Day 2 Friday 15th May

8:00am and down to breakfast, some of us nursing hangovers. By 9:00 am all the cars were out the front of the hotel and ready for the off. The first stage off this day was a 180 mile blat across country to a very picturesque setting for lunch. All the newbies had got to grips with what the event was all about on day 1 and set out in day 2 like old veterans. The start was chaos, cars going in different directions, some people ignoring the intermediate sat nav points and just typing in the lunch time destination location and others literally doing it by the book. Amazing roads and little clusters of cars headed of to the horizon as though their lives depended on it. Jim  and I were travelling behind Jon for around 50 miles on the twisty stuff and anybody that knows Jon will know this is his territory, I tried to stay with him and even though we had around 110 BHP more I could not stay with the king of the bends, its not about what is under the bonnet but more about what is between the ears, or what’s not between the ears as the case may be, only joking mate. Again we were lucky with the weather for an hour or so then came the rain. Jimbo and I finally got to the motorway and we got a call from Shaun and Scott SL63 AMG (team 2) (father and son team, did the trip as it was Scott’s 21st birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT) and Shaun convinced us to take a shorter more direct route, he said “we are on that route and it is great, no traffic” cheeky monkey, my time will come my friend, my time will come. Another father and son team were Nick and Carl in the very pretty and gorgeous sounding Porsche C4s cab. An hour later (would have been half an hour if we’d stayed on the motor way, cheers Shaun) we arrived for lunch, which was very nice.

The first car in was Andy and Chris in the Morgan Aero 8 not bad seeing as though they came in last and 18th the day before, redemption is sweet, but as Andy’s wife says “with Andy its all or nothing, usually nothing” the less said on that the better I think. The second car to arrive was Tim and Ian in the SLR and the third car was Stu and Paul in the M3 cab, last man in was Paul and Chris in the SL65 AMG oops.

 







After lunch we had a 10 mile convoy to none other than the Bugatti factory. I am sure I speak for everybody that the factory and its tour was amazing. We were split in to two groups and the tour consisted of an hour of Bugatti history of which I found very interesting as I don’t mind admitting I knew very little about the brand and then an hour tour of the assembly line. Julius and Daniel our guides were fantastic so a big big thank you to them. The factory only does five of these tours a year so we were very privileged, well done Jon.

After the tour we were treated to a few refreshments and were able to see four very special Veron’s (like they're not all special). The four cars were to celebrate the centenary and were all in a marquee together. Whilst in this marquee over my right shoulder I heard the words “I want to buy one, who do I need to talk to”. Negotiations are ongoing.


     

A walk back to some kind of reality for most of us as we walked back to the car park and climbed aboard what now seemed fairly boring motors and set off on the final competitive stage of the trip - destination Metz.

Many cars were bunched up which meant the walkie talkies were all in range and I must say some of the conversations were at best odd, Gary and Chaz you boys need help. I reckon we could have won this stage if it weren’t for big Andy in the Aero making several of us sample some of the local cuisine on route, yes you guessed it the golden arches drew a load of us in.

We were all reeling in the hotel at Metz and the first calls started to come in from the front runners as they arrived at the hotel. This day had two stages so working out who had what points and what the end result might be took some working out and was not obvious, so a last push towards the finish line. The first guys to arrive were Stu and Paul in the M3 cab who are always on a charge especially when Paul was at the wheel. The second car to arrive was the Bissix boys (Shaun + Scott) in the SL63 AMG and third place to dark horse James and Bruce in the 335i cab, last man in, yes you guessed it Mr all or nothing Andy and Chris in the Aero 8.

A few cool beers, a quick shower and change, we all met for dinner, which was lovely, then the winning team was announced, couldn’t believe it, Gary’s team, team 3, the pink team had done it again. From here on in I am not going to give him any more grief, its just embarrassing.

After the awards we all ventured out and sampled the best bars Metz had to offer, pretty good actually, a good night had by all.


              


(previous)  1  2  3  (next)
Website Designed & Maintained By Cass Productions Limited