As those who went to Spa will know, i'm now driving round in Jamie3's old Scotts Green 20vt.
The engine in his car went pop last year sometime, so it's now fitted with a standard engine courtesy of Barbz.

A big thanks has to go to JBT for getting my car ready in time for Spa - it was at his garage for 4 weeks in the build up to Spa having a few issues sorted, with me only picking the car up 7 days before Spa. I know how much time and effort he put into finding the route of the problems, so really appreciate that!

Then, a big thanks to Flea for sqeezing my car in for mapping 2 days before I set off from Spa and sorting out the boost and fuelling issues!

So what better way to run in a car that i've hardly driven than a trip to Spa, followed by a 2000 mile round trip to the Stelvio Pass!

The route : Click here

-Leeds
-Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)
-Andermatt (Switzerland)
-Davos (Switzerland)
-Stelvio Pass (Italy)
-Lake Como (Italy)
-Leuven (Belgium)

So first of all me and my friend, Jonny, headed to Spa for our annual Pilgrimage to Spa Italia 2011! The car performed faultlessly on both track sessions, with the highlight of the weekend being my melted rear tyres!

Over the next couple of days we headed South towards Andermatt in Switzerland, and the start of the Alpine passes! Basically, all of the roads from Andermatt to the Stelvio Pass were awesome, with stunning scenery to match! the coupe ran fine, untill I reached heights of above around 2000m. At these heights the coop wasn't happy and started wheezing a bit! The widget then showed a "Mass air flow fault", so alarm bells started ringing! But after texting JBT from the top of a mountain he put my mind to rest and I continued the trip, taking it steady whenever the error came up!

The Stelvio Pass was pretty cool - although we approached it from the wrong direction. So we ended up going up the side with the million hairpins, which coupled with the steep gradient and the fact my coupe doesn't like heights, soon got a bit tedious! But the drive down the other side soon made up for it!

And to be honest we actually preferred the passes that lead to the Stevio, much more open and flowing!

Anyway, here are some photos, and i'll add more when I get time!

Near Andermatt, the Furkastrasse

Andermatt to Davos

In Davos!

Davos to the Stelvio

Stelvio - the ascent

Stelvio - the descent

The view from our room in Menaggio, on Lake Como

In the Parc naturel regional des Ballons les vosges - awesome roads here too!

Not....jellus.....at all

Nice one Nick and Johnny. Glad all went well mate.

Wow! That trip looks fantastic. Some nice pics there, I really need to save up and do that kind of trip myself. Problem is I'd like to take the car and the bike!

Niiiiiiiiiiiice

That looks absolutely gorgeous guys, you must have had an amazing time. Really good to meet you both at Spa too.

James

FFS, just realised yours was the scottie parked next to me at some point at Spa - and I didnt get to meet you.

Nor did I meet James, Proccy, JBT, etc etc etc...

Meh, I was too busy sitting in the Countach

You rescued Jamies car

I thought Jamies car had been split - broken. Great to hear - see that it hasn't.

Pictures all look fantastic, but then I would say that, it's a green one

Excellent photos Nick and glad you both had a good trip




You should have asked me to point them all out to you

Where's the 'like' button...?

unsociable git

only time i saw you was as you rapidly disappeared in my rear-view mirror

Loving the photo's Nick, beam me up Scottie

Great photos and an awesome looking trip!

What camera did you use for these pictures?

that looks truly epic

Ha!

That doesnt surprise me!

Was a fairly sedate session for me and Andrew, first time on a track for either of us so way out of our depth to be honest.

Dont think I saw more than 120 all weekend.

But, I have to say, despite not really going for it too much on the track, I/we had a fantastic weekend, definetly be there in 2012, maybe in a 16...

*Im surprised you could see anyhing behind you through the smoke...*

Cheers guys, the trip was awesome!

We did a similar trip last year after Spa and said that was a one off............. pretty sure we'll be off on our travels next year too! It's now just a case of breaking the news to the girlfriend after promising her this year was definitely the last...........

The photos were taken using a Canon DSLR E1000D or my Nokia N8. In shots taken in good light it is near impossible to tell a difference! The panoramas were taken on my N8!

I forgot to mention that after Lake Como we headed to Mulhouse, France to visit the Schlumpf Car Collection. I was a little dubious about going from looking at the website, thinking it would just be a big garage full of random old cars. But infact the collection is amazing! Well worth a visit if you're ever in that part of the world!!

And shiny - i saw you were in the coop next to me at the Spa carpark, but never got round to saying hi! So sorry about that! I'll make sure I introduce myself next year!!

No worries Nick