300 mile bonding session

[andy665]

True bonding session with the car yesterday - was important for me to become totally comfortable with pressures, temperatures on a prolonged hard drive and to get  feel for the balance of the car

7.15 am start and first 55 miles to Corwen on the A5 to meet up with the other cars for the day

E46 330i convertible
B5 S4 running just over 500bhp
Corrado 16V running 888's and the surprise of the day
Griffith 500

Route seemed to centre around the Shell fuel station on the A5 just outside Betws-y Coed as I needed to top up every 100 miles or so

First action was the top two legs of the EVO Triangle - the A543 from Pentrefoelas and the B4051 - not really worth doing the bottom section as its just the A5 so turned round and did it in the other direction

Said it before - whilst the EVO Triangle is good there are better roads out there and we then proceeded to drive them.

From the A5 (Cerrigydrudion) we took the B4501 to the A4212.

Turning right on the A4212 we took the road until it met the A470 at Trawsffyndd where we turned right to Ffestiniog.

From Ffestioniog we took a right on to the B4391 until it reached the A4212 where we turned round and went back until we reached the B4407 to the A5.

Reaching the A5 we took a left and went to Betws-y Coed for lunch.

After lunch we headed to Llandudno on the A470 and did a tour of the Great Orme before heading to the A55.

Quick blast on the A55 through the three tunnels - great noises from mine and the TVR before coming off at Bangor and joining the A4244 to Llanberis.

Meeting the A4086 we took a left and right up and down the Llanberis Pass - fantastic scenery but traffic always prevents a proper attack of the roads.

This took us back to the A5 and a right turn back to Corwen.

The day ended for the others but heading home B4401 down to the B4391 where turned left and took probably the best road of the day, clear roads, setting sun before hanging a right on to the B4580, followed by a left on the A490 and a left on to B4393 and B4398 bring me back on to the A5 at Knockin and a final 20 mile journey home

Hugely enjoyable day - the surprise being just how well a stock Corrado 16V (albeit running on 888's) kept up

Vital stats for the day

Breakages, damage, mishaps - nil

Speed camera vans seen - 3

Unmarked police cars spotted - 1 red Auris estate

Oil and water used by Westfield - nil

Mileage - for me (from Telford) - just over 300

Fuel used - approx. 19 gallons of Shells finest V Power Nitro

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Sounds an excellent day!

The Corrado was always sadly underrated; always fancied one, but by the time they'd fallen into a price range I was comfortable with, I needed estates.

 

[andy665]

1 minute ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - WSCC AO Rep said:

Sounds an excellent day!

The Corrado was always sadly underrated; always fancied one, but by the time they'd fallen into a price range I was comfortable with, I needed estates.

 

I owned two G60s and found them to be fantastic cars so should not have been surprised at how well a 16V coped yesterday, the four cylinder Corrados were much better balanced than the VR6 but its still that car that gets the plaudits

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Yeah, I drove a VR6, and loved individual bits of it, like the engine, just didn't quite gel as a whole package for me, went for a Celica instead, then a year or so later, had a chance to drive a friends 16 Valve and loved it, I actually enjoyed it way more than the VR6, though it did feel a wee bit underpowered. I always wondered if the G60 would have been the perfect happy medium!

[andy665]

1 minute ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - WSCC AO Rep said:

Yeah, I drove a VR6, and loved individual bits of it, like the engine, just didn't quite gel as a whole package for me, went for a Celica instead, then a year or so later, had a chance to drive a friends 16 Valve and loved it, I actually enjoyed it way more than the VR6, though it did feel a wee bit underpowered. I always wondered if the G60 would have been the perfect happy medium!

I had one that was standard that was good but my other was pushing out about 210bhp (from 160 as standard) and was really well balanced - it was a gruff old engine and needed to be treated carefully but it had a very distinct character about it

[CraigHew]

Glad you enjoyed your first "proper" blast Andy.

The North Wales roads are simply fantastic through the week.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

15.7 mpg. Good work