Ratdat Recovery

[forddeliveryboy]

Following on from the collection of the Datty SSS en France, I started wondering just how far anyone has been for a car. Far better than a week on the Copsta Del, a few days rattling down to Southern Europe or even Turkey-wards?

 

Here's a 504 up and running for £272, requiring a hop across the Med - a 45 minute ferry crossing. Given the megabux these seem to be attracting and their addiction to corroding, surely some sense in this?

 

http://www.carsdir.com/used-car-details.asp?carid=143035

 

[panhard65]

St Tropez for a Panhard that was about 1900 miles round trip. I also did a French ski resort 3 hours from Grenoble which was about 1800 miles for a hotchkiss which was so rough I broke it for bits

[messerschmitt owner]

Germany to view a car and holland to collect it. Second last car collection was from Northern Ireland. Four buses, two aircraft, one ferry....

[Cavcraft]

I think my two longest journeys have been on here. One to collect Cort16's Audi A3 in that there Scotland, and one to collect Ken's FX4 taxi from bladdy Lahndan.

[HMC]

I went to Jersey....... For a 504!

 

Goung somewhere kinder to old french tin makes a lot of sense though!

[Skizzer]

In a reverse of the usual, I picked my Golf up from Gatwick then drove straight to Montpelier on the Med coast, where it lived for a few years. Had to stop at every services on the way for water because the head gasket was shot. (This was before I started Buying British and discovered K-Seal in a big way.)

 

Where's Mr Bickle, to knock the rest of us into a cocked hat?

[coalnotdole]

I want a mark 1 Anadol at some point. I think it will mean driving one back over the continent but it will happen when i have the spare space / cash.

[eddyramrod]

I brought two back from Cyprus, which is a good 2000 miles, but I let them come in a container with all my household goods.  Does that count?  There's at least one that I'd still like to buy, in a building so it's protected, and I know if I went in with money it would be mine immediately.  Sadly, you can't just drive to Calais from there, and shipping it off the island at all is such trouble that a container is probably the best way.  Pity, because it's all RHD over there.

[Ratdat]

I went to Sarpsborg in Norway to fetch my '62 Bluebird estate on a trailer behind my old Laurel. November was not a good time to be towing in Norway!

 

 

Furthest is probably my old 411 Bluebird, now part of the Bickle Empireâ„¢. I bought that in Lohja in Finland and drove it home via Sweden and Norway after taking it to a car show in Finland. It's alternator didn't work when I got it so the first port of call was a scrapyard to find another ...which also didn't work but I managed to make one function alternator out of the two at the show. The fanbelt snapped in Sweden but other than that it was no bother really. Here it is with the fella I bought it from...

 

 

Edit: Just realised...it's been a Bluebird every time!

[greengartside]

Been to North Wales to pick up my old Carina-E GTi - about a 450 mile round-trip. I'd love to buy something from France or Spain and drive it back to Blighty. Something against the odds, like a fucked Mk1 Corsa ex-rental, just because I can.

 

 

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[forddeliveryboy]

Bloody'ell Ratdat, Norvège in winter, in the snow, with a trailer. That's keen! Has the Japanese guvv-mint given you a medal for service to their post-war history?

[Ratdat]

I have to admit, I foolishly never even considered driving conditions before I went. On the way back I found the main road back to Frederikshavn was shut so I had to navigate the way on untreated smaller road without a proper map.

On one such road, driving into a very low sun, I failed to read a junction properly and also didn't see the speed ramp before it which I hit at about 30mph before skidded across the junction and through a load of steel bollards on the pavement. Luckily those old Laurels are pretty hefty and it took it with little damage but the Bluebird had tried to jump off the trailer on the speed ramp and upon landing had actually gone though the plywood bed. Naturally, I backed up and made myself scarce before anybody saw me! It was a bit of a nerve wracking trip!

 

[KruJoe]

Jeez, how many of your nine lives have you used up?!

[wackywacerwill]

South East London to Cannock to for the mk1 Clio, just over 300 mile round trip.

Went up in the van and it came home on the A frame as the train ticket was more than the price of the fuel. It was good it worked out that way in the end as within the first 75 miles of driving the Renault the brakes and head gasket went wonky.

[forddeliveryboy]

I have to admit, I foolishly never even considered driving conditions before I went. On the way back I found the main road back to Frederikshavn was shut so I had to navigate the way on untreated smaller road without a proper map.

On one such road, driving into a very low sun, I failed to read a junction properly and also didn't see the speed ramp before it which I hit at about 30mph before skidded across the junction and through a load of steel bollards on the pavement. Luckily those old Laurels are pretty hefty and it took it with little damage but the Bluebird had tried to jump off the trailer on the speed ramp and upon landing had actually gone though the plywood bed. Naturally, I backed up and made myself scarce before anybody saw me! It was a bit of a nerve wracking trip!

 

 

 

Of course, you had winter tyres on at least one axle! Bet you were cacking yourself, the ferry must have seemed heaven-sent?

[Ratdat]

Of course, you had winter tyres on at least one axle! Bet you were cacking yourself, the ferry must have seemed heaven-sent?

