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  1. #1
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    Willy 218 Road trip "Long"

    Hi all,
    Ill try and make it as informative as possible together with some pics at a later stage.

    Sat 6th March.
    Collected 218 from Mr Brown 2 hrs late due to some git closing the motorway up to Leics, went over a few things with Matt
    and drove it down to the brother in laws in Cambridge,
    Drive down was great but a bit nerveracking till you get used to your new motor i guess, stopped to get some juice (very common on this trip )
    Got back down around 3pm where i spend a good hour looking at it like a 2 yr old at disney land, already started planning do this change that etc etc etc.

    Sun 7Th March.
    Cleaned it and checked all fluid levels and for under car patches, all looking good, went to pub, cant remmeber rest of the day, sorry.

    Mon 8th March.
    Went to a breakers yard and got the passengers door pocket as the one i had was worn and uglyyyy, also managed to find a
    black rear boot lid strip for the badges all for 10 quid, i like breakers ), even though the owners looked like they were cast in the film The hills have eyes.
    Then had to spend the rest of the day shopping with the wife who was convinced she could fit a new wardrobe of clothes in the Car.

    Tue 9th March.
    Took car for a good blast down the a14 just in case it should blow up as i'm still close to Matt for a replacement car
    (just kiddin matt), it worked a treat apart from a noise from the exhaust hitting somewhere, took it too a garage and he
    said all bushes are fine and that he just put a smaller bush on one of the mounts for me, all for free )
    Spent the afternoon fitting the items i bought at the scrappy and packed the car ready for a very early departure.

    Wed 10th March.
    Departed Cambridge at 0600 for the drive to Dover Port, motorway was fine until the Dartford bridge, kept my eye on the temp gauge
    as it keeps on going up and down between the second and third notch, but it does it all the time so no worries there.
    Arrived at Dover port around 0845AM and managed to get on the 0925 ferry to Calais, ferry crossing was a bit rough and
    boring, arrived in Calais at 1225,put clock 1 hr forward, followed the convoy of other brit cars out of the port and on to the
    french motorway. SatNav now advises me to drive 165 miles past Reims to our first stop off point of Troyes.
    The Motorways are dead, i can count the cars on one hand that i can see ahead of me and its like this all the way.
    As were getting closer to Paris i stop at the first service stop and give it €35 petrol petrol being at €1.29 a ltr!
    strech my legs have a pee and a buy some water (note to self/dont buy anything else from service stops) €4.00 for water.
    At about 3.00pm were getting close to Troyes and decide to keep going due to nice weather and the car was doing fine
    we decide to head for Dole which is past Dijon, i had this place as an option in case i was doing good time. so far
    I've paid 55 euros fuel and €38 in tolls, arrive in Dole at around 6pm where its snowing but nothing heavy.Stay at
    the Ibis €69 a room and there's a few restaurants close by which is good as i'm starving. Set up SatNav and check weather
    for the route ahead through the mountains the next day.

    Thur 11 March.
    Wake up around 9am and there's a nice blanket of white everywhere (we dont get snow in Malta so it was a nice treat for us)
    Checked the oil and water levels (picked up fingers/nose/ears from floor)and started the car so she can get nice an warm before
    the journey. Headed in the wrong direction due to SatNav being a women (sorry ladies) managed to get on the right Motorway, which is called
    the The White motorway, due to the fact it takes you to the mountains(clever i is), again the highways are clear but it starts to snow
    and get a bit windy which the car handles well of course. Get overtaken by a git in a silver Marinello, i could have taken him but i was low
    on fuel you see, stop again 40 euros petrol and another pee. Wife so far has been ok she sleeps a lot in a car which is nice (lol)
    cant remember how many tolls and how much its cost me, scenery has been amazing so far but the view of the mountains close to Chamonix is breath taking, get stuck behind a convoy of trucks just as the road gets nice and bendy manage to overtake, not easy when your r/h drive and wife is sleeping, shake wife awake just as we get overtaken by a gendarme looking at the car!! i think he liked it, all clear mind you. arrive at the Monte Blanc tunnel, around 1330, €35 euros please :( and a very very long 65kph journey through it with a caravan in front doing 45 instead and pissing me off, bomb down the autostrada,
    as again i find empty roads on my way to Asti the ring road around Turin is a bit of a gamble no indicators ,hand signals and crazy italians all over the shop, arrive in the town of Asti at around 430pm and yes the wife wants to go to the shops ) only thing is in italy it's not primark or new look but armani or gucci and sod that for a laugh, but i did find a Sparco shop to browse). Nice town especially the food )

