Why are road trips so alluring?

[jamcg]

The only redemption would if I made a YouTube video called "I bought the cheapest Smart car on eBay and drove to Italy for a pizza " and hope it goes viral so that the monetisation pays for the suffering inflicted by driving.

“My brother bought the cheapest Ferrari 360 in the uk and fixed it himself. Will it make it to Maranello and back??”

[Gavster]

The only redemption would if I made a YouTube video called "I bought the cheapest Smart car on eBay and drove to Italy for a pizza " and hope it goes viral so that the monetisation pays for the suffering inflicted by driving.

“My brother bought the cheapest Ferrari 360 in the uk and fixed it himself. Will it make it to Maranello and back??”

Hehe, true you should write my youTube titles

[Gavster]

Calculated that driving to my dad's instead of flying saves about £3-500 and a tonne of CO2 compared to flying.

How far is that, and is that based on several people? I did some rough calcs and it seemed that flying would be more CO2 efficient for travelling alone for Italy.

[Beany]

The only redemption would if I made a YouTube video called "I bought the cheapest Smart car on eBay and drove to Italy for a pizza " and hope it goes viral so that the monetisation pays for the suffering inflicted by driving.

“My brother bought the cheapest Ferrari 360 in the uk and fixed it himself. Will it make it to Maranello and back??”

Hehe, true you should write my youTube titles

Don't forget a big red arrow pointing to the engine cover with "FIRE!", and have, later in the video, someone referring to the SMG hydraulic accumulator as being 'fire' as in good.

You know, standard shock clickbait thumbnail that apparently youtube insists on if you want to be in the algorithm these days, even if your content is replacing chips on an Amstrad CPC64....

[Sundayjumper]

Calculated that driving to my dad's instead of flying saves about £3-500 and a tonne of CO2 compared to flying.

How far is that, and is that based on several people? I did some rough calcs and it seemed that flying would be more CO2 efficient for travelling alone for Italy.

IIRC Copenhagen, and it’s a family of five ? Five people in a car as opposed to one makes a massive difference.

[Sundayjumper]

Anyway, looks like consensus is that you’re driving to Italy

You could do it in a cheap cayenne turbo:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204738478084

[DeskJockey]

Calculated that driving to my dad's instead of flying saves about £3-500 and a tonne of CO2 compared to flying.

How far is that, and is that based on several people? I did some rough calcs and it seemed that flying would be more CO2 efficient for travelling alone for Italy.

IIRC Copenhagen, and it’s a family of five ? Five people in a car as opposed to one makes a massive difference.

This is correct. Door to door and back is about 1500 miles. With five people that's a simple decision for anything longer than a week, and that's before you factor in avoiding the hassle or airports, hire cars, and unpleasant departure/arrival times.

[jamcg]

Anyway, looks like consensus is that you’re driving to Italy

You could do it in a cheap cayenne turbo:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204738478084

Your 911/aston both need more miles on them

[Gavster]

and unpleasant departure/arrival times.

That too. The cheap flight to Italy (£200 return including luggage) departs at something like 5.30am, which means I'd need to leave for the airport around 2.30am. Proper middle-of-the-night travel times.

[Sundayjumper]

Anyway, looks like consensus is that you’re driving to Italy

You could do it in a cheap cayenne turbo:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204738478084

Your 911/aston both need more miles on them

Fag packet calc was the the 360 would drink ~£1k of fuel on the trip. Aston would be similar, the 911 should be noticeably better, maybe £700.

All of which are a LOT more than a £200 plane ticket. Obviously.

[jamcg]

Anyway, looks like consensus is that you’re driving to Italy

You could do it in a cheap cayenne turbo:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204738478084

Your 911/aston both need more miles on them

Fag packet calc was the the 360 would drink ~£1k of fuel on the trip. Aston would be similar, the 911 should be noticeably better, maybe £700.

All of which are a LOT more than a £200 plane ticket. Obviously.

In which case- My brother bought the cheapest broken Lexus hybrid on auto trader and fixed it himself? https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... e=&fromsra

[MikeHunt]

Ive spent the weekend in Wales on a driving adventure through some of the best driving routes the country has to offer. Rather than starting a new thread, this seems like as good a place as any to talk about it. We started in the Brecon Beacons, tackled the iconic Black Mountain Pass. From there, we journeyed north through the picturesque Elan Valley, eventually making our way to Snowdonia, where we ended our day near Conwy. Lunch at Woodlands Caravan Park near Devil's Bridge is a recommended break for anyone in the area, with a warm welcome from the park's staff who were very accommodating to our group of cars.

