Day 2 Friday Montreaux-Monaco 320 miles

After a good breakfast all gathered in the hotel foyer bar. The first Bunny was hidden and those loonies in Team 3 found it. At around 9:45 all left in what was meant to be a sedate exit !! The roads out of Montreaux were fairly good and mostly duel carriage way. With the first sat nav point of the day plumbed in to all the cars, the first guided instructions started and we were off the main roads and onto some of the most amazing mountain, ace alpine roads. We were all gaining altitude and the out side temperature dropped from 16 to 3 degrees, the view of the snow capped mountains was incredible.

Any advantage that the leading cars had was probably scuppered at the Italian border, which was at the entrance of a 10km tunnel that only runs one way at a time. The three teams were all bunched up, most through passport control and just waiting for the tunnel to flow in their direction. We were all given the green light and around 16 of the 24 cars were through in an amazing convoy, the soundtrack through the tunnel was outrageous.

After thundering through the tunnel, eyes readjusted, the awesome descent began. The first thirty miles or so were very tight and twisty and then when we reached the flat planes of northern Italy, the long fantastic roads stretched out in front of us. The only interest from the local plod was a patrol car doing 120 mph waving the Ferraris by. The route took us all due South until we hit the coast and we all effectively turned right and followed the cost-hugging road through what must have been one hundred tunnels, with sights firmly set on Monaco.

 



Whilst team 2 and 3 turned left out of the hotel we turned right, just in case there was any police around. As we were on our main drag out of Montreux, we could hear the chatter of team 2 over the walkie-talkies so we knew we were close to them. When we picked up the mountain roads once again our team was 100% intact. Weaving our way through those Swiss hairpins in that train of cars was awesome. At the Italian border we got a bit fragmented, but still remained in clusters and yet again we arrived in the smallest time window.

 

 

 

 



After a swift sleep and breakfast I sent a text out to Team 2, suggesting we all fuelled up before breakfast, hoping this might give us a 20min advantage. However it seemed that Team 1 had planned the same strategy (obviously we had been bugged, very sneaky). Before we left Lake Geneva, it was time to find the Bunny. Darryl from Team 3 found it in the bar, and that put them level on points with us at the start of day 2 with team 1 behind. So with everyone outside the hotel I asked team 2 to hold off leaving the hotel first, as we had received information that the local police had set up a road block on the motorway, so expecting the other 2 teams to shoot off and use up the Swiss polices’ time for us, it seemed a good idea to hold off. Unfortunately the more overexcited members of our team (not mentioning names, Harry, Nigel, Pete, Howard & Nick,) couldn’t hold back and set off. (The info on the road block proved to be false.) This left us, Marcus and Matt in the 335i cab, Pete and John in the Gallardo together on a beautiful drive out of Montreux. Gradually the Gallardo edged forward leaving us and the other 335 to follow Tony(CLS 63 AMG) and Darryl and Ian (Audi RS4) both from team 3 up the mountain roads. Unbelievable backdrops and roads lay ahead and myself and Paul as well as the other 335 obviously held back behind the CLS and RS4 so as not to embarrass them too much - this was great fun. Having missed the morning briefing, Howard and Ania (Porsche Cayanne) took (understandably) the original route. This meant that they missed out on much of the roads but took them through the impressive Mont Blanc Tunnel. Eventually we reached (now in a convoy) the Italian Border. Here, many of the 3 teams gathered to show passports to the friendly French Gendarme. Then 10 feet further on, the less friendly Italian Polizia let many of us go but held back a few. As we were now very high up, the snow-topped mountains added an unexplainable aura to the drive. As we neared Monaco we could hear the radios crackle with other Rabbit Runners all in close proximity and pulled up at the hotel.

 



I think most of us struggled to get up on Day 2 after the long haul of day one, however after a good breakfast and finding the hidden bunny for a bonus point we were all ready again to hit the black stuff on our way to the prestigious Monaco via the Swiss and Italian Alps and some glorious tunnels, Darryl & Ian making the best of the acoustics with their newly fitted sports exhaust on the RS4.

Team 3 left in a slightly fragmented way, however with Chris & Gary in front in the SL55 AMG we had decided to by-pass the first two sat nav destination points and blast on to the third, tactics which appeared later to be worth it. Team 3 were now down to 7 cars as X and X had to wait for repairs on the poorly Porsche Turbo. Following a good blast around the fantastic winding mountain roads we approached the Swiss/Italian Border. The Italian border police decided to pull all the cars over and check our passports holding us all up for about twenty minutes. The plus side to all this was that it bunched about 15 or 16 cars up together for a good long stretch through the mountains and tunnels. We lost Matt & Chaz in their Porsche Turbo sometime after this which was not suprising. Having pulled up to the side of our Audi S5 at 100mph Matt floored the Porsche which wheel-spun off into the distance with Tony & Ian in the CLS63 AMG close on their tail. Adam & Kevin in the silver Porsche Turbo and Ed and Nick in the Porsche Carrera 4S Cab were once again nowhere to be seen but were still in contact by phone upfront scouting for the fuzz.

Team 3 arrived at Monaco as we left Montreux – fragmented. However with our “balls out” tactics we won the day. Settling into the hotel mid-afternoon it was beer time for everybody and a surprise visit from Elvis Presley, well it was Roy Presley from Hull but nobody could tell the difference. The evening was spent in the casinos and bars together with X and X who’d arrived some hours later in the repaired Porsche and £2k lighter.

 

The first car to arrive was Adam and Kevin (Porsche 996 Turbo) at around 3pm and the last cars arrived around 4:30. It was suggested a quick beer or two in the bar and then check in. (Yeh yeh, whatever.) At 7pm people were ushered out of the bar to go check in, get changed and meet back at the bar for 8pm for a sumptuous dinner in the hotel restaurant.

After dinner it was a convoy of taxis to Casino Square, lose a few quid in most cases then off to a funky bar. A great night was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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