supersonic feet

Blogs for every occasion over here. I’ve just set up a blog to track my road trip around Europe with Ken.

The blog is imaginatively titled Adam and Ken’s Euro Road Trip and although unsurprisingly short on content at the moment, it’ll expand a bit (and maybe get a proper design) before we leave on the 5th of May, then expand a lot while we’re out there seeing the continent (Internet connections in our stop-off points allowing).

Check out the route overview map I did for the new site for an idea of the trip’s scale (route goes clockwise):

Bora Bora!!

This looks a bit familiar, non?

In time for my road trip around Europe, I should be getting some HID lights for my Alfa shortly. Thanks to a group buy on an Alfa Romeo forum, my name’s down for a set at £110 including postage.

A few members have already installed test units with success, so it should be cool and I’ll finally be back to the excellent light produced by Xenons that I got used to with my Accord Type-R. I’m not looking forward to having to fit them (and then adjust them for driving in Europe) though.
The road trip is also now all sorted, with ferry and hotels booked across Europe and the following route planned out:

1. Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam (overnight)
2. Spend a morning in Amsterdam then drive the 300 miles to Lampertheim in West Germany, where there appears to be nothing of interest, but it gets us close to Mulhouse.
3. Next day, drive to Mulhouse and check out the Schlumpf Collection car museum. Spend the night in Mulhouse.
4. Drive from Mulhouse, through Switzerland, to Cadenabbia on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. We get two nights by the lake which should be great for some scenic photos and chilling out after our blitz through Europe to get there.
5. After a couple of days at Lake Como, we head down to Modena for a couple of days, including a day spent with The Maserati Club visiting the Maserati factory and Panini museum (the old Maserati factory collection) among other things. Can’t wait for this.
6. After our stay in Modena, we head along the Italian Riviera and into the French Riviera (just) for a couple of days in Menton. Menton itself should be cool, but its position also allows us to easily visit near-by places of interest like Monte Carlo.
7. From Menton, we head along to Nîmes, with the world’s most complete Roman amphitheatre and a rather large Roman aqueduct, among other Roman stuff.
8. After a night in Nîmes, we move onto our next major reason for going on the trip - the Millau Viaduct. This is the tallest vehicle-carrying bridge in the world and looks stunning. We’re staying the night in Millau itself, which sits in the gorge below the bridge and should get us some great views.
9. From Millau, we go further West and North a bit, to Limoges where we hope to visit the Gouffre de Padirac - a huge underground river/cave system. This should be another great photo opportunity
10. The next day, we head up to Le Mans, where we’ll be able to check out the old town as well as (of course) the racing circuit of the famous 24 Heures du Mans race (Le Mans 24-hours).
11. From Le Mans, we cross back to the East of France and Reims. This is more just a stop-point, but there are the Champagne houses to check out while we’re there.
12. From Reims, we move up to Brussels as the last stop before our ferry home. I definitely want to check out the Atomium while we’re there as it looks mad, though my brother Leo reckons it’s boring inside.
13. After a night in Brussels, we finally make our way back to Amsterdam and the overnight ferry back to Newcastle.

It should be a great trip as long as we handle the driving OK.

McLaren unveiled their 2006 livery today for the transition between sponsors (they don’t get Vodafone until next year). The car will be mostly chrome and certainly is rather striking.

I assume they’ve checked it out, but it looks like it could actually cause trouble for the other drivers in the field at hot, sunny circuits like the opener in Bahrain if the car really is that reflective. I suppose the saving grace for the other drivers is that when you’re behind the car you just get exhaust and tyres, while when you’re in front the wing mirrors on an F1 car aren’t exactly big.

Can’t wait to see the car in action at any rate

Swoosh

Finally took a few quick pictures of the new car and uploaded them to flickr.

Check ‘em out!

… but I almost didn’t!

We got the train down to London yesterday morning and arrived at London Mazda around 12:30 to check the car out and complete the purchase. Alas, the car was still in the workshop and we couldn’t see it yet, which was a bit worrying considering they’d had 3 days notice of us coming to get it.

We decided to wait the 30 minutes in the showroom as they had a ‘fordcafe’ (or is it fordcafe?) so we could get some lunch. The lunch was cack, but they eventually brought the car round the front for us to look at, though the sales guy was looking a bit nervy.

As we checked round the car, it clearly had a few niggly problems that made it not the ’superb’ example we’d been promised before travelling 300 miles to London. As a result, we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around waiting and negotiating over what would be done about the faults (worst was the broken/missing boot struts).

Eventually (at 4:40) they agreed to discount the cost of the required parts and labour from the price we paid for the car so we could get it sorted once back up North, leaving 20 minutes for the sales guy to get down the Post Office and tax the car.

By around 5:30 all was sorted out and paid for and we could finally set off for the 300 mile return journey in my nice new V6 Alfa Romeo 156. First job was to fill up with petrol (first time I’ve ever had to spend over £50 on a tank of petrol - it’s a big tank!) as there was the usual lack of petrol in a car bought from a dealer.

After that we set off in London rush hour traffic which was fortunately not that bad. The car cruises the motorway beautifully and the V6 engine has so much more power at all speeds/rpms than my Accord Type-R that overtaking was effortless. The car is also very stable at high speed, even taking crosswinds well.

Overall I’m delighted with the car - the A/C got fixed while we waited at the garage, so that was £100 saved while the distorted boot lining can be lived with or replaced relatively easily. The smoked headlight cleared up a bit after a few hours’ nighttime driving so if that’s OK we’ve saved another £200! The boot struts really do need fixing asap though.

I even arrived home to find the set of 16″ Tele-dial wheels I bought on eBay had arrived, so once I pick up my new CD player from the CityLink depot tonight I’ll be able to spend part of tomorrow fitting the wheels and new CD player to complete my new car (I may just spend a bit of time with my brother for his birthday :P).

Let’s just hope I don’t get driven into again while going to collect a parcel

In the end, the dealer in Newcastle wasn’t willing to make a sensible offer that could compare with one made by a dealer down in London (who’d think London would be a cheaper place to buy a car than Newcastle?), so a deposit has been placed on an Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 Lusso in London.

The Lusso is the luxury variant, compared to the sporty Veloce (the Newcastle car was a Veloce). I preferred getting a Veloce, but the deals on offer were far too far apart to warrant the Veloce. I’ve since managed to get a set of 16″ telephone dial wheels and tyres on ebay for £180 (same as the Veloce), so all that’s really left is the suspension and sideskirts. I can do without the lowered suspension and sideskirts are cheap enough to add later.

This way I’m getting the best of both, with a great set of ‘extras’ on the car (12 months tax, MOT, warranty and breakdown cover, plus a service) at a lower price. Can’t wait until Thursday now to pick it up (though I can’t say I’m looking forward to the 3+ hour train journey to London!).

Been trailing around the North East today looking for a new car after my Accord was written off following last month’s incident.

Looking good is an Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6. Having driven it now, it certainly drives as well as it looks and even has a slightly more comfortable driving position than the Type-R (although only based on all of 30 minutes’ experience). There are a couple of nice examples around, so it’s a case of finding the right deal now and hopefully I can get it sorted on Monday.

Went to pick up a parcel I’d missed being delivered this evening and was promptly driven into at high speed while queueing on a dual carriageway.

Sounds like my beloved Accord Type-R will have to be written off as the chassis is likely twisted at the back and I’ll have to get checked out for whiplash. Fun :/