On Monday I took the car out for a run to Blaenavon. First visit was to the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway and then the Ironworks museum.
I wanted to do a circular route, so on the way there we went up the valley from Pontypool. A frustratingly slow 20 mph crawl in hot weather, but the car ran fine (fan was on most of the way but temperature didn’t go above 90 degrees). On the way back we went via the B4246 over the Blorenge to Abergavenny. That was a great drive 
Reached Porto in Portugal, the furthest point on my road trip this summer before heading for home.
The route has taken us 1,500 miles over mountain passes up to 1,400 metres and temperatures up to 34C. All without fault apart from a failed anti roll bar/damper bush which was overwhelmed by the repeated hairpins. It was looking wrong before I set out and I am a fool for not replacing it.
Hoping for a similarly fun and easy trip home, and welcoming the now-falling temperatures in Spain. Much as I adore adventures in this car, there have been times when I wished for air conditioning.
I recently drove back from Northern Spain up through France to Calais in my Mk 1 MX5. Although hood down and 30 degrees + sounds fun on paper it was quite punishing in practice.
Have a safe and enjoyable trip back
We learned early that much as we usually prefer hood down, in baking sun we needed hood up after 10 am and before 6pm
Hi DamianB,
Your trip sounds like one I have always wanted to do in my Elan, very envious . As with lots of people on this forum I am now retired so flexible about time of year. Do you have any recommendations on the best time of the year to get the most hood down motoring, balance between sun and rain I guess?
Did you use any books / web sites to plan your route, any recommendations welcome.
How did the car behave in the high mountains?
Thanks, Simon
Brings back memories of annual trips to Moissac in France in my S4SE DHC, Seb in his Spitfire and Nick in his lagoon blue Europa special, we would leave Petts Wood at 10pm for Dover and ferry to Bologne, arriving between 4 and 5am in France then drive south using part of the green route that Bonaparte’s men marched along, no main roads used, top down arriving in Moissac around 7 after a glorious day driving on terrific roads with little traffic. 6 weeks later we would head home cruising up the coast. Those were the days, I’ll have to dig out some pictures. V
Please do put up some photos….
Sounds great
Simon, last year my SLD (Speed Limiting Device) and I toured down through France and Switzerland into Italy to the Lakes for 8 days. We did it in early September. It was a wonderful time to go. The weather was just right, the schools were back so no rug rats getting in the way and few cyclists or camper vans. Once we got to Colmar for our first night, the hood stayed down the entire time, even at the top of the Gavia pass at -1C in a metre or so of snow. We did ten Alpine passes in all, mostly lesser known/used ones.
On our last day we stopped in Epernay for some lunch (with champers too, of course!) and then put the hood up for the long autoroute flog along the A26 to Calais. I hasten to add that we were driving our Jaguar XK convertible, not the Sprint. Much as I would have relished chucking the Sprint around some of those passes, the SLD was not going to spend any time fitted into the Sprint passenger seat, oh, no! I have to say the XK was a lovely grand tourer to do the trip in and, dear reader the SLD and I shared the driving.
The planning was a fun part of the expedition. There are many online recommendations about the best Continental driving roads, which will be helpful. A good paper map is, in my view, essential, as well as a Waze or Via Michelin app on the cell ‘phone.
We chose to go via the Eurotunnel. It has since become ridiculously expensive, especially if, as we did, we had a FlexiPlus ticket for the return journey, which meant we could rock up at Calais at anytime on our chosen day, stuff ourselves full of delicious French patisserie and other good food, also stuff a doggy bag with same, then get priority boarding and disembarkation. If I was doing it again, I would look at some of the ferry options from/to the less popular ports. I hear they are better value nowadays.
The other bit of advice I would proffer is to get to/from your chosen good driving roads as rapidly as you can, using the French autoroutes. It will give you that much more time to explore the regions you wish to, at your leisure. We used booking.com for all our hotel stops and excellent service we got too. It would get to around 1600-1700 hrs and we would halt, look at the map and decide where we were going to stop for the night and then consult Tripadvisor/Booking.com to ring ahead and book in. It worked very well.
Tim
Tim,
Many thanks for the tips, especially interested in the fact you could book accommodation on the day in September. In the current internet age I thought this might be risky as too easy to book ahead but very much like the ad-hoc nature of a trip like yours where you can decide to stay for a few day if you find a nice hotel in a super area or move on from a place best forgotten.
