johnfelstead

I am picking my sport up from the dealers in the morning, it has had a new short motor fitted so have to run it in for 1000 miles.

I have had a crazy idea pop in my head tonight, what do you think?

I fancy doing a trip up to john o'Groats from manchester, go up the A6, A7, A9 accross the top via the A838 and down the west coast via Ullapool down the A835, down the A82 past loch ness then loch lomond, A77 to kilmarnock then A76 south and back onto A6.

I recon that should see off the running in.

My question is this, is scotland open this time of year?

Will i have problems with fuel/B&B up north.

I plan to leave wednesday morning and have no plan as to how long it will take, probably 2 or 3 days.

Any info would be appreciated.

thanks john

DJB

I wouldn't imagine getting fuel will be problem.

As for accomodation have a look at:

Jack Macfarlane

We reopen April 28th.

johnfelstead

jack, did you get my email, your virgin mail kept blowing me off

are there any esso garages in the highlands? i have a petrol card

rsquire

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jack Macfarlane:
<B>We reopen April 28th.[/quote]

With fireworks

Richard

Philip Thurlow

you can kip over at my place if you want matey on the way back darn sarf !
I can show a fellow SPORT owner what my plans are for Donnington
hahaha I think we will have the last laugh !
oh btw John forgot to tell you about another on going project I have got. Its a Morris Minor Pick up truck. I did have a Fiat Marenela 2 litre lump to put in it - OHC jobby but just wondered if I could do anything with a scooby engine and have it just working on 2wd cos 4wd would just be silly on a morris minor now wouldnt it !
Or if you know of anything else that we could pop in it - loads of room in engine bay, The prop is central to the rear wheels - I just want it to be tail happy - so need plenty of poke. Oh and another thing since our phone conversation John, I'm joining one of our local Motor clubs and thinking about setting my Mini up for Hill climbs. It should be cheaper than doing the Mini Miglias circuit racing etc. Cheers for the long long long long chat !
was it my fault or yours - or both ?
anyway mr. BT is happy now

johnfelstead

thats it phil, i'm sending anders round to certify you mate

Philip Thurlow

certify me as what mate ?
now I am been serious about the morris minor - honest - I have just got in from finishing welding all of the chassis up - been at it for 3 nights now ! - and yes my face is still glowing red and I haven't even met penni yet!
Most people put rover V8's in them but I want sommat out of the norm really.
I'd be intersted if anyone has a scooby engine, if its out of a legacy or pick up scooby, thanks in advance

johnfelstead

hey phil, stop hyjacking my post

looks like esso stops before the highlands, wimps.

never been that far north, think i'll go for it and take a sleeping bag just in case it's shut up there. Us northerners are 'ard you know

i'll try and avoid a local shop for local people

James Adlington

Fuel (even SUL) & accomodation shouldn't be a problem in Ullapool and the roads up there are superb! Further down (Fort William / Glencoe) will also be ok, unless it snows in which case it'll be packed with skiers, climbers etc. Same if you're in the Avimore area. Not so sure about Ayrshire though.

IMO your biggest problem will be keeping the revs down on all those empty roads

johnfelstead

1

[This message has been edited by johnfelstead (edited 22-02-2000).]

Paul Wilson

I know philip its a Trunk Monkey isn't it?

[This message has been edited by Paul Wilson (edited 22-02-2000).]

Anders

The only certifiable one is the ONE who keept on blowing up engines

BladeRnnr

Jf had my route planned out for months,leeds-manchesterM61 -m6-m74-glasgow-ft.William-inverness-aviemore-a9-edinburgh-a68-a1-leeds.......778 miles
get yourself a copy of tnt travelmanager office,£49 has everything except GPS,though it has postcode find,street find, every street in the uk at v.large scale.even garages sorted out by supplier!
Easy to use ,brilliant piece of kit.
The only rout finder which might be better is a new version of infomap router(has GpS as well!)(about £100)



[This message has been edited by BladeRnnr (edited 22-02-2000).]

Mark Underwood

John

I've done the route many times and 3 to 4 days is a comfortable time to do it in. Fuel on eastcoast no problem. However west coast for higher grades of fuel can be and aslo very expensive. I topped up my car with 98ron in ullapool last year ...the price...a staggering 94.5p per litre from an esso garage.

You'll enjoy the drive along with the scenaery...suggest you plan around some worthwhile viewpoints as you will surely enjoy them. If I had the time I'd hitch a lift with ya, just to get back up to bonnie land.

