Hemsley Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 Loving your blog updates and wishing you the very best roads and motoring on your epic road trip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingster Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 6 hours ago, AndrewOBW said: 1 week today since the reg plates went on, and the car has covered over 2000 miles and driven in 5 countries (that'll be 6 in about 11 hours time)! That's some pretty decent progress I think! That’s just epic 😁👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Robinson Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 Really enjoying your trip, I know most of us wish we could be doing what you are doing!!!!!! keep it going 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 12 hours ago, AndrewOBW said: where I'll be meeting up with my friend and his mk1 MX5 That was nice of him to bring spares - good man 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share Posted September 20, 2019 15 hours ago, Dommo said: That was nice of him to bring spares - good man Unfortunately he bought a 1.8 without realising it was the inferior motor so not quite as many spares to pinch as I would have liked! 😉 Nice little camping spot for the night, other than the 10km gravel track to get there. Views were great though! 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share Posted September 20, 2019 How long does it take to drive from Warwickshire to Helsinki? 1806 days. That's 1800 days to build the car, and 6 days to drive it here. Reckon I could cut the driving time down to 5 days at a push though! Today was my first day not doing big mileage. We had a slow start to the day before heading to Helsinki. I picked up some waterproofing spray for the hood and we then hopped on a passenger ferry to check out an 18th century island fort just off the coast. Pretty fascinating place! We then drove just outside Helsinki to find another camping spot in some more woods, cooked a little dinner and settled in for an early night. We're up early again in the morning for a ferry to Tallinn, then driving down to Pärnu where we have a hostel booked tomorrow night so we can get some clothes washed and sleep indoors for a night. Weather tomorrow doesn't look great, but hopefully the forecast might improve overnight! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Love the submarine. did you go in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share Posted September 20, 2019 Just now, Geoffrey (Buttercup) - North Yorkshire AO said: Love the submarine. did you go in it. Nah, you had to pay for admission to any of the museum pieces (the submarine was once such example). It was a pretty big island, and we were already going to be there for hours just to get around it all so we skipped the paid sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingster Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 1 hour ago, AndrewOBW said: Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 Estonia today makes it 7 countries in 7 days! Weather was pretty horrible this morning on the way to the ferry. The waterproofer I picked up for the roof made a big difference. There was very little water coming through the fabric of the hood. Instead it was running into the zips where it leaked like a seive right over my steering wheel! Oh well, easier to deal with now at least. I can run a rag or towel over the zips every time water is visibly pooling before it starts dripping. Onto the ferry then, and had the usual tradition of people coming over asking to take a picture of the car etc. Its great how positive people are about it! Also get to hear about some great cars other people have too. There was one Swedish guy with one of 3 remaining Buicks still running that he was telling me about. Unfortunately I didn't quite catch what model it was though. Once we got off the ferry into Estonia, the weather was initially dry, but quite overcast and threatening to rain. We went to our first stop - a short trail down to saula siniallikad, a natural blue spring. The photos don't do it justice unfortunately, but it looked spectacular. The rings you can see in the photo are actually 3 or 4 metres from the surface, and created as the water flows through the sand at the bottom into the pool. It was pretty fascinating to watch, and the colour was so vivid. After that, and another round of locals asking about the car and taking more photos, we set off towards our hostel in Pärnu. The weather was still looking pretty threatening and the forecast wasn't good, so we left hoods up. We got onto some fun little roads, with some nice twisty sections. You have to stay awake on the Estonian roads though, they're regularly rutted where years of wheels have run, resulting in a raised section in the centre. With the low mx5 sump under the car, that was a littlw nerve wracking at times! About a half an hour down the road, I was very tempted to gamble on the weather, but glad I didn't in the end! When the rain came, it came heavy, and to be honest, the waterproofer has now made a massive difference with the hood. It was dripping in the morning having had the car stationary in the rain for a few hours overnight. When you're moving, the water seems to stay out of the zips, so it's a much more pleasant place to be in the rain now. That said, the popper for the driver's side zip has broken now, having been opened maybe 10 times at most, so that's another slight disappointment but doesn't really effect the use other than a permanent jingle when hood is up. The only other niggle I've got at the moment is the car has been running quite rich. I know mx5s have a tenancy to do this at the best of times, but it's definitely worse now than when I set off. It might just be a product of the stock. Ecu coupled with a much more free flowing exhaust and intake setup, or it could be down to the fact that since leaving I've switched to 95RON fuel rather than 98 (couldn't afford 98 for the miles I'm doing). Or it could be down to the temperature. Anyone familiar with my build thread will remember I switched the thermostat from an 88 degree one that was in the donor to an 82 degree one that it should have had to begin with due to it running quite hot on the day of my IVA. With the much cooler air temperatures up here, coolant temps have generally been around 84 degrees, so it's not impossible that the ECU has been pumping more fuel in to try to bring the engine temperature up a bit. The other option is that my O2 sensor may have died but annoyingly I forgot to pack my little diagnostic LED circuit to check for any DTCs. I'll keep an eye on it as we head south to warmer climates and see if it changes at all. Anyway, clothes (and ourselves) all washed atand ready for another few days camping. We'll set off in the general direction of Riga tomorrow - after the rugby of course! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 23, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 23, 2019 Still alive and well, just been a busy couple of days and not blessed with great Internet currently in Lithuania! We're booked into a hostel in Poland tomorrow night so I'll get a proper update done then, but in the mean time, here's a picture of the campsite tonight. Tactically dark to hide just how dirty the car is! 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 Falling behind on my updates! This one hits the limits on photo sizes so there'll be a few posts here! Weather was much nicer on sunday for the drive from Estonia into Latvia. Roof was off all day thankfully! Once we crossed the border, we hit some really nice roads before stopping at a border checkpoint a couple of miles after the border. The Latvian border officer was very friendly, complimenting the car before checking my documents. All in order and we were back on our way. We stopped off for a short hike around Langu cliffs. Then carried on to another short walk to a viewpoint for Turaida castle. Then on to our campsite for the night. It was pretty late by the time we got there and the temperature was getting down to minus figures, so we just pitched the tents, cooked up some dinner and went to bed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 The morning revealed just how nice a spot it was. May have been a little muddy getting there though. My car decided it wanted to try some DIY ceramic exhaust coating. 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 We then set off for Lithuania. Those were some of the worst roads I've ever driven on. At one point, though the speed limit was 90km/h, I couldn't go over 70 without feeling like I was about to lose a tooth. Somehow nothing fell off the car though! Once we got across the border, the roads improved again though. We stopped off to take a look at the hill of crosses which was pretty spectacular and a little creepy at the same time! Then for a little light heartedness we tried to go and check out an old abandoned theme park in Elektrenai, but unfortunately we were about a week too late as they've already demolished most of it. There were a few bits still standing, but it was an active building site so we could only take photos through the fence. After that, we set off for our next camping spot, possibly my favourite so far - that's the photo I posted yesterday, but here's another from the same place! Today was a big driving day to get to Lublin in Poland, only stopping for coffee, food and fuel. Lublin is a beautiful place, but the hostel has been a bit of a let down so far. First they had no record of our booking, then when they eventually figured it out, they tried to charge me again, even though they had already taken payment in full on my card. Eventually managed to sort it with them and we have some beds for the night. Tomorrow we set off into Ukraine. We won't get to Kiev until Thursday so no Internet for any updates tomorrow! I've had my gopro on for various parts so I'll go through that while there's no Internet to distract me and see if I can pick out any good bits! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve (sdh2903) Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 Fantastic reading your updates Maybe you could include mileage updates along the way as you must be clocking up some impressive numbers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.