SEVENS

Homepage

Pictures

Technical Articles

Reports

Links

Euro 2001 Report

This section contains a report and pictures from the se7ens list tour to Europe in 2001: Euro2001. This was a two weekend trip to Europe with 2 track days in France and lots of tunnels and mountain passes in Switzerland and Italy. A full list of the people behind the trip (of which I was one) is given at the bottom.




This report is under construction - I'll expand the notes into a report soon(ish) :)

The tour lasted for 11 days and this report is organised by day:

• Day 1 - Lets all meet at Fecamp... (Home to Evreux)
• Day 2 - By 'eck its hot down the Loire (Evreux to Nevers)
• Day 3 - Track 1: Magny Cours (Nevers to Beaune)
• Day 4 - What the heck is that!? - Sbarro (Beaune to Sbarro to Besancon)
• Day 5 - Rain and wine (Besancon to Freddy Kumshick's to Seeween)
• Day 6 - Mmmmmm... Mountains... (Seewen to Les Diablerets)
• Day 7 - Mmmmmm... Italian Mountains... (Les Diablerets to St Genis Poully - via Italy)
• Day 8 - Relax... at 9000 rpm(St Genis Poully to Nantey to Besancon)
• Day 9 - N roads (Besancon to St. Dizier)
• Day 10 - Belgium (St. Dizier to Cambrai)
• Day 11 - Track 2: Croix-en-Ternois (Cambrai to home)
• Summary - Mileages, fuel and failures

it seemed like a good idea at the time :)

Miles today: 213 inc 80+15 on track by me and Trevor
Litres of Fuel: 50


Day 4 - Thursday 2nd August 2001 - What the heck is that!? - Sbarro (Beaune to Sbarro to Besancon)



Today we were going to go to the Sbarro car museum / design centre and then going to spend the night at Besancon near fairly near the Swiss border. It was a fairly normal drive, although thankfully a bit cooler that the last few days. Then suddenly the roads became a bit twister, the gradients a bit higher, and twistier and higher - out first mountain pass! The traffic split us up a bit but that only meant that when I did get past the road was empty (except for Matt following behind me) as I set off after JB7 and the others. The pass was only over the foothills of the Alps so was full of nice corners rather than hairpins. After a few miles of this sort of road you soon realise tha the car will easily go round corners far faster than you imagine. The limit very quickly becomes the distance you can see ahead. Downhill this is doubly so - since you barely brake for each corner any right foot on the steep gradient is immediately followed by covering the brakes. Of course, the hairpin corners we'd find later in the trip would be heavy on brakes, steering and acceleration. But this was a nice introduction nevertheless :)

A short while later we pulled into Pontarlier - the town is on a plane surrounded by big hills on three sides - we just come one set and were looking forward to going back out over the side later. First though we had an appointment at Sbaro.


Lined up at Sbarro

The Sbarro museum is the result of a man with too much imagination, time, money and engineering skill. He's produced things like a Renault 5 with a transverse, mid mounted straight 12. He's invented a wheel which is basically a large bearing, this means that there is nothing in the middle of the wheel - just an 18" diameter hole. He then mounts a brake disk solidly to the inside of the wheel so it has a HUGE diameter. In one car there was even an aerofoil mounted at the back with each end level with the outside of the wheel. Another one had a conical driveshaft - the wide end connecting to one of these wheels narrowing down to a conventional shaft at the diff end. Then there was the twin bike car - two bikes side-by-side with a front suspension that rolled the car into the corner as it turns in. And the running the whole width of the car and there was the armoured popemobile... And the sculpture of 5 body shells on a 50 ft pole in the carpark...


A rear transverse straight 12 Renault 5...!? Half the museum

Feeling suitable... surprised... we returned to the car park to see a mass of bonnets off and mechanics everywhere. Gavin and Rob were changing starter motors, trying to diagnose a misfire Nig was reporting, Trevor was replacing an exhaust gasket etc etc. Jonathan was mucking about with Jonny Monkey.


Starter motors... Nig, V7 (with sick ECU :( ) and Joanna

Jonny Monkey, or JM. I need to explain this I think...

Helen and Jonathan take JM everywhere (yes - everywhere...) and as the holiday went on his personality began to show. At Sbarro he sat on th video camera mount on the rarebird and waved at people - there are pictures of JM a few days later into the trip...

We also got a text message from the guys who had decided not to visit the museum in favour of a few extra miles of twisties. The route we had originally planned to take had a police checkpoint on it. They were checking passports, car documents, car legality etc. Now a seven doesn't have much luggage space so people's passports were either buried somewhere in the car or in the van. On top of this many of us were a bit marginal on the amount of tread left on our tyres. The upshot of which was we decided to take a different route with even more twisty bits!

After a petrol stop - luckily on slope so I could bump start without a push - we drove off through the cliff lined pass. The route was twistier than the pass of earlier in the day but still not yet full on hairpins. The vertical walls also helped the exhaust notes to ring across the land ;)

The road to Besancon is another winding road clinging to a cliff that gradually opens out as you get onto the plain. The top of the cliff has a very imposing citadel on top. As we pulled into the town and came up to a round-a-bout I noticed it had two lanes. One labbelled "centre ville" - the route we were meant to take. The other said "tunnel". And to our left was - a tunnel! Frantic gestures but NO we pulled into the right lane. Jonathan - go left, go left! please! pur-lease! Onto the roundabout, we're going left! 1st gear, 6000 rpm, brrrmmm! change! brrrrrrrmmm! Change! brrrrrmm! Brake!! meanwhile Jonathan was doing the same but changing up at 110000 as was Phil while I was down somewhere below 8000. But what a noise!

We now had the problem of trying to get where we wanted to go having deliberatly gone the wrong way. But twenty minutes later we managed to find the hotel.

At the hotle Nig's problems were getting worse. Gavin had tried changing all the possible faulty parts by borrowing from other cars and the spare parts bin. They finally decided that everything aprt from the ECU was fine. An SLR has an ECU different to any other 7, and we didn't have aspare one. :(

Meanwhile I was talking to Rob about his engine and car mods in general. The result should appear on my spec page as time goes on... :)

At dinner we watched Rob G's in car video of him "having fun" at Magny Cours. In the five laps he was probably not sideways or yanking lock on or off about, once! And yet he stayed on the track the whole time! This drew several rounds of applause and grins all round. Look out for it on a website soon - I'll put the link up on the main page.

