3700 miles in a £750 touring what a treat it was.

[charlie_ogden]

Have't posted for a wile as the Touring is a second car (Impreza being my main car)
Brought it with a fried to lean how to drive a rear drive car.
Then we though we should go on a little holiday.

We took three weeks (We being myself, girlfriend and two friends) and drove about 4000 miles in all. We drove to Portsmouth getting the ferry across to St Marlo, Then...
Stayed
At my rents in Coet bugat,onto Royan,Bordeaux,Cannes,Italian lakes,Lake Constance,Munich (BMW MuseumWas Amazing), Prague,Berlin, Amsterdam, Nurenburgring, Brussels, Bruges

Then back down to Coen to get the ferry home.

The car in question is a 1988 Touring with 138000 miles on it and 10 owners, It didn't miss a beat the only thing was and still is The clutch bearing started to go about about 2000 miles and now its screeching like nothing on earth......

Ill try get some picks up if anyone is intrested.

[casper8r]

By all means do get the pics up!

I'm planning something similar at the end of July - driving all the way to Latvia and back (roughly 2200 km from Calais to Riga one way). How did you arrange insurance and breakdown cover for your trip?

[charlie_ogden]

Insurance was just classic car insurance and we did Rac classic car B/down cover £150. But i think there is a better company for brake down cover over there its ACAD or something like that but im not too sure give it a google.

[mhuk]

That's cool mates. I'm leaving Saturday to Calais - Monaco - Italy (see the ex girlfriend) via the Stelvio Pass



Then though some swiss towns and onto the ring!

But not in a E30! It's a little small and my E30 is rock hard and we needed something for cruising so taking.......



It's got poly bushed rear pan rod and the rose jointed torque rods which I welded up for my mate.

It's on standard springs / shocks but it handles very well!

Also made up a engine steady bracket.

[mattrs]

Sounds like an awesome trip! how are the fuel prices?

[Alex]

That's cool mates. I'm leaving Saturday to Calais - Monaco - Italy (see the ex girlfriend) via the Stelvio Pass


[/img]

i need to go there

[charlie_ogden]

Fule prices where shocking range from 1.29 to1.50 euros a ltr but to keep the old girl sweet i was using 98-100ron we spent about £600 on fuel so it wasn't too bad think we manages about 28-32MPG.

That road looks amazing...
We drove though the Swiss Alps lucky it was a cool day because she was getting warm ,4 up with a boot full to bursting.

Monico was £4 for a coke so it was not cheep the best thing was racing through the tunnel in second it sounded like F1 car....well nearly...

[charlie_ogden]

That Volvo looks just the ticket for a euro bash....The best bit was coming off the ferry the clutch release bearing was gone a screaming but what was holding everyone up.... a TVR that would not start i could not help stopping and politely say should have brought German....

[320Touring]

awesome work!

just makes me want to get the e30 back over for another assault!

7000 miles in 13 days is the current record

[jamie323i]

A bit off topic,but that number plate is my initials!

[charlie_ogden]

7K in 13 days that is traveling....4Kish was perfect, enough to see lots not too hard on the car or us!

[320Touring]

7K in 13 days that is traveling....4Kish was perfect, enough to see lots not too hard on the car or us!

yep- lots of 12hr stints

the old £300 bus did superbly-including a trip to the ring! (ive since spent a forture recommissioning it )

turned 100k driving through Bulgaria, and had a sock for a topmount for 3.5k miles.

its living, i tell ya-you see so much you'd miss on a train or plane

Tourings are made for it!

[zaust]

Sound's like a hek of a trip. Get them pic's up please.

[Brianmoooore]

Insurance was just classic car insurance and we did Rac classic car B/down cover £150. But i think there is a better company for brake down cover over there its ACAD or something like that but im not too sure give it a google.

Can't really see the point of breakdown insurance for an E30, but if you must, join ADAC, the German motoring association.

[spook]

Breakdown insurance for an E30?

What a waste of money

[casper8r]

I can understand where you're coming from, but not everyone knows cars inside and out. If the car does break down on German autobahn or somewhere in Poland it might not be possible to fix it on the spot, so towing it to a garage is the only option, and mine is automatic so might have to be put on the transporter.

I wish I knew my way around cars better, but for Brianmoore to assume everybody is as confident in fixing cars as himself is a bit like Bill Gates saying that 8Mb of RAM is enough for everyone.

I've looked at the homepage for ADAC but it doesn't really look like you can join it from UK? My German is a little rusty so I might be missing something.

[Brianmoooore]

Nothing to do with fixing an E30 - a vehicle of this quality shouldn't break down!
I have been given to understand that you can join ADAC from the UK. Certainly doesn't indicate anything different on the English language version of their home page.
I've driven an E30 around 20,000 miles around Europe over the last decade, and the only serious problem I've had (except from an incident with a certain flying porker) was a failing fuel pump. Since my E30 also runs on LPG, even this wasn't a terminal problem.

[gareth]

to be fair though brian, you must be a little lucky! or you just intimidate your cars into utter reliability with the threat of the one your driving being sidelined for one of your spares if it shows the slightest sign of a fault!

i personally have breakdown cover. even if it just covers recovery off a motorway to repair damage caused by someone else... that said, flying porkas are no match for the mighty moooooooremobile

i had a water pump fail (without warning i might add, quiet and not leaky when i set out) on the M40 a while back, many hundereds of miles from home, and i was glad for the recovery