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EURO TOUR 2003 :

MONDAY 28th JULY 01.39am day 1 - left folkestone 10pm , chunnel left at 01.39am . arrived calais 02.15 . arrived at velence 3 hours from coast of south of france at 18.00pm [calais to valence with 4 hours stops included took 15.5 hours] . 750 miles of sticky tarmac . a hard tuff demanding drive when you combine a further 4 hours+ travelling to get to folkestone/calais . a couple of hour powernaps where needed on route . but the french motorways are brilliant to drive on . drivers drive in correct lanes, always indicate to pass and immediately pull back in . and there where no roadworks ANYWHERE on french motorways . why our our uk roads so bad .... drivers hogging central lanes , crumbling carriageways and repairs the whole length along the m6 ? their roads/drivers are better by miles .

TUESDAY 29th day 2 - left valence for south of france while marcos alternator gets fixed he rode shotgun with howard . we checked into a hotel to get a good nights sleep and had a top night on the french champagne in a cool seaside town where all the locals where freaking out over out cars , one woman in a cafe shouting "a gauche , a gauche" when we where lost . we stopped in a village and a drunk man even fell off his motorbike @ 5mph haha . the whole of our trip people literally stopped and drolled over our cars/emptied shops/stopped people on pavements. every minute of every journey this was happening . and hardly any decent cars where found in france . they are all low spec small cars . but saw 3 corvettes , a vr6 , a 3000gt , a clio rear engine 3.0 litre beast , 2 ferraris - and not a lot else !!

WEDNESDAY 30th day 3 - blast down to monaco via saint raphael and camp overnight in menton on the italian border . monacos streets are a buzz for sure , this place is so stinking filthy rich its unreal . evrywhere is immaculate . andy warhol exhibtion on in town .

THURSDAY 31st day 4 - split into a few groups as different people wanted/had to do different things to meet up back at the chunnel . i did lunch in monaco then the grand prix ciruit . then on to st tropez beach then as we where leaving just inland for 10 miles and as far as you could see in every direction all the land was totally burnt by massive fires within last 48 hours [smell of smoke, downed electric and telephone cables , every tree and object scorched to nothing , emergency services everywhere etc] . then we drove thru cannes , had dinner in marseille harbour and a shop for a couple of hours before moving north to lyon and staying in a hotel . chris stowell went thru the alps and monte blanc 20 mile long tunnel . howard took marco to marseille to get his car back . nick , mark and dave went blasting round an italian lake and up thru dijon . alex and jamesy did similar thru switzerland.

FRIDAY 1st day 5 - leave lyon 10.30 am and head for calais . arrive in calais @ 21.45pm after 2 x 1 hour stops , plus 2 x 15 min stops on route , home . only small amount of congestion was encountered on the way near lyon and paris during the day . everyone made it home [except marcos car which is still being fixed - but rac fly him and his missus out next week so he can collect his car - lucky git has an extra weekend away!] . the european breakdown cover is worth it for ÂŁ41 with rac or aa . or only ÂŁ36 if you already have their uk cover .


outward :
sun/mon 28 july , 1.39 am

rtn :
Friday 01 August 2003 at 23:23 (note times are local)

DURATION :
5 days [return Friday night 1st august 2003]

NUMBERS :
9 runners = 7 FTO's , a 2003 CTR and a lotus elise !

THE SKIES WHERE LIKE THIS EVERY DAY . ME AND HOWARD TAKE 5

LOST IN FRANCE ... AND WE DONT CARE - WE ARE JUST LOVIN IT !!

CHRIS STOWELLS FTO

PITSTOP

SHINY IN MENTON

DOES IT GET ANY BETTER ?

BONNET VENTS , SHADOWS CREATING FnF STYLE SIDE GRAFFIX , AND STORMS OVER ITALY

MONACO HARBOUR

GRAND PRIX IN THE FTO ? SIGNS TO MONTE CARLO BEACH , MIRABEAU , LE CASINO ETC ..

AT FIRST I GOT ONTO THE TRACK GOING THE WRONG WAY - THANKFULLY THEY LEFT A CONVENIENT ROUNDABOUT NEXT TO THE TUNNEL SO YOU CAN BOOT IT BACK THRU I NTHE INTENDED DIRECTION . THAT FTO ENGINE SOUNDED GREAT @ 8250 RPM THRU THERE BEFORE TAKING THE RIGHT AND BREAKING INTO THAT CHICANE :-)

AWESOME SHADOWS MERGING IN THE FERARRI DEALERS WINDOW .

