mattross1313 Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 The better half and I have been on about doing a road trip for far too long, so we decided that this was the year to do it. To keep costs down we camped in most places, other than Monaco (as there isn't a campsite haha), and we have a family house in Italy so setup camp there for 3 days. Our trip took us through France, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Germany & belgium! ( I think that was all). We covered a grand total of 3124.8 miles over our 14 day trip. The car didn't give us any problems the whole way round, and was great fun to have on some of the more twisty roads. We planned the route by reading up on famous/top voted driving roads in Europe - then connected the best ones together to make a loop back home. Coming through France we stopped in at the old Formula 1 track near Reims which is always good for some photos. Coming into Monaco we drove the Route Napoleon which was an outstanding road, most likely our favourite. I couldn't come all the way to Monaco and NOT go to the Casino....maybe one of the most famous in the world. Spent some time in the there during the evening & managed to double my money! We got up at 5am in Monaco so we could get some peace & quiet to drive the circuit (did a few laps ). On route to Italy we drove the Col De Turini, also a rather famous road....very twisty!! During our stay at the family house we spent the day in Maranello - had a tour of the Ferrari factory, test track & museum which was a really interesting day. Before leaving I had a blast in the Ferrari 458....wow....just wow!!! It was a good job Lisa was driving home after our time in Maranello as I would have been pretty disappointed getting straight into the Zed after the 458! We spent a day in Venice, then headed to Lake Garda via Verona....all very lovely places. From here however we headed north for our most anticipated part of the trip....the Stelvio Pass, as seen on TV by the good chaps of Top Gear. This was an unbelievable piece of road - you couldn't really get up to any speed due to the thin roads and spatters of traffic, but the scenery was unreal! The tarmac was just draped all the way up and over the mountain, even snow on the top!! From there we headed into the Black Forest in Germany, some nice twisty roads but we were a little disappointed. We may have missed the good roads though. Pretty quick over view, but I know everyone is all about pics these days Some of my favourites below, but there is also a link to my Photobucket for the 100 best. I took over 800 photos so had to narrow it down a tad!! Album link - http://s203.photobuc...ary/Europe 2013 And I'll close with a MySpace photo..... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Very jealous, would love to do this one day. Glad you had a great trip and enjoyed the zed, its made for those journeys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 looks like a great trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bems Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Sounds like an awesome 14 days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsexr Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Thats a whole lot of miles in that time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy78 Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 What an amazing trip! I was planning on doing a similar one this year but never got round to it. Do you have details of the route? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonk Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Wow, looks like you had a great time. Nice pics too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MITZ@CougarStore Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Excellent write up and photos, Matt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Nice one Matt, some great photos and not a ****van in sight 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Awesome trip! This has refreshed my desire to do this, I've got a similar route planned but I'd prefer to take a few mates than go lone man wolf pack, which seems the only choice at the minute due to financials. I might tweet Monica Bellucci and see if she's ip or it. Cool pics bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Sounds an epic journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chubby Ninja Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Wow! What an epic road trip. Look amazing. Id really like to do this someday. What a life experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliveBoy Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 This looks like a promo shot for something like Forza! Really impressive picture. Definitely a zed of the day or calendar picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilMH Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Interesting shots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mouthwash Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Looks like a good time and some good pictures too. On a side note those standard alloys are growing on me.. Always thought that they didn't quite look right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 Hah, yeah that pic is rather Forza its one of my favourite snaps of the car, my other fave is the one of the misses with monaco in the background (on photobucket). Cheers Graham - there were rather a lot of caravans, almost all from the Netherlands, but I managed to over take them all.......honest......no really! Paddy - drop me a PM with your email address matey and I can send you the excel doc I used which has costs, Google links, milage, driving time etc etc. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humpy Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Awesome Matt, looks like a good one! I might be slightly jealous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vik54 Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 That looks like a fab trip - thanks for sharing the pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I think the 5th picture has been cropped, i can distinctly see the burnt rubber tyre marks from a crafty caravan that undertook you on that nice left hander and hes just got ahead of you. . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 I think the 5th picture has been cropped, i can distinctly see the burnt rubber tyre marks from a crafty caravan that undertook you on that nice left hander and hes just got ahead of you. . Damn, thought I cropped the photo enough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnH Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Christ I just spent 11 days in Europe driving through France, travelling down just about every pass in Switzerland and then on to Treviso in Italy, got back last night... we could've probably met up! It would've been nice being stuck behind a slow Z rather than a slightly faster caravan during the twisties. BTW, any idea what that twisty road is called? It's the one down the other side of Stelvio pass right? I don't know whether it's still called Stelvio or not as it actually turns off Stelivo and I can't find it on google maps. I'll post my photo's in another thread when I've processed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamic Turtle Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Did a similar trip to you recently and have to agree re Route Napoleon - perfect for the zed's capabilities in terms of being wide enough to drift, unlike the Col de torini / stelvio / fulka where a miscalc results in certain death... they're maybe a little too windy and narrow for a 1500kg GT. An elise or caterham would've been better there. Great GT for a trip like that and it changed my opinion of what the car is capable of in performance terms. Just wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnH Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 BTW, any idea what that twisty road is called? It's the one down the other side of Stelvio pass right? I don't know whether it's still called Stelvio or not as it actually turns off Stelivo... Think I found it, Umbrailpass maybe? Much nicer road than Stelvio imho due to there being less traffic so you can get some speed up: http://goo.gl/maps/wbY6K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 Ah mate, we may well have crossed paths at some point. Agreed with the above in that the Col de Turini & Stelvio were a little too snug to get up to any speeds. South of France was great and the roads really suited the car. Haydn, also not sure if its classed at the same pass, I guess so as all goes up and over in a fashion. My favourite part, from the pic, was near the below link. lovely piece of road with a few nice, if not VERY snug tunnels. https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=stelvio+pass&hl=en&ll=46.54003,10.436668&spn=0.022818,0.038581&sll=51.48931,-0.08819&sspn=0.657567,1.234589&hnear=Stelvio+Pass&t=m&z=15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMT Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Epic pics... Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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