A rather hectic three months later!
After fitting the new tyres in June, I'd booked the car in for a full alignment and geo re-set in July - It wasn't too far from factory settings, but the car seems to track that little bit straighter now.
Next up was the aforementioned August European Trip – What a blast!
Following a last minute TLC service at Mini (a big one, with plugs / all filters & oil all changed), there was a slight hiccup when they discovered that the air conditioning condenser was u/s – Apparently the pipework had cracked, but thankfully they were able to get a replacement fitted under the extended warranty, and the system recharged / tested prior to our departure.
With this sorted, we caught the overnight ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden and proceeded to drive the 642 km down to Stuttgart – The Mini took the journey in its stride, and proved to be surprisingly effective on the derestricted autobahn sections, hitting a GPS verified 245 kph at one point (although 190-200 kph was a more comfortable cruising speed).
After a couple of days taking in Stuttgart (the Porsche museum is worth a visit), it was off down to Innsbruck, and then over the Timmelsjoch pass into Italy.
Timmelsjoch was great to drive – A real variance in temperature; 14.5C at the bottom, and 4.5 C at the top! There was rain / mist, so caution was the order of the day, but it was still good fun.
After a night in Merano, it was up & over Stelvio – I can’t recommend it highly enough for the Mini.
It was possibly a little too tight / unsighted on the Merano side, but heading down the Bormio side had a fantastic combination of sweeping curves / tunnels cut in the rock / well sighted hairpins.
We had a few days in Lake Como to recover, before heading to France through the Mont Blanc tunnel, and up to Adenau in Germany thereafter.
Arrived at the ‘ring to find a rather wet track, and rather smashed Porsche 911 limping back to the car park. I used to be a regular ‘ringer’, and have probably completed 100-150 laps over the past 15 years I’ve be going, so I wasn’t too bothered about taking a fully loaded Mini on a soaking track and pootling round at 50% speed.
Instead, we visited the Pistenklause for the obligatory steak on stone dinner, and I nabbed a rather dark shot next to the M Test Centre.
Returned to Ijmuiden the following day, and made our way back to Newcastle.
Overall, we covered 3500 kms over the 12 days away – The Mini never missed a beat, taking everything asked of it in its stride.
If anyone's thinking about a mainland Euro excursion - Do it!
Happy to give any advice I can to help in the planning