Audrey does Europe or Landshut 2005

[JamesL]

Got back from Germany on Monday night, having completed 1932 miles in about 10 days.

As I planned, this included some great roads - including three alpine passes (Stelvio (9,000ft), Jaufen and Brenner) and 8 countries (France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium)

Landshut was a blast - I have seen only 3-4 Pagodas in one place at the same time before. Landshut had about 120. We could not stop smiling!

I'm planning a write up for "Pagoda World", possibly in 2 parts, "the trip" and the "25th SL Club Pagode rally in Landshut" so I will not give too much away here.

I also kept some stats that might interest some:
Big bits of the trip:
London - Folkestone (74m at 40mph)
Nice - Lugano (car was on a train from Folestone to Nice) (273m at 52mph)
Lugano - Merano (200m at 30mph)
Merano - Salzburg (200m at 33mph)
Salzburg - Landshut (121m at 54mph)
Rally drive around landshut (131m at 33mph)
Landshut - Luxembourg (380m at 48mph (55 if the Stuttgart jam is ignored))
Luxembourg - Calais (267m at 62mph)
Folkestone - London (74m at 44mph)
 - Timings include stops for fuel, tolls, coffee etc.
Big traffic jams: 1 (sat outside Stuttgart for an hour (unfortunate as the 26th SL Club Pagode Rally is there next year and I really hope to go)) - however, we got nowhere close to overheating in travelling 10km in an hour
Average speed for the long bits of the trip above (exlcudes excursions etc): 43mph
Average speed excluding the 700 mile motorway sprint home: 39mph - so we were genreally sitting at 70mph+ for the better part of 700 miles (53mph)
Fuel consumption: 22.23mpg(imperial)/7.73l per hundred km
Oil consumption: about 1.5litres

Car worked a dream considering it was heavily loaded - it started sounding a little strange at higher speeds/revs about 100 miles from home and we felt a little like we were nursing her home.

We hauled over the length of the alps from Nice to Salzburg with luggage for 10 days and made it home with the addition of 24 Riedel wine glasses and 24 drinks tumblers :oops:

"Audrey" is having a well earned rest and being booked in for some TLC.

I appreciate those that make different choices as my car will never win a concours event but all I can say is "drive the damn thing"....

Oh, and in some semblance of order, here are some pictures, as requested! http://james.mysnaps.org.uk/c647628.html

[norton]

Great photo's Thanks for posting them. Some things I noticed, Nice range of colors, off side mirror's on many cars, No bumper guards, or side marker lights,(as it should be) and no hard tops?
Did anybody show there car with the hard top

Mike Halleck
Chesterfield Mi
71 280SL
68 250SL (parts car)
94 E320 Coupe

[JamesL]

Bumper guards and side indicators are a US thing. Not standard spec for a Euro car, if I understand correctly. I think these were added to meet US regs

There were a couple of "returnees" though - the black car with the polished alloys was US spec, if I recall

One hard top - but this is a UK car no soft-top (Coupe?) so either they came with the hard roof or risked getting wet if it rained (which it did on Sunday)

One UK car had a (owner designed) tonneau cover and 2 of our hosts had what i can only describe as "shower covers". It clipped into the trunk-lid/soft-top well junction and wrapped over and around the front of the windscreen and hooked onto side mirrors and door handles. It was worn with the top down so was like a frameless cover for a parked car - a cross between a tonneau and soft-top. Looked a pretty neat solution

[Ben]

Sounds like a great trip !

Thanks for the photos and the statistics too !!  All very interesting !

I see only 1 230SL with the chrome trim on the upper rear soft top bow ! Mine is missing but I really think it finishes the car off well so I'll add thgat to my list !

Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.