Off to France again, despite the fuel strike..

[jeremyg]

Superb report and what a great time, would have loved to bring home one of those Renault Daphines, a favorite of mine. I'm hoping to do a couple of European sportive/rallies next year.

Hope you get the chance to do it. Takes you out of yourself.

[jeremyg]

Back at the circuit the weather was perfect for the afternoon session, which started with a 30 minute female drivers only session.




It was busy in the holding area with cars constantly going on and off track all afternoon.









The Invicta was very popular for track rides, but my neighbour Mike began having trouble with his Morgan. He got a lot of helpful suggestions how to deal with it, and thought it was sorted…





We went out on track several more times, getting to know the circuit pretty well. After a while though it was a balance between having fun or burning up too much fuel, knowing there was a morning of rallying on the next day, followed by a long trip back up to a hotel in Northern France.



Merlin and his bull terrier Rodney the Plonker were having a good time, but later on he was going to have a nightmare on the track when his XK120 blew up.

Later in the afternoon we decided to call it a day and head back to the airbandb - knowing there was a big champagne reception and dinner back at the chateau that night, and a cup of tea would go down well before then!

[jeremyg]

The evening dinner and music bar was at the same Chateau were we had lunch. The cars look great at night and basically it’s all about who you get to sit with at the big dinner tables.







We sat in a group with Richard Plant, the owner of the RS and his son, and Paul and Mo, TR4 owners - and he’s a great black and white photographer @valvebounce Richard was highly entertaining and the dinner was excellent. Nights are made of things like this.





It was in the courtyard that we heard that Merlin (Duke of London) had called his brother in England, and he would be setting off that night with a trailer carrying a Ferrari 512 TR for Merlin and Georgia to use the next day, and he would take back the stricken XK120.

Now that’s resources — in depth!

We got back about 12.30. Etienne said he left the dance bar at 3am. We were called for 8.30am to start the rally.

[23e Heure]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing. Who says rain dampens the spirits!?

[jeremyg]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing. Who says rain dampens the spirits!?

Yes it certainly enlivened the track!

[jeremyg]

For the rally we gathered at 8.30 am last Sunday morning in the square opposite the Mairie in the small town of Fère en Tardenois, deep in Champagne country. We’d be following a road book with tulip directions, for a rally over 140 Klms.





Against the back drop of a national fuel strike though it was certainly true to say we were anxious as to how the day would go as we were due to be back at an overnight hotel near the channel tunnel by nightfall.



The cars would be divided in 2 groups, each travelling the route in different directions. It’s always funny in these events that you hope to follow the route without mistakes but not having any specialist rally equipment or trip meters in Klms, there were bound to be goofs along the way. In this picture I think Trish rightly looks a little apprehensive, standing with her Route book tucked under her arm.



And the competition looked pretty high powered.







In the event it was a route through fabulous autumnal countryside with the wonderful sight of all the vineyards all around us. But there were some pretty rough roads, and being loaded up with all
our luggage and emergency gallons of fuel (holding on to it until we saw what the fuel supplies were like on the autoroute back) I began to lose my sense of humour when our tickover revs were rising and I was having difficulty making the dog leg first and reverse without a certain crunching. In all honesty it was a pretty anxious time. Throw in a couple of Route Barrés, (unanticipated by the organisers) and some dubious directions - ‘turn left by the horse’ - fine if said horse was still standing at the corner by the turn but not so useful when it was elsewhere engaged, and all in all it wasn’t a walk in the park. All
I can say is if you see a sign saying ‘road for the use of locals only’ (translated by Trish) expect a very very rough ride.



Anyway we eventually arrived at the final chateau for a goodbye lunch and a welcome chance to let the poor cars rest.







At the end of the meal there was a short prize giving.



One richly deserved prize went to a lone woman entrant in her beautiful 356, in recognition for her faithful attendance over the years.



And another went to Merlin, Duke of London for his ‘challenging’ weekend and the chutzpah he showed in having a spare Ferrari shipped in overnight after his Xk120 blew up. Nice move Merlin.



Finally, tired but well fed, we all said our genuinely heartfelt goodbyes and some of us set off back to England with no idea whether we’d find the petrol to complete the journey.

[RobFrost]

Coming. Takes me ages on bloody Tapatalk. I’m working on it. Feel free to chat/post/ watch TV in the meantime.

