Hi All,

Trust this finds you all well and your cars in good order. Like many i suspect, work and other commitments has meant there has not been much time for the Coupe or even the forum recently, until I realised- half the year has gone by!

In an effort to change that a bit - next week is booked in for another small UK tour in the Coupe, heading from East to West to see a few of the sights of the west -possibly finding some time to pop into Wales and do a few loops of the famous Evo Triangle! (watching for the speed cameras and national 20mph limit!) in the process.

The Coupes had some small, shakedowns- and seems to be in fine fettle. This will be a test to see if a recent bit of work on the brakes has improved the poor braking performance (one of the bleed nipples was found to be a bit furled up in its channel- and cleaning that out has improved things noticeably). This weekend will see the final fettle-before heading off Monday morning.

The intention is to try and avoid the motorways- hit the older (and more fun) b roads. So if your out and about in the Chester/north wales/cotswold area and happen to spot a red Coupe trying to make progress-give me a wave!

I'll be avoiding public car parks this time where I can.....!!!!

Best.

MM

Sounds great. Enjoy the trip.

Cheers FrenchCoupe,

Hoping for dry weather...but UK summer are famous for rain.

Will report back.

Regards

MM

MM, the A49 connecting N Wales and the Cotswolds is not a bad way of hoovering up some attractive places like Ludlow and Hereford.

Depending what sort of tastes you have, there is Hay-on-Wye famous for its books, Hereford's cathedral is impressive and there's good cider around

Cheers Edinburgh- will check that out and see what the Cider tastes like...

Hoping the weather holds- and hoping everyone gets to enjoy their coupes this week!

Regards all

Sounds great. I'm in Chester so I'll keep an eye out for you. Was thinking of taking the car out this weekend but the Aircon has divorced me and it's going to be hot. Lovely roads above Denbigh and near the 2 lakes - names escape me - but my Coupe loves it up there!

Hi Mike D,

Sorry not to have seen you there - also passed by Prestatyn where I think another member of the forum is located- but alas never saw another Coupe during the journey.

Back now and the coop was well behaved and did not miss a trick. Apart from being stuck in traffic for nearly an hour on the way across due to an accident ahead (where I quickly turned her off for the duration) she seemed to handle the high temperatures really well - the temp gauge held steady even with temps nudging 30'c!

Even better- the a/c held up the whole time - and for most of the trip this was a blessed relief! The temps being so high-and the coop being a natural glass house- it would have been a different experience to have had to have had the windows down the whole time. It did not occur to me until a day or so in to ensure that the a/c was on re-circ. But all in all, the system held up pretty well and you can see why the Italians demand a/c.

It may just have been in my mind- but she suddenly started to feel more alive and responsive after I'd covered around 150 miles....just suddenly felt like everything came back to life. Engine sounded crisper, suspension and driveline felt more "active" etc..

I got stopped by passers by with "I used to owe one " and "my husband had one of those" a couple of times- and its really nice to hear. I always urge people to think about returning to the fold!

Driving in wales....is very odd. Some of the roads are breath taking. But whoever designed the speed designations needs sacking. Roads that look identical, fluctuate within yards from 20mph, to 30mph, 50mph, 60 mph, then 20mph etc etc. I went through countless sections of a roads- with 2 houses either side of the road-a sudden 500 yard 20mph. A few minutes later you would fly through a small village with 5 houses, as school and a bakery-and its a 50 or a 60mph road. Totally utterly bonkers. By day 2 I had started to loose the plot a bit-i was spending more time looking for speed signs and trying to figure out what they were demanding then i was on road safety - thats plain dangerous- so I simply followed the flow of traffic. The locals essentially seemed to ignore anything. Should tickets land on the mat- I'd defend everyone in court-utter pc madness to make changes on the fly over such short distances.

The Evo triangle- I'd read a lot about it being an iconic road. And a lot about it being pointless to visit due to speed cameras being erected on it. Both are absolutely true. There are around 5 big yellow impossible to miss double sided speed cameras on the route. A couple of them depending which way round you drive the triangle - are partially hidden by tree's. I couldn't decipher if they were constant speed cameras, or actual speed. But they are easy to resolve- the road is almost completely devoid of traffic- so i stopped on each section to let the average time click up. And made sure I was under the speed limit at each camera (and ahem of course everywhere else). What the triangle DOES offer is simply the best driving road in the UK I have been on. I drove the triangle counter clockwise- B4501, the A5, then the A543. The B4501 -is THE section in my mind- its a long sighted, gentle down hill fast flowing road, with bends, dips, sighted corners, inclines and when you get in to the flow is addictive- for driver involvement- issues were sheep in the road and a dog, and letting one mobile home go by. The A5 is essentially the re-set to let you and the car settle down. The A543 was a fast flowing up hill section Alpine style road, smooth with some blind bends-would recommend this road to anyone. A sightin in "lap" essential. But the quality of the road? everything you have read about and more.

Some other roads were equally brilliant with some amazing vistas.

I covered nearly 1k of miles- and fuel use was 4 tanks - but I kind of fluttered two of those away on some "eager" driving in the squiggly bits. And a/c was on pretty much throughout.

Car is now back, checked,cleaned...and will be coming out to play again this weekend!

Regards all!

Great review MM and always good to receive the fond memories of previous owners.

I should have mentioned the legendary Horseshoe Pass beforehand; don't think you can have driven this as you would have said!

I heard that some of these mad Welsh speed limits were under review due to complaints....

Great write up - many thanks - I enjoyed reading it. The speed limits are a pain I think. 20 mph does take the fun out of driving - especially when there doesn't seem to be a genuine need for it. Not jealous of your air con at all!!