We'd passed some horses in a field earlier in the day and I'd noticed that they seemed very interested in Rob Day's car as he'd stopped right by them. Suddenly as we were eating everybody started putting their napkin's on their head. An announcement came that if we all did this Marie would do her horse impression... Intrigued we all complied as she turned a bright red. Allan offered to escort her outside and reminded her that she'd promised. After a short pause a perfect neigh emitted from through the open French doors and everybody collapsed in laughter. It *was* funny but he had all had a few... :)

As this was going on the fire alarm went off. It finally stopped after about ten minutes but the noise was replaced by a huge thunderstorm. We then realised we had a problem - the van couldn't go to Switzerland as the border guards are wary of people importing things and selling them - without paying import duty. However, because of some enforced changes Mark Oliver from Ratrace (who was bringing Rob Morley's replacement for the second week) wasn't going to be able to all of the Swiss part of the trip. This meant that Gavin was going to have problems meeting up with them and exchanging mechanics... We eventually decided to distribute the spares amongst the cars and try to get the van across the border.

Of course, with the thunder we got rain. It looked like the heatwave was finally over...

Miles today: 153
Litres of Fuel: 35


Day 5 - Friday 3rd August 2001 - Rain and wine (Besancon to Freddy Kumshick's to Seeween)



The route today was planned mainly to get from A to B with few diversions on to twisty bits. We also had to be at Seeween before 6pm for the wine tasting.

Just outside Besancon we stopped for fuel - we had the usual problem of a dozen or so cars all trying to wait on the forecourt whilst letting the others fill up. Whilst we were waiting a large German shepard appeared. He started sniffing around the cars and once he got to Nig's it became evident that he needed the loo ;) Nig wasn't too impressed with this and as the dog began cocking a leg at his exhaust he gave a small blip... Needless to the say the dog ran off and disappeared through a gate with a beware of the dog sign - unless you're in a seven!

As we got closer to the border we noticed another group had stopped, we pulled over and were offered spares by Gavin from the van. I ended up with a radiator and betwen us we got rid of everything other than the tools and a spare dedion tube. We then continued to the border and pulled over to wait for everybody as we'd arranged. Then it started to really rain.

Now, if you're in a seven and its raining you have two choices. The first is to put the roof up - believe this is not really a good idea. It is totally waterproof but this just means it steams up and gets very warm inside. You also lose loads of visibility and worst of all is the noise: think of it like a drum - a taut, but flexible, skin pulled over a frame and you're sitting inside. And of cause everybody calls you a wimp. So, choice number two: keep moving and then all the rain is blown over the top and you only get a few drips and a damp hat. Neither of these help if you're parked and the hood is somewhere in London! So I pulled the tonneau (which was in place on the left side of the car) over me a bit and waited.

Fortunately the van soon arrived, the border gaurds were pleasant enough and we were waved through.

As we drove into Switzerland through various towns I was glad to be following Peter W, bing a local, and organiser of this portion of the trip he lead us faultlessly on towoards Freedy Kumshick's. We stopped in one town as Rob Day pulled over complaining of overheating. Bonnet off, scratching of heads and the van pulled up. It was soon diagnosed as the radiator bleed screw being lose so not onlt was the system not pressurised it was also full of air. We jacked up the front of the car as high as possible), ran the engine and Gavin gave the header tank a blow job. This is the only way to guarentee the K-series water system is air free. As soon as coolant started flooding out the bleed screw was retightened, the header tank was topped up and we were ready to go.

Whilst this had been going on the rest of us had wondered off to find a loo, a supermarket for a bit of lunch (as we were now behind schedule) where Gloria Smith played the part of mum of bought sandwiches etc (and then we abandoned her to cross the road herself - which she thought was a "dreadful way to treat your own mum!). And somehow Rob and I decided we should swap bonnets. We're not sure wo's idea it was but I ended with a nice (slightly cleaner) purple bonnet and Rob had my (very nice) red bonnet. <shrug> it seemed like a good idea at the time...


Bonnets :)

Another 20 miles on in the next town we pulled over again. This time John Gathard was omplaining of very strange oil pressure readings. This was diagnosed as a dodgy gauge/sender as the readings were very erratic rather than just low. A young lady also wondered up and asked for a ride to France - we were travelling East, away from France and told here we'd be away for 3 or 4 days. She still seemed keen but none of us mauch fancied her so we had to turn her down and set off again. I also gave my camera to Gavin for a few shots from the van. This was to go with the shots I'd taken of Gavin whilst driving along (makes it hard to frame the shout very well ;) ) whilst he was videoing me!


Being chased by the Van

An hour or so later we got to Freddy's. This was rather fortunate as a couple of minutes before hand one of Rob's wipers had decided to eject itself and Trevor's brakes had decided to change lanes for him as he slowed for a roundabout. Freddy soon gave Rob a new wiper (free of charge!) but Trevor's problem was a bit more serious. Part of his brake linkiage had come lose and then slipped, further applications had bent the bracket beyond repair and left him with a very dodgy pedal. After getting the pedal box apart (tricky as the master cylinder is stuck on the front) Freddy provided new bracket by machining/fettling a Caterham part (Trevor's car is a Robin Hood series 1 - a fairly rare monocoque seven based on the Triumph Dolomite mechanicals that were Trevor's first ever car). John's oil sender was also removed, cleaned up and replaced - this solved the problems.


Trevor looking for some brakes

While this was happening the rest of us were looking around Freddy's showrooms full of Lotus's old and new and several sevens. Freddy seems to be semi-automonous as all his sevens had several neat touches he developed that are not seen in the UK. The very neat rear exit exhaust (required by Swiss law) the smaller, neater headlights, chromed suspension parts, flat panelled underboides and a generally very high level of quality build quality. He also had a neat turbocharged Vauxhall car.

Freddy's wife also provided coffee (thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!) and several cakes. I was then pointed to another room full of Freddy's racecars - he is one of the fastest historic F1 and F2 drivers around (as the wall full of trophies testifies). There were 2 F2 cars and a Williams FW07C (#24), a fibreglass and plywood bodied ground effect car.