Simon
Here’s a trip I did last year….
| Destination | Hotel | Hotel Link | Hi-Lights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willaston to Guilford to Folkstone | Rose and Crown | ||
| Guilford/Folkstone to Calais to Nuits-Saint-Georges | Hôtel La Gentilhommière | Nuits-Saint-Georges, France | |
| Nuits-Saint-Georges, France to La Thuile, Italy | Hotel Boton D’Or & Wellness | Frazione Villaret 71, La Thuile, 11016, Italy | Ahhh start of the trip proper |
| La Thuile, Italy to Andermatt Switzerland | Gasthaus zum Sternen | Gotthardstrasse 67, Andermatt, 6490, CH | Litle St Bernard Pass, Great St Bernard Pass, Aosta Run (Italian Job scenes) |
| Andermatt to Gottard Pass | Gasthaus zum Sternen | Gotthardstrasse 67, Andermatt, 6490, CH | Susten Pass, Grimsel Pass Furka Pass, Gottard Pass |
| Gottard Pass to Poschiavo | Hotel Le Prese | Via Principale 31, Poschiavo, 7746, CH | Tremola Pass, San Bernadino Pass, Splugen Pass, Julier Pass, Albula Pass |
| Poschiavo to Rablà | Hotel Hanswirty | Geroldplatz 3, 39020 Rablà, Italy | Stelvio |
| Rablà to Colfosco | Kolfuschgerhof Mountain Resort | Roennstrasse 7, 39030 Colfosco, Italy | Mandel Pass, Niger Pass, Karerpass, Sella Pass, Passo Gardina, |
| Colfosco to Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, | Hotel Schlosswirt | Döllach 100, 9843 Großkirchheim, Austria | Valparola Pas, Falzarego Pass, Giau Pass, Passo Tre Croci, Staller Sattel, Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, |
| Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, to Karres | Hotel Gasthof Neuner | Brennbichl 90, 6460 Imst, Austria | Grossglockner Pass, Gerlos Alpine Road |
| Hotel Gasthof Neuner | Hotel Restaurant Post | Hauptstrasse 49, 5076 Bözen, Switzerland | Hahntennjoch, Galtur, Bielerhohe Pass , Silvrettastrase, Furkajoch |
| Bozen | Logis Auberge Des Moissons | Route Nationale Rd3, 51510 Matougues, France | On our way home - not much to see in France - |
And hereare the links to the passes…
Yesterday went to the wonderful Brands Britannia meeting at Brands Hatch. I enjoyed it so much and spoke to so many people that I took hardly any photos, great to see Jim Estall with his lovely Europa Twin Cam Special resplendant in original colour and graphics. Also great to say hello to Graeme @661 who was racing on the day, Paul @elan66 who was doing driving duties for my +2.
I’m not a great fan of Lotus Cortina’s due to so many cars not being genuine as it’s so easy to stick a badge on a 3 door cortina and paint it white with a green stripe 
, so it was fun to see the “genuine” race car in the paddock…. great day, looking forward to next year.
Below is the promotional photo for this years event, taken last year. 
WOW. That’s a dream drive! We’re going over to the Dolomites shortly but won’t have the opportunity to drive any of the passes.
Jim
I have seen that LoCort before, a magnificent restoration. Pretty sure he was at Oulton Gold Cup this year.
Great Pics
Mark, one of the best passes we did was the Passo della Mendola, in the Italian Tyrol. What a glorious road! Really well tarmacked, stunning scenery and some simply fantastic bends and hairpins. Truly spectacular. Do it on a weekday and very little traffic, too.
From the 1930s to 1980s there was an annual hillclimb on the pass, which must have been really exciting.
Tim
had not driven the red elan since April’s mountain tour . No issues waking it up , drove flawlessly. Short 60 mile loop.
