Happy Christmas!
Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 6:02 pm
Just thought I'd take the opportunity of wishing all of you a Very Merry Christmas and for 2019 my best wishes for the least troublesome, least expensive and most enjoyable year of classic Alfa ownership and driving pleasure.
After my year in 2018 I'm hoping to find myself in a slightly (understatement!) less penurious state next year (hopefully not difficult) with fewer problems and more of the 'out there on the open road' stuff that Alfa ownership is surely meant to be about!
Which is actually what I've just accomplished in the dying days of the year when I took the 164 Cloverleaf on a 24-hour, 500-mile round trip to Cornwall on what is jocularly known as a 'Santa Dash' and I have to say the 'Leaf wasn't a bad sleigh for the mission of present delivery to friends and family west of the River Tamar. The weather might have been foul but, as the photos hopefully testify, the 164 is anything but a garage queen.
My preferred route to Cornwall tends to see me avoid the usual A303/A30 routes through the West Country - instead I divert off the M5 towards Minehead to follow the glorious A39 which some of you may well be acquainted with. This route is real driver country following, as it does, the north coastal roads of Somerset, Devon and the top half of Cornwall. VERY Alfa-friendly since it almost exactly follows the topography of the landscape. So, no boring dual carriageways cut out of the fields - this road twists and turns virtually the whole way. It's also FAR less trafficked than the A303/A30 even during the peak of the tourist summer season - so you can imagine how clear it is in the Winter.
My absolute favourite stretch arrives as you leave Porlock to climb the celebrated 1-in-4 Porlock Hill and thence across the 'roof' of Exmoor for ten miles to Lynton & Lynmouth. If you seek the nearest thing to a classic tarmac rally stage without going to the Isle of Man then this should be your default destination for rewarding two-lane blacktop! Fast, challenging and it really demands your concentration - the 'Leaf is absolutely in its element up there. The way it buried its face into the tarmac and refused to let go last week, in spite of the stormy moorland weather, was the nearest automotive analogy to a terrier 'terrorising' a defenceless slipper... i.e. the road stood NO chance!
Anyhoo, next time you go to Cornwall give the A39 a shot if you don't already know it. It's also extremely scenic when the weather's favourable and you're not in too much of a hurry/too fired up...
In the meantime, as I said earlier - a Happy Christmas to you all and may all your restorations come swiftly to fruition in 2019.
After my year in 2018 I'm hoping to find myself in a slightly (understatement!) less penurious state next year (hopefully not difficult) with fewer problems and more of the 'out there on the open road' stuff that Alfa ownership is surely meant to be about!
Which is actually what I've just accomplished in the dying days of the year when I took the 164 Cloverleaf on a 24-hour, 500-mile round trip to Cornwall on what is jocularly known as a 'Santa Dash' and I have to say the 'Leaf wasn't a bad sleigh for the mission of present delivery to friends and family west of the River Tamar. The weather might have been foul but, as the photos hopefully testify, the 164 is anything but a garage queen.
My preferred route to Cornwall tends to see me avoid the usual A303/A30 routes through the West Country - instead I divert off the M5 towards Minehead to follow the glorious A39 which some of you may well be acquainted with. This route is real driver country following, as it does, the north coastal roads of Somerset, Devon and the top half of Cornwall. VERY Alfa-friendly since it almost exactly follows the topography of the landscape. So, no boring dual carriageways cut out of the fields - this road twists and turns virtually the whole way. It's also FAR less trafficked than the A303/A30 even during the peak of the tourist summer season - so you can imagine how clear it is in the Winter.
My absolute favourite stretch arrives as you leave Porlock to climb the celebrated 1-in-4 Porlock Hill and thence across the 'roof' of Exmoor for ten miles to Lynton & Lynmouth. If you seek the nearest thing to a classic tarmac rally stage without going to the Isle of Man then this should be your default destination for rewarding two-lane blacktop! Fast, challenging and it really demands your concentration - the 'Leaf is absolutely in its element up there. The way it buried its face into the tarmac and refused to let go last week, in spite of the stormy moorland weather, was the nearest automotive analogy to a terrier 'terrorising' a defenceless slipper... i.e. the road stood NO chance!
Anyhoo, next time you go to Cornwall give the A39 a shot if you don't already know it. It's also extremely scenic when the weather's favourable and you're not in too much of a hurry/too fired up...
In the meantime, as I said earlier - a Happy Christmas to you all and may all your restorations come swiftly to fruition in 2019.