Part of Freddy Kumshick's showroom, One of Freddy's toys - a Williams FW07C F1 car

As it got towards 5:00 it was time to set out for the wine tasting. It seemed that everybody else had given up trying to find Freddy's especially in the rain. This had stopped as we'd arrived but started as we set out... An hour later we arrived at Shuler wine to find some cars already there and their drivers/passengers showered but quite a few cars still on their way. There were also journalists and photographers from two local papers.


Parked at Shuler Wine

Shuler wine is a Swiss based company that sends wine directly to a large number of private subscribers. Andy (one of our organisers who couldn't make the trip) is a member and had organised a tour, several glasses of 3 different wines, cheese platters, fruit and various types of bread for us.


We then moved to an ice-rink that had been opened up for us to park in (without the ice!).

Some of us decided to go somewhere else for dinner and ended up walking to the next village and having a pizza. Darren and I sprinted the last bit to avod the downpour but decided it was too far to run all the way back so we got wet - again ;)

At the hotel Mark Oliver had arrived with our mechanic for the second week - Paul Donnelly - the Ratrace workshop manager.

Miles today: 206
Litres of Fuel: 30


Day 6 - Saturday 4th August 2001 - Mmmmmm... Mountains... (Seewen to Les Diablerets)



Shortly before the trip had started Peter W had organised a car "control session". This turn out to be a large area of tarmac, a load of cones, lots of water and a skidpan. And of course some instructors who were there to have as much fun as we were.

We were split into more manageable groups and then rotated around the three events. First for my group was the braking test - go through the timing beam at 50 Kmh and then stand on the brakes and lock up. After a few goes at that try again: brake hard, come off the brakes enough to steer and brake hard again to a stop. Then finally do this with a wall of cones to steer round.

The first thing to note is that it is very hard to force yourself to lock up the wheels - first you have to push very firmly - this is pretty hard when you're just larking about. Perhaps more importantly though is the fact that you know that the car is really out of control when the wheels are locked. Finally, 50k is pretty fast when you only have about 10 feet to stop in! One other point the van stopped pretty well with either Gavin or Rob driving :)

After we'd murdered a few cones, especially Allan (who I think must have been attacked by one LONG ago in his youth judging by his repeated assaults on the poor things... ;) ) we moved onto the next area - the skin pan.

The skin pan was just a large sheet of plastic pegged out on the tarmac and covered in water. Doesn't sound much but its incredibly slippy. The first test was to drive along a slalom course that was entirely off the sheet. OK - no problems (although Allan killed a few more cones!). Next - do the same but with the cones on the edge of the sheet. This made the right turns easy but the left turns very slippy. Peter W had a few spins (and then nailed the throttle to guarentee a full and spectactualr spin) and all of us got at least very sideways - I especially enjoyed exiting the last cone at a huge angle and then nailing it through the last gate as the tyres found grip on the tarmac and round the back of the building to the queue again.

Then it was back to a braking test - but on tyhe skidpan. First with one wheel aimed at the sheeting and one on the tarmac accelerate hard (about 30 mph with a bit of wheelspin at the start) and nail the brake pedal. As before you had to force yourself to lock up the tyres - if you got it right a 720 was guarenteed (except the van which needed the handbrake to get even a 180 :) ) and Peter's jabs on the throttle gave him a 1260!

We were then meant to try and catch the spin which left you drifting sideways until the sheet ran out then it was hard on the power and away again. Predictably we carried on spinning most of the time! This was perhaps the best part of the course - getting the car that sideways at such a slow speed allowed you to really have fun and explore what happens when youget really out of shape. After countless runs (and taking the instructors round - Peter even leant his car to one for a few runs) we moved onto the handling area.

This was a damp area oftarmac with a ring of cones - the idea was to drive round quickly and play with oversteer. Unfortunately pretty much everybody's car was understeering once they got to a decent speed but were still out of the real meat of the engine so it was hard to get the rear to brake away. Even the instructor found it difficult. Nevertheless itwas still an absolute hoot! Especially going out with Jonny Monkey and then with Helen driving the rarebird and me as a passenger. A word of warning - the hadbrake in a Westie pre-lit is on the passenger's side of the transmission tunnel and really digs in on right hand corners. So 20 laps round a small cirle - anti-clockwise really hurts! :)

While this was happening we watched the other group on the skidpan. They soon got the knack off doing huge spins with hands in the air and screaming like they were at the fairground. However, it was noticeable that the front wheels were banging from side to side with a terrible knocking from the rack. We quickly ran out to tell people as we were still well over 1000 miles away from the end of the trip...

After the goodbyes and thanks to the instructors (who promised to learn English if we came again) I joined up with Rob G, Darren and Kev to attack the first real mountain pass of the trip. As soon as we left the viallge the fun started - it was still flat but that was because the engineer had decided to go through the obstacles - TUNNELS! After about 30 we were still having a great time and really confusing the locals who would close right up with us as we slowed down before hand and then disappear as we blatted down the tunnel. The cars seemed fairly even: Rob G, Darren and I on 135 to 150 bhp and Kevin with 180 but with a passenger. A few simple roads to warm up and then we started the pass which was unfortunately covered in traffic and very slow going. However, once we turned off the main route a short way up the foothills the traffic disappeared and we were off.

Th road was *exactly* as you'd expect a mountain pass - hairpins, kinks and very short straights with the occaisional car to keep it interesting. Apparently there was enough snow at the top to have a snowball fight but I was too busy enjoying the drive :) For the entire 40 minutes or so it was fantastic all the way - the kinks were flat, the hairpins hard, hard on the brakes - lob it round and bury the throttle. For well over half an hour - it just doesn't get much better than this!

On the way back down the power we'd lost at the altitude started coming back and gravity worked with us instead of against. Even better! Care was needed in the tunnels though as the earlier rain, which had dried out else where, had left the tunnels a bit damp. All of us met a bit of "understeer" as one point or another... About 2/3 rds of the the way down I noticed a big pile of rocks in the road and swerved round them. Kev hadn't been so lucky and hat hit them and thenseen his oil pressure drop to zero. He pulled up after the next corner and reckoned that the oil sender (on the fron of the sump) had been taken out but as there was no real oil leak (except a slight seaping round the sender) that engine was probably fine. So we cruised on looking for lunch and a place do do a proper investigation

We found a typical postcard type gasthof and Kev got his rosti and I had a pork and spetzle (German egg noodles). Darren then tried his spare sender in Kev's car but the thread was different. The investigation was enough to show that the sender was the only problem.


