I'm going to the Alps in a few weeks for a week of riding and chillin out. i can fly and hire a bike. the flights are cheap, the hire is expensive. i can fly with my bike but i hate doing it and theres a real risk of damage. or i can take my 25 yr old mk1 gti with 155,000 miles. 2 months ago i set off for potugal in my toyota townace and it packed in somewhere in southern france. but it was a bit of a shed and to be honest the aa cover was so good it wasnt really a problem. the thing is this mk1 is the most reliable car ive had. it never misses a beat. never hasnt started and i love driving it. it has coilovers but is standard other than that. plus, i would love to drive round the Alpine roads in it. it could be an amazing experience. But. i'd hate to kill the car as i love it and its a great mk1. is it a bit of an ask for a car that old? or should i take a chance. i need to change a wheel bearing and whack 4 new tyres on my g60 steels to make it perfect for the trip, its recently serviced and i keep on top of things as they need doing. ive also fitted a cd player with an ipod jack to keep me sane on the motorways. i intend to take it easy. also will be folowing my bro in his VR6 so that will be fun.
you should definately do it, it is of course why it was made in the first place, to be driven in such areas and to put a smile on your face. if it it dies it will die happy, and can always be fixed.
Funny enough i was in GSF the other day. This lad was returning some bits as his radiator blew when he was out there and they sent him the wrong one. Got talking to him about his Mk1 (just a standard GL model) and said it was awesome and never missed a beat! Its a VW, it wont die, it will just get lower!
Agreed...you HAVE to do it, what an experience it will be. Just to be safe, as mentioned you can do a service on the car, and in doing so see how confident you feel in taking it over there. I'd check over the following and if they need replacing then do so...if not then they're ok, but it will give you confidence as you know you have checked/replaced them: Oil and filter Spark plugs Dizzy cap Rotor arm HT leads Coolant (full flush and replace) Fuel filter Air filter Brake pads/discs...drums/shoes Tyres Exhaust system and if in Europe you MUST have: the correct 1st aid kit (30 Halfrauds..the one in the cylindrical green cloth bag as has warning triangle/headlight deflectors) . A fluro jacket/vest...got mine e-bay for 5 delivered..again needs to be the approved 2 reflective strip one spare bulb kit...indicators/brakes/sides/headlights/....and you can put the vest/bulbs in the green 1st aid bag if you get stopped and don't have any of the previous or are missing bits the police can fine you 50 euros per item missing. I'm out on the CGTi 'ring trip this year and had the same thoughts as am taking my Mk1 track car...26 years old just gone and am happy it will do me proud as have checked/replaced the bits needed
well. i'm back. I set off on the friday at 11am from cardiff, missed the 2o'clock from dover and had to get the 4 o'clock ferry. I headed into france using my new tom tom sat nav that i picked up that morning, i wasnt very clued up on it so it sent me a strange route that cost me quite a lot of time. i was determined to get as far as Troyes to meet up with my brother who had got an earlyer ferry. But tiredness kicked in and i had to pull off the motorway at about 11pm. The aire (french layby's with parking and toilets, usually quite nice) was smelly and noisey, i tried to kip in the car but the mk1 wasnt comfortable and i couldnt recline the seats as the back seat was down to get my bike in. after 20 mins i set off again. but decided to get off the motorway and travell slowly down the country lanes unill i found somewhere to camp. The roads were brilliant, long straigts and perfect tarmac trough the flowing turns. i eventually pulled into a farmers field near troyes at about 3.30am and chucked my sleeping bag down. i was woken about an hour later by a tractor going past. i sat up and saw an amazing sunrise, i then looked at the road i was on to see pefect tarmac twisting off into the distance. i jumped up chucked the sleeping bag in the back and shot off down the road. that was about 4.30 am first light. What came next was about 5 hours of amazing empty flat out roads, by far the best drive ive ever had. smooth tarmac wide straight roads would suddenly drop down a valley into tight but very fast winding hairpins and then wind back up the other side. The closer i got to Morzine the tighter the bends got and the steeper the roads. the scenery was fantastic and 2 hours from Morzine i came over a crest to see Mount blanc in the distance still completely snow capped even in the summer heat. i finally arrived at Morzine at 1pm and met the others at our chalet. i had been going apart from a few food and napp stops for 22 hours. i was buzzing and couldnt wait to do some downhill tracks on my bike. i got one ride in before hitting the beers and getting an early night. I spent a week in morzine. The holiday was great but the drive there was one of the best things ive ever done. i set off with the intention of creeping down there taking care not to strain the old mk1. but when i was on those back roads i began not to care. it was so perfect, its those roads that make owning a car with coilovers and expensive tyres worth while so i decided i'd rather make the most of it. so if anyone fancies something different from the ring, try the Troyes to Dijon road at about 4.30 on a hot saturday morning. its pretty incredible.
Good on you! Becha feel proud, nothing like grasping the nettle and throwing caution to the wind is there?
that pic is from my balcony in morzine. the trip cost loads as its very expensive in the alps. 5 euro for a pint! and a pizza and profiteroles with a couple of pints in a nice restaurant was 30 euros. with the exchange rate so bad its dear. also petrol in france is horrific. the most i paid was 1.62 euro's and the least was 1.48 euro. with toll roads on top of that. i did 1800 miles all in and i filled up 7 times, allthough they werent all empty. i think i spent about 60 english pounds and 180 euros on fuel, so say 210 quid on fuel. maybe a bit more. but to do 1800 miles thats not bad, espeacially as i had a car full of bike gear and my girlfriend was with me on the way back. and i was driving very hard on the way down. the ferry was 60 quid return. the tolls cost about 40 quid all in. challet was dirt cheap between 6 of us. and the ski lifts were expensive, spent about 70 euro's carting my bike up mountains. not an expensive holiday, i just wish i'd done it years ago when petrl was half the price and the euro was worthless lol.
ow ye, and my wee mk1 also used a fair bit of oil on the trip. i put in 2 litres during the trip. 1800 miles. its not too bad to say the car has now covered 157,400 miles on original engine and box. if it gets to 200k i'll treat it to a rebuild. another thing. i rode to Les Gets about 5 kilometers from Morzine. outside a hotel i spotted a red mk1, i rode over to check it out, it was an old non gti mk1. british plates with a gb sticker on. looked in really good condition. didnt see the mileage but i reckon it would have been low. i then noticed it had a club gti sticker on the front windscreen. must be someone from on here?? small world i thought.