    Fri 12March.
    Spent the morning in Asti and head off to Pisa around 10am, once were on the highway we get a call from the ferry company stating that the ferry, is no longer departing from the Port of Livorno, but from Genoa, Paniccccc!! we have a hotel booked and plans to see Pisa and now the ferry's gonna leave 300 miles up the coast, not impressed but what to do, decide to try and find a town close to Genoa and find the town of Arenzano, it's typical seaside italian town very picturesque,
    and yes wife found a market and yes we went shopping.
    Car so far has been doing fantastic it's been economical at a steady speed of 75mph and the oil and water havent budged, needs a damn good wash mind you,then spend the night in a hotel and plan the next day.

    Saturday 13 March.
    Blue sky and a temp of 16degrees today so a day of chillin in the town near the sea, then make our way to the port of Genoa around 4pm spend 1/2 hr looking for the entrance to this Crap hole and eventually find it. Check in goes well and join the queue of cars to Palermo/Malta. The ferry will take us to Palermo and then onto Malta arriving at 6am on Monday. I manage to find a really nice space on the ferry all for myself no trucks or cars next too me.

    36 hours on the ferry follow, it's a very nice ship so spend the journey relaxing and getting ready work on Monday first thing. Not...
    Arrive in Malta at 6am head off home say hello to the cats and change for work. where i do bugger all apart from write this up.


    Breakdown of cost € 134 Petrol
    € 94 Tolls
    € 305 Ferries uk & Italy
    Driving a willy 943 miles accross Europe PRICELESS

    Summerization. The trip has been a dream for a long long time and to be able to do it with my favourite affordable car was
    amazing, i would do it again in a heartbeat and would recommend it to anyone especially as a summer holiday.
    Thanks again to all you at Williams.co.uk Big shout to Matt for preparing the car.

    Pics will be uploaded as soon as i figure out photobucket or whatever.
    I will keep you posted on all the work i do on it so keep an eye out ok.

    Thanks again

    Jaymz
    Malta

  2. #2
    Forum User Coops's Avatar
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    excellent write up, gave me goosebumps just thinking about repeating such a journey!good work fella and hope you enjoy the car and treat her well :D

  3. #3
    Sweeeeet.

    What a journey that would be.

  4. #4
    Moderator
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    Hinckley, Leics.
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    Excellent.
    Would have thought it was more than 943 miles though, doesn't sound as far when you put it like that!


    Mat.

  5. #5
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    Superb, i thought that Mat, its about 900+ miles to s/ france which i did a couple of years ago.

    He must be car/shop lagged

  6. #6
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    good work chap, glad you've fulfilled a dream there sounded a winner!! :D

  7. #7
    Forum User 2 live's Avatar
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    good write up mate...hope u take care of her....the car that is not the wife ;)

  8. #8
    Forum User Wobba's Avatar
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    Willy1 217 & 172 Ph1
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    That some good shit right there that is :D Well done! Good luck with the car, sounds like it did very well. Hard work has paid off.

  9. #9
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    Sounds like it was a brilliant trip mate am jealous! When you talk about Palermo reminded me of when i sailed there in 2004 we hired a car to go look at Mt Etna (via a quick visit to the Enna-Pergusa circuit that goes round the lake) anyway, half way up a small road on the side of the volcano i see to my astonishment the unmistakable exciting sight of a willy in the rear view mirror doing about 90 which roared past and dissapeared into the distance was followed by various other hot cars which came back down again the other way and then passed us again going back up! We had stumbled upon some sort of local 'test track' and I really wished I had my willy not a stupid hire car!
    Wishing you miles of fun motoring in yours and not too much frustration.

  10. #10
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    Hi Guys, the 943miles is from Cambridge to Genoa, if i had driven all the way to Sicily it would have been over 1750, i chose to get the ferry as the south of Italy is a bit dodgy and also for the sake of the car.

    Took the car to the power wash last nite to remove all the salt and grime from the trip, she's already looking great and loves the warm starts no more frost for 218. just a bloody hot summer.

    Next on the agenda is to jack it up and remove the surface rust and give her a coat of ziebart, then when i have some spare cash ill get the wheels sprayed and there a bit tatty, also need to remove some scratches but nothing major.

    tks
    Jaymz


 

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