And another trip, This time to the South of France and back up into Switzerland…
| Willaston | Rotterdam - Nl | Ferry - Rotterdam - Nl | Get Ron to buy the beer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rotterdam - Nl | Laufelfingen - Ch | Hotel Bad Ramsach - Laufelfingen - Ch | Big of a boring run | |
| Laufelfingen - Ch | Lungern - Ch - | Hotel Gasthof Hirschen - Lungern - Ch - | Part of Interlaken Loop | Thunersee - Schallenberg - Panoramastabe - Brunnig Pass - If we get time then - Lauterbrunnen/Grinwald/ |
| Lungern - Ch - | Bourg Saint Maurice - Fr | Hotel Montagn’ Arcs - Bourg Saint Maurice - Fr | Italian Job/Route des Grand Alps day 1 | Aosta Run ( The Italian Job Route ) - Colle di Gran San Bernado – Little St Bernard Pass |
| Bourg Saint Maurice - Fr | Vars - Fr | Hotel La Vieille Auberge - Vars - Fr | Route des Grand Alps day 2 | Val-d’Isere - Col de I’seran - Col d’izoard - Col du Mont Cenis - Col de Montgenevre |
| Vars - Fr | Peidaigo - It | Hotel La Riserva di Caste d’Appio - Peidaigo - It | Route des Grand Alps day 3 | Col de Vars - Col d la Bonnette - Col de Resteford - Col de Turini - Col de Castillon - |
| Peidaigo - It | Munster - Ch | Hotel Criox d’Or et Poste - Munster - Ch | Long run to Switzerland | Hike through the South of France, Turin and on to Switzerland - Simplon Pass |
| Munster - Ch | Sedrun - Ch | Hotel Cresta - Sedrun - Ch | Upper and Lower Andermatt Loops | Nufenen Pass - Tremola - Gotthard Pass - Susten Pass - Grimsel Pass - Furka Pass (Gold finger stop) - Oberalp Pass |
| Sedrun - Ch | Bivio - Ch | Hotel Grischuna - Bivio - Ch | San Bernadino | San Bernadino Pass - Splugen Pass - Julier Pass |
| Walenstadt - Ch | Hockenheim - De | Hotel Salischer Hof - Hockenheim - De | Germany | A quick blat to Grmany |
| Ittendorf - De | Rotterdam - Nl | Ferry - Rotterdam - Nl | netherlands | Get Ron to buy the beer |
| Hull | Willaston | - Willaston | Home to my Princess |
Hi Tim,
Yes, done that one on this trip… stunning. See day 4.
cheers
Mark
| Day | Destination | Hotel and Address | Hi-Lights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Willaston to Hull | Willaston to Hull P&O Ferries | None |
| 1 | Rotterdam to St Gallen | Rotterdam to St Gallen Hotel Seminar & Erlebnishotel RomerTurm | Black Forest Route |
| 2 | St Gallen to Oberalp Pass | St Gallen to Oberalp Pass Hotel La Cruna | Klausenpass, Susten Pass, Grimsel Pass Furka Pass, Oberalp Pass |
| 3 | Oberalp Pass to Bernina Pass | Oberalp Pass to Bernina Pass Hotel Le Presse | Oberalp Pass, San Bernadino Pass, Albula Pass, Julier Pass, Bernina Pass |
| 4 | Bernina Pass to Passo Pordi | Bernina Pass to Passo Pordi Berghotel Ladina | Mandel Pass, Niger Pass, Karerpass, Sella Pass, Passo Pordi |
| 5 | Passo Pordi to Grossglockner Pass | Passo Pordi to Grossglockner Pass Hotel Pension Edelweis | Giau Pass, Falzarego Pass, Valparola Pass, Passo Tre Croci, Staller Sattel, Grossglockner Pass |
| 6 | Grossglockner Pass to Hahntennjoch | Grossglockner Pass to Hahntennjoch Hotel Gasthof Pension Traube, | Brenner Pass, Jaufenanpass, Timmelsjoch, Hahntennjoch |
| 7 | Hahntennjoch to Hohenzollern Castle | Hahntennjoch to Hohenzollern Castle Hotel Post Jungingen | Galtur, Bielerhohe, Silvrettastrase, Furkajoch, Hohenzollern Castle |
| 8 | Hohenzollern Castle to Rotterdam | Hohenzollern Castle to Rotterdam P&O Ferry | English Channel/North Sea |
| End | Hull to Home |
Interesting fact… if I don’t do a european tour than I would say I do less than 1000 miles between all my Loti in a year. Driving anywhere in the UK is poor, far too many kn*bs on the road and far too many people here full stop,
Day 1 of a 3 day, 1000 mi drive to LOG 44. Tulsa, OK to Poplar Bluff, MO. About 390 mi.
Ark Rt 9 from Salem to Mammoth Spring, and then MO 142 from Thayer to MO 21 are great drives. You get the sense they were originally bison trails, then Indian paths, then dusty rutted wagon roads that somebody threw some gravel on in the late 20’s, then paved in the late 40’s. But never moving 1 spade of dirt that didn’t absolutely have to be. No cuts or fills. So lots of ups and downs, with curves an Elan can take at speed. Didn’t see any semis, and the local pickup traffic tends to move quickly, which is good because there aren’t any passing areas for getting by anything faster than a tractor. Just don’t be low on gas when you leave Salem.
Car ran great. Temp at 80, OP at 45. Top down the whole way but for 1 rain spell outside of Mountain Home that had us put the top up for about 20 miles. Which is irritating because at anything much over 50 mph the top vibrates against the frame, making a heck of a racket.
Lots of comments on the car. A ‘mature’ lady tracked us down in our lunch restaurant to comment on the car, talk about how rare it is, how long it’s been since she saw one, etc. I responded that it’s rare to find people who know what it is.