Have a good trip!

johnfelstead

Thanks for the info blade, ive got a cunning plan though, its this amazing invention called a road atlas, wish i had thought of that idea

car wasnt ready this morning, hope it is tommorow, ive had enough of the justy
and want to get on my merry way.

Scottie

John,

A9 is a bit ropey for plod & cameras (although I've never seen one!) but north of Perth the scenery is wonderful. A82 is also a must.

Cheers

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottie (edited 23-02-2000).]

johnfelstead

got my impreza back, ye ha.

i feels massive after the justy.

scotland here we come.

thanks for the info, leaving in the AM tomorrow.

IDRIS

johnfelstead,

Enjoy your trip!
Just make sure you don't start blowing out flames at anyone behind! HaHa.

See Ya!
*IDRIS*

johnfelstead

just waite till you see my next turbonutterbarstuard motor, if all goes to plan 330BHP westfield turbo, ye ha.

now imagine that into copse, oh my gawd

johnfelstead

I'm back.


WOW, what a trip. I will post a full rundown when i have had some kip but the basic stats are.

Left home at 11.30am yesterday, drove non stop except for petrol till 4.30am this morning, stopped for 1 hour for a kip, carried on till 10.30am, stopped for 2 hours for a kip, carried on till back home at 2.30pm today.

Thats 27 hours of which 24 were driving, i covered 1172 miles at an average speed of 49MPH.

saw some sights in that time i can tell you, where's me bed?

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

Some driving John! That must be the record for running in an Impreza engine

Hope you had a great time up in Scotland, what you saw of it

johnfelstead

What a mega journey, didn't plan any of the journey with great detail. I just had an outline of where i wanted to go and would go with the flow. Took sensible stuff like extra warm clothing, sleeping bag, and torch etc. in case i got stuck up in the highlands.

I left Stockport at 11.30 am on Thursday morning and onto the M60, onto the M61 heading north. I caught up to a car transporter on its way into Bolton full of scoobies with a sport at the back of the trailer, good omen i thought.

Carry on up the M61 to Preston doing 5 minutes at 70MPH, five at 80MPH, five at 70 in 4th etc to keep the engine load changing, this helps it bed in and not glaze the bores.

On to the M6 at Preston and head north to bonny Scotland. About halfway between Preston and Carlisle get buzzed by a C130 Hercules military transporter doing some valley hugging flying, what a fantastic sight. 10 miles later 2 tornado's fly across the motorway just in front of me as they go flying down a valley at a fair old rate. I absolutely love military aircraft, brings a good feeling about the trip ahead.

Leave the M6 at Carlisle and head up the A7 towards Edinburgh. Great road, nothing much happens on this section, just flowing along at 70MPH. Get into Hawick town centre, notice that people are walking around smiling at each other as they pass, they seam quite jolly up hear, don’t see that in Manchester much.

Just leaving Hawick and parked on the left is a mini painted up with Austin Power's name in sphycodelic painting up the sides with matching paintjob, what a laugh, makes me think of young Phil for some reason.

Nothing much happens now, just great roads, car is flowing nicely and can feel the engine loosening a little.

Arrive at the Edinburgh south bypass, A720 and head for the forth bridge, it's about 4pm now so missed the heavy traffic. Doing a steady 80MPH in the outside lane in heavy but flowing traffic and this Nissan Micra starts tailgating me. This stupid young woman was sitting literally 10 feet off my bumper at 80MPH, there's nowhere for me to go so i just back off from the car in front to allow me to slow at a more steady state should i have to stop in an emergency, there's no way she would hit the brakes, never mind slow down if i had to stop quickly. I then notice there is a 4-year-old kid sat in the front seat who starts to stand up on the seat. This kid is jumping up and down on the front seat of a Nissan micra doing 80 MPH 10 feet of my bumper, totally insane. I have had enough of this in my mirror so just pull over and watch this idiot pass by me totally oblivious to what she is doing. She must have been only 19 or 20 years old. Someone is going to die one day because of her, probably that 4-year-old kid. Absolutely horrifying thought, i just let her go on her merry way, i don’t want a 4 year old landing on my boot lid thank you very much!

Pass over the forth road bridge, love the look of the rail bridge. Head up the M90 to Perth, the weather is starting to look a bit angry up ahead. This is no problem, as time doesn't matter here, what happens happens. Great attitude for safe driving in adverse conditions.

