Rum*

Morning all,

First of all a big thank you to Pete Croney for his part of organising what I believe was an excellent trip to Lloret de Mar in Catalunya. Once again Pete came up trumps in organising a highly successful 2 hour slot with Prodrive at the SWRT H/Q, which gave us all an amazing insight to the cars...along with the chance to meet Peta and Tommi

As far as our trip over was concerned I picked Mossman up on Saturday in Beverley (Hull) and then had a short trip south to Banshi's pad for coffee and chilli prior to heading to the M5 for our overnight accomodation.

We then got up nice and early to meet NeilWRX, Clem Edwards, Chris Cockbill, Banshi, Dave, SteveF, Andy, & Super Slider....we all then set off (after paying something like 4 quid for 2 bacon butties and 2 coffees!!!) down the M5 to meet ChrisL, Scoobychick, ChrisB and Wendy somewhere allong the way...

We all then managed to arrive safely at Plymouth ready for the 24 hr crossing to Santander...

The sea was fairly choppy to start with....so we set about consuming a fair few beers (and/or seasickness tablets) prior to hitting are respective cabins early evening...unfortunately during the night the boat encounterred Force 9 (!!) gales and so when we rose for breakfast we were advised that the trip had been delayed by circa 5 hours!!!....

On arrival in Spain I managed to take half the group out of Santander on the wrong road....whilst ChrisL, Scoobychick, ChrisB and Wendy managed to head out on exactly the right road towards Bilbao...after wasting about an hour, and having been chatting to the loacl fire dept (the fire station happened to be next door to the scrub area that we had parked on) we got an escort out of town with/by the fire brigade, finally found the others, filled up with fuel and were on our way...

The trip East was fairly easy, tho in the dark and quite twisty we managed to arrive in Lloret at about 03.30!!! somewhat later than expected...we had received varioius texts from Richard Askew during the evening and agreed to meet him at Moby's (one of the many bars in Lloret) as soon as we arrived...

A group of 7 cars (3 fully stickered up) arriving outside the bar at that time of night caused quite a stir...not just with the tourists, the locals...but also the bouncers...and police!!

We finally managed to get the cars into the underground secure carpark and ourselves checked into the hotel at about 4 and hit the sack for a well deserved rest...

Pete and 4 other cars were at this point only about an hour behind us...however their trip had taken about 1/3 the time...I believe leaving UK at about 17.30 and arriving at the hotel at about 05.30 on the Tuesday morning...

Basically when we woke for breakfast we had a fleet of 12 Scoobs in and around the hotel.

Tuesday was spent relaxing...a couple of us went for a short drive and cleaned the cars then in the evening we all went out for a great Steak in town...before consuming huge quantities of ale!!

On Wednesday we went of a nice little drive out to where Shake Down was going to take place...then we took a drive up the hills to Angles and beyond for about an hour prior to heading back to town to meet up with Pete and his group for Birthday drinks (3 birthdays in the same week!!)...

Thursday was Shakedown day....somehow we managed to get oursleves right down to the start!!!...I think it had something to do with the STI being covered in stickers!!...

Friday, Sat and Sunday were rally days...on Friday we got out to a great spot along with Pete and all the rest of the group....15 Scoobs parked together about 300 yards from the stage....we had great viewing thanks to Petes directions on a wicked hairpin....then in the afternoon we moved about 1km up the stage to watch the cars heading further down and round the stage...An awesome day to say the least...

Saturday, we all seemed to split up...those of us too lazy to head out to the stages went to Service at 13.00, where we met Travis, Tommi...Prodrive etc etc etc...I was mistaken for a member of the Prodrive personnel on more than one occasion....with loacls asking what had happened to Tommi...etc etc

Banshi, Dave and Slider dissappeared off to Stage 8....which unfortunately was cancelled...however by all accounts its sounds like they had an awesome day all the same...staying put and waiting for the stage to be re-run in the afternoon as stage 11 and sampling a little of the local cuisine and wine!! ...no doubt one of them will post comments re their day out...

Sunday was the final day...we (as in the seven cars with Rum*) set off @ 06.00 to get upto the hairpin for the 3rd/last stages of the day. Our aim was to get as close to the bridge as we could...we managed in fact to park about 20 mins walk from where we set up camp...Pete and his group set off a little later at 07.00 however by the time they arrived we had secured a fairly good "Subaru Camp" about 20 metres from the hairpin...what an awesome day we had....well...most of us...Mossman slept for most of it!!! ...

With do-nuts to the crowd...30 degree tempratures...loads of Subaru supporters...top grub...what more could you want...once the laast stage was finished we headed back to Lloret for the after rally party....some managed to party to the early hours....some I believe (Mr Felstead) kept going till after 05.00!! ...some of us whimped out and left early for a well deserved sleep...

Our group then left Lloret at 09.00 Monday morning for our run west for 480 miles to Lloret...and a very relaxing 24 hr crossing back to Plymouth....luckily the return trip was somewhat calmer....with the sea being more of a mill pond than force 9!!!

I have taken loads of photos and will try and get them posted here and on my site over the next couple of days...I am sure that there will be plenty of pics from the other members of the group that were out in Spain playing...along with a few funny moments ??? Wendy playing the tooth fairy?? Mossman playing 2 stroke?? Scoobychick Farting??? You all know what I'm talking about...

Roll on next year!!!

All the best

Tom

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

Excellent report Tom

Just wish I had been able to make it this year. Sounds like you all had a fasntastic time. Brings back lots of pleasant memories frmo my trip there in 99. I shall return one year

John

Rum*

pics now starting to get posted at http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...ThreadID=82971

Rum*

Chris L

Nice one Rum - you missed off the three legged dog that wasn't er..three legged

I'll explain later

Cheers
Chris

Richard Askew

...just got to work 2day...didnt leave Moby's til 7am on tuesday ie 22hrs b4 I was due at work...hmmmm no wonder I never made it in yesterday...

...got a stinking cold though

neil@wrx

HI Cat People

A big thanks to rum and mossman for a grate week role on next year
and a car that can do more than 16 MPG the credit card company
phoned to see if my card had been nicked 4 tankes of super in
less than 7 hours thay think i am mad my mom thinks the same
see you all soon (a week to remember i think)

Thanks

Neil
Clem,chris

[Edited by neil@wrx - 3/28/2002 9:09:03 PM]

mel

Cant say much about really, thats probably coz i can't remember much about it (damn those spanish measures! )

Absolutely excellent trip, great weather, great rallying (what i got to see of it), great atmosphere, great company - good to see everyone and to get to know you. I will be definetly doing it again next year

and btw thanks for the dancing lesson Tom

see ya all soon

johnfelstead

It was 6am Tom.

I left Moby's at 5:30am only to bump into Nial McShae (Nial is the fastest brit in the F1600's)

We proceded to raid Burger King.

Managed to get back to the Samba at 6am, Pete C then woke me up at 9:30am! cheers Pete!

Mel, it was lovely to see you again!! Mr Askew, buy some bloody phone credit next time, we might get to meet up before the last night then!

Pbone

Mel
Good to hear from you on scoobynet ARE YOU SOBER??? Coz when I saw you in Moby's a couple of times you were always drunk and attempting to sing like Frank Carson.