NC500 Visit 2021

[TurtleDesignTech]

At Mart's request I have started a new thread for this following everyone's excitement about my carpet.

For those who don't know, the NC500 is a route around the North Coast of Scotland a bit over 500 miles long.

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It wouldn't surprise me if this becomes quite a popular holiday destination this year, with flights being cancelled left and right.

The NC500 supposedly offers fantastic roads, sights and views. The weather supposedly not so much. Will report back findings after my trip in May.

Discussion so far:

Doing the NC500 early May so will let you know how it goes!

Good luck! Make sure you post up some pictures.

Have you got an exact route planned yet? I have had a look but other than just driving around clockwise and stopping whenever I get to something interesting, I am struggling a bit as there are so many landmarks based on online guides.

Am doing 7 days from Inverness (2 either side to get up and down) which seems to be a fairly standard amount of time. Looked at a couple of guides for 7 days and then settled on the end point for each day and booked hotels accordingly. After that worked out activities between the two points which seemed fairly standard for each of the guides unless you want to go 'off-route' and spend a day bagging a munro!

To be honest a lot of the stuff is along the route so won't take a huge amount of time or detour. Ie a quick 10 mins to look at a waterfall or a ruined castle...it seems a lot but most stops are short and also the days are very long up there in summer!

Seems like we came to a similar conclusions except I currently only have 5/6 days allocated to the NC500 itself from a bit North of Inverness, although planning to stay in Loch Lomond for a couple of nights on the way up.

Girlfriend wasn't a fan of staying at a different place each night so strategically chosen a couple of places, one further north (Lairg) and the other being a closer to Inverness (Strathpeffer). Hoping to do a loop of a 100-150 miles each day. Will probably have to get up early to beat the traffic depending on how busy it is.

[steve_k]

I fully intend to do the nc500 in the next few years so I'll be keeping an eye on any threads or posts that pop up about it.

Reminds me of the old zone roam for about 12/13yrs ago,

Good luck with it.

[martauto]

Cheers mate
That is one hell of a trip !!
I dont think I got up that far but nearly there and I would not worry too much about traffic.
The thing I found ,as in Wales, is that a lot of the roads although very good, are slow so give yourself time and loads of pics are required too as standard .lol

Mart.

[minesapint]

Interesting this route/trip is suddenly in-vogue.
I did this & more in 1971 in a BMW Isetta bubble car. I was an electrical engineering student & became very interested in the Isetta. Through the summer vac of 71, myself & girlfriend at the time completely refurbished an Isetta, a complete strip down to the last nut & bolt, they had a separate chassis, Managed to get hold of a new body shell, there was an Isetta agents/garage in Howorth in North Yorkshire at that time. Had that professionally sprayed in a beautiful bright green. This was the ‘flower power’ era, girlfriend did the interior completely renewed everything, made a fabulous job, with the seat & backrest in the brightest most colourful flowered fabric she could find.
I had several engines, gearboxes & final drives drives etc, which I choose the best from, you may be aware, they were based on half a BMW twin horizontally opposed (boxer) engine, so 300cc single cylinder air cooled. There were several aluminium castings , example the final drive was such a casting with an oil immersed chain drive inside, I polished all these alloy castings until they shone. The wheels were bright red with highly polished alloy hub caps. The whole thing was superb. Absolutely superb. I very much wish I had it now.
What interested me electrically about the Isetta was it’s starter/generator arrangement. As I’m sure you know there is no difference between a DC motor & a DC generator. One is electrical energy in, mechanical energy out. The other mechanical energy in, electrical energy out. The crankshaft had a rotor attached to it, this was surrounded by a stator. So on starting elec energy applied to the motor turned the engine & once running the engine turned the rotor within the stator generating power to charge the battery etc.
After completing the renovation we set off from Skipton, travelled up the west coast of Scotland , up to Cape Wrath, across to John o’ Groats, down the east coast past Aberdeen, Dundee etc back to Skipton, a distance of well over 1000 miles, the Isetta never missed a beat. In those days the roads up the west coast were all single track, often the centre of the road had grass growing in the middle, the Isetta being three wheeled, with the single rear wheel running on this made for rather uncomfortable driving.
I took a very small tent to keep the rain off & a girlfriend to keep me warm at night.
The trip took us just over two weeks & believe me I had a sore arse when we got back to Skipton. It’s a journey/adventure I’ve never forgotten.
I’ve just been looking at the price of Isetta’s.....god I wished I’d kept that thing, it would be worth more than my 325 Cab, it went, as did the girlfriend, she didn’t keep me as warm as I’d hoped!