TREK ACROSS EUROPE AND YOU BUMP INTO THE FTO'S UGLIER AMERICAN BROTHER IN FRANCE , AN ECLIPSE FROM SWTITZERLAND !

MARSEILLE IN SUNSINE - WASNT EVERY SINGLE DAY ?! HAD "47* OUTSIDE TEMP" ONE DAY IN CAR .

CHURCH ABOVE MARSEILLE HARBOUR WITH A HUGE THICK GOLD STATUE SAT ON TOP GLINTING IN THE SUN

WHEN A FERRARI F550 MARINELLO PASSES YOU AT 145 MPH THERES ONLY 1 THING TO DO ....

OPEN UP THE FTO ....

... AND MAKE A CLEAN PASS @ 157MPH [YES I KNOW THIS SAYS 155 BUT IT WAS 157 I HAD AT ONE POINT] . HE THEN TOTALLY BLEW ME AWAY AFTER RESPECTFULLY CHECKING OUT THE CAR FROM THE REAR FOR A FEW MINS BEFORE FERRARI ATE FTO AND SPAT IT ONTO THE HARD SHOULDER @ ABOUT 170MPH+ - BUT WHAT A BUZZ PASSING A F550 @ 155MPH ... YOU GOTTA LOVE THE FTO HAVENT YOU ;-)

BUG SPLATTERED WINDSCREEN

the channel tunnel . check out howards flip paint fto ;-)

3 fto's and an elise

a french motorway toll booth and lots of fto's ripping up the tarmac !

temps hit 47* on in car display for outside temp .

fto - fresh touring origination .

all 7 fto where totally different : 1 silver , 2 diffent colour blue ones , 1 imperial red , 1 passion red , 2 black but looked different cars . they loved that lotus too the fench and it will waste the fto so dont race one , youll lose !! prob the same could be said of the ctr , fast . i think all the fto owners where really impressed wit hthe speed , looks and handling of the elise , its a very impressive car .

THE IMPERIAL RED FTO REALLY SHINES IN THE SUN . THE COLOUR DEPTH TO THE PAINT IS HUGE .

he may support man united [spit] , but he sure leads a good convoy ;-)

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NOTES :

SLEEPING :
hotels , car and tents .

PASSENGERS :
take whoever you want , if anyone at all !

EATING :
our BBQ's , village bakerys croissants , pan au chocloate , italian pasta mmmmm .

SPEEDS :
most hit speeds of 150-160 at times , but we stuck together generally around 100mph :o)

PETROL :
same as uk , touch dearer on motorways .

RADAR :
is not allowed in Switzerland and is confiscated , plugged in or not . then the copper beats your ass ! mine was switched and away the whole trip for sure!] . so was the laser diffuser lol .

TOLL ROADS :
varying tolls are in effect on motorways . On the French Motorways , the tolls spoil the fun when it comes to fast speed due to the times stamped on ones ticket but if you go into service areas your times soon come down !! they calculate your average speed between each toll station "policia" .

LINKs :
www.drive-alive.com/holidayplanner/index.asp?TYPE=ROUTEPLANNER . simple detials for A-B in europe .

www.ex-s.net - click the link for midnite runners , there is a download at bottom of fto's in france .

MILEAGE :
2500 miles liverpool to mote carlo and back .

rob : robj4y@hotmail.com

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FURTHER INFO :::::::::::::::::::::


DAY 2 "Tour 15 into Cote d'Azur" plans [c/o chris stowell]:

I've been map trawling and there's sooo many good roads back behind Nice/Cannes/Monaco. I have a copy of an AA book, "Best drives in France". Their Tour 15 into Cote d'Azur looks sounds a peach... "Often using steep and hair-pinned roads, the route climbs spectacular valleys and wooded mountain ridges.....".

