Keeping warm in an open car with no heater?

Yeah, but going faster you see less rain, innit?

Oh while we're on the subject of weather, this is what happened to a car in our area when we had a hailstorm.

Heh, the A8 near Milan is /always/ stupidly foggy at that this of year and it's almost always pissing down on the A14 in winter.

I miss the drive to Ancona.

Heh, I did it in one go from Rotterdam to Ancona in a Rangie with a pretty overloaded trailer on the back - took 18 hours via Luxembourg and Switzerland. Bastards charged me for two Swiss motorway thingys; one for the Rangie, another for the trailer. That knackered up the "save money on tolls" plan.

Where we live it is still common to see Dennis Chassis being driven around with just a box of plywood for the driver to sit on. A metal roll bar type affair is used to attach a racing harness. Incidentally most of the drivers wear crash helmets as well. The last time I saw one I was being overtaken on the A3 so goodness knows how fast he was going. It is amusing to see the chassis flexing though....

I remember seeing such things (and bus chassis from leyland at bathgate)on their way to Alexander's coachworks as well, travelling along Falkirk high street wearing just a trilby! Badger.

Steve Firth (%steve%@malloc.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Bloody. Hell...

It's the hailstones that *really* hurt.... :-)

Summer, was it?

In Coventry, obviously.

As you can guess car ports, covered parking and garages are rather popular. Although none of that helps if you get caught in the open.

This is what the hail looks like:

Or were you going "bloody hell" over the insurance excess in Italy?

We'll be doing it again soon, because i have to take a 250 litre thermal store with me and I have to bring back this year's olive oil harvest.

We're doing it more leisurely this time after a couple of close calls on the way in the past. So it will probably be a case of stopping near Colmar overnight on day one, or possibly in Switzerland depending on how well we do for time. Then another stop near Rimini at a B&B where we're friends with the owner.

Ouch they are buggers with that trick. Also with only accepting Euros for payment. I had the money in SFr last trip and they insisted on payment in Euro so they could overcharge.

Steve Firth (%steve%@malloc.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That's not hail. That's a rockery.

Impressive isn't it? When we were out in the hire car it was the first time I had heard my wife say "f*ck". Actually what she said was more like:

"What's that bang? What's that? Oh f*ck, f*ck f*ck f*ck, get under that bridge, f*ck, f*ck we're going to die."

Bloody Hell. I assume that even pedestrians there walk about with crash helmets on at that time of year!

This should sort you out....

A few years ago in New Mexico or Arizona, I was driving a mountain road when there was a sudden horrendous hailstorm. I pulled over to the side of the road while it passed, and I noticed that I'd stopped right in front of one of those 'danger, falling rocks' signs. Next thing I know, a beer-barrel sized rock comes barrelling down the hillside, and whangs into the side of the car.

At least it was a rental...

If you take a wooly hat, choose wisely.

A few years ago I drove my Healey up to Scotland and wore a ski hat. The vibration was worse than if I had flat-spotted all the tyres.

I had to stop at the first service area to borrow a pair of scissors so I could cut the bobble off.

Good luck! mp

"Pete M" wrote in message news:egk56h$hpo$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org...

Seeing as there's been a few useful replies, I'll just choose a random one to reply to! Thanks for all the advice guys, we're kitted out now and setting off Wednesday night for the 13:30 Ancona to Patras Ferry.

Pics of the beast we are travelling in here...

Cheers all again

Mike P