Lunch after the pass, more great views

We then cruised off to the hotel. This was a fair distance and there was a fair bit of traffic so had a few blats overtaking and then booting it in the hairpins. I was noticing that I was having to really boot it hard with a lot of lock on to get the car round. On the really big bumps I also noticed a bit of a clunking sound. I checked it when we had a loo stop later but everything felt solid anf I did find a few lose things in the boot.

A few hours of relaxation later and we had our pre-organised meal in a separate portion of the restaurant. We also forced another few neighs out of Marie and drank a fair bit of wine. Somehow I don't remember much more...

Miles today: 151
Litres of Fuel: 22


Day 7 - Sunday 5th August 2001 - Mmmmmm... Italian Mountains... (Les Diablerets to St Genis Poully - via Italy)



I woke up at about 10 and lazed around for bit watching the World Athletics Championships on the TV for a bit. Then I remember what I was doing in Switzerland and got up ready for another day's driving ;) As I walked outside I heard a small herd of sevens blasting along the valley somewhere - this turned out to be Darren, Andy, Rob and Kev. Meanwhile we got packed up and then arranged the cars for a few photos for the hotel owner. He was especially happy when we invited him into the picture and gave him a removable steering wheel to hold.


Les Diablerets - ready to go

Whiles this was happening Peter Corts mentioned that he wanted to goto Italy. That's South-East as opposed to the planned West. Jan-Paul reckoned it would be 250 miles instead of 110, and it was now midday. So of course we decided to go for it!. The route was basically Great St. Bernhard Pass, along the Aosta valley and then the Little St. Berhanrd Pass, another few minor passes back in France, into Geneva (ie Switzerland again) and then back into France for a mile or so to get to the Hotel. We stopped for fuel, didn't pick-up the hitch-hikers (who wanted to go in the wrong direction anyway but were a lot better looking than the one from yesterday) and then set off for the pass.

The Gt St Bernard pass is a good road with a few twisty bits that then leads into a sort of half tunnel open on one side. You then have a choice, go through the main tunnel itself or go over the old pass over the top. Unfortunately I didn't see Peter stop for fuel (and neither did Matt a few cars behind) so we carried on to the border crossing and the start of the tunnel. Matt reckoned we'd gone wrong and pulled off but I was in the queue so bough my ticket, waved my passport and then parked in Italy. The Swiss guard wanted to know where I was going "don't know - Italy!" "Why are you going?" "I'm following my friend in the Green seven!" "What green seven? Mumble mumble - go through!". The Italians just pretended to look at my passport and gawped at the car before smiling and waving me through.

We then had a few dodgy mobile calls as there was almost sod-all reception as we all tried to work out where everybody was. Eventually I saw Matt on the Swiss side across 30 yards of no-man's land. Another few minutes of cheesy film style "I can't come over the border" type stuff I turned round, came back into Switzerland and we went for lunch!


The views from the Gt St Bernard Pass

I was now SFr 27 down for the pleasure of doing about 10 yards of the 10 mile tunnel and we were about another half an hour late. But never mind - we had a nice leisurely lunch (cheese fondue for Peter and I - a problem as the smell cheese makes Matt feel ill we discovered...), JM got up to some filthy mischief and then we set off. I also had JM rubber-banded onto the mirror so he could get a change of scenary.

Since they bult the tunnel they've ignored the old pass so its very narrow and fairly bumpy. Bumpy enough that I thought I'd started hearing the same rattle again. After a bit of fun (OK - a LOT of fun) I realised it wasn't something in the boot and decided to stop as soon as I saw a layby. However, the order came first so we were waved through then I stopped the other side of it. Unfortunately I was last in the group so no-one noticed me stopping.

I was in good compnay as a Ferrari 308 that wouldn't start (not starter motor problems though!) was also there. I gave the wheels a good tug - solid. hmmm. I had a feel around behind the wheel - all seemed OK. But I was sure something was rattling so I jacked it up and took the wheel off. Aha! The anti-roll bar was now not very stiff. In fact was in two pieces. The bar is a straight tube with a flat bar welded on at a right angle on each end - holes in this then connect to the drop links. One of the right angle welds had failed so the bracked was flapping on the drop link causing the rattle. Not a severe problem - it just meant I'd roll a bit more than usual. Except my rear springs were a bit knackered (and etting worse as I was to see) so was now really soft at the rear. This results in huge traction (especially compared to the front when its bumpy) so explained why I was having trouble getting it round the hairpins without being a bit brutle on the throttle.

The was the ARB is mounted I had to take it half off, then put the wheel on, lower that side and jack the left up. Then totally remove the bracket on the left and then remove the remains on the right. As I was nearly done Peter Corts arrived (they'd assumd the police had stopped me at the border) and helped me finish the job. We also explained that we wern't much good at fixing Ferrari's to the now impressed onlookers and set off to meet the others down the hill. off we go again, down the pass.

Coming down the pass the road widened again and we soon got used to the Italians pulling over and waving us through whilst beeping horns and waving etc. A bit different from the Swiss who'd got a little antsy at us from time to time on the previous days. It was also getting hot again. As we reached the valley it was seriously hot, we had no fuel left, no lira and everything was shut.

Fortunately we eventually found a station that seemed useful. No cards he told us. So we push started the K series cars (errr, just mine that is), belted up and pulled away. Stop! (or whatever stop is in Italian) he shouted and grabbed a card off Matt. He then came back waving a bit of paper with 30,000 on it. As he filled Matt's car we realised he'd managed to get the technology working and put 30,000 Lira on Matts card - about 25 litres for 15 quid I think. So we filled up, showed off the cars, while he happily jabberedaway without us understanding a word, said our goodbyes and departed.

Peter led away as Jon-Paul videoed us by sitting backwards in the seat. Matt and I had a little play - weaving about in anti-phase and then circling each other on the wide, empty roads of Italy. After a while of this playful cruising we reached the little St Bernard pass.