So I took a look on the web and from the map it looks super-twisty , following rivers through gorges, is about 110 miles long and does a loop
from Nice through Monte Carlo along the coast road to Menton and then up into the hills through:

Castillon (http://www.castillon06.com/default.php?inc=description)
to
Sospel (http://www.menton.com/sospel/photosu.htm) to
Gorges du Piaon (http://uk.geocities.com/cols_r_us/turini2.jpg)
to
Moulinet (http://menton-nice.cef.fr/bevera/moulinet/)
to
Over the Col de Turini (http://www.cycling.uk.net/alps/south/turini.htm
- check out the top photo, is that enough twisties for ya?)...
Down into Lantosque
(http://www.vesubian.com/villages/lantosque/lantosque.htm).....and then back towards the coast
through:
St Jean de la Riviere
Levens (http://www.canton-de-levens.com
..and back into Nice. It could of course be started from anywhere on the
coast really.

3 hours plus stops I reckon, a nice easy 2nd day maybe? The best roads
to take are described here: http://www.alpineroads.com/nice.php and it
has a few other recommendations too
(http://www.alpineroads.com/links_homepages.php).


Oh, and check out http://www.roadmc.com/ there are some good biker's-eye
videos of some of the high level passes for the way back from Italy into
Switzerland.

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DAY 5 proposed plans [c/o chris stowell]:

If the trip goes back from the Italian Lakes into Switzerland then you'd have to pass within a gnats chuff of Sustenpass - so it seems a shame not to plan on doing it .

As long as we stay over on the central/eastern area of the Italian Lakes then it's just a case of popping up into the mountains via Lugano/Bellinzona towards Luzern then taking the either the toll road or the single carriageway from Luzern to Basel, and on into Germany - maybe up to just short of Frieburg (would give us approx 30 miles of autobahn, worth checking if it's speed limit free though) and then set us up for swinging west to Nancy (50% dual carriage way) > Toul (100% dual carriage way) > Reims (toll road) > Calais (toll road).

The only problem with the toll roads of course is that they can calculate your average speed from one booth to the next - dishing out instant fines on the spot :-(

This day will hopefully [times pending] see us visit 'the ring' !

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the plan will include these recommended roads from chris stowell :
"The coast road from Perpignan to
Girona is a f*ckin' stormer, and so is the coast road from Cannes to
Monaco - not a straight bit for ages, switchbacks, long sweeping bends,
cracking scenery including a couple of nice beaches complete with enough
French nudity to keep the average man's mind active for a month.
Fantastic fish restaurants all the way... Basically anywhere around the
Pyrenees and Alps and along the coast is the stuff of car adverts".

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CHECKLIST ESSENTIALS :
You're suppposed to have the following (F-France, CH-Switzerland,
G-Germany, I-Italy)

Compulsory:
Warning triangle (CH, D, I)
First Aid Kit (D)
Driving with dipped headlights all the time (CH, I)
Headlight convertors (CH,F,D,I)

Recommended [not essential]:
Bulb Kit - 1 spare of each type
Fire Extinguisher


Max permitted alcohol in bloodstream:
0.8 - GB, CH
0.5 - D, F, I

Documents
Vehicle registration document (V5)
International Motor Insurance Certificate (green card) is recommended
Driver's licence (IDP not required) if you have old-style licence
National vehicle identification plate (Sticker).
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+ MORE PICTURES FROM OUR RALLY +

fuelled up and ready for more serious klms >>

deep in france

vive le france

watch the elise go !

my new look super smoooove bonnet vents .

and some extreme vents on the elise and alex greens psycho black beast [can a car look any more angry than that black beast? and thats before you hear that sick Grrrrowllll out the twin zorst]

its too hot in there . towells on the leather seats for sure ;-)

the fto loved it !

the fto loved it - it really did !

check out that gay frog spoiling the shot ! move it pierre !!!

sunset over monaco

showing the frogs me arse !

its a bit like blackpool , but cleaner and no fucking manchester united tops .

how do you say "im not a taxi " in french ?

more shots of monaco next to the jink in the road as you approach the harbour after batting it thru the tunnel [if you follow the race in GPL game or F1 race

edge of monaco harbour near the 90* left hander

amongst the fire raveged areas of st tropez . this had happened witin the last 48 hours and stunk of smoke . little was left of 10 miles all directions . apparently it was on the tv news back in england .

remember - dont play with fire kids .

more silky smoooove bonnet shots

**

so thats kinda the basic plot - if you wanna do the trek head calis-reims[avoid paris]-dijon-lyon-coast . its really easily signed .

anything anyone wants to know about how to's etc mail me ...