On to the A9 at Perth and head towards Inverness, fabulous road, really nice flow to it, stick at a good steady 70-80MPH until the snow starts coming down, slow it down to a steady 60MPH. I can see for miles ahead but as the snow starts to fall thicker i drop my speed as the visibility gets worse, drop it to 30MPH as the road is now covered by 2" of snow and visibility is getting worse. Come to a duel carriageway section and decide to stop for a couple of minutes in a lay by. It takes ages to bring the car to a stop, i hate ABS in the snow, it's useless. Jump out of the car for a quick stretch etc. Hear this huge noise coming towards me out of the gloom of a blizzard. Stand back from my car totally gobsmacked. This Articulated truck, one of the real biggies goes steaming past in the outside lane doing at least 60MPH passing cars doing 30MPH tops, this is in 2" of snow in a blizzard. Has this guy got radar and reverse thrusters fitted? There are some people on the road that are out to get you, this guy is definitely one of them. The thing that struck me was that this guy was not breaking the speed limit yet was totally insane, will he be done for driving like this? I think not!

Cary on towards Inverness, the snow is getting worse, total white out. I drop it to 10MPH and use the side of the road to see where i am going, this last's for about 2 miles, very hypnotising. Go over the top near Daviot and start to drop into Inverness, the weather is getting better now and the speed steadily increases as the blizzard clears.

Go past Inverness and head north up the A9, the roads are now clear so pick the speed up again and do a nice 80MPH all the way up the east coast, leave the A9 at latheron and head up the A99 to Wick. Stop in Wick to fill up with fuel and buy some provisions, Red Bull kick's ***, feel full of energy so decide to continue on and turn off the main road at Wick and head up the A99 to John o'Groats.

Wick to John o'Groats is just under 20 Miles, there has been no gritters on this road and it is covered in compacted snow and sheet ice, absolutely deadly, i potter along at 20MPH in 3rd, play with the brakes and throttle to get a feel for what the car will do, god i hate ABS in these conditions.

Arrive in John o'Groates, it's just like a bus terminus with a turning circle and a small hut right on the edge of the bay. It’s called the last house i think. It’s about midnight now. I had planned on staying up there in a B&B but decide to press on; not feeling tired at all.

This is where the journey goes from being a nice flowing drive, occasionally slow but mainly fast flowing roads into an awesome challenging drive. Its still snowing lightly but nothing major, it stops for 10 minutes then comes back again fairly lightly. Its on and off like this for the next couple of hours.

I head from John o'Groats down the A836 along the north coast towards Thurso. The road has been gritted but on ALL the tight right-hand corners there is no grit at all, very bizarre. Either the gritter driver has a nasty sense of humour or the truck has a fault that starves it of grit on right handers, i soon suss out that left means fast right means slow down, very bizarre way of driving. Pass through Thurso and get onto the A386 proper, i notice my headlights don’t seem so bright so stop to clean the spotlamps of any grit that might be covering them. ****, both the Spot lamps aren't working. I check the fuse, which is OK so both my bulbs have blown. Here i am, on top of the country on one of the most challenging roads in the pitch black with only the standard lights to rely on. Not ideal, i am just glad i put some xenon bulbs in, as the standard lamps are totally useless.

Now starts one of the best journeys of my life, its 150 miles of mainly single track ultra twisty road, some sections are completely clear of snow and ice, as they have been gritted, others are just covered in snow, not an inkling of salt. There seems no logic as to when the salted sections start and stop, maybe it’s to do with county lines and one county grits, and the other doesn't?

Anyway, i am driving this amazing road at a good, fast pace, usually between 50 and 60MPH with the odd 80MPH section. I get into a great rhythm and the road is just flowing nicely, it's an amazing feeling when you are driving a road like this, you get into a state where you are not conscious of driving the car, it just seems to go where your thoughts tell it to go, very Zen like.

There isn't a single road sign for any particularly tight bends for over 100 miles so you have to stay totally focused on the road ahead, just a great feeling. I had one very dodgy moment where i was on a totally snow free section, for a good 20 Miles when i crested a hill and the road dropped away to the left after the crest and it was covered in snow, hadn't seen any snow for miles, very odd.

Anyway thanks Don Palmer is all i can say, i know if i hadn't been to MIRA i would have stuffed it, i was turning in and absolutely nothing was happening, i remember thinking take the lock off, it'll grip and then i can sort it out. So that's what i did, steering away from the corner made it turn into the corner more and i got round it OK, just. Brought a big smile to my face, as I know driver training had helped me massively, a good investment that has paid back big time.

I am now about 50 miles north of Ullapool and the road opens up into a 2 lane road, really fast and flowing and totally free of snow so start to get a move on, 90MPH would be really easy. I notice some signs for dear so decide that 60-70 would be a more sensible pace. Was i wrong on that one! The next 50 miles were to be the most bizarre i have ever driven.