[coopman]

My parents are planning to drive this route next year (40-year wedding anniversary, delayed two years by Covid). Unfortunately they'll be doing it in a Mercedes SLK, not an E30.

They (and I) have spent a lot of time over the years in the more crappy parts of Scotland, so this should be a nice change!

[TurtleDesignTech]

Interesting this route/trip is suddenly in-vogue.
I did this & more in 1971 in a BMW Isetta bubble car. I was an electrical engineering student & became very interested in the Isetta. Through the summer vac of 71, myself & girlfriend at the time completely refurbished an Isetta, a complete strip down to the last nut & bolt, they had a separate chassis, Managed to get hold of a new body shell, there was an Isetta agents/garage in Howorth in North Yorkshire at that time. Had that professionally sprayed in a beautiful bright green. This was the ‘flower power’ era, girlfriend did the interior completely renewed everything, made a fabulous job, with the seat & backrest in the brightest most colourful flowered fabric she could find.
I had several engines, gearboxes & final drives drives etc, which I choose the best from, you may be aware, they were based on half a BMW twin horizontally opposed (boxer) engine, so 300cc single cylinder air cooled. There were several aluminium castings , example the final drive was such a casting with an oil immersed chain drive inside, I polished all these alloy castings until they shone. The wheels were bright red with highly polished alloy hub caps. The whole thing was superb. Absolutely superb. I very much wish I had it now.
What interested me electrically about the Isetta was it’s starter/generator arrangement. As I’m sure you know there is no difference between a DC motor & a DC generator. One is electrical energy in, mechanical energy out. The other mechanical energy in, electrical energy out. The crankshaft had a rotor attached to it, this was surrounded by a stator. So on starting elec energy applied to the motor turned the engine & once running the engine turned the rotor within the stator generating power to charge the battery etc.
After completing the renovation we set off from Skipton, travelled up the west coast of Scotland , up to Cape Wrath, across to John o’ Groats, down the east coast past Aberdeen, Dundee etc back to Skipton, a distance of well over 1000 miles, the Isetta never missed a beat. In those days the roads up the west coast were all single track, often the centre of the road had grass growing in the middle, the Isetta being three wheeled, with the single rear wheel running on this made for rather uncomfortable driving.
I took a very small tent to keep the rain off & a girlfriend to keep me warm at night.
The trip took us just over two weeks & believe me I had a sore arse when we got back to Skipton. It’s a journey/adventure I’ve never forgotten.
I’ve just been looking at the price of Isetta’s.....god I wished I’d kept that thing, it would be worth more than my 325 Cab, it went, as did the girlfriend, she didn’t keep me as warm as I’d hoped!

Sounds Epic. Can't imagine what it would have been like to travel that far with everything in an Isetta. The boot of the E30 was full for most of the trip and there were only 2 of us!

Must have been very satisfying to complete the whole trip in a vehicle you completely restored yourself and with no issues. Do you have any pictures of your Isetta from back then?

It seems rather ironic how the electric starter/generator is making a comeback 50 years later. Both new BMW and Mercedes straight 6's engines can come with a 24V electric hybrid system, utilising a pancake motor at the front of the engine which starts the engine, acts as a power filler and a generator. I too enjoy when things are engineered to be more efficient, simplistic and effective at the same time.

