After Lurking for a little while in the main US forums, I've only just spotted the UK area!! DOH!
I've copied this from a spot in the US side as I thought it would be of interest in my first series of posts to show a few pics of a recent (end of May) Alps drive to the Stelvio pass I undertook with a UK car club I am Chairman of in Yorkshire.
Driving for a week we set off from Wakefield and after catching the Dover to Dunkerque ferry we drove the long way through France to avoid the tolls and passed through Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and finally Northern Italy to reach the famed best driving road in the World.
The stretch from Davos in Switzerland to the top of the Stelvio pass was an epic road. Only fractions ahead of a 17KM section we did to the top of the Bernina pass... This was all after taking in several days of simply stunning scenery and roads through Switzerland, taking in as many passes as possible. We then headed back to Blighty over a two day period.
All in all 2,500 miles.
I did this with a few mates accompanied in 3 Subaru Impreza STI's (various states of tune!) and a Lotus Elise.
I took my 2 day owned, standard (for now) 06 335D M Sport and was mightily impressed! Apart from he real switch back twisties where the extra 200+kg weight told, the D stayed with these fast road bred cars all of the way. Plus averaging over 38 MPG
for the trip... Apart from me talking up the engine, I feel that the brakes are simply stunning...
On the final days drive from Brienz in Switzerland I managed to get back to Maidstone on a tank (~600) with 34 still showing on the OBC... After owning a Jap import 350 BHP scoob, that emptied every 250 miles, I feel somewhat elated that the performance in the real World is very close. The performance difference is actually all down to the delivery, but I simply can't fault the D at all... even the run flats didn't seem too upset..
I'll leave you with a few pics of the trip which will remain with me for a lifetime...(well until next year when we do it again!!)
Regards,
Al.
