As the
car's preparations for this year's edition went fairly smoothly I had high
hopes that she wouldn't throw any last minute problems at me. She didn't. So on
Tuesday late in the afternoon last week we set of towards Lendelede near Kortrijk
in Belgium, for out first overnight stop. This way we would be closer to the official start location in Lille.
But despite that we missed the official start there at 8 o'clock in the morning. The early breakfast at 7:00 o'clock wasn't early enough!
Day one; Lendelede - Göschenen
France-Belgium-Luxemburg-France-Switzerland
(896 km, 13:24hr)
The first
day dawned glorious. But sadly there had been a heavy rain shower shortly before
sunrise. As a result of this the hood of my car was to wet to fold down. So the first
part had to be driven with the hood up so it could dry;
With
the luggage stowed in the boot we set of for the first stretch. The official
route would finish in Mulhouse, but as it was only slightly over two more hours
to the foot of the Oberalppass near Andermatt, we had decided to book a hotel
in nearby Göschenen. But that was still many hours driving away.
The first
days drive was a pleasant combination of motorway stretches interspersed with
some lovely country lanes, departmental road's and some of the famous
"Routes National"
But certainly
the best bit of driving on the first day was the stretch through the regional
nature reserve "Ballons Des Vosges". In several previous editions we drove through this area at night. This always meant dense fog and as a
result of which very difficult driving conditions. Luckily this time we passed
through in broad daylight, but even so in some isolated areas there was dense
fog (or should I say low hanging clouds?). Together with some heavy rain that
had just passed before us, made for some very entertaining driving!
But by the
end of the afternoon we reached the outskirts of Mulhouse, and the motorway towards Switzerland.
Time for the final few hours to our first overnight stop. But before tackling
the last section we halted for a final rest just outside Basel;
Two hours
later we had reached our hotel for the night. And with the cars tucked away it
was time for a few well deserved beers.
Day two; Göschenen -
Sankt Martin in Passeier
Switzerland-Italy
(459 km,
9:58hr)
The second
day dawned cloudy but dry over Göschenen and the surrounding mountains;
So after a
decent breakfast and a rather routine inspection of the car, the hood went down
and we headed of into the mountains towards the first pass of the day, the
Oberalppass. As Roger had turned into Andermatt in search of some much needed fuel
I decided to stop on top off the pass and wait for them to show up. They did soon after, together with
lots of other people and cars. And as the light conditions were rather fine I decided
on a little photo shoot;
From here
the route took us through the Tavetschtal, the Medeltal and from there over the Lukmanierpass
into the Valle Santa Maria, the Val Blenio, and finally into the Valle
Leventina. Just north of Bellinzona we turned onto the A13 towards the San
Bernardino Pass. As the old pass road is so much nicer to drive than the motorway
pass we left the A13 near Mesocco and headed up into the mountains. Was a
lovely drive towards the top with only very little traffic. And in time for lunch
we reached the Rasthaus at the top;
After
lunch we headed down towards Splügen. The original route would take us over the
Splügenpass into Italy, but the road between the Splügenpass and the Majolapass
was closed, due to a major landslide caused by heavy rain. So we had to take an
alternative route over the Julierpass. Turned out to be a very nice road
indeed. I think the tyres left a fair amount of their rubber on the tarmac
there!
At the
foot of the Julierpass we joined the official route again, clocking up some
more passes (Berninapass, Forcola di Livigno, Munt la Schera (tunnel) and
Ofenpass. And not to long after the Ofenpass we reached the foot of the
Umbrail. But by this time it was already late in the afternoon. And as my
navigator was feeling the strain, we decided to skip the Umbrail and Stilfserjoch and head
straight into the Vinschgau Tal. Knowing it would at least take us another hour
and half to reach our hotel in Sankt Martin in Passeier. In the end it took
more than two hours to get there. But thanks to the local
food and home brewed beer, the day's hardships were soon forgotten!!
Day three; Sankt Martin in Passeier - Singen
Italy-Austria-Germany
(412 km,
10:21hr)
The
official route for this day would be heading south from Meran, making a loop
south of Bozen and from there through the Dolomites towards Austria. This
section would again go over a fair number of mountain passes. Six to be
precise, the Gampenjoch, the Mendelpass, the Karerpass, the Sellajoch, the
Jaufenpass and finally the Timmelsjoch. We thought that slightly overambitious.
So we had chosen a hotel in the northern part of the Passeiertal, close to the
foot of the Timmelsjoch and Jaufenpass. This was because the route I plotted would
take us from there to the end of the Passeiertal, over the Timmelsjoch into the
next valley, the Ötztal.