I am driving along at a nice 60MPH and spot some dear ahead in the road so slam on the brakes and pass them at about 10MPH. Bloody hell, they make em big up there and well hard, i am sure they were staring me out, spooky.

The next 50 miles were driven at a steady 50MPH; it gave me enough time to react to any dear in the road. I got good at spotting them ahead as i am sure there was always a look out about 100 yards before the main bunch, that would be stood at the side of the road.

These dear aren't the ordinary dear you find in England, these dear are totally nuts, camacazi dear, i am sure i could hear them shouting Tora, Tora, Tora as i aproached.

The road was so tempting to put your foot down but 50MPH was tops if i wanted to come home in one piece. I pass through Ullapool at about 2.30am i think, i wasn't watching the clock so am not sure on that. During that 150 Mile journey from John o'Groats to Ullapool i hadn't seen another car or person at all, i would love to do that run again in the summer when not running my car in, it would be mind boggling, mega road.

I head south on the A835 towards Inverness; no dear now so put the boot in and do a good 80MPH all the way to Inverness. My original plan was to go down the A82 past loch Ness but the weather has turned very bad again as i get to Inverness and the radio says the road is treacherous so i think better of it and head back down the A9 towards Perth.

The road is now totally covered in snow, a steady 40MPH is in order so i tootal along at this pace for about 20 miles, i start to feel a little tired so decide to pull off the main road and grab an hours kip in a lay-by, my fuel gauge is looking very low and so i decide to switch the engine off and jump into the sleeping bag.

An hour later i wake up and feel much better for the sleep, fire the engine up and head off down the A9. I am starting to get a bit worried about the fuel situation. I pass lots of small villages with petrol stations but not one is open, it’s now about 6.30am. The car starts to stutter slightly so i pull over and put the 5 litres of fuel in i was carrying as backup. Its 30 miles to Perth, no fuel stations i can remember seeing on my way up so it now becomes an economy run to Perth.

Make it to Perth OK and fill up after running the last 30 miles at a steady 60MPH. Put 48Litres in the car and 5 back in the can, so about 1 litre from running out, close call. The sport is a 50-litre tank by the way!

Back down the M90 to Edinburgh, hit the forth bridge at 8am, traffic not too bad but the off ramp for the Edinburgh bypass is chocka so decide to go down the back roads through kirkliston and then onto the M8/A720.

I came off the A720 onto the A703 and pass through Hillend. I am sat at some lights and this young lad, about 14, comes marching past me in full carky combat gear, he is literally marching up the road like he is on parade, very surreal site at 8.30am in the middle of a small town.

I head towards Peebles down the A703 and start to feel a bit tired again, Edinburgh traffic had slowed the flow so i decide to stop in a lay-by for a kip. I wake up 2 hours later to the sound of a Scooby turbo on full chat passing within feet of my car. It is a marked cop car doing a U-turn, using the lay-by after stopping someone. 10 minutes later he is back doing the same again, giving it death out of the lay-by, i think this copper likes his job.

I feel OK again so after 10 minutes of having a bite to eat and some red bull i feel fully awake so set off again. Pass through Peebles and onto the A72 to Galashields, nice 80MPH run all the way. Onto the A7 south and have a good run all the way to the M6 at Carlisle.

Then have a steady run down the M6, slow for some traffic as the outside lane is closed and spot a nice Met Green 5 door turbo coming up the outside, let him in in front of me and we spend the next 20 miles in mini convoy down the M6 towards Preston. The engine is now feeling nice and loose but still being gentle on the throttle as i don’t want to load it up with the mobil1 oil that will now have lots of swarf floating around in it, stick to a steady 85MPH all the way to Preston. Onto the M61 towards Manchester and then onto the M60 round the south of Manchester, past Stockport and up the M67 Hyde bypass. At the end of the bypass turn back towards home in Hyde and arrive at my garage at 2.30pm Friday afternoon.

I have one very, very dirty car. Absolutely covered in salt from the highlands, they don’t half cover the roads in that stuff; at times its like driving on a forest stage as you feel the car sliding around on the rock salt.

So i now have a nicely run in Impreza Sport. I covered 1172 miles in 27 hours, 24 of which were driving.

What can i say about the Impreza after such a long journey?

An absolutely awesome all-rounder, fabulous grip, crap brakes on snow, crap lights when the spot lamps fail, very fast on the twisty flowing sections in particular.

Best part of the journey?

The A836 from Thurso to Ullapool, i am definitely going back on that road in summer, absolutely awesome.


Land's End tomorrow, only kidding