just planned a quick dash to the Alps for a 5 days snowboarding trip, I am taking my eldest boy - A slight bribe to get his ar5se into gear for his GCSE's

anyway going with the friend in the village - he is taking his boy too

I was going to take the Quattro


but Giles wants to take his car!!!!!!

so we have to test whether we can get 6 six footers and the luggage in his car

turns out we think we can!!!!










the petrol bill will be interesting

 

As long as your not paying

Gota say doesn't look much room in the rear.

 

bag a cement in the boot ?

 

lol, the picture is scaled a bit wonky, the car looks a little squashed in it - click the pic and it looks better

but actually fits all 4 of us in quite well, the rear seats are really scooped and the fronts scalloped at the back so not too bad

anyway the kids are in the back so i'm not too worried!!!

 

How did it go?

 

ah yes, got back last week

very good both the skiing and the drive, the car performed flawlessly, and as I said on the "power" thread we achieved an average speed of 81 MPH over a distance (Morzine to Calais) of about 560 miles

we where never overtaken - in over 1200 miles, but the French motorways are simply superb and can take high speed driving pretty well

on the return stint I did the final leg - Reims to Calais - and boy is that a fast bit of road, mostly brits racing to get to the chunnel etc

we stopped at the old French F1 circuit on the way











our kids in the back - my son is over 6ft tall so quite tight but doable





my son on the slopes




the car ready for the return trip




and the petrol was not too bad - I think about £400 in all, for about 1500 miles

so actually not bad - it costs only a little less when I take the Toyota Landcruiser

 

 

So over all you covered 1200 miles?

I do like the new French roads, i avoided toll roads as i wasn't sure what price they were? But the roads i did go on were empty compared to ours, what i found weird was no hedges , made the views nicer but felt weird, and 81 MPH wow thats impressive for an average.

 

This is what having performance cars is all about; using them.

I tried doing the same with my Monaro VXR for a camping trip. Unfortunately mine was the later model that had the fuel tank relocated into the boot to meet USA federal regulations (although in the UK it was marketed as being done to improve handling < cough> b*llocks ).

Sadly wasn't big enough and I had to drive a 325 auto instead

 

How much were the fines though ?

 

yeah about that, actually the GPS say 750 each way from Cambridge so may 1500 is closer

the roads are superb and lane discipline generally better - and because the max speed is 81 MPH (130 KPH) the motorway seems to travel at 90MPH anyway


the fuel tank is pretty big, about 90ltr - so you really can drive for a good 3 or 4 hours before you have to stop

and agree re using it - so does the owner luckily, although he did say that Ferrari owners can get very sensitive about mileage

 

lol, nearly got caught on the final approaches to Calais but luckily was flashed by an oncoming car

I genuinely don't drive fast at all in the UK

I was quite glad to arrive at the port tbh

 

Do you know what the troll charges are?

Only speed camera's i was confronted with were fixed ones, and the sat nav told me about them. I only drove on the wrong side of the road once

 

no, he had one of the automatic credit systems on his windscreen, so we just drove up to the barrier and it let us through

from memory I think the toll charges to Morzine are about 35 to 45 euros each way

lol, on wrong side of the road - yes it can be confusing on complicated road junctions

but actually in general I don't find it a problem at all

 

Iv never found it a problem , not after the initial blast on the horn from the terrified occupants of the oncoming vehicle anyway lol

 

Cant think of a better car then a 4 seater Ferrari for a euro trip!! Looks like you had a great time!

 

Got the bill for the tolls today

£129 - so 155 odd Euros (both ways)

Not cheap!!! In fact a years road tax for my daughters car

 

Wow thats alot, so were talking roughly £30-£40 each way on each toll road?

Although in a Ferrari might be worth it.

 

well if you beak it down it is £70 each way

that is not made up of one single toll but multiple smallers ones, some for long stretches of mway and some for 5 or 10 miles - so they differ in amount

the longest stretch is something like Reims to Dijon - which is prob 140 odd miles, that is probably £25 odd quid on its own

but I don't remember them being that high!!!!! - maybe he is trying to diddle me lol

 

I think it was 35-40 quid down middle/ West side France to Carcassone

 

http://www.autoroutes.fr/fr/itineraires.htm

Calais to Morzine, quickest and 'recommended by Michelin' routes both come in within 2.5 euros of one another, at just over 75 each way.

 

Toll costs sound about right. They do vary depending on time of day/week. I'm still yet to fathom it.

The automated toll payment does costs extra....its cheaper to pay cash at the toll. Annoyingly.

I've driven to Spain both via two route: via Lyon and via Bordeaux. The Bordeaux route used to be cheaper as the N10 was free. Its now a nice new toll road so costs have evened out.

What is expensive is the fuel at the stations on the toll roads....plan your stops to coincide with fuel stops and it can save enough money to buy your lunch!

Hodgy: Did you travel to Calais via the tunnel? If so how was Calais in regards to the migrants. I'm due to drive over soon and the news sites appears to have now got fixated on the PM's tax affairs It wasn't good when I travelled this time last year...so much so that the next time I took the overnight ferry from Bilbao.

 

Thats good to keep in mind, might plan my trip around toll roads, don't want to use up my spending money.

I use ferry myself, takes you where ever you want to go, save going direct to Calais.

 

mmm I did not know that either

again I did not know that either, ridiculous



agreed fuel is more expensive on the Toll roads - more so than in the UK I think

no we went on the ferry (I was against that but heyho)

on the way - no issues at all

on the way back there was definite activity, both from the police and migrants, on the approach roads (about 3 miles out from the ferry terminal)

so that means lorries being stopped and searched etc - lots of police running around

but we actually came back on the Friday - so ferry traffic was VERY light tbh

it may have caused an issue on a busier time of the week

the tunnel seems always less "mirgranty" imo