So after a
relaxed breakfast and a quick check of the car (again nothing wrong) we headed
north towards the Timmelsjoch. The top of which we reached within the hour;
From here
it was down into the Ötztal and towards Ötz, where we joined the motorway west
towards Bregenz. But after Landeck our route took us onto the B188 towards the
Bielerhöhe and the Silvretta reservoir. Which we reached in time for
lunch!
After
lunch we headed down towards Bludenz, from where we would take country lanes
and Bundesstraßen towards Dornbirn. Here we could have picked up the official
route, but we had set our sights on the northern shore of the Bodensee. But not
before another short rest for man and machine at the fuel station in Dornbirn;
After this
last rest for the day (well almost) we headed towards Bregenz from where we
followed the northern shore of the Bodensee towards Meersburg. Here we took the
ferry to Konstanz, but also met up with local Triumph owner Michael, who would
accompany us on the last stretch towards Singen;
The final
stretch from Konstanz towards Singen again went over local roads and was a nice
end to a lovely driving day
Day four; Singen - Rolduc
Germany-The
Netherlands
(612 km, 8:36hr)
The last day of the
event dawned cloudy and with a hint of rain in the air. And as the weather
forecast for the day was rather wet and windy I decided to keep the hood up for
the time being. It remained up all day and proved to be weatherproof!
For the
last stage of the event we left Singen and headed northwest (being the general
direction towards the south of the Netherlands. The first 60 or so kilometres
were covered quickly, using the A81 north. But the fun started immediately
after we left the A81 and turned onto the B462 towards Dünningen. Well that is
what the road book said, but road work dictated an almost 10 kilometre
diversion! Not the best of starts with still well over 500 kilometres to
go. And when we reached the village of
Dünningen we were confronted by another diversion!
Luckily after that there were no more road works.
And it was a very enjoyable drive over some rather typical German Bundes-, Kreis-
and Länderstraßen. Thus we headed towards Karlsruhe and a short stretch of
motorway. And some more road works! They had actually closed the motorway exit
which we had to take, time for another diversion. But we crossed the Rhine in
the end, entering the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz. By this time we had
decided against an extensive lunch. Which meant a quick roadside snack at a
filling station along the B427 in the small town of Dahn;
From here we headed ever
more northwest towards the Hunsrück area and the Mosel valley. But not before
we had encountered some more road works with the corresponding diversions, with
a few heavy rain showers thrown in as a free bonus (we indeed were close to
The Green Hell!). Luckily by now we were on familiar ground so I could
concentrate on the driving, so we still made good progress. And by the end of
the afternoon we finally arrived at Rolduc. Another 10CR finish for the DHC!
The day after
A few
pictures of some of the cars on the Sunday morning in the courtyard at Rolduc;
Even the local
police force turned up to immobilise Ellis' car!
Boring statistics etc.
Total
distance covered: 2741 kilometres;
Total fuel
consumption: ± 257 litres;
Average
fuel consumption: ± 10,7 km/lt (or 30,1 mpg)
Maintenance
needed: none
As on the
previous edition I added about ⅓ litre of oil to the engine during the whole
event. This time after the second day. But again that wasn't really necessary
as the level hadn't dropped halfway down the max/min marks on the dipstick. All
other levels remained where they should, close to their maximum marks
Overall
the car behaved very well. But there will always be things that need improvement or repairs.
However there were a few things that did improve or solve themselves during the run, the dashboard illumination, a
still rough gear change and a long brake pedal stroke. The first problem solved
itself on the last stretch of the first day. About an hour's drive into Switzerland
I noticed that I could read all dials in front of me again. Which meant that
the two bulbs to the left of the cluster decided they had been idle for far too
long, and started to give of some light again!
At the
start of the event the gear changes still were slightly rough, especially
between 2nd and 3rd gear. But over the event there was a very clear improvement
to the gear changes. So much so that when we left Rolduc on the day after the
event the gear changes even with cold gear oil were pretty good. Final self
repairing problem were the brakes. Due to the design of the self adjusting rear
brakes, the stroke of the pedal is sometimes pretty long. Again during the
event this too improved noticeably. Clearly the car needs to be driven more!
But there is one item that needs addressing in the
not to distant future, the fuelling. Clearly the current set up with twin
K&N cone filters in front of the radiator is efficient. But as a
result of this there's more air reaching the carburettors than the current
needles can cope with. So it is running lean, not dangerously, but it certainly
lacks some grunt at the top end. And finally and maybe more worryingly there
are traces of (dry) oil deposits on the spark plugs of cylinders #1, #3 and #4.
Clearly something that needs further investigation. But another trip into the
mountains is first on the list. This time with the Land Rover.
