There is an absolutely classic quote in CAR mag this month......

"One one side is square-cut rock face, on the other the square root of **** all for thousands of feet"....

Well said that man.

 

That looks awesome - can't wait

 

Remind me to take a seasickness pill if I'm not actually driving that day, or I risk losing my breakfast half way round one of those awesome hairpins!

On another practical mundane note - Terry, do you know if the road book Nick will produce includes any handy phrases in French, Italian or German? While I speak reasonable French, my vocab doesn't extend to petrolhead terms ("big end failure", "blown turbocharger" etc), my German is strictly of the "another beer please" level, and I've survived in Italy before with little more than "grazie" and "mi scusi", but that trip didn't involve the threat of dealing with Italian traffic cops or breakdown services. If the roadbook won't have that kind of info, has anyone got a good phrasebook? (I might have a quick look on Amazon).

 

Not sure about foreign phrases in the route book - but I doubt it.

I'm sure that between the whole group of us we will survive and as you have already pointed out - we will know how to order a beer

 

Came across this vid today... GT3 at nurburgring

How f'in fast!!!!!!!!!!

Might be able to make Stelvio run after all... fingers crossed

 

Now that was an impressive drive round the Ring - might not go quite that quick myself !!

 

Terry, in the event that I'm unable to join you guys at Stelvio (and TBH, at this stage it's looking ever more likely that I'll not be driving down) how close are you going to pass by where I am? I have some mags I'd like to hand over to Keith so perhaps a RDV somewhere in the vicinity could be arranged?

 

Frenchie - YHPM.

Cheers

Terry

 

can we bring that sort of thing back into the uk legally?

 

I'm not having a very good time with my car at the mo'
After buying new brake pads the other week, and finding I had a sticky piston, I've since found the best course of action is a complete refurb of my current calipers at £175 from godspeed. I would love to go the whole hog and replace my current set-up with godspeeds £700 disc/caliper/pad set-up, but just can't afford it. On top of that, after a lovely saturday morning drive across a deserted and top foggy snake pass, I managed to collect a rivet in my front tyre. It's still in there, havn't lost a jot of air either, I can just hear it all the time clicking on the ground at every revolution
Then, my mountainbike rear brake disc finally gave up on my sunday ride, 3 miles in . So, I've had to replace both front and rear on that too. And they both need bleeding, which I can't do
Only 1 week left to get all that sorted, then off on family hols, car is going in for pc fitting, and hopefully brakes sorting
Still, at least I finished work early this morning, and still up in time to wish frenchie good morning
See you all soon, gripe over,
chris.
ps, buy my gold alloys off me so I can afford bigger brakes

 

Morning Chris Oh, and yes, those mags are for "enthusiasts"

 

Snake Pass is a lovelly road, shame about the traffiic

Guess you have the best idea Chris doing it early morning

Just gonna take my front brakes apart to identify an annoying noise I picked up on Strines yesterday and check out the exact type of pads. I need to change em before we go. Gonna get it booked in for a service & DOT5.1 brake fluid next week.

Then missyc is insisting I clean it, inside & out, including the tailpipe

I keep telling her it will be filthy by the time we get to Dover!

 

Ouch you not had a good weekend.

I expect the rivet though is just the head, which is prob not long enough to puncture your tyre and is just stuck in the tread. So just pull it out, go on , don't blame me though if the tyre goes down

 

yep, snake is best served around 6am to be at its best, no traffic to speak of
mrk, dropped my tyre off at the repairers and he's going to see if he can get a patch big enough to repair it. It was a monster rivet!
Will know tomorrow what the damage is.
chris.

 

Charlie, Don't forget u need to locate a full size spare with decent tread.


I changed jobs last month and have control over my project plans... so...

Jiggled things about today... and I can fit in a week away with you all.

As there were some snide remarks early in the year about having a Skoda tanking behind you I'll probably co-drive with Charlie rather than take the Fabia (co-drive ya hear Charlie... not just Nav).

Need to confirm with Nick tomorrow that it's still OK.

Better get myself down to Charlie's soon to show him how to 'wax on [ommmmm] wax off'

 

Great to hear you finally got it sorted missyc, bet charlies chuffed he's got a co-driver
Anyone any idea where I'm going to get a spare tyre from? Got 4 spare wheels, but no tyres except knackered track tyres.
need a 215/45/17 if anyone can help.
Chris.

 

Having driven across to Austria a couple of times on Skiing hols I know that 300 miles is about the limit for one person without a decent rest.

Christine will be sharing the driving and I'll be enjoying the scenary and reading the maps

 

Tyre repaired
Only cost £5 as well
Only brake calipers and pc to fit now while I'm on my hols (thanks ***** & dale )
chris.

 

Is this a new legal requirement, or just sense as space savers aren't that great? I don;t normally bother, if your tyres are in good nick then you shouldn't have problem, unless you hit something. I like to save the room for wine


cw42 - I have two S02 215/40/17's if you want them. £60 for them both. half worn, if memory serves me right.

 

MRK, thanks for that, but like yourself, I'm not really that bothered about getting a full size tyre. If we encounter any problems, I cant see there being much trouble getting a repair or replacement. I'll stick with my space saver for now, as I dont really want to drag a full size gold alloy with me on the off chance that I get trouble.
chris.

 

Would anyone who is driving alone want to consider taking a passenger who would be happy to pay for half of the fuel??

Please let me know and I will give you more details.

Cheers

Terry

 

yes

 

I have just jot back from a couple of days in the lakes. This afternoon I did Hardknott Pass as a bit of practice Unfortunately on the way down I hit a rock on the inside after a right hairpin and burst the rear tyre I've had to come ALL the way back at <50 mph on the space-saver Dunno how bad the wheel is till I have a good look tomorrow.

I don't know about one full sized spare, I think I need to take at least 2

Now where's the For Sale forum....

 

If your wheel is damaged chris, I've got 4 sti my02 wheels in gold that are for sale
Hard luck on the hardknott
chris.

 

4 wheels on my wagon, again! Nice new chunky toyo's on the front

cw42, sorry mate, picking some silver ones up with P Zero's tomorrow.

Hopefully I will then have 8 to choose from

 

Anybody know if the Swiss Road Tax is included in the price??

 

Glad to hear your sorted chris,
chris.

 

No it isn't - I'm trying to find out if we will actually be going on any motorways in Switzerland - I don't think we'll need one if not.

 

You'll only need the "vignette" (40 CHF) if travelling on the Swiss motorways -- you can pick them up at the border or in petrol stations if need be. Be very careful coming through France boys and girls -- every night on the French news they are banging on about how much the gendarmes are cracking down on speeding offences not to mention those damned radars.

 

Spoilsports

But thanks for the warning