England played the first game of their world cup campaign on Saturday 10th June so a friend and I decided it was time for a road trip.

We booked a one day return on the Channel Tunnel for £50 and set off from central London at 3pm.

Unfortunately the first 2 hours of the trip were spent sitting in gridlock and we moved about 5 miles.





Finally I managed to find a way out of the mess and we were soon crossing the Thames on the Queen Elizabeth bridge just after 5pm.

 

It's a big bridge forming part of the M25 motorway.




So we arrived at the Tunnel terminal around 6.30 pm, relaxed and had a bite to eat before our 8pm departure.

 

We arrived on the French side at 10pm European time (1 hour ahead) and set off for Gent in Belgium to see a friend.

It was a short journey on very nice roads so we were soon sampling the excellent Belgian beers until 3am.

Next morning we rose at 7am and set off from Gent for Frankfurt.

 

The roads were clear and we made good time to Frankfurt taking around 4 hours for the 300 mile journey.

 

We got to the ground and started haggling with the ticket touts , prices were 1000 euros each initially but settled into trading 500 euros, we didn't want to pay that much so we enjoyed the sights and sounds of the crowd outside.




At 2 minutes to kick off we negotiated a deal for 250 Euros per ticket and rushed in to see the game.

 

It was pretty surreal being inside the stadium all of a sudden and we enjoyed the game despite England playing badly, at least we won 1-0.


At 5.30 pm we were back on the road and faced a 400 mile journey to Calais but after 100 miles we saw a sign for the Nurburgring so we decided a detour was in order.

On the way we came across a 360 Ferrari who we had some fun with.




I don't think he enjoyed it so much, in fact it was pretty embarrassing for him.

Once we arrived at the Ring though the competition looked a little hotter..!

 

We were close to going on but they closed the circuit on account of 4 crashes.

So close.

 

We checked out the car park (see how many Porsches you can spot)

 

Some very nice cars there.

 

So we headed back to the Autobahn and refilled with Shell V-power, I'm sure the TT was designed with this stuff in mind as it was absolutely singing the moment I filled up with it.



100 Octane, I wish they sold it in the UK.

We lost around an hour with the trip to the Ring so we arrived at Calais around 11,easily in time for our train.

I was pretty tired once we got back onto the UK roads so I drove at a calm pace, sliding into bed at 1.30 am.

We'd covered 1035 miles in total at an average speed of 68 miles per hour and an average fuel consumption of 21.5 MPG in just under 36 hours.

The car used around .25 litres of 0w40 Mobil 1 and at the end of the journey it felt as if it had 50 BHP more than at the start, the car is absolutely singing now and clearly enjoyed the run after a few months commuting and sitting in traffic.

The roads in Germany were a disappointment, narrow crowded and bad driving standards meant we didn't exceed 165 mph so if you want to drive fast on smooth empty roads then go to France, which I will be doing in a months time when I drive to Cannes.

The best strategy for long journeys seems to be a 100mph cruising speed, zero boost needed so over 300 miles per tank of fuel rather than around 220 if you're pressing on a little, I'm sure it's faster in the long run without so many fuel stops.

Moral of the story, get out there and do it, it's why you bought the car, I haven't had so much fun in years.

 

Great writeup buddy, what are you doing in Cannes this summer? The french riviera is the best.

 

awesome.... I almost went myself... being originally form Poland.. it was a natural thing to do... but work got in the way....
Brazil will win the world cup .

 

Great story, awesome pics

 

Weather looks great throughout the trip! That dude in the thong thingie is crazy, I'm glad you didn't take a picture from the front!

 

Very nice report egbert. If you're going to Cannes, just be carefull about speeding. It's not as tolerated as it once was.