Were off to Canterbury, so we can convoy down to the A12 with you. Remember to chuck your spacesaver and the tray above it out so you have room for the full size wheel.

I'm got all the route on Autoroute, and am currently trying to copy it to TomTom 5, but I can't find a way to check the Itinerary on a map I may need your expert assistance as I'm only used to using TomTom to find Optimax

 

Thanks chris, just hope I don't get a puncture on the way to meeting you
I'm now up and running with my in-carpc, and using DESTINATOR on it. The gps isn't working yet, my job for tomorrow .
I remember finding a couple of programs a while ago to help convert certain route files to pushpins for Autoroute, and back again. I'll have a dig around tomorrow, see if I can find where I got them from, they're on the wifes laptop.
Chris.

 

You may need yer sunglasses on.....








This Rally Monte Carlo sticker is great


I'm absolutely luvvin it

Top marks to Justin and the gang at Xpress Scooby Graphics in Poole - great job

Cheers

Terry

 

Bloody 'ell terry, thats very bling bling
Don't think anyone on the route will doubt what just went by now
chris.

 

If you did you'ld only have to give us a call
I look forward to seeing this PC set-up

 

Woohoo, Terry

I somehow think Charlie's motor is gonna be a little less conspicuous

But it will be shiney

 

Hi all, been away

Got my route pack and been following the route through, wow looks like some awesome roads

Only thing is it would be nice to have some distances, especially of each days total. That would be of a great help to those without TomTom’s etc. Nick any chance please??

Rock on next Tuesday

 

Hi MRK

CharlieW has put each of the days into Autoroute, so he'll be able to give you the distances for each day. I'll give him an MSN nudge to get back to you


See you next week

 

As missyc said, I have all the routes in Autoroute, so I should be able to extract the distances and stick them in the road book.

 

After speaking with supertouring, who recently did the route back from the nurbyring to stockport a few weeks ago, I reckon that day will be the longest by far. It took him 12 hours :0, including the 4 hour boat trip across the channel!
I think the first day on tuesday will be a big one too.
Just doing some simple multimap directions comes up with this:
dover to dole 407 miles
dole to braunwald 237 miles
days 3/4 are all sightseeing, so no idea of milage
braunwald to jammelshofen 369 miles.
obviously all the above milages take no account of our actual route, but at least it gives you some idea of the distances for the day.
Roll on chris's proper calculations

The carpc is up and running, and I've solved the problem with feedback and engine noise to a certain extent. I now have to see if I can sort out my mp3 collection a little better, as some have some pretty usless name tags
I would say, that if anyone is struggling to find enough storage space with thier digital cameras, I have around 100gb spare on my pc
(No liability will be accepted if the pc crashes and all data is lost though )
chris.

 

That would be great Missyc and CharlieWhiskey. Thankyou

The daily total distances will be a great help as that gives you an idea on route as to how long is left in the journey, thus you can plan your day better, like stopping off to buy lots of Champange for instance Anyone else planning on doing some wine tasting/purchasing?


The Ring to Calais is 300miles, and can be done in 4.5hours easy. But to Stockport, yikes

Sounds like your coming V prepared though Chris, in-car PC et all



Mrk

 

I was already typing them in

Day 1: Boulogne-Dole
Driving distance: 388 miles
Driving time: 7 hours, 40 minutes

Day 2:
Driving distance: 284 miles
Driving time: 7 hours, 41 minutes

Day 3:
Driving distance: 315 miles
Driving time: 7 hours, 24 minutes

Day 4:
Driving distance: 267 miles*
Driving time: 6 hours, 6 minutes
*this is quite a leisurely day so the route includes old & new St Gotthard, Oberalp Pass and a trip to Giessbachfälle waterfall

Day 5:
Driving distance: 371 miles (including trip to ring but not around it)
Driving time: 6hr 16 minutes (probably a lot less on the Autobahn!)

Day 7: to Boulogne
Driving distance: 306 miles (via Brussels, not Charleroi)
Driving time: 4hr 43 minutes

Remember that does not include any stops, but I have got some stops sketched in for lunch & fuel.

There may be some slight tweaks to the above, and the routes do assume we have a 'Vignette' to use the Motorways in Switzerland when it is appropriate (e.g. back from Chur on Day 3).

Day 4 assumes the Grimselpass & Sustenpass are re-opened by the time we get there.

 

Thanks to CharlieWhiskey for putting in driving times and distances.

In response to whoever asked me if I'd found any useful phrasebooks on Amazon - the short answer is no.

I was wondering how much money I need to change - was thinking £150 worth each of Euros and Swiss francs (assuming use of credit cards for dinners and petrol).

 

Let's hope the weather stays good for you - 27 degrees here today and climbing

Three words not to forget when driving in France especially in small villages -- priorité à droite -- even though its well known, it still causes many problems when you are on the main road and some nutter comes rushing out of a side road!

 

In english please frenchie, as it sounds important!

Got some euros left over from spain, just francs to get now, will £150 be enough?
chris.

