Elise S1

EasyJet fly from Amsterdam to Bristol, direct train to Gloucester ~50 minutes.

Fly to Heathrow, coach to Reading

HTH.

Dude nice :-) I expect another write up like the last one when you drove the track prepped 928 home hehe!

Thanks Grant.

I owe you a beer.

Tom

You've got a good memory, Dan.

However the journey back should be now somewhat less intense, less long too and the Elise should have the clocks working and lighted. Maybe I won't find myself in the middle of the night in pouring rain on a road full of speedcams with a no speedo reading. Furthermore the Elise has (sadly?) no V8 on a near open exhaust.

I liked that trip a lot especially when a girl in a pub (which I found being completely lost and after I had woken the village with the "noisy" 928) dropped the locals asking for a lift to London (I was about 50 miles east of Scottish Corner at the time). Sadly the 928 had an extra set of wheels in it and there was no place left.

Won't happen this time either because I hope the girlfriend comes along :-)

But we'll see, I'll keep you posted.

Tom De Moor

Hmmm, read 50 miles west of Scottish Corner. It is Friday evening here ;-)

TDM

It's a british sports car so don't count on it. Still the most fun stadard road car IMO.

Scotch Corner? Near where I live :)

Yep: I came from Warrington, driving eastwards to the M1 and so down to London. Pitch black, no interior lights in the Porsche (it being a trackcar), no speedo, pouring rain and a road full of speedcams.

Got lost; drove into a village (lights in the houses went on while driving through), crawled out of the car in a rather unelegant way due to the rollbar and went into the only pub so I could study my map.

In another thread Burgerman says that birds are not attracted to fast cars. I tend to share his view on the question but that night the growl of the V8 attracted it anyway.

I mean: it couldn't be my puzzeled look nor my acrobatics getting out of the car, could it?

Tom De Moor

Plenty of places to stop on the way back, but depends what you're looking to do. Non locals often find the New Forest interesting as you get all the horses/cows wandering about on the roads getting in your way. Plenty of nice pubs though. You could go to Beaulieu Motor Museum too.

Not on the South coast, but could be on your way back - Bath. Historic town, quite nice from what I remember from the few times I've been there.

Try and plan a route home via Zig Zag Hill - would be a good road to try your new purchase on:

How about a burger and a cup of tea on Portsdown Hill, with a nice view over the whole of Portsmouth/Fareham.

You've also got Brighton to stop off at if you wanted.

I'd recommend a trip over the border into Wales to do the A4059 from Aberdare to the A465 road to Brecon, then on towards Llandovery and over the Black Mountain to Swansea.

Then, trek up here and attack the Scarborough to Whitby road :-)

I think I might have done that one to Brecon a few years ago before marshally Rally GB. Will never forget our little convoy up though the hills/mountains on saturday afternoon. Awesome roads, awesome scenery! And a bit of sickness from the passengers seat :)

snip

The Beaulieu Motor Museum I have been too: long narrow way with sheep along and then a castle with lots of very nice machinery. Gosh, it is allready some time back because there was a Ford Escort Rally car on stand, sitting next to a Delta Integrale, freshly back from the RAC rallye.

Yep, good idea because I'll try to get the GF along. So I have to balance between my interests (cars and stuff) and hers (walking).

Mind you: as a consequence I started liking walking too, my friends all make turning mouvements with their hand next to the head if I dare to mention that.

Hey hey, that goes down/up somewhat nicely.

You won't be on the lookout for headings in the monday papers "Stupid Belgian dives of the hill?", "Belgium 0 - Hill 1" ?

Thanks for the tips, Carl, it is appreciated.

Seems that if I have to offer a beer for every good tip, I should take a barrel of beer along. We don't have a lot in Belgium (taxes not mentionned) but beer we have! Tom De Moor

Lucky bastard. You have to stick some forced induction on it.

Fraser

Well feel free to drop a few Duvels or Leffes off on your way through :)

I was watching that one too, nice price you got it for, think I've decided to go for an S2 now though.

Thanks. GF doesn't like the S2-form and I am not a big fan. Mind you ; once in the car function takes over from form. They get heavier too: those with the Toyota engine even a lot heavier.

The Elise is a kind of an experiment: I want to see (and do) the RHD-> LHD conversion and if that works, sell the car somewhat later on and then upgrading to the 190 HP-version (non-Toyota).

As it is, it has somewhat more power than the standard S1, a better suspension and a hard top , so fingers crossed there.

Wan in London yesterday: Aston Martin is out of the doldrums. You fall over them! Nice place London, nice cars, bloody expensif (both). Got lost (of course), walked a lot, now a bit stiff and not very attracked to the work on my desk.

Normal Monday-feeling :-)

Tom De Moor

At least with the Toyota lump you won't be replacing head gaskets every few months.....

Aye, true. Toyota Lumps have always been rock solid performers. That was why the guys at fensport where able to build the 600horsey corolla 4wd. The underpinnings are stock ST205 celica with modded shocks and spring and brakes. The axles and diffs/trans are factory. The engine is pretty seriously breathed on, but it shows what you can do.