (if you dont need the back seats of the Porker) - for a daily driver sportscar, that you can go touring in and do the occasional trackday its great
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