CharlieGSXR Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 This time next month I am driving 2,500 miles from my house in Bedfordshire to Italy, along with my Girlfriend in my car and my parents and my brother in their BMW 335i convertable. On the way down we are stopping at the Nurburgring Traveling through 7 countries and will take a drive along the Stelvio pass (Top Gear Best driving road). Stay in the Italian lakes in a villa for a week, head to the Alps via the Mont Blanc tunnel and see the place where we go Skiing in the summer. Finally head back home. Hotels all booked, channel tunnel booked (should be fun with Decats!) 2 weeks off work booked! Has anyone ever been to the Stelvio pass? If so anything i need to look out for or any photo's i have to get? 2 Quote
Commander Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 Has anyone ever been to the Stelvio pass? If so anything i need to look out for or any photo's i have to get? Yep - done it twice - went down it towards Trafoi in the rain at night, and back up the next day in snow. It's hairpin after hairpin, but the road's so narrow you can't really have much fun - there are loads of much better roads in the area though - just take a look on google maps... Or find my road-trip write-up for last year... It's on here somewhere! Quote
CharlieGSXR Posted June 13, 2014 Author Posted June 13, 2014 Has anyone ever been to the Stelvio pass? If so anything i need to look out for or any photo's i have to get? Yep - done it twice - went down it towards Trafoi in the rain at night, and back up the next day in snow. It's hairpin after hairpin, but the road's so narrow you can't really have much fun - there are loads of much better roads in the area though - just take a look on google maps... Or find my road-trip write-up for last year... It's on here somewhere! I'll take a look, we are doing a few roads around there and we are going to make a day of it! so excited to see all the sights i'll be uploading pictures on here while i'm away Quote
Jp606 Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 This sounds great, would love to do something like this. Have you got a map of your route? Quote
gangzoom Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 Looks great I've just booked leave for our trip to Spa/Swiz alps Quote
CharlieGSXR Posted June 14, 2014 Author Posted June 14, 2014 This sounds great, would love to do something like this. Have you got a map of your route? Here is the route we are going on Quote
gangzoom Posted June 18, 2014 Posted June 18, 2014 Just finalising our trip....Going to get AA European insurance just in case, the 335 isn't the most reliable car to take on a 2000 miles jaunt, wouldn't surprise me one bit if we end up doing half the trip in a rental car whilst the 335 gets sent back to see Mitz/Andy at the garage Quote
CharlieGSXR Posted June 19, 2014 Author Posted June 19, 2014 Just finalising our trip....Going to get AA European insurance just in case, the 335 isn't the most reliable car to take on a 2000 miles jaunt, wouldn't surprise me one bit if we end up doing half the trip in a rental car whilst the 335 gets sent back to see Mitz/Andy at the garage Looks very similar to ours, what problems have you had in the BMW? What age is it? When are you going? Quote
gangzoom Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 08 car, 50k, water pump and high pressure fuel pump failure, AT box transmission fluid leak, and coil pack failure all with in a 4 months window ....hopefully will be more reliable now that lots been sealed with Quote
CharlieGSXR Posted July 12, 2014 Author Posted July 12, 2014 Well its all gone t/7s up, got to the nurburgring and when i finished i looked at my temperature gauge and it was sky high. Opened the bonnet to cool it down and the coolant res was overflowing and boiling over. Got the car cooled down and drove it down the road and then pulled in a car park as it happened again. Called RAC ('ACE' in Germany) and they recovered it. Looks like the head gasket has gone! Now I'm in an Opel Meriva 1.6 ecoflex....... Yay Did the stelvio pass in it today, i really explored the levels of grip in that! Does anyone know if i can get the gasket done? Car is a 2005(55) with 68,000 miles FSH Quote
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