french rally fans= not punched out right=Mental
french police= stopped three times in one day for nowt
french traffic signs= I know there not people but the people that make em up, FFS giv us a clue when theres going to be a 200km diversion.
italian border police= the waffen SS
monte carlo taxi drivers= my other cars a lamborghini and You know how I can afford it now.
Nicky grist= out of work Boring big headed git.
People who kiss ar5e= god it makes me puke .
People who drive massive great 4x4`s up two foot wide mountain roads whilst on the mobile.
all at Renault who designed the renault Clio.

Hope everyone who went enjoyed themselves, I certainly did despite the above.
Don`t think it`ll ever be the same now though having watched the Video of the CH4 footage, hope no one here was at the stage which was cancelled.

Agreed on the taxi drivers. Bunch of a-holes.

Not sure what you mean by Italian border Police, havent ever seen any other than read in the newspaper that they are chasing illegal Albanian immigrants in the mountains.

Havent seen the SN people since thursday, and they arent on here yet. So where the hell are they?? :confused:

Here! We didn't get back till very late last night due to an accident on the M1 which caused traffic chaos in Luton which meant that Luton airport staff were late arriving for work and caused all the flights to be delayed! :eek:

I had a fantastic time at the Monte, it was nice to meet up with Claudius (top gent for booking us a table in Stars and Bars :) ), Teri, Sam, Ross and everyone else we chatted to. I am definitely going again next year although will give Nice a miss and stay in Monte Carlo. Oh and get a slightly quicker hire car ;)

BTW we weren't at Les 4 Chemins either :D

Sal

Had a fantastic time. Chopper to Turini was just superb. Still feeling the effects of Sun night in stars n bars. Will be going again.

Chip.

Had a great time too, heli trip to the Turini was the highlight (actually, it was the ONLY rallying we saw!! :D)

Got a message from Chip at 6am on Saturday saying he was off to the stages - we had just got in from the pub! :D

Nice to meet you Scoobynet peeps, Sal, ChrisB, ChrisL, Wendy, Geoff & Sean.

Miller, we only got stopped TWICE by the Monte police, those guys just have no sense of humor! :D

Only bad part was the 'Guest House Paridiso' that we stayed in at Luton before the flight :(

Teri

I hate (with an extreme passion) that Gendarme at the bottom of SS10 that wasn't letting any cars up the hill. So we (John and myself) park up and tromp the best part of three miles up a fooking big hill.

To illustrate the part. I took this photo when we got back to the car...

http://www.aironet.btinternet.co.uk/thehill.jpg

Village arrowed wasn't even the bottom of the stage! Just to rub it in, as we slogged up the hill, they started letting loads of cars further up the hill. images/smilies/mad.gif :rolleyes:

Otherwise, great to meet so many folks - Sam, Teri, Ross et al. Got back to the hotel in Nice 1.30am Sunday morning (another night in Stars and Bars) and then got up at 4.30am to get over to SS11 :eek: Had a nice snooze inbetween runnings though :D

[Edited by ChrisB - 1/29/2003 12:01:03 AM]

Good to hear you guys got back home alright. What the hell have you been doing at SNB? We were waiting at the Flashman's! :D

scoobychick, I heard the Café de Paris wants to change chairs now; no idea why? :confused: ;) LOL :D

Take care

Claudius

Oi Teri :p

That walk was a nightmare, i could hardly walk yesterday, my legs were just dead. :D

I had a great time, the Monte just has to be done.

No mention of the italian rally fans?!!!! Blimey they were trouble. Hoards of them everywhere Saturday/Sunday, couldnt move for italian camper vans!!! Took 4 hours to get down from the mountain after SS10 on Saturday cos of their vans

Agree with french police - didnt get stopped but they didnt seem able to organise the stage parking at all - I ended up blocking the road on 11+13 as they'd let all the italians (grrrrr) park in the reserved vip ticket holders bit

Overall though, had a wonderful time, saw some suberb scenery and some good rallying - just a shame the Subarus went out so early.