This pass has helpfully numbered, geometrically perfect hairpins. About 20 of them in the first section before it becomes merely twisty. I found the best way through them was to change to first so I could then boot the car round and, often as not, overtake whatever it was I was following at the time. I also quickly realised that changing into first at speed is not natural for a gearbox - even a fairly close ratio one. Well then - time to try this double declutching business all the old boys talk about. After a fair few embarrasing attempts I started getting the knack of it and everything started flowing nicely. Accelerate, break, clutch, blip, second, clutch out, brake, clutch, neutral, blip, clutch out, clutch in, 1st, blip, clutch out, turn in, lots of right foot, touch of opposite lock, 2nd, 3rd and repeat. A bit difficult to start with but amazingly satisfying/fun/rewarding and fast when it worked! Which, I'm happy to say, was most of the time after half an hours practice.

However, we were now getting fairly high and my next victim was a white 1.8T Passat. But that T means turbo so he wasn't down on power from the height and he was also a local with perfect knowledge of the road *and* a bit of a physcho. I found that the normal mode for following someone whilst wating for a place to pass din't work - if I wasn't in the right gear and over 5 to 5500 rpm he pulled away. Hooking a tyre over the kerb, apexing perfectly each time and having as much fun as me! Eventually we caught the next train of traffic and just as I arrived the road straightened and I popped by. Although twisting gently I could see it was clear a fair way down and carried on past the queue. Just where I was about to pull back in another car filled the gap. JB7 (who was now level with me) braked to make a gap for me in front of him. He was then a little surprised as I carried on as the right hander had opened up again so I was clear to carry on past the van in front and I was clear of the convoy!

The roads soon changed again and opened out into the sort of scenary we'd seen on the Haggis hunt a few months before with the occaisional hairpin thrown in for fun. After half an hour or so of this (oh what hardship! ;) ) Peter's car gave big puff of black smoke as we passed a France 1km sign. He pulled over, cdouble check the gauges and uner the bonnet - it had just got a bit hot and backfired. We had a short brake as it cooled and watched all the cars we pass go by.


And the Little St Bernard on the way back - 1 km from theFrench border


We crossed through the deserted border into France for another 40 minutes of the same ;) Thehairpins became a bit more frequent as we dropped down into towns and then back up again a few times. We stopped for JB7 to top up his tank from the jerry can and decided that since it was about 8:30 we should miss out the last pass and so cut half an hour off the jounrey. We also rang up the guys at the hotel and got them to check in for us as we reckoned we'd be after 11pm when reception closed. We also heard that Phil had overshot one hairpin a bit and attacked a bit of bank but not hard enough to do any damage. We saw a load of cars go by (4th time we'd seen some of them...) and then set out.

I was second behind Peter (leading due to JP's faultless navigating) at this stage as we climbed up another pass. The road rose over a slight crest with a right hand kink. I then heard tyres squealing and jumped on the brakes before I realised what I'd heard. The kink briefly straightened before turining into a 180. I came to a stop about three-quarters round right on the edge of the tarmac. Peter, with about 5 car lengths less braking had only made it a third of the way round before running out of road. Fortunately there was a slightly rising bank about a car length in width. Even more fortunately Peter only needed "about a car length" of bank to come to rest. He actually needed just more than this so his front left was now in the air.

J-P then jumped out shouting - "I told you the map said it was a hairpin but you didn't believe me!". Peter was very, *very* still. Our joking references to the Italian job seemed a bit more true than we'd wnated. I'll leave the pictures to tell the rest of the story. Unfortunately it had got knocked into macro mode so they're a bit blurred...


Cliffhanger

As we recovered from this we saw a certain light blue Subaru Imreza Turbo go past for the 5th time... Fortunately the passes came to an end after another 5 miles as we were all a bit passed-out! We then passed the Scooby again (firm friends by now we exchanged enthusiastic waves) as the road flattened out. A bit of traffic joined us and a Ninja 900 bike started working its way through us. He passed me just as the road straightened and everybody (sevens and bike) piled past the reason for the queue. We were a pretty similar speed until we got to the corners which he evidently knew well. Neat apexes, using the full width of the road (and most of the other side when he'd seen it was clear), cutting tight when there was tarmac and leaving room where it had subsided he was definitely having fun. Meanwhile I was cruising along behind - covering the brake for when he slowed (far too early for a seven near the limit for a bike) and enjoying the show. After our little play he turned off, gave a wave and disappeared. A bike is fast, but a seven is faster! :)

After looking for petrol, Matt leaving his filler cap behind, and then having to go back again we decided food was the top priority. We then stopped for a pizza to eat and find good nickname's for Peter. We settled on "Cliffhanger" due to the Slyvester Stallone film of the same name. We then realised the he'd done another film that reasulting on howls of laughter all round - "Over the Top"...!

As we got a little further the fuel problem became more serious. I had enough to do the remaining 60 miles but the others, who were no carbs were very short. JB7 distributed the contnets of his Jerry cans but we still reckoned we would be 20 miles or so short. As usual the petrol station we were at was unmanned at this hour and didn't like English cards.

As we got to Geneva we found a street with about a dozen petrol stations on - one of which was manned. We filled up and crossed the border back into France. We then passed CERN - one of the premier Particle physics centres in the world so I waved as I have a mate doing a doctrate there and I'd studied such things at uni. We finally got to th hotel at 12:30.

however, the day wasn't over yet. Well it was being 30 minutes past midnight but that's the cam7 pedantry in me coming out... Allan had taken one of the spare rooms (as Phil's snoring kept him awake and we had a few rooms spare as some people had dropped out of the trip before we left UK) but they hadn't thought to give Phil a room key. Luckily Matt and I had a room with three beds. Luckier still I was tired enough and sufficiently used to Matt's snoring that I went straight to sleep. A very long, eventful and happy day!

Miles today: 232
Litres of Fuel: 50


Day 8 - Monday 6th August 2001 - Relax... at 9000 rpm(St Genis Poully to Nantey to Besancon)



Today was to be a simple one with only 140 miles on fairly major roads so only about 2 hours of driving but with a big lunch... I left with Andy, Rob, Darren, and Kev after the usual scramble at the petrol forecourt as 30 cards all squeezed past the tiny little kiosk.

