Isle of White trip June 22

As I’m starting to think about our pre Le Mans drive for 2023. Just realised never posted anything for last years trip over on the isle of white.

We got an early ferry crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth and then drove the military road down to Ventnor and back. My first visit since 1979. IoW very popular during Covid.

WW2 German prisoners of war built the road. Early section up the chalk hill was particularly good.

We all enjoyed the trip and the road and ended up for lunch at that well known watering hole called The George Hotel at the side of the ferry terminal.

Back into Hampshire we went to see some old WW2 air force bases used in the D Day landings. Well hidden but with local knowledge a great end to the day.

Le Mans build up we start our five days away on Wednesday 8th.

Finally a return to normal and this year we expect to be a reprise of 2019…

Our hosts in the centre of the ville have just advised to bring car covers as the building next door is being renovated with lots of dust getting everywhere…

Wild Atlantic Way - Kenmare visit this week

I’m off to visit the Wild Atlantic Way this week to check out Kenmare and the ring of Kerry.

Saturday 27 May 2022

I managed to drive both Ring of Beara and Ring of Kerry.

Both fab drives a mixture of Devon and Cornwall and in the rocky hilly areas more like north wales and the Highlands… speculator.

Highlights were Caha Pass and Healy Pass.

Kenmare is hot spot akin to Paidstow.

We also drove most of the route from Bantry back to Kinsale….

I need to update my main page.

Ring of Beara is very rural. Narrow lanes with lots of grass in the middle of the road…not the best ride in a wide Ferrari…

https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/listing-region/ring-of-kerry-ireland/

Back to a JCW

It’s now some two months since I unexpectedly had to change out the Macan.

It went in for a minor service in early August 21. I never got her back. They identified a problem with cylinder 4. But we’re unable to diagnosis the reason for the internal reported code error.

After a number of backwards and forwards it became clear time to change……

Very pleased with this Clubman. The BMW 306 bhp M135 Engine is good. Car flies along very nicely………

Post 2021 Le Mans De-brief

Well that was the most strange experience at Le Mans this year. We heard around 35,000 attended. It was most odd. You could walk quickly anywhere……..The ACO Grandstand was perhaps 50% full.

Of course the main race was rather boring given only Toyota running but Glockenhaus did a grande job. The French where loyal to the one car runner Alpine that really was last years Rebellion car…with a new paint job. Come on 2022 and 203 when Audi, Porsche and Ferrari return for the first time in main class since the 1960’s.

GTO Pro was where the action was and LMP2. Porsche No 92 after total right-off on Thursday shipped in a new chassis from Germany and where ready to go on Saturday. They could not match the No52 Ferrari of the 63 Corvette , coming in 3rd.

Our normal accommodation in the centre of the Le Mans ville not available this year, so we decided to stay some 70K away north east of the track at Mortagne-sur-perche in a lovely 15C hotel.

It was great run in very day taking around 1 hour door to door., on what is effectively an old roman road. Two speed camera’s on the road otherwise straight and fast and most enjoyable.

We were disappointed with food at the Hotel but can thoroughly recommend La Croix D’or. We must have passed this lovely little restaurant over 20 times in prior years. Well worth a stop ,only 5K south of Mortagny.

For our return to UK, rather than come around Rouen from the west side we decided to return to via the east side and cross the Somme south east of Abbeville. It’s much quieter route less traffic and losts of roman straight roads.

Here is the route well worth travelling along provided you have the time and want to avoid the Toll roads and enjoy some proper driving fun.

Radio Le Mans is no longer FM radio station (91.2) only access via internet…..a bloody nuisance but we managed to make it work.

The UK/French Covid testing regime is real pain. UK Passenger Information form is horrible piece media/data entry form to have to play with. Fortunately I had my PC with me, not easy on a Mobile phone. The Eurotunnel API was also not the best but we made it work. The 72 Hour Lateral Flow test worked well, using a UK based company to act as the processor, via a photo upload from France worked really well. The 2 day test needed on return in the UK well sorted.