Miller - sorry didnt catch you at the Barcelonette hotel - we didnt arrive until 9.45pm only to find the owner locks up at 9pm. After hanging around until some french guests let us in, we had to gatecrash an available room!

Chris B - Agree with you about the police in Puget-Theniers stopping people getting to SS10, particuarly after seeing them let through the Ford VIP mini buses! Rather then walk the 3 miles, we continued up the road to Entrevaux then doubled back over the mountain - drive was a tad scary - but eventually got us to the stage.

After the rallying was finished, we drove the stage to get back to Nice - fantastic drive, views were superb but wouldnt have wanted to hurtle along there at 80mph!

Have to agree about the french (in general) and the traffic signs.

Great place though, Monte Carlo is unreal - never been anyway like it.

Thanks to all the gang - Sally, Wendy, Chris B, John Felstead, Sam & Teri, Sascha & mates, Claudius, Ross etc - it really made it a great event.

Chris

APJ We didn`t arrive til midnight due to a 200km detour because of some mountain roads being closed due to ice, had same probs as you, managed to get a local bar owner(last one open in barcelonnette) to phone the hotel owner to get the key pad no. ridiculous idea shutting bar and reception so early.
had a great day next day though at ss 5 and 6 parked 100m from the stage.
hope you had a good time
just booked same flights for £18 for San Remo.in oct.

BIG BIG OOPS! :D

Forgot to say: was great to meet JOHN FELSTEAD again, and must thank ROSS for lending me his batteries! :D

Ross, I would not have got that pic with Tommi Mak without them!

John, We heard that you were trying to kill a 1.2 Clio! :D

See you all at the next one!? (Went to San Remo on Monday ;) )

Thanks again too to Geoff for organising the heli, still buzzin about it now! :D

Teri

[Edited by scrap - 1/29/2003 11:36:06 PM]

kill a hire car, moi????? :D I was just exploring it's performance envelope. :D

It was great to see you again Teri, sounds like you werent doing the 100% rally knobber weekend though, way too much of a tourist. ;)

Well, we certainly explored the "performance envelope" of our 1.2 Corsa!!! Went well up the Col on Friday though :)

I'd have to add "Camper Vans" to the list of hates - how many could they possibly get in convoy on a twisty road, and most looked like they were Italian registered...

Great time though. Think we'll have to start the competition of "longest walk to stage"...

Teri,
Take a close look at the pics in Autosport. Youll see us if you look closely. Fame at last.

chip

Geoff

COOOOOL :D will get a copy tomorrow if Im not snowed in! :)

Teri

Phew - Finally back in Blighty after a snowboarding jaunt to Pas de la casa straight after the Monte trip... :D

Mad blat to Nice airport in the easyrenta A Class to make my flight back - Discovered that diesel A Class's have an electronic speed limiter at 180 km/h...So had to sit at that for 2 hours... ;)

Really glad I went - Great fun, and met some great peeps! :)

+ve's
Weather - Stunning in Monte Carlo on the opening day
Meeting all the gang - Good to put names to faces...:D
The whole spectacle of the Monte - Original and best!

-ve's
My map reading skills!
Price of beer at the Casino Square cafe - 10 euros a pint...Sheeeeessh! ;)
The performance of the Scoobs...;)
Not a lot else...

There's some great pic's already posted in the gallery - Mines are really rubbish, so I won't bother posting them!

I do have a couple of short .avi's of the cars blatting round a corner on SS5, so if anyone *really* wants 'em I can e-mail them...(mail me on Ross.Taylor@bluewater-group.com)

Hope to catch all the gang further on down the WRC trail - Hoping to go to the Acropolis and San Remo (As well as the Rally Wales)

Cheers! :)

Ross.

P.S Big thanks to John Felstead for the blat back from Monaco on the Thursday night - Espec as he had to navigate his way back through the one way system that is Nice, to his own hotel whilst half asleep! :D