 

I wish! It was dry and sunny when I rolled off the ferry. By the time I got to Sarpsborg it was icy cold rain and the following morning it was 9 below freezing. I stayed with a friend at Vikersund and it must have taken about a dozen people pushing to help us get up the gentle slope out of his place. They must have thought us complete idiots (they'd have been correct of course).

 

I'd say ' never again'.... but I'd probably be lying. It was fun!

[forddeliveryboy]

I look forward to the trip to Russia, perhaps across the Urals and into Western Siberia. In fact I'm sending the most rare of Datsuns right now, which will be advertised once the snows return.

 

PS Did RJWilkinson's collection end up in the right hands, or was a lot of it weighed in?

[sporty-shite]

My longest were Bolton to London for the Celica and Bolton to Southampton for Mrs S's 156. Both by train. Walking the London Underground with £4000 in your pocket is a little un-nerving!

 

Otherwise, they've been fairly close, Wrexham for the 106 XSi, Sheffield for the Puma and Whitchurch last weekend for the 306. Both Pugs were AS purchases. I'd like to pull something in from France, but time and money prohibit it at the moment. Maybe some time....

[forddeliveryboy]

Walking the London Underground with £4000 in your pocket is a little un-nerving!

 

 

A few weeks after the Underground bombing, I took the train to the South coast to collect a Mercedes. Not particularly used to paying for fuel and with this Swabian shite being an oil burner, I took a 25l barrel of veg with me, roped to an old wooden sack trolley - to make it easier along the platforms. The looks of total disbelief from the suits on the Tube were memorable, as was the attempt of 1000+ on London Bridge platform to ignore the arrival of this strange person down the long flight of steps.

[Lacy]

Furthest I've gone is only Glasgow from Birmingham to pick up a Landy. Flew up on a budget £40 flight and drove it back in the snow....Fantastic day!

[Micrashed]

Preston - Swindon for an untaxed BX which I drove back (still untaxed) - I laugh in the face of your ANPR.

 

Preston to Barrow in Furtherness for the Cherry - I jest ye not it took as long to drive from Barrow to the M6 as it did to get from the junction on the M6 back to Preston.

 

Preston to Appleby for the Ten-Fours

 

Hardly epic tales really.

[dollywobbler]

Our most heroic effort ws probably driving from Northants to Accrington to buy an H van. In the Mini. Actually, the Mini got a ride to Staffs as I delivered by old LDV beavertail to its new owner. It was hideously wet, and the Mini began aquaplaning on the M6. Managed to talk the H van seller into taking a cheque, then drove home at 50mph. It was still horribly wet. My wife would catch me up in the Mini, which woulkd catch the spray from the H van and start misfiring, so she'd fall behind. Then she'd catch up again etc - this went on for hours! My ears were taking a pounding too, though we still drove it to Sweden and back a few months later.

[beko1987]

Gloucester for the XM! And I got a lift there, so didnt have to use trains or owt

[nigel bickle]

I've done e few short trips -but perhaps the nicest was this.

 

Taking a  month long holiday (many moons back) on Kos -I found this. Cheaper than a rental I bought it and found it surprisingly reliable, so rode it home.

 

Added a week -but the journey was a lot more fun than flying.

 

Kos seems a lot closer, these days!

[Angrydicky]

Southend to Taunton (360 mile round trip) for my A40 Somerset is the longest trip I've ever made for a car, feeble I know! My dad drove me down in his Rover 600 and I drove it back. Everything else has been bought from London and Essex, with the exception of one of the Austins I used to own which came from Brighton, and the Maestro which also came from Brighton, in my second wave of ownership.

[cms206]

Paisley to Lovosice in the Czech Republic for a Wartburg 353 Tourist.

Naturally it didn't go entirely to plan, so I drove home in a Ford Courier Kombi which I dug out of an orchard in a blizzard with temperatures at a high of -18c.

[Asimo]

Hemel Hempstead to an MOT appointment in Ross-on-Wye in this Autobianchi Bianchina Van.

(Failed: Not fitted with seat belts or mounting points for same)

[theorganist]

Longest domestic trip was driving an Austin 1100 from Abergele to Stourbridge with a knackered (but useable) gearbox.

 

I bought the Renault 14 from near Paris as went collect it via a cheap Fly-be flight but due to technical issues with the car I had to abort the mission and came home on Eurostar and then Virgin Trains. The car followed on via a Shiply delivery!

[Ratdat]

I look forward to the trip to Russia, perhaps across the Urals and into Western Siberia. In fact I'm sending the most rare of Datsuns right now, which will be advertised once the snows return.

 

PS Did RJWilkinson's collection end up in the right hands, or was a lot of it weighed in?

 

I don't know for sure but I'd think weighed in is most likely. Shame.

[holbeck]

I want a mark 1 Anadol at some point. I think it will mean driving one back over the continent but it will happen when i have the spare space / cash.

I believe Sam Glover and Ed Hughes did just that, driving back via a large number of former Soviet Republics.