The roads gradually wound up hill. We had a bit of fun passing a car that decided to go up a long straight flat out. We were all quikcer but he did have a big head start! As we turned off to go back downhill we had a few twisties that were pretty wet and some of the guys had a bit of a play with them. On one Kev got a bit sideways which distracted Rob enough that he ended up parked sideways in the road. No harm done but big smiles :)

We then stopped for a coffee before doing the last ten miles to Nantey. After getting to Nantey (the home of Rob's uncle - Peter) and eventually finding his house we found the reception that had been organised for us by Peter and the Mayor. The start of precedings was a cheese and wine reception which was very nice and thankfully under a marquee as it was still drizzling. We mingled with the locals and tried out our French and then talked to the local press who were busy taking notes and pictures.

Next we walked towards the village centre and past half a dozen vintage cars the local club had bought out. Some of these were 80 years old but despite the rain they were happy to show them off. We were then led to the lunch. We filled the local town hall as pate, bread, salami, chicken, sauce, various vegetables, apple tart and finally coffee was bought out. Of course they also supplied everybody with wine - as the drivers abstained (having had a glass at the reception) the passengers had a great time!


Lunch at Nantey

Allan then gave a thankyou speech in French before giving up and getting Peter to translate as he went. We were amazed at the effort they'd put in and thanked them profusely. Unfortunately the only souvenirs we could offer them were a few tour baseball caps we had left and tour stickers.

Part way through lunch JB7 arrived - his gear linkage cable had broken and he was stuck in third gear. Through the meal Gavin, Jonathan, Paul and Phil kept popping out to make phonecalls and by pudding reported that a cable would arrive by courier the next morning.


Cars at Nantey

We then returned to Peter's house to let the food go down and watch some more in car footage with the locals. It turned out Rob, Darren, Andy and Kev had done almost exactly the same route into Italy as us. Finally though it was time to go so I set off with JB7 and Peter's son in their Lotus 7. Unfortunately his handbrake was jammed on and he spun on one corner - fortunately damaging only the number plate. We felt a bit guilty as we'd driven together for 1500 miles in the last week but he'd only be out in it twice...

He turned around in the next village and carried on - JB7 didn't seem any slower than usual (apart from when pulling out from a standstill). It also absolutely bucketed down at one stage reducing the traffic to about 25 mile per hour. We perservered and then pulled up for yet more petrol as the rain stopped. The rest of the drive was fairly dry on fast N roads. 50 miles later, as we pulled into Besancon, JB7 stopped to fill up. He explained that at 80 mph he was pulling 9000 rpm and his range was reduced to 50 miles on a tank! I was on about 7/8ths of a tank after cruising at about half that. OK my tank is a bit bigger as well :P

We ate at the hotel but they mucked up the order and bought the steaks cooked the wrong way to the wrong people and not enough of them. We re-ordered what we still wanted but they bought it far too overcooked. We decided we give the Campagnile restaurants a miss in future and went off in search of a beer. We found a place with a pool table and the evening was rescued!

Miles today: 186
Litres of Fuel: 27


Day 9 - Tuesday 7th August 2001 - N roads (Besancon to St. Dizier)



I got up late agin this morning knowing that we had a fairly simple easy day planned. I looked out over the balcony of the hotel to see that JB7 already had his car in bits and so had obviously recieved his new gear selection cable as planned. Howver, after brekfast I found out that they'd descovered that his reversing box was very ill.

To explain: Motorbike gearboxes are integral to the engine and don't contain a reverse gear. But, since in a car you can't just walk it backwards there are two solutions that manufacturers currently use. The first is to use a starter motor as an electric reverse. The second is to have another gearbox interrupting the probshaft. Normally its straight through but if you pull the reverse gear lever (ie not the normal gearlever) it reverses the direction of the output shaft.

JB7's output flange was very, very wobbly. Fortunately Phil's car also has an identically reverse box. More fortunately Phil had bought a spare one! JB7 and Paul set about changing the boxes as Matt, Peter Corts and Phil waited. Nig, Peter W and I decided to head off. We had a relaxing drive along N roads where we made very good progress. I also noticed that whenever I squirted the windscreen my leg got a bit damp, this got worse as we went on. When we stopped to decide if we wanted lunch anytime soon I had a quick look. The top of the transmission tunnel was actually pretty wet... I fumbled around to find the washer pipe behind the dash and pushed it upwards onto the nozzle as I thought it must have just slipped off a bit.

We decided to actually have lunch in that car but my fumbling hadn't fixed it. So I assumed a position similar to Trevor's brake repairing one in the photo from Freddy Kumshik's and took it all to bits. Rather more bits than I inteded as the fracture nozzle fell in two. Oh well - the washer bottle was nearly empty anyway. Gavin was passengering in Peter's car and said it was standard to pretty much all cars so I didn't worry about it.

We'd noticed Rob Day's car parked in the town so rang him - he was with John, Allan and a few others andsaid the food was great but they were just leaving. We caught them there and accepted their recommendation of the lasagne - which was outstandingly good!

Another hour or so and we arrived at the hotel around 3:30. I took the opportunity to relax and start the book I'd bought along - I should know by now that there's never really a dull moment on these trips and not bothered with it I suppose!

A couple of hours later JB7 arrived, full of grinning and a very happy bunny. His fixed car was even better than before - quieter, smoother and faster. It seems that the old reverse box had never been properly tightened up so had rattled about as it gradually tore its bearing to bits.

We decided not to risk the hotel restaurant (although others did and said it was fine) and went to find a grill place instead. A few glasses and a good steak later we returned to the hotel to be reminded that Peter Cort's was leaving early in the morning. He had to pick up his daughter from somewhere in Holland at 11 so would be leaving at about 6am. This forced us to have a few more drinks in the name of giving him a good sent-off...

As we carried on drinking after Peter and JP had gone to bed the waitress came over and asked who was in charge. I let Nig claim responsibility until she started talking in French and he couldn't understand and volunteered me. Fortunately the few drinks had lubricated my French for me to understand that they wanted to refund us for the few rooms we'd not used as a few people had dropped out of the trip after we'd booked the rooms. Eventually she understood from my limited (and slurred??) French we'd booked through an agent so refunding him wouldn't help. We also didn't have a French bank account so a cheque wouldn't help. So she gave us cash instead...


