Just got back from a long trip in the Coupe - LeMans and back - just over 1,000 miles

Cruised at just over 80 on the amazing French roads, got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams in LeMans (2+ hours to do a mile, in near 30 degrees)

Coupe behaved impeccably, although the clutch became a bit of a chore in the traffic

Returned 32-33mpg for the trip, which isn't bad, considering the speed and the heavy load (we were camping, so the poor beastie was a bit overloaded)

Ours was the only Coupe we saw all weekend

Cool! So want to do a foreign road trip some day soon, but have far too many things in the way at the moment, hoping next year will be the year!

That's pretty impressive Nigel

PS - the Brits could learn a lot from the French about how to run a road network - we covered 300 miles on mostly two-lane French autoroutes in about the same time as we covered 200 miles on three and four-lane motorways in the UK

French lane disciple is fantastic, the French drivers seem much more tolerant and courteous, which ultimately leads to making very good progress - I have never sat at 80mph for that long in the UK without getting held up

They are probably only courteous due to the fact if you don't move over quick enough, they tend to tailgate you quite a bit as I found out when driving to DisneyLand Paris and Bruges a couple of months ago.

I wasn't in my Coupe but did see a couple over the weekend in Le Mans, not yours though Nigel. Good to hear you had a trouble free weekend.

Any pictures? Would love to see some!

That is epic mpg considering the power you have on tap!

We used all the power on quite a few occasions - tunnels, toll booths and a few rolling blasts

One of the tunnel noise-fests was immediately greeted with blue flashing lights and sirens, which thankfully turned out not to be for us.....

Be careful with your driving out there the police like to stop British plated cars for speeding and demand cash or throw you in jail for the night. Happened to a work colleague a few years back they escorted him to a cash point for a 500EURO bribe or they were going to take his passport.

Alway use the car in front as a "buffer" for speeding so when the cop with the speed gun reports him to the police hiding further up you have time to slow down.

Or... don't speed? Just a thought...

Apart from a couple of moments, we generally stuck to the posted limits and enjoyed a less stressful journey as a result - TBH, an indicated 85 (GPS 81-82) felt about right for the car anyway, so we were happy enough

I suspect you wouldn't enjoy Norway's limits, Nigel

just checked - 80kmh!!!

Understandable if the conditions are inclement (which I assume they often are), but mad on an open main road

The Coupe would not feel happy cruising at 50mph - approx 1800rpm in 6th gear - I guess a 16v N/A would be just perfect

To be honest, it's a bit slow for the 16NA - that's happiest at around 80 even with the higher gearing.

But I'll force myself

really? - I found 80mph a bit too 'buzzy' in my 16 - its about 4,000rpm isn't it? Seemed happier at 65-ish

About 3750, I think. But I suspect buzziness is dependent on the exhaust.

I've been saying this for years and glad someone else has noticed. I've driven in France quite a lot of times and can't ever recall seeing an outside lane hogger.