[TurtleDesignTech]

Competed my NC500 trip over a month ago now, however life seems to have gotten in the way as usual.

Probably one of the most memorable and best holidays I have been on. Even my girlfriend seemed to enjoy it, despite often telling me its not a holiday unless she has to get on a plane...

I think one of the most appealing parts of the trip was that there is so much to see. You can really tailor a trip to North Coast to suit you. There were all sorts of people up there, from bird watchers to biker groups, caravaners to cyclists, hikers to whisky fanatics. We didn't actually see that many others on driving adventures.

The E30 completed nearly exactly 2,000 miles (to the yard) from near Lymington on the South Coast --> Sheffield --> Loch Lomond --> Inverness --> Around the NC500 --> Newcastle --> Back home.

I did have a couple of issues with the E30 unfortunately. Considering prior to this trip I had completely restored the entire suspension and drive train it could have been a lot worse and overall I am quite happy.

The main issues were:

• At Loch Lomond, the coolant decided it didn't like to be in the radiator any more.
  On cold starts the engine wouldn't idle very well.
  When hot on the motorway (at 80mph) the engine misfire.
  Stronger than I would like smell of fuel when idling in car parks, etc.

I the first issue was due to the fact I didn't bleed the cooling system properly before starting the trip (I changed the coolant before the trip ).

The other issues related to a gremlin I have been chasing since I owned the car. I have changed, cleaned, replaced every sensor connected to the ECU. Trawled through countless forum posts and read the Haynes manual to death.

I finally found out what this is caused by and it needed a long trip to finally work out what it was! (My E30 only does about 2,000 miles a year in the summer)

If the cooling system is not properly bled, the above issue occur at idle and when hot. However, when bled properly they both go away. Why? The issue relates to fuelling, which is controlled by the blue temperature sensor.

My theory is that when not bled properly, the an air pocket forms around the blue temperature sensor in engine block, which gives false readings to the ECU and consequently the ECU tells the injectors to inject the incorrect amount of fuel.

After working this out halfway around the NC500, I managed an average of 38mpg! Not bad for my little M40 powered E30, especially considering the amount of hooning that was done.

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[TurtleDesignTech]

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[TurtleDesignTech]

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Overall a great trip.

If you are planning on going yourself, whilst there are lots of good roads for driving where you can have a great time in your E30, it goes without saying thought that you need to be careful. It could quite easy to have a horrific accident.

The roads are single track most of the way around the NC500. They are bumpy, pot holed, there are blind bends and the roads are often shared with large trucks providing the coast with deliveries. You also need to be careful for lambs and sheep which are everywhere.

If your E30 is stiff, lowered more than a couple of inches or on big rims, you will also struggle to drive on these roads. This is coming from someone who is less than 30 years old.

However, if you are sensible you can have a pretty good time. My little E30 definitely left some much newer Fords in the rear view mirror more than once

(Some of the better driving roads aren't actually on the coastal route I discovered. They connect the roads on the north coast to one of the central towns.)

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[martauto]

Epic pictures and boy do I wish I was up there again right now !!
A very good point about driving, you really do need to have your head properly on .
It really doe`s say a lot about the e30 and how well they were designed and built all those years ago and above all, one that is looked after like yours, is a massive credit to you mate.
(any more pics??)

Mart.

[TurtleDesignTech]

Epic pictures and boy do I wish I was up there again right now !!
A very good point about driving, you really do need to have your head properly on .
It really doe`s say a lot about the e30 and how well they were designed and built all those years ago and above all, one that is looked after like yours, is a massive credit to you mate.
(any more pics??)

Mart.

Cheers Mart

E30 was a good size for the roads up there too. A few more pictures posted below.

[TurtleDesignTech]

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[TurtleDesignTech]

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[martauto]

Such a pretty car the e30 is and what a backdrop !!!
What a beautiful country we have
Mart.

[TurtleDesignTech]

Such a pretty car the e30 is and what a backdrop !!!
What a beautiful country we have
Mart.

Thanks for all your kind words