Miles today:164
Litres of Fuel: 0


Day 10 - Wednesday 8th August 2001 - Belgium (St. Dizier to Cambrai)



After the leisurly drive yesterday I decided to hook up with the fast group today - I also took Gavin as my passenger. Gavin valiantly attempted to tell me where we were going (I was at the back of the convoy) but Andy and Hillary ahead were following there own route in search of good roads. However - Gavin did get pretty good at predicting what they liked and I soon got used to commets like "We should turn left here but I reckon we'll probably go right in 6 miles instead..." The scary thing is that he got fairly accurate at this and more than once we had to help out when the rest of the convoy were lost!

After about 15 miles we got onto a really bumpy road. Gavin is a hearty eater and with him on board as well the rear of the car was really suffering badly. At times we were hitting the bump stops several times a second. This also didn't help Gavin's back very much (he was recovering from an injury to it). Gavin reckoned I needed twice the travel or twice the stiffness at the rear. The 96 sepc cars are all quite soft with progressive rear springs and I was used to occaisonally running out of rear travel (especially with a passenger) although the upside is its very stable over bumps otherwise. However, this seemed much worse that I ever noticed before. As an aside Paul later thought a contributary factor to the anti-roll bar failurecould have been the knackered rear springs do very little to stop roll so the ARB had a lot more work to do it should...

A few miles later we got onto a smoother road and were back to just the odd *clunk* from the rear. We then came to Verdun and stopped for a coffee. As we sat by the river we saw one group of sevens come over the bridge and turn right. That's the wrong way said Gavin. Then another group went past and turned left. Also wrong... We got up, got back to the cars and went back out the other way! That was after looking around a few of the memorials and having to shelter in a doorway during an enormous cloudburst.

We then drove into Belgium for lunch. Of course, all of us (bar Rob G's Crossflow) needed a bump start... We then wound are way up, around, and all over the Ardennes. A few missed turnings and we actually spent an hour or so doing 5 k on the map. The damp roads made things a bit interesting as we wound through the trees.

At one stage Darren had a bit of a moment as he mistook a laybay on the exit of a hairpin as the start of a dual carriage way. As he passed me and was alongside the tin-top in front of me he realised his error but was clear by then. At the next sto he had just about recovered but decided to calm it down a bit... At the top of that pass we stopped for a glorious view of a valley and the forest covered hills.


Belgium

Another 80 miles or so down the road we stopped for a break at Rocroi. This is quite a nice ancient walled city but it rained a lot so we just ate out ice cream and drank our coffees.

We arrived as pretty much everybody else had sat down for dinner. I chucked my bags in the room and hurried down. We were then reminded that this was the last night of the trip for the Calais people and so decided to do the last night thing properly. As with the night before we got a refund for the few rooms we didn't need. But we decided to drink it this time :)


Drinking at the last night

I chatted to Paul about car upgrades and rear suspension for a bit as the meal went on and arranged to see him about it on the Saturday the day after we got back. Then the speeches started:



JB7 gives his speech

Its now a sort of tradition on these trips that after the usual thankyous to people who have helped organize things and a few anecdotes to recount a list of everything that has failed on any of the cars. This is done by naming the person involved and, it it was their fault, explaining it so everybody knows about youre smallest driving indiscretions :) After this we had another JM moment as he put up his feet to relax after a few drinks:


The JM pictures...

After this and some of JM's previous behaviour Gavin used his Dymo labeller to produce a load of bonnet stickers for everybody - "I spank Jonny Monkey"

Miles today: 301
Litres of Fuel: 54


Day 11 - Thursday 9th August 2001 - Track 2: Croix-en-Ternois (Cambrai to home)



We had about 80 miles to go to get to our track day at Croix-en-Ternois so we set off early. We also wanted to avoid the rush hour in Arras so I followed JB7 who seemed to have a plan. We took N roads initially before pulling onto smaller roads to go round the town. As we were getting lost in a small town I noticed I was low on fuel and so we stopped. I was then bumpstarted and drove out to wait with JB7 for Matt and Phil to finish. Then I stalled and had to be jumpstarted again...

We got to the circuit shortly afterwards but there weren't any real signs telling us which paddock to go to - but after several French builders shouted at me I finally got there. We then had a briefing, I unloaded the car, got changed and set off onto the track in the sunshine. Two corners later it was spitting. Two more and it was definitely rain. Another two and I couldn't see - the open faced helmet, windscreen and sunglasses technique is pretty poor in the wet... I came in and stopped (left the engine running though) deciding that the visibility was too bad to even learn which ay the bends went.


The pits, the straight, the rain at Croix-en-Ternois

After the rain had subsided to drizzle I went out again (in contrast enhancing orange wrap-arounds) and did 9 laps learning the track. I also found that one corner (reminiscent of Bridge at Silverstone but with an uphill approach) had some very grippy new tarmac on the inside that made it almost a flat in 3rd instead of tip-toe in second corner. Of course you had to be ready to catch it as the grippy stuff ended part way round :)

I then talked to a few people, JB7 advised that on the double right the apex of the first right should be ignored in preparation for the second, a few others had found the grippy stuff etc etc. I did another 9 laps refining my lines a bit and occaisionally having a playful stab on the throttle and sliding round a bit. As it had rained more sonce my last stint I moved my braking point on the straight back a lot. The track dried pretty fast though so I sped up considerably as the grip and my confidence improved.

We then had an enforced two hour lunch break as the marshall's ate. So we watched some of the skidpan video that Jonathan had taken. Unlike Helen he is absolutely *awful*. Typically we'd see a car approach the skid pan *mostly* in shot, then the camera would look at a fire hydrant/bit of grass/a tree/a wall and then just catch them driving off...

Lunch over I went straight out. I did 12 laps, overtook a few people and was generally pretty pleased with myself. It got wetter as I drove and several times I locked up on the straight and had to cadence brake to a near standstill on the far edge of the end of straight hairpin. I also got used to wiping to the inside of the windscreen clear with the inside of my glove on the only quiet but of the track. This would actually be a fairly fast left kink but I could see nothing and no grip so I knew I was pretty slow here. The huge puddle on the outside of the entrance to the corner also meant a strange line was called for! I was enjoying trying different lines as I looked from grip greatly as well.

By the end of the session I was fairly happy with everything apart from the kink (where I just drifted out towards the tyres if I put much power on), the hairpin after it which went from pretty open to very, very tight and yet was pretty wide most of the way round, and the huge puddles on the main striaght after that.

