Fast forward a few months and it come around before we knew it! Prep time. Litchfield for a service, new front tyres and alignment, then home to get ready.

It started on the Saturday, the day before the scheduled start. We headed down for dinner with our friends in Kent before heading down to the unofficial start place at the Ashford International Hotel and Spa (nice hotel, slow bar service, nice breakfast, rock hard mattresses). Sunday morning, the smiling faces arrived, it was GO TIME! Some incredible cars there. Incredible. F12 N Largo, McLaren 600LT, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Aston Martin Vantage F1, Ferrari 812 GTS, etc.

We depart for the short drive to Folkestone, to get the EuroTunnel to Calais and make a real start. We had a (terrible) coffee at the Folkestone terminal before we made our way. Onwards!

The journey began coming out of Calais and heading towards Lyon, our first stop for the night. A lovely place out the edge of the city after a long, but speedy run through France. The standards of the driving over there are so much better than here, and the roads. Shame the fuel is eye gougingly expensive though.

We got some food at a services, a lovely sandwich before arriving at hotel, with a very secure sub-terranean car park. We brought the car up in the morning to ensure it was easier to get the case in and out. The simple things!

Day 2 was the final stretch to Monaco, and The Fairmont Hotel! Amazing place. Absolutely amazing place, right at heart of the Monaco hairpin, for those who know, it’s iconic.

After 3 days in Monaco, including drives out up to Red Rock Canyon, where rain stopped play, and then to Col de Turini where God was smiling on us. Although Ana sat that one out!

We had the best time in Monaco.

Fresh from another lovely breakfast in Monaco, we headed out east along the coast and quickly arrived in Italy where we encountered some pretty awful rain. But, the Italian motorways near Turin don’t seem to have any spray, the road surface in fantastic. Boring for the non-driver, but us on the autostrada, we were all taken aback. Anyway, enough of that, we went through to St Vincent in northern Italy for a night and had maybe the best breakfast view ever?

Lets carry on in to Swizterland, over the St Bernadino pass and then to Germany, and our VPower 100 fuel – which we need over here, and E85!

With a sense of finality, we headed towards Baden Baden for the final night. We indulged in the final nights meal, a few glasses of wine with friends old and new, before rounding off with a gin at the hotel, ahead of the monumental drive home.

In what turned out to be 13 hours, the final drive was long but good. 2660 miles from door to door over the week with some incredible sights seen and some even better memories made. Laughs were plentiful, and still continue several days after.

The Litchfield tuned and maintained GTR was simply superb. It didn’t miss a beat and left a lot more expensive machinery in its wake. It needs a little more response below 3000rpm for roads like the Col de Turini, but as a fast road car, it’s simply epic.

Until the next adventure, maybe with slap! again. They were fantastic.

The post R35 GTR – Monaco bound first appeared on BlownByTwins.

How was the car?

In short, mega. The Lambda Sensor issue aside, it was totally different to the last trip. The power out of the corner was there, I didn’t have to wait for 5000rpm. If I had to downshift, it was 1 gear, not two. From 3000rpm there was usable power, but by 3500rpm it was singing. I actually kept the car on low boost just to enjoy it, 0.8bar, around 400bhp, it was plenty for the twisties! Don’t get me wrong, I did up the boost to 1.6bar on more than one occassion when the weather and the roads allowed.

The clutch was also a revelation, soft, progressive but gripped like a teenage boy when it needed too. Epic.

I can’t wait for the next road trip now with the new ECU, intake and drive by wire. Let’s have some fun.

How was the trip?

Rik from slap! does a staggeringly good job, he has a dedicated photographer in a chase car, plus his able assisstant, Dom, in the Yaris GR (amazing car!). The group is made up of eclectic mixes of people and cars from any all walks of life. The driving standards are high, too, which leads to a confidence in the group, and the radio chatter always promotes a giggle.

The routes are curated by Rik and the hotels are vetted prior to any trip, making it a great trip. Cars are parked in safe places, whilst we indulge in some lovely food and drinks, talking about the days activities.

Roll on 2025.

The post Scotland – April 2024 first appeared on BlownByTwins.

My usual bunch of reprobate mates were there, at least the nothern ones, and we had an EPIC time – and more importantly, the R34 was sensational. Absolutely sensational, it stayed with a very competently driven M3 Competition, which was only 4 weeks old at the time of the trip. Staggeringly good for 22 year old car, and 25+ year old design, against the best of the BMW lineup in 2023.

The trip unofficially started with a meet up at the Lancaster House Hotel, suffice to say, was a quiet and tranquil setting until we arrived (atrocious prices in the restaurant by the way!). Food and drink was flowing and laughs were being had, until the urge to have an ice cream came over a few of us. Thankfully Paul doesn’t drink, so we hopped in the Ta-Ta-Tekniks Audi, complete with remap and buggered turbo and set forth to find a Sainsbury’s Local. All I’m going to say is that we got lost, did a three point turn in the University grounds, got our Magnums and laughed about how his turbo sounds a little bit like Ric Flair.

But the first true morning was great. The excitment was building and everyone was set. The weather was typically that of northern England, but we didn’t care. In the car park was a perfect mix of cars and company. Aston Martin V8 Vantage F1, V12 Superleggera, Yaris GR, BMW M3 Competition, Porsche Boxster 718, 991.2 GT3, etc. It was brilliant.

Departing to the north, we convoyed keeping to a steady speed limit … ish … and stopped up at Abington, and the usual ribbing took place. We were filled up and emptied out if you know what I mean, ready to hit the twisties.

What followed was a perfect run across the roads to our first night at the Athol Palace, a lovely, stately home looking hotel that can only be described as fur coat and no knickers! Incredible to look at, scenic grounds, theatrical entrance to an seasoned foyer. Bar and restaurant are both well appointed and comfortable. The rooms, though, are crap. Make no bones about it! The bed was so hard I slept on the floor as it was softer, and the water pressure was so bad, that it makes my dog’s sneeze seem like a cannon. But, the company maketh the night, as ever.

Early rise for the meat of the trip Glenshee and out to the west coast, to Garve. Not Algarve, just Garve. My favourite road in Scotland. Braemar is stunning. Sweeping bends, great visibility for the RB26 to sing. 8000rpm through the gears, twin turbos helping my fuel out the tank, always a pleasure…

The third day took us back out south through Aviemore (shout out to a previous hotel, The Macdonald Aviemore Resort, where paint comes off in your hand and the night storage heater only works in the day). And down some more incredible views, more fuel, more boost, more revs, more smiles and more laughs. Another shout out to Martin, who according to legend, is just departing Abington Services at this point.

The A82 is amongst my favourite roads because it has everything. Undulations, camber, long bends, fast bends, viewing areas. Everything. The best part of the viewing areas is hearing your mates arrive from 1-2 miles away because of how the noise carries. If you can only drive two roads in Scotland, it’s this and the Old Military Road of Braemar.

Before we knew it, we were on our final day. A good feed the night before, where Eddie consumed 95% of the bread in Scotland, or so it seemed, with a few drinks in the bar to round off a spectacular trip. We had a good breakfast and took scenic route back to our finishing point at Abington (for me) and Gretna (for everyone else). Some of the roads that slap! seems to find are just amazing, and I’m not going to tarnish that by publicising them on here, but they’re roads that not many others will know about and they’re not common knowledge and certainly not part of the NC500. They’re better.

It was a wonderful trip with the slappers and it was time to go home – all too soon it was over.

The post Scotland ’23 with Slappers! first appeared on BlownByTwins.