Dare I mention....Top Gear....?

[Guest]

I'd rather just drive a decent old car somewhere nice, like an OJC member did quite a while back:

 

Celica to Monaco! Ace.

 

Personally I hate driving old crocks that I'm not sure about over any sort of distance. The excitement of obtaining an old motor is easily cancelled out by how sick/stressed it makes me to actually get it home, wondering whether it'll boil up and leave me on some obscure unlit B-road in the middle of nowhere. To me a charity rally would just be that, but much longer, on a schedule and with added tossers being "zany".

 

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind pointlessly driving the Galant around the South of France. Or take Vic's Chrysler 180 to Spain so the local taxi drivers can shout "olé" and do a mad dance around it. You don't have to be on a charity rally to drive an old car abroad, remember.

[Mr Lobster]

You don't have to be on a charity rally to drive an old car abroad, remember.

Very true. Actually, driving almost any car on a long foreign trip is fun. I've just been to Nice and Monaco in my Seat and absolutely loved every minute (although one person did think it was a long way in an 'old' car - it's only five years old FFS!!). I really want to take one of my classic Renault fleet on a French roadtrip. Next year perhaps.

[Spottedlaurel]

I took my old Skyline to Norway twice (once in the company of Ratdat and others going the long way through Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden), and the Violet SSS did a trip round Holland, Belgium and Germany. All good fun, very rewarding and, save for a failed viscous fan coupling on the Skyline, trouble-free. But the charities and fake fur suppliers didn’t earn a penny out of it.What was the Nissan that was used on TG?

[Guest]

I really want to take one of my classic Renault fleet on a French roadtrip. Next year perhaps.

Make sure to paint the headlights yellow!

[pompei]

The ex Mrs P and I drove a Fiat 500 to Italy and back a few years ago. Some of the time we were in convoy, so if anyone had a mishap we could pool our collective skillz and that. But we did the last couple of hundred miles solo through rural France which was a bit scary.The following year some people did it again. There were three cars on the side of the road on a remote French lane, one of them terminally buggered. Apparently this French bloke stopped. I forget what part was knackered, but he had one at home, and he donated it. What are the chances of that happening, as Harry Hill would say.

[MrRegieRitmo]

I really want to take one of my classic Renault fleet on a French roadtrip. Next year perhaps.

That's something I've always imagined would be very cool, taking a rare 1970s Renault (rhd, British reg plates) over to France for a pootle round. Hoping for the equivalent astonishment & respect (from some quarters anyway) that would greet a Frenchman over here in a Morris Marina or Austin Maxi (lhd, French plates)

[Mr Lobster]

I'm very tempted to take the R4 next year, maybe to the Reims Salon event Ratdat went to and combine it with a bit of a tour around or maybe the big R4 event they have in Summer.I think it would go down quite well with Les GarlicMunchers tbh, coming up the M6 the other weekend I had a French guy beeping, waving and giving me a big thumbs up as he passed in his Scenic. It actually made my day that did

[dollywobbler]

Drove a Citroen H van to Sweden 'for fun' a couple of years ago. Was horrible!

 

Looking back though, it was a great adventure and apart from the toughened windscreen exploding in our faces on a German autobahn (believe me, it's something to avoid!) we had no issues at all in 3100 miles.

 

And you got views like this!

 

Swedish Renner!

 

Ouch!

 

Spotted in Belgium

[Mr H Sceptre]

What fantastic holiday snaps Dollywobbler

[Station]

That's a great looking vehicle! I can imagine the horror of having to drive it though, I bet the novelty wore off pretty instantly.I'm taking the Porsche into France in September as a 'shittest year' pick-us-up, I'm glad to have full faith in it.

[MrRegieRitmo]

I'm very tempted to take the R4 next year, maybe to the Reims Salon event Ratdat went to and combine it with a bit of a tour around or maybe the big R4 event they have in Summer.I think it would go down quite well with Les GarlicMunchers tbh, coming up the M6 the other weekend I had a French guy beeping, waving and giving me a big thumbs up as he passed in his Scenic. It actually made my day that did

Every time I come across a vehicle with French plates out on the road, I do wonder to myself what they make, if anything, of my R9! Probably nothing unless they're weirdos like us!

[Mike D]

I'd really like to go on a banger rally somewhere afar, It'd have to be in a proper ratty old shed though, preferably an 'onslow' spec cortina or summat, held together with gaffa tape and smoking profusely. I'd steer clear of Skeggy though! Yuk!

[AnthonyG]

Capri rare at that money too.

I think James May's example showed the quality of Capri 2.8 you can get for £1500! You could actually buy a pretty good 924 for that money, although 944s are a bit harder, as Clarkson's example showed - 200k up and cosmetically 'challenged'.The Marina probably cost about £150. Everybody might go on about how rare they are and how it's terrible that TG keep wrecking them, but if their value remains so low (even Allegros are worth more), then that is what will happen.