It took one hour to clear French and UK Immigration at Eurotunnel…….so we missed our allotted train, but actually caught the one we were booked on as we knew there would be delays.

Good to be back home.

Route back from Le Mans to Eurotunnel

Starting at :-

·      Mortagne-sur Perche (Hotel Du Tribunal) **

·      Verneuil-sur-Avre

·      Damville

·      Pacy-sue-Eure

·      Vernon

·      Gaillon

·      Les Andelys (Mistral Restaurant 26 Rue Grande 27700 Les Andelys for Lunch by Seine River in old town)

·      Gournay-en-Bray

·      Poix de Picardie

·      Hangest-sur-Somme

·      Flixecourt

·      Abbeville

·      A16 to Eurotunnel

** La Croix D’Or Restaurant

Le Pin La Garenne located 5Km south of Mortagne

How to get in and out of France for the Le Mans Weekend in 2 weeks time

I could say what a bloody mess. The Government web sites are hopeless.

Anyway here is the end result of our research today, concise and clear to get in and out. The working assumption is you don’t have COVID and you are double tapped with access to a vaccine cert. This is for a English resident. We go in and out on Eurotunnel.

Best advice get the Uk lateral flow test in advance and take with you to France and use this to get the 3 day negative test done by using the UK provider to handle the test protocol. Last thing I needed was finding a French covid test centre. This is the most important step to take control of, such you don’t need to touch the French system at all. After all this is meant to be a holiday not spending hours waiting in a queue to get a Covid test!

The other key fact is the 3 days day test can be either PCR or Lateral Flow BUT cannot be a NHS test……….we assume to give the private sector a chance and avoid swamping the NHS which is kept to handle UK based activity. So all those spare NHS test you have…..can’t use them.

It also sensible to load up the French equivalent of the NHS App to load your vaccine certificate onto given any gathering over 50 you are expected to show and demonstrate you have been double tapped.

Below is our Checklist and also in doc form (PDF)

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Ferrari 330 LMB Reg No 583 WKL (Bell Sport and Classic)→

FT ran an article this weekend on a very special car that they have just created. The back story …being rather fascinating.

To cut to the chase this is apparently just the fifth car of this type, a special 250 GTO of which just 4 where made at the factory to race at Le Mans in 1963 (the dream of a farmer from Essex who sadly passed away before this could be completed, whilst driving his vintage Bentley…) and then Bell SC where able to follow through and make it happen.

When you look back over 50 years at the heritage and performance ….400 BHP car with weight of 1200 kilo’s. Racing engine with peak power around 7,600 RPM. So a remarkable car for the era……hence almost a one off.

What is it worth!…….alot of money…….. more than a 250 GTO…..thats a very good guess right now.

Enjoy these two videos one of the car doing its stuff and the other of Bell SC (a clever bunch of British engineers) helping to to maintain other like cars on the road for all our enjoyment.

Zig Zag Tour

Well today we finally managed to get down to Shaftesbury to drive the famous Zig Zag Hill - the bendiest road in the Uk. We enjoyed it so much, we drove it three times. Some lovely views and climbs.

Stopped at the Rising Sun near to Ludwell Hill for a coffee and the hosts explained the road recently re-tarmac ed and it was smooth - Previously not kind.

We took in Stonehenge, after starting at Thruxton. Next James May pub at Swallowcliffe (Royal Oak) then ZigZag and back along A30 to Winchester. Then cut over to Alton up to Odiham and ending at the Phoenix Inn at Hartley Wintney home of the Vintage and Sports Card club since 1934. Great pub good food and beer.

Next time will do in reverse and stop over at Royal Oak for lunch!

Total trip length door to door 210 miles.

I’ll post up route map for sharing later.

Update 8 June 2021 - We redid this run yesterday (in reverse starting at Phoenix at Hartley Wintney) taking in lunch at James May’s pub at Swallowcliffe. We found it excellent and thoroughly recommended. On our drive to Zig Zag we noticed a TR4 group (at least 10 cars) taking lunch at the Rising Sun where we stopped for a coffee back in April.