After a night in Snowdon filled with car talk and a few beers, we set off on a scenic loop around Betws-y-Coed, over the Pen-y-Pass, and across to Porthmadog. Saturday's sunny weather made me miss my MX-5, especially on the narrower roads. However, Sunday's rain (it rains without fail every time Im in Wales) made me appreciate the XDrive and the tintop of my BMW.

It was good to see a variety of cars on this trip, from a beat of an AMG GT R, Yaris GR, Civic Type R, and Giulia Quadrifoglio, to the popular BMWs, including an M3, several M2s, 140is, and a Z4. It was fascinating to compare my BMW 550 to the others, especially the Mercedes, and I was pleased to find that my car held its own, even in the dry conditions.

On trips like this you really do tend to gain an appreciation the car. The BMW is a heavy best but can be engaging any is more than just a power lump or European muscle car as it handles and gives satisfying involvement. The comfort and luxury features, like the massage seats and auto drive option, made long journeys effortless. Last year, I managed 700 miles in a day in the MX-5, but the BMW is in a different league, offering the potential for seamless cross-European trips.

Overall, the North Wales Driving Weekend was a fantastic experience. I met many like-minded enthusiasts and gained a new appreciation for my car. It's not just a powerful machine but a true road trip companion, blending performance with luxury. It's likely as capable of a cross-Europe trip as any traditional GT car. I feel incredibly lucky to own such a machine and look forward to many more adventures on the road. The event was organised by a fellow petrolhead who does a great job of bringing enthusiasts together for unforgettable drives.

[nuttinnew]

(but was the text written by AI? ).

[Carlos]

I do think some people have an innate sense of adventure. The journey becomes as or more important than the destination.

I get it but many don't!

It's the same reason I enjoyed caravanning and the motorhome so much.

[Nefarious]

Make it make sense.

There's another reason it makes sense, and it's nothing to do with your holiday itself.

We have these cars for a *reason* (I appreciate you're planning to use a borrowed car, but go with it for the sake of artistic licence), and it can't be justified in terms of fuel consumption or load space. We own, care for, tolerate the unreliability and occasional big bills these cars because they are more than transportation appliances. Not all the exact motivations are the same for all of us, but variously: ownership makes us feel special, like it has been a choice rather than a default option; we like being part of the ownership experience beyond pure utility and dropping the thing off at the dealer every 10k miles; we like activities that involve the cars as a salient feature, rather than just the mechanism to get to the activity; we appreciate that our cars are more than the sum of their parts, and that they have been created to maximise the experience, rather than minimise manufacturing cost - we like their souls.
The reality of "special" car ownership is that the vast majority of miles are humdrum. Even F40 drivers will likely spend more time in traffic jams hot and uncomfortable with that V8 needlessly glugging super than clipping the apex at Paddock Hill bend. For those of us that work on our own cars, skinned knuckles hurt just as much on a TVR as they do on a Corsa. But all of those things are a little more tolerable when you're with the friend that carried you to the south of France, the mate that helped you race that Porsche up the Stelvia Pass, the partner-in-crime that you took out one night just for the hell of it to get fish and chips from the opposite end of the country.
So if you ask for justification for taking your car instead of a plane on an already-planned trip, you're maybe asking the wrong question. Maybe the question should be "I've got my keys. Where we going?"

[speedingfine]

Driving to the N24 in the S Class tmrw, can confirm very appealing

[nuttinnew]

Driving to the N24 in the S Class tmrw, can confirm very appealing

Nice!

[Rich B]

Holidays where you're in control of the travel are just more fun because you have the element of risk in getting it right/wrong.

Getting on a organised tour bus and travelling to see something in a foreign country is dull compared to hiring a car/going out on your own to work out the public transport.

Driving your own car includes this fun/risk element, along with the actual fun of doing something you enjoy - driving. Double fun.

[nuttinnew]

What happens after Sunday?

I fly to Italy for a month

A pity you couldn't make it work as a road trip
Also a pity you can't load a car on the train at Ebbsfleet, but then you'd prefer Stratford or so anyway I guess. Hmm, I wonder how foot passengeering a train compares to flying?

Some family members have gone up to Lincs. today, not far in mileage terms but it tool many, many hours. I'd say given that I'd rather go abroad, but the A2 has been closed in both directions for a long time after a crash necessitating the air ambulance and so other routes are now fubared because traffic's got to go somewhere...

What's needed is a microlight/quadricycle combo thingummybob.

[Gavster]

It simply didn’t make any sense unfortunately. My aim is to live in a specific part of Italy for a month which is 1362 miles away. If it was a holiday with a decent amount of time then a road trip could have been on the cards. However the cost difference between driving vs flight + train made it a no brainer.