Occasional Observations

Getting up to the superb Timberline Lodge on Oregon's Mt. Hood was a real highlight from this trip. Gerry and I briefly reprised the Alpentour with a jaunt out from Portland to the lodge, which stands at exactly 6000ft on Oregon?s highest mountain (11,249ft).

The road up to the lodge is completely different to those Italian passes: big, sweeping 70mph bends. Gerry?s chocolate-brown 560SL was barely ticking over on the way up. It was still a chance to feel the difference between the 280SL and the 560SL - the latter is better balanced but with the fairly high, freeway-geared final drive, fairly lazy. Definitely a Sunset Boulevard cruising car more than a Dolomite pass runner.

It would have been fun to hustle the 500E up the road towards the lodge ? except for those pesky speed limits. Next trip to Portland, I'd like to conquer Mt. St. Helens. The lava dome is growing ? still has some way to go before the mountain regains its pointy profile that disappeared in a puff of smoke and a bang in 1982 (Later correction: ahem, actually 1980).

Labels: Alpentour, oldtimer

Until tonight, my last ride in a Mercedes-Benz 500E was waaaay back when I was too young to appreciate it. It was when I was a news reporter on the UK's Autocar magazine (oh, the irony), and one came in on test in late 1990, when they first hit the streets. The finer details escape me but it was a very short-term test, a couple of days or so ...

Apart from the car being black, expensive as hell, and virtually hand-built by a famous German car company that wasn't actually called M-B, I thought of the 500E as the bastard big brother of our long-term 300E-24. I'd hardly gotten over the "hey, I'm 23 years old and driving this MERC!!!!!!" (me) about the -24, aka "Hnnnh, see you've borrowed your daddy's car you little ***t!" (everyone else) when this honking 5-litre monster arrives on the block.

I didn't appreciate it then ... the LHD thing was so inconsiderate.

Some 15-plus years later, back in an immaculate 500E that still feels tight despite the years, I'm starting to realize what I missed when I was pimping that test car along the Chelsea Embankment all those years ago. In short: I should have been headed out of London - headed for the Welsh mountains.

Labels: oldtimer, petrolhead

The Trabi Convertible auction has ended - with hajo030176 being the highest of the 38 bidders and picking up the car for a snip at EUR 2138. That's waay more than I was prepared to stump for a 17-year-old Trabant. It was, I must say, one of the best examples of a Trabi Ostermann convertible: one of the very last Trabis which appeared to be in immaculate condition. Maybe a little bit too good for the Alpentour 2008.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead

Two days to go on the Trabi auction and it's parked at EUR800. Much as I'm tempted to lay down a four-figure bid to secure the car (it's my 40th birthday today, so nyah), the domestic debate over what is going in our garage goes on. So no more bids, yet, from me...

Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead

One thing that's really noticeable about driving a 20-plus-year-old car is how automatic gearshifts have advanced. The 280SL boasted a four-speed automatic, pretty advanced for '84, but by modern standards, not so responsive.

Step on the gas when the straight six is spinning at less than 3500 rpm in any gear and you get what we named "Flounder" mode. For a more brisk pace the only answer is to manually shift down, as the 'box wouldn't kick down from S to the higher of the two L gears.

So we named these gears:

Oberflounder

Mittelflounder

Niederflounder

After that, the standard comment on a lack of grunt-on-demand was: "Oh, you must be in Mittel...." etc.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

It looks like someone else is more determined to have the Trabi than me and fair enough, my needs are for next summer. Broaching the subject at home last night wasn't exactly greeted with a rapturous response...

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

The Trabi auction is getting interesting - with five full days to go, my early high offer has been beaten. I'm way within my maximum price comfort zone and have the best part of a year to buy a Trabi 'vert, but will keep you posted on the auction.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

The Alpentour really has gotten under my skin. Found myself bidding this morning on an eBay auction for a pristine-looking 1989 Trabi convertible - with a TüV through 2009 it should be good for some topless motoring this summer AND the Alpentour next year.

I'm only sharing the link on a need-to-know basis - the fewer bidders, the better! If you want it, email me.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

Picture the scene: a line-up of lovingly-restored classic cars, like early 70s Mercedes-Benz SLs, roadster and convertible E-type Jaguars, a Porsche 356, a Alfa Spyder, and ... a Dutton.

A what? You may well ask. It's a kit car that was popular in the UK in the 70s and 80s, usually cobbled together from old Ford Escorts including the classic crossflow Ford Kent engine, and not forgetting the tail-lights from a Reliant Robin. It's loosely related to the Caterham 7, which itself was based on the old Lotus 7.

Quite a pedigree.

However, not quite so easy to simply stand on the loud pedal and see the Dutton recede in your mirrors, except on the autobahn or auto stradale, and that's not the point of a classic car tour of the Alps.

Point-to-point on mountain passes, a well-driven Dutton is very quick indeed - and the driver on our tour was in that class.

As the proud owner put it, the Dutton is a "mountain runner". Or a cockroach - they're both bug-eyed, ugly, and extremely hard to kill: the Dutton is made from fiberglass. It's also fast, just like a 'roach, and in the case of the Dutton we had on the Alpentour, it even had the mottled orange/brown color. Here's a picture of an American cockroach - unfortunately we didn't take any of the actual Dutton but I'm also linking to a similar one...

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

Next year will be the 10th annual Alpentour, and Gerry's fifth: he and I have been starting to think about a suitable car to enter into the 2008 event. It has to be a convertible and of course a head-turner - we ain't got the money to buy into the Ferrari league. Ideas? Email me.

Meanwhile as we ripped up the A95 autobahn on the way home, our mirrors were suddenly full (and I mean full) of silver Lamborghini: not any old Lambo but a Gallardo. He came out of nowhere - and was just as quickly gone. By the time we'd found the camera and turned it on, the Lambo was already vanishing. Not surprising for a car with a v-max of 300-plus kmh, on a pretty open autobahn.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, Lambo, oldtimer, petrolhead

A weekend participating in the Freising Oldtimerfreunde Alpentour 2007 rally with my colleague Gerry has reawakened my interest in cars and is probably going to prove expensive. After two days of cranking up and down Italian mountain passes in a 1984 Mercedes 280SL my interest has been piqued and I'm hooked (again) by wind-in-the-hair motoring. We weren't bothered by the little bit of rain, again it was Italian rain.

More to come soon - meanwhile here's one of the 100-plus snaps: on the Austrian/Italian border on the 2509-meter Timmelsjoch pass.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead

Heading home after some errands on Saturday morning and we pass a rosso red Ferrari 355 tooling up the autobahn at around 130km/h - occupied by a rather elderly couple looking decidedly uncomfortable as they endured the firm ride and roar of the Italian stallion.

"If that's the price you pay for owning a Ferrari, I'd rather not have one," quipped Andrea...

Labels: auto, oldtimer