The only real moment was when Rob G spun in Darren's car such that he was parked directly in front of me across the track as I came round the double right. His attempts to turn round just resulted in several doughnuts before he got away. Despite the car being bright orange I'd only noticed him fairly late and decided the worsening conditions had reduced visibility too much and came in.

I then noticed Darren's car parked at 90 degrees to the track just after the end of the pit wall. Rob had kept his boot in a bit too much on the striaght and a puddle had thrown him sideways. He later described the moment as "interesting"...

It then dried a little bit so I went out again but almost everybody else decided they didn't want to play. I'd just caught Vinnie in the Elise when he pulled in leaving me with most of my 13 laps on an empty track. By now I was only really playing with lines at the hairpin (where I found it very hard to get a reference point but made some progress) and then with braking points everywhere else. I also came right off the power and pushed the clutch in through the two big puddles on the striaght: hairpin in 1st, then 2nd, 3rd, lift, 3rd, 4th, lift, 4th, and occaisonally 5th if it was a bit drier. This lifting made my speed arriving at the next hairpin a bit variable so I had severl more out-braking myself episodes - all of which ended with me staying on the black stuff.

As I played with the throttle on the twisty double left, double right section after that corner I was getting quikcer but eventually forgot about the first right a bit too much and did a half spin and ended up between the two corners, mostly on the grass but with the engine stalled. Matt (who'd been going a similar speed on the opposite side of the track throughout this session) came past and jumped out to start me. Peter W also came by but by then I was off again and came into the pits.

Matt later said he found that corner very slippy the next couple of times round as well. I'd like to believe that someone had thrown a bit of petrol or oil but it could just have easily been me. Although I do admit to being slightly confused as to *exactly* why I spun...

I went out for another session and soon noticed Matt was about the length of the straight behind me. He was gradually catching unless I did a really good lap but this was usually followed by 2 or 3 that more than made up for it. I noticed that on the double left I'd started to change down 4th-3rd-2nd whereas before I'd been blocking straight to 4th so my hands were free to get across to the right side of the track. Whilst thinking about this I got a bit wayward a number of times but got round with no trouble.

Eventually my luck ran out and I braked about a car length later than was ideal. About half a car length too late to make it round. I cadence braked straight off. I then tried to get going but I'd sunk into the deep gravel and the wheels just spun. I tried again with less throttle to just ease it out but the wheels spun slowly and then stalled. Matt soon arrived but I waved him back and waited for the the truck to come and get me - fortunately it was only 20 yards away as I was just behind the pits.

I tried to explain that the started was not working but fortunately Gavin walked over and helped me push the car the 20 yards into the back of the pits. We assessed the damage, there wasn't any except for a lot of mud everywhere. I decided to call it a day as it was nearly time to go anyway and got changed up whilst Matt came and gave me some (well deserved) grief ;). Although I did think that I'd done well to be less than a second slower than him a lap compared to 2 or 3 different at Magny-Cours...

The other guys were now swapping cars, Darren spinning Phil's - in view of Phil - in his first lap being the high/low light! Jonathan then invited me to have a ride in his. The main impression was how slow it seemed as JB7 was much smoother and less hurried than me. The car was definitely quicker (as the straight demonstrated - demonstraighted?) but I was able to observe his lines in some detail and was glad to see that only the kink and final hairpin were substantially different to my efforts. The straight did show off the sequential gearbox nicely though - accelerate, tug the lever (or was it push? Rob had found that a real problem when he borrowed Phil's) accelerate, tug, accelerate, tug, accelerate, tug easy and very fast :)

I then finished packing and said my goodbyes and left with the other Calais guys. We cruised off at about 60 on the N roads as we were all low on tyre tread and didn't want to risk anything silly on the last part of the last day. We met Mick and Gloria at Calais as they'd left early to drop off the hire car. We gave then them a lift to the ferry.


Back at Dover

At Dover Mick was picked up by his son and Rob, Matt, Darren and I set off. At the top of the M20 Matt went right round the M25 (to go on to the M11 and up to Cambridge), Rob and Darren went left round the M25 and I carried on onto London.

I arrived home just before midnight with 29542 on the clock - 2496 more than when I left. Very tired but very happy after a fantastic 2 weeks! As usual on a se7enstour I'd made many more friends, continued friendships with a many more and thoroughly enjoyed every minute :) The only problem is post tour depression - It sets in the next day and takes several weeks to shift. But I've started thinking about Haggis 2 already!


Miles today: 287
Litres of Fuel: 70


Mileages, fuel and failures

Imperial
Miles: 2496
Total Fuel Used (gallons): 94.4
Fuel Consumption (mpg): 26.4

Metric
Kilometres: 4016
Total Fuel Used (litres): 429
Fuel Consumption (Litres/100 km): 10.7


For the hammering the cars got they performed pretty well. However, K starter motor failure is a design flaw. Only Rob was uneffected and he has a specially designed manifold. The other failures I can think of were:

• JB7's reverse box, oil connection, oil pressure sender, gear selection cable, lights earth, sticky throttle
• Trevor's exhaust gasket, fuel being thrown out of carbs,points/timing and brake peddle
• Kev's exhaust bracket
• A few oil sender's
• Rob Day's coolant air lock, brake switch and wiper
• Nig ECU, brake light switch
• Phil's brake light, speedo, tacho
• Matt's A-Frame bushes
• Peter C's carbs caught fire
• Peter W's clutch
• John's dirty oil temp sender, loose steering column, adjusted rack, brake light switch
• Mick's bearings
• Allan rackadjusted, new rivnuts for wing

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the other organisers:

• Andy - organising chairman
• Allan - route planning king and recced France
• DVA - controls our bank account
• John Ford - logo dsign
• Jonathan Rarity - stickers and polo shirts
• Marcus Thomas - trackdays
• Mike James - organised first day's route and lunch
• Nig & Joanna - produced road book, worked out costs and got people to pay up
• Phil Paine - recced France with Allan
• Rob Day - website
• Rob Grigsby/Peter Sykes - Rob's uncle sorted the Nantey welcome
• Steve Potter - list meister

Please tell me if I've forgotten anyone :)

Next year we're doing Haggis 2 and the West coast of the USA or if it takes until 2003 to organise we'll do Spain, Pyrenees and Monaco - SPAMO

Come To HAGGIS 2 and SPAMO/USA 2002/3!