 

Charlie Whiskey, EXCELLENT Thank YOU so Much

Priorite a droite means I think 'Give way to the Right', stupid rule, but it is France

 

This is one of those barking French road regs... which I thought might have gone by now...

But apparently not, although priorité a droite is now supposedly well signposted in areas it applies???

It means (correct us if I'm wrong about this, Frenchie) that if you are driving along a road (on the RHS of coursde ) and there's a car waiting to pull out of a turning ahead, on your right... they have the priority to pull out in front of you, even tho you're on the main road

I'm sure there's something weird about flashing your headlights as well...

Edited to add a link to this site that someone has kindly put together.

 

Yes, it does. If someone in France flashes you, it means 'get out of the way', not 'I am going to wait for you'. It can be very confusing unless you're ready for it!

missyc is correct about 'priorite a droite' too, though I believe this totally bonkers rule is slowly being phased out and that there should be signs to indicate where it still applies.

 

MissyC is spot on. "Give way on the right" is supposedly going to be phased out but quite honestly, it's not happening with any sort of regularity or speed and is still found around a lot so just be aware of it. You should keep your eyes on the signs entering villages (the rectangular red bordered ones) and shortly after you will usually see a speed limit sign with a very small panel just underneath it which says "priorité à droite". The locals are used to driving like this but even after 10+ years of driving here it still puts the ******* up me when I see the sign in a village/town I'm not too familar with. I'll post up an example later.

As for flashing headlights, on the motorways it can be either a sign to get out of the way if the car is behind you (sometimes headlights are on all the time anyway) but more often if you see oncoming traffic repeatedly flashing their lights it's a sign that the gendarmes are ahead -- just acknowledge the sign back or wave. You may also see drivers holding up 3 fingers to their upper arm once they've flashed their lights -- a definite sign of gendarme activity. Of course all of this is not to be confused with other scooby drivers saying hello !

Also watch out for these (I think I mentioned this earlier):



The gendarmes can very often be found monitoring these roads as they are fast/dangerous roads (in this case 2 deaths at this particular spot giving the ages of those involved).

 

That explains it
thanks everyone.
top french rule there then

I've got all the hotels plotted into the sat-nav, so even if I get lost, I'll at least be able to navigate to the rest stop
chris.

 

A couple of examples taken a few minutes earlier:



Also watch out for the small sign underneath a crossroads sign!

and of course these guys always get priority no matter where they are

 

Hi Guys!

Well, I'm nearly all set for the off too - just need to get bullet cam & mics wired up and that's me

EVO's all ready with new tyres, transmission oils and DVD player, although the front diff is sounding a bit ropey - hopefully if it explodes, it will do it somewhere scenic lol!!

Some of you may know I had a dangerous driving charge hanging over me, but I was completely cleared of this and all other charges on Friday, so am a free man (after 10 months of stress for me & my family and £2500 in legal bills )

Look forward to meeting you all there!!

Cheers

Rog

 

Hi Rog

First post Welcome to ScoobyNet

Glad to hear you were cleared of charges Cutting it fine for the trip Not good news on your defence bill tho 'ouchhh'

Spotted a few lovely pics on your website Your current residence is stunning!

My track days amount to 1... yes O N E at knockhill a couple of years ago. Nurburg will be ... interesting!

See you Tuesday bright and early (or Monday evening if you're stopping anywhere near Canterbury)

 

Lol I'm not much better off there, I had a few laps at Prodrive Live a few years ago, and a total washout of a track session at the Castle Combe Rallyday a couple of weeks back. I'm planning for the 'ring to be fun, not an exercise in destroying tyres as quickly as possible.

Scooby is all serviced, washed & polished and new tyres just scrubbed in now

 

Yep, sounds about right That's what I'll be changing and will see how we go.

 

The admiral, glad your innocent m8, good news and well done.
Just had a test drive of the pc install tonight, over the cat & fiddle and long hill, and it still works at speed
See you all soon, just 4 nights at work for me this week, then stelvio here I come
chris.

 

Has anyone managed to get all the route programmed for TomTom 5? If they have, any chance of sending them to me, saves me re-inventing the wheel!!!

 

I am getting there Stuart I have it all worked out in Autoroute 2005, and I'm currently sorting through the Favourites and Itineraries required for TomTom 5. I've got the hang of the Advanced Planning preview now so I can check it's going where I want it to.

I finished off Day 1 last night, and days 2-4 are waiting to be checked against the Route Book. Hopefully will have it all complete before this weekend. I pity anyone who has to navigate the bit south of Riems without TomTom or a very good map!

I'm not sure how to exchange these between users yet though Perhaps one of our TomTom experts can tell me how to do this? Or perhaps I should RTFM

 

If you save each day's itinery file (options, save itinery in the itinery planner) you will find that a folder called "itn" is created off the root of your PDA's "My Device". This contains all the files which you can copy on to your pc and send them to other people, who will be eternally grateful (if you have got them right )

I'll look at doing the files in Autoroute (which may be easier) and then converting them. The race is on!!!

 

sorry chris, I've not had time to look for the program I used ages ago
chris.