Spanish Road Trip

[Flufffyninja]

The GT86 was a replacement for my old Honda S2000 and since it was new and unlikely to breakdown I decided it'd be nice to do a proper driving holiday

Couple of reasons behind what we were doing. My uncle has a place in a small port town called L'Apolla about 2 hours drive down the coast from Barcalona so we get to stay in a luxury house for next to nothing and the cost of fly/hire car is very similar to a drive down. We have a dog we like to take with us and taking him on the channel tunnel is very easy and he's only small so easy enough to fit in the 86. You can make an adventure of the holiday; this year we stopped in Epernay in the champagne region for a couple of days of touring champagne houses. Lastly I get to take the car on a run on a couple of roads I drove in our Avensis last year and I knew I would enjoy. All in all I put 3000miles on it in two weeks

Firstly the majority of the running we did was motorways. The longer we take the more expensive it gets when we start adding hotels into the budget so we have to balance speed with having some driving fun. Ok, compared to your average saloon car the suspension is going to be firm but motorways are hardly dirt tracks and was comfortable enough for long distance cruising, definately enough for the mrs to catch up on a lot of sleep. Had the iPod plugged into the stereo with music and audio books loaded up so nice way to pass the time. The seats were comfortable enough for a couple of 14 hour long drives with toilet / petrol stops every couple of hours. Average MPG was showing at just over 40mpg for the motorway stints. The more powerful engine and lighter weight of the car made life easier when cruising up and down the hills on the way out of Calais and into the Pyrenees.

Plenty of room for the two of us. 2 small to mid sized suitcases, my camera kit (a mid sized rucksack), couple of boxes of kit we said we'd take for my uncle, snorkelling masks/flippers for both of us and picnic gear. Car wasn't close to being rammed full. I'd have been jealous of just how much stuff we did have if we'd tried this in the s.

The route we took was motorways to the channel tunnel from Chester.
Calais to Poitier where we stayed in a gorgeous rural hotel overlooking the village square where everyone was playing bouls and having social drinks into the evening. This was where I had my first decompression moment (that moment when your body kind of catches up with the fact you are on holiday and you go ahhhhhhh for the first time)
We then drove Poitier to Lannemezan on the French side of the pyranees before turning onto the D929 to do the mountain passes.

That road is spectacular. You drive through picturesque towns and villages heading up into the ski resort areas that are shut down for the summer. It's gentle cruising stuff here mostly due to the nature of small towns and traffic heading between them. The towns gradually fade out though as you get higher and soon you are into some gorgeous driving roads with plenty of switchbacks to try and play with the tail on the exit of the corners. Unfortunately we had some blue rinsers in a heavily smoking Renault ahead of us as we neared the top and not enough visibility to make an overtake. You then come to a long stop at the top as you wait for your turn to go through the Aragnouet tunnel. It is an impressive change as you go through there. You go into it on the French side where everything is lush and green and come out on the Spanish side into arid and dry. The roads change nature. Too on the downhill side. Lots of open sweepers with good visibility where we managed to leapfrog a lot of the cars and then hoon it down with a gorgeous sky blue reservoir on the left.

On the uphills I'd have loved to have the engine out of the s. 9000rpm singing in the mountains as you pulled from corner to corner would have been epic but I wouldn't have taken the liberties I did with the chassis I had this time around. I was careful anyway but I would have been much more so in the Honda. On the downhill the engine was less of an issue with gravity lending me a helping hand and sweeping through those in a well planted car had a grin on my face I was close to looking like a flip top bin. I had to explain to the mrs the expression looking like I'd gone to sleep with a coat hanger in my mouth.

The remainder of the drive was a mix of motorways and zero traffic a-roads I could play around with. All in great fun

10 days of pottering around the town was no brainier driving so not much comment there except to say even driving rough semi-paved roads were delt with capably even if I was having to be careful.

The return drive to Epernay was heavy and all motorway so not much to say except 16 hours in a car driving isn't the most pleasant thing I've done but was surprisingly comfortable.

Down sides? There sounds like a slight touch of the air vent to the dash that gives a very light squeak you can hear on rough roads with the stereo off, one of the buttons to drop the seats looks like it has come loose. Need some time to see if it just needs to clip back in or if it is something to go to the dealer with.

All in it was a great drive

[Mad1723]

Come on! Great story, but we need an album!