Stelvio - Road Test to Die For......
 

Stelvio Pass, 458 Spyder and whatever else comes to hand......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NGpDmWNqh4

Beautiful car (although even nicer in black!) and definately one of those roads that needs visiting at some point in ones life :nod:

Come on lets get it sorted...:yeah::doubleup:

Just waiting for you to say that:-D

Maybe a ring replacement?

Ouch!

Kinda walked into that one!

What backwards ??

We are thinking too drive there to the Stelvio pass.looks awesome


Jura

Awesome trip!!


At the top of Stelvio
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../060905131.jpg

View from the top
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../060905039.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../060905133.jpg

On the way down
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../060905138.jpg

Looking at the last pic you wanna make sure your brakes are in tip top condition with decent pads, wouldn't fancy any brake fade :eek:

This and the Transfagarasan are definitely two places I'd love to go/drive!

Shame its 1500 miles away, round trip would work out at about £800 of vpower! :drive:

Ouch! that hurts the wallet, think of all those drivers club points though...

:drive:I think you have that a bit wrong even going the bit longer way via Belgium/Germany its 800 miles each way, so a 25 mpg it works out about £400. that sound more doer ball.:drive:

25 mpg.... Your not driving fast enough Steve

Cruising at 80 I get at least that but Germany may be a bit lower :nod: but hay that's what it is for and you would not go there worrying about mpg. Ok fun factor = £ 600 with the ring on the way back :norty:.

Sorry, the 1500 miles each way was referring to the Transfa-wotsit highway that Tomma mentioned (the one in Romania that Top Gear did).

crikey, that would be a very expensive trip!

Sorry that's me not looking properly :roll:.

Now that does look something very special.....

Stelvio is definately a trip of a lifetime - me and Stuart (Miniman on here) saved for 3 years so that we could do it for our 40th birthdays. I would like to say we plannd it for 3 years but all we agreed was a European road trip that was going to take in the Ring, Stelvio and a Grand Prix, however we could only set the route once the F1 2012 calender was announced.

This is what we did:

Thursday - off to Le Mans 24hour race
Friday - Sunday camping at Le Mans
Monday - drive to the Swiss side of Stelvio
Tuesday - Stelvio (up and down twice) then onto Maranello for the Ferrari museum tour
Wednesday - Lamborghini museum tour, then onto Monaco, drive the street circuit, eat at Rascasse, then onto a cheap F1 motel outside Nice
Thursday - long drive to Valencia to watch the GP
Friday - Sunday camping at Valencia
Monday - long drive half way up France via the Milau bridge to a F1 motel
Tuesday - Ferry back home

3000 miles in my wifes A4 3.0 diesel quattro convertible - I must say a brilliant tool for the job :)

That sounds a cracking trip :nod:

How long did it take to drive from Stelvio down to Maranello?

Not too long, about 5 hours IIRC. I'm sure we had lunch in Italy just after the descent, then drove straight to the Ferrari factory gates for 5pm, found the hotel for 7pm and was in an Irish bar in the Old Town centre watching England v Ukraine (Euro 2012) by 8pm!

There was some big stints though. Le mans to approx an hours drive from the Swiss side of the pass was an 11 hour stint, only stopping for driver changes every 2 hours. Nice to Valencia was about 9 hours, which turned to 10 hours finding the campsite!

Thats the problem really, there's stacks of great stuff in the Alpine areas of France & Italy, just a massive drive to get down there. I'd love to do a trip which took in Millau, Carcassone, Verdon Gorges, San Remo, Maranello/Modena, Stelvio, some other mountain roads then back via the Nurburgring. Easy to add Monaco and Col de Turini to that route but done those last year.

Problem is, it'd take about 10 days to do it!