The new 911 GT3 breaks 7 mins for the 'Ring'

This is really impressive and is some 20 seconds faster than that 991 version……must be down to the front end rose joints…..since.the 996 version hit the streets in 1999 this car is one minute faster around the Ring.

On track for 1,000 unique visitors by end of Dec 20

I write this update knowing that by mid December will hit the 1,000 mark. Amazing. It’s an over 150% jump from 2019.

Thank you.

My web provider now offering a Members only micro site. Should I enable please let me know.

Place your bets….which Porsche wins this handicap race at Goodwood?

This is wonderful example of the Porsche current range of cars….is the winner a surprise… I blame the handicap committee…..

Ever wondered what the speed difference is between a Porsche 911 Carrera 2 road car, 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport and 911 GT3 Cup is?

Goodwood SpeedWeek pitches them against each other over a single lap at the iconic circuit…..

More on Paint to sample Gulf Blue Vaughn is a Canadian Porsche car collector

I find that a Canadian gentlemen (Mr Vaughn) has a Gulf Blue fetish and has two 918’s in Gulf Colours and also a 911R. Read this fascinating story about them.

Porsche Paint to Sample

I had reason to research this topic at weekend as I spotted a car in Gulf Blue………

Here is web site that shows off the colour palette choice rather well and below some other pictures……

In the second button is link (at the bottom of this blog) to a PTS Explorer site where if you hover over the colour of choice and then click you can see all the cars attributed to that colour….what a choice……

OPR 911 Rides again this time on a 911 Gen 2 GT3 RS in Lizard Green

What an interesting selection outside Porsche Uk HQ when I visited Porsche Reading on Wednesday.

OPR 911 a famous plate used by Porsche Uk for years, currently  on a 991 gen 2 GT3 RS in lizard green. I spotted this first as I drove in. A yellow 718 T, a 992 Turbo S convertible and a new Panamera on a Stuttgart GO plates for the latest Turbo S.

In the background some of the fleet Taycan’s.

I’m not sure I like the new car park layout more akin to Long Term Car Park at Heathrow (previously the landscaping before was lots of green shrubs…. latest attempt….. lost its soul) but means you can get to see some neat cars close up.

Porsche UK HQ Cars

1960's Lotus 49 replica built with a Boxster Engine and some other bits

This is a really neat home brew kit…….

How Porsche built a car thats faster than F1

What happened with no rules?

What an improvement over the outgoing car the new Ferrari Roma !

Good write up today in the Telegraph… what a looker!

XJ6 Coupe 1976 P reg for sale as first shown on Wheeler Dealers....

In 1969 Jaguar launched the iconic XJ6 Saloon which set a new standard for luxury executive cars of the era.

I remember as kid seeing my first arrive at my golf club. The owner a well known man who was the then owner of a leading golf publication known as ‘Golf World’.

Later in life this car (1975 to 1978) became a 2 door coupe with the 4.2 litre straight 6 cylinder or the more powerful V12 5.3 litre.

I have always thought these to be a  beautiful looking car and so much better in the Coupe styling.

I happened to be watching Wheeler Dealers tonight and the boys were sorting out a lovely 1976 P reg car. I do not recall ever catching before. The Tv program from 2013 and the car sold for £15k.

I decided to google the current worth and to my total surprise found the same on eBay for £25,950 locally near Reading.

Check out the eBay listing!

Stihl Kombi set .......brilliant

What I strange thing to be writing about. Boys and their toys.

My hedger cutter of 20 years standing (Husqvarna) gave up the ghost so I needed to replace it. I have alot of beech, hornbeam around my property so needs regular tidying up.

Have recently bought a Stihl Chain-saw which works well I thought I ought to check out the Stihl range on the hedge cutter. The Kombi allows a powerful engine unit and then you fix in the extra tools. Some 15 in the range.

Cannot recommend enough. Check out the Welsh voice!