Hey guys,
I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in any form of road trip for next year at all? I say next year as it gives me time to sort everything out, routes, hotels etc etc.
I recently went on a road trip with Pure Rally over to Geneva for the motorshow and it was a fantastic weekend. Some great cars and great people made the trip memorable. So I was wondering if anyone would be up for similar but on a club level? Cars would not be important, if you bring a VR4 that would be awesome but it really doesn't matter what you bring.
The next thing would be whether people would want a UK road trip or a European one?
Ill leave this thread open for a while to get some ideas of where people would like to go. Then when we have a few ideas I will sort a poll out.
So far I have a couple of my own ideas:
North Coast 500:
Attachment 79852
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIzCQhCjW6w
Welsh Run:
Not got a map plotted for this one yet but essentially we would be starting on the North Wales Expressway (A55) heading from there West through a few decent tunnels. After the last tunnel we would turn off and head south down to the Llanberis pass, a stunning driving road, nice flowing corners and great views. Head East at the bottom of the pass toward Cape Curig and head down the A5 (another stunning road to drive although it can be busy at times) where we reach the Evo Triangle. This was made famous by EVO Magazine as they used to test drive their cars down there. Its essentially 3 roads connected in way of a triangle with fast flowing corners, great scenery again and overall brilliant driving roads.
The idea from here would be to then head back toward Snowdonia and drive through the National park south down towards the Brecon Beacons. Another stunning place to drive around. There is a stunning mountain pass but the best route is from South to North so we would skirt round the Beacons to the south side then head down the Mountain Pass. From here this would pretty much conclude the Welsh Run. There are a few other excellent driving roads around the area nut essentially once we have hit those and start heading back to civilisation that would be the end of the trip.
South Coast Run:
We could start this run from probably Hastings, head down toward Brighton. Then go Brighton to Bournemouth and then on to Newquay and back up. Not so stunning roads apart from the South Downs National Park or the New Forest but still some good routes. Time could be filled up by either camping and having BBQ's in the evenings or if people are scared to get get mud under their nails then we could do a hotel and a nice pub meal etc. During the days as this is a shorter run we could try and jack up some activities such as go karting etc. Not really much more to say about this one, we could camp in the New Forest or we could park up and have a walk around. Im guessing not many people here would be wanting the nightclubs of Bournemouth etc so we could easily change up the destination for a nice country Inn somewhere.
London to Monaco:
This is a trip I have been wanting to do for a while now to be honest and I was hoping to do it this year but it may have to wait until 2019. I have a route planned out for this one already. This could take anywhere from 4 days to 8 depending on the amount of driving and any activities people want to do etc. I have a rough route planned out as per below which gives a nice balance between driving times and times to soak up the cities we are in:
Day 1 - From the UK to Troyes
Day 2 - Troyes to Geneva
Day 3 - Geneva to Monaco via the Mt Blanc tunnel then head down to the coast by Genoa and on to Monaco (beautiful roads and scenery)
Day 4 - Spend the day exploring Monaco village, driving around the various parts of the circuit including Casino Square etc. Then head up into the mountains above Monaco. Some amazing driving roads, heaps of tunnels and stunning views
Day 5 - Monaco to Lyon heading via the outskirts of Marseille and then Grenoble
Day 6 - Lyon to Reims via Dijon
Day 7 - Reims to UK
This can be tweaked by driving to Dover the night before the start. This then means we could drive further on Day 1 possibly as far as Dijon meaning we are closer to Monaco. By adding a couple of hours to the drive to each day and heading to Dover the night before we could cut this down to 4 days or so. Again this all depends on what people would rather.
Le Mans 24hr:
This is another overseas one but we could make this as short as 2-3 days. The track is between 4-5hrs from Calais so easily doable in 1 day, 1 day at the track then 1 day back. Again depending what people want to do. We could head there for the actual race and spend time there or we could simply go there when the race is not on and visit the Le Mans 24hr Museum. Again we can either head straight there or stop the night in/around Paris or even Rouen for the night or stop over on the way back.
These are ideas I have been kicking around in my head for a while so thought Id jot them down. Other potential trips we could do (that I havent really thought through much details wise) are:
Oktoberfest - London to Amsterdam to Frankfurt
Nurburgring - London to Brussels to Nurburg
Poland - London to Cologne to Berlin to Warsaw/Krakow/Poznan/Gdansk all beautiful places. Possibly Adam is best placed to come up with a suitable route and destination for this one?
These are just ideas Ive been spitballing around but would love to make happen. We could either do UK or European or maybe if there is enough interest we could do a couple, either 1 UK and 1 EU or 2 UK etc etc. If anyone has any ideas bang them in the comments below and if there is enough interest Ill start a poll going.
This might be a better opportunity to get people together as the main car shows and events don't really seem to be attracting people anymore. Would be a great way to meet up with old faces and meet some new ones. Lets bring back the spirit of Club VR4 and remind ourselves why this is the best forum any of us have been part of ;)