[pompei]

Just a couple of TG thoughts ...1. Who drives the camera car when fast cars like the Jag and M5 are hammering round the track? And in what car? Those head on shots are pretty spectacular, but no-one seems to get any credit.2. JC & RH are always on about how RWD is best for enthusiasts. Maybe if you're pummelling a 500bhp car round a track, but what about for day to day A - B travel? Anyone got any thoughts? (I struggled in the snow with RWD on the lightest of hills whilst everything else just sailed up - no weight over the driving wheels )

[Monkey_boy]

2. JC & RH are always on about how RWD is best for enthusiasts. Maybe if you're pummelling a 500bhp car round a track, but what about for day to day A - B travel? Anyone got any thoughts? (I struggled in the snow with RWD on the lightest of hills whilst everything else just sailed up - no weight over the driving wheels )

If you want pratical answers to every day driving questions then you need to watch 5th Gear. Top Gear is always going to play with powerful cars and be more entertainment than 'general motoring'.

[Milford Cubicle]

No weight over the driving wheels is one thing, but it's wide tyres that are the bane of most modern cars in the snow, 2wd or 4wd. In the winter I see a lot of X5s and the like going nowhere while narrow-tyred older FWD cars ease past them.

[Guest]

I drove the Galant around in bad snow with 185/55 summer tyres on. I attempted to put something in the boot to regain some traction, but the only thing I could find were hilariously light alloy wheels so it didn't help a great deal, I was sliding around like a rally driver.

 

 

This winter I'll do it properly and fit some proper winter tyres on the 13" steels in super 165/80 size.

[VWPowered]

if it wasnt for top gear, i'd have to watch even more crap tv...i can put up with losing afew shite classics for getting the TV at least for a hour a week

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

How about a Star in a reasonably priced Marina?Give 'em a boggo 1275 four door on some decent make tyres and see how these celebs get on with it. The car would be fucked at the end of the series, but would be great to watch.

[MrRegieRitmo]

How about a Star in a reasonably priced Marina?Give 'em a boggo 1275 four door on some decent make tyres and see how these celebs get on with it. The car would be fucked at the end of the series, but would be great to watch.

But it would last a hell of a lot longer than the Marinas they use currently!

[chaseracer]

I'd love to do a banger rally, but I'd want to keep the car afterwards, so I'd be the only one in the hotel car park in the morning checking the oil and tyre pressures...

No, that was us with the GSA on ScallyRally '06...

[Vin]

On the theme of epic shite road trips, how about this;

 

Multipla to Mars (Pennsylvania that is.....)

 

http://www.littlefiatbigadventure.com/b ... ture09.htm

 

The same guys have previously taken a Panda 1000 from New York to San Francisco and back

[Gompo]

I thought the whole RWD v FWD was quite funny, basically taking the piss out of themselves and many other car 'enthusiasts'.944s for £1500 arent too uncommon at all - but Clarksons was an S2 which are a lot more desirable than the original 2.5 model.

[FredTransit]

You think top gear are bad, Emmerdale have just rammed a moggy van into the village shop!

[Mr H Sceptre]

You think top gear are bad, Emmerdale have just rammed a moggy van into the village shop!

Bastards. Just think how many packets of Monster Munch & Bacon Wheat Crunchies would have been needlessly destroyed.

[pogweasel]

How many bad actors got crushed to death!? Tell me! Tell me!!!!!

[scooters]

never mind Top Gear's capers for serisously insane old banger road trips Sam Glover is your man with his Slightly Clive Racing charity trips. See last month's Practical classics - a shite P6 from London to Terhan and back including the Georgian war zone - makes Hammond etc look like a bunch of girl's blouses!

[morris_ital_lover]

I really want to take one of my classic Renault fleet on a French roadtrip. Next year perhaps.

That's something I've always imagined would be very cool, taking a rare 1970s Renault (rhd, British reg plates) over to France for a pootle round. Hoping for the equivalent astonishment & respect (from some quarters anyway) that would greet a Frenchman over here in a Morris Marina or Austin Maxi (lhd, French plates)

Ok not quite the same but.... look what I haz spotted 2day!

 

Lovely french triumphs causing massive traffic problems in Bath!

 

They had stopped for a cigarette break on one of the main routes through Bath! Nice cars though and they looked mint, and came complete with v.bored wives inside.

 

I think we must conclude that the frogs are... reading autoshite! (well.....!).

 

Sorry the photo are so poo but I hope they are enough!

 

m0rris

[pompei]

Maybe they are all going to see Stackridge tonight

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The French love a nice MG or Triumph, theyre mad for em, they even think a Rover 45 is a classy 'trad brit' car. Once when I was at Le Mans i was chatting to some french geezers and they were saying how in France, the UK is percieved as being a proper mecca for car lovers. They look at Morgans, TVRs, Lotus, Aston martin, Rolls, Bentley, Ariel, Caterham etc, add it all up and conclude that its a country full of petrol heads! The french have managed to maintain a healthy 'national' car industry unlike us, but the red tape they have over there makes it pretty much impossible for a small car-making company either to start up, or to survive if it has somehow managed to start up already.