It's possible to type posts on a computer then edit within tapatalk to add images.

What a fabulous story.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

[jeremyg]

Coming. Takes me ages on bloody Tapatalk. I’m working on it. Feel free to chat/post/ watch TV in the meantime.

It's possible to type posts on a computer then edit within tapatalk to add images.

What a fabulous story.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

Thanks Rob - glad you’re enjoying it. The typing is not the problem, I’m pretty fast on the iPhone but my main problem is that for some reason each time I have to add new images to Tapatalk image bank I have to close down my phone. Don’t ask me why.

[jb]

This wonderful thread just keeps on giving.
It is absolute magic.
Thank you so much for sharing.

[Lightweight_911]

.

Looks like a fabulous event - good food/wine, great scenery & excellent variety of interesting cars/people - thanks for the details/pictures.

.

[jeremyg]

.

Looks like a fabulous event - good food/wine, great scenery & excellent variety of interesting cars/people - thanks for the details/pictures.

.

[jeremyg]

Sorry Andy - cock up. I was going to say thank you for your kind words.

The story wasn’t quite over though - we and Mike still had to get back. Aside from the fuel strike situation he was pretty concerned about the state of his Morgan Ford Crossflow engine. Having had trouble all through the trackday, it was stuttering and coughing at slower speeds on the rally.

We were anxious to get away from the Chateau as we wanted to make our hotel near the Channel Tunnel by about 7 - or we may not get food!

Mike almost always has his roof down, any weathers, but he particularly wanted it down for the journey so he didn’t have to listen to the engine so much!

So Mike said goodbye to his granddaughters and off we went.





We both still had our extra fuel on board, but my tank was pretty low after the rally. After a few miles I spotted a local supermarket garage that looked open but on closer inspection the pumps were taped off. Luckily Mike spotted that one pump was left accessible - and it was 98 octane petrol. We brimmed our tank!



The journey back up was wet at times, but Mike didn’t care - his Morgan kept going, and we made the hotel with time to spare - but we noticed that pretty much all the autoroute stations were out of petrol which didn’t auger well for all the cars due to return the next day.



At the hotel, safe in the knowledge we would now make The Chunnel okay, we poured our additional fuel into the Porsche and Morgan.

Early the next morning we boarded the train. Relief, especially for Mike. If he was going to fully break down he would be on familiar soil.



On our WhatsApp group we watched the painful progress of the other cars up the autoroute.
One of them, desperate for petrol, saw that there was 98 on the other side of the motorway and took action by crossing the autoroute with a Jerry can. He was filling up okay when he was stopped by the garage staff. I think he got enough to make it through.



But the lovely Lancia had a different story to tell. He ran out by the customs kiosk at the Chunnel!



Later cars coming through saw him through the barriers and had enough spare fuel to get him going!



And so through the morning as we travelled up the bloody awful UK congested motorway hack, we tracked the safe arrivals of the other cars back into the country.





Mike just made it home in the Morgan and this is the state of his engine on arrival, belching smoke like a steam train.



Philosophically he says it was due a rebuild anyway, and he’s already booked it in - he’s in a queue, with I think 9 engines in front of him that have got to be done first. Lucky winter’s coming.

So wow -what a wonderful long weekend it had been, with rich rich memories made.



And what wonderful little machines these aircooled 911’s are. It was just great on the motorway - even fully loaded. It was great on track. And it was good on the rally - except for the odd wrong turning - and that’s not it’s fault!

[one-two]

Great stuff Jeremy - what an adventure!

[chris68]

Well, I'm very envious! Lovely pictures, great cars, terrific write up. Really enjoyed that, many thanks.

Chris

[911hillclimber]

Trish and I have enjoyed every episode, and so close to our own French Adventure which was very tame in comparison!
We felt very pleased to get out before the petrol issue really bit, and remembered almost being stranded up in Scotland a year ago by our own fuel crisis.

We too found 98 more 'findable' than the others, so the Boxster got a treat on the way back.

The UK section is a real trudge, and the only negative to going to France, what a contrast to France.

As I was once told,
"A dirty Porsche is a great Porsche because it has been Used!" Jason Plato I think.

I doubt I could persuade my Trish to use the 911 for such a travel adventure, but we shall see.