Snow Day Blogging

snow

It’s a snow today today and the GT86 is safely tucked up in the garage. I had some minor scratches sorted in the week by Smart Insurance, who I can highly recommend, and while they were here (they work at your home or workplace) they pointed out that the lacquer had come off various small places on the front. I hadn’t noticed this before but took it into Toyota yesterday to see whether we can claim on the warranty. Photos were taken and  sent to head office. They didn’t say no, so fingers crossed…  The car has to go in for a power steering recall anyway but I have to say that after 41,000 miles it is still running absolutely perfectly and is still a great practical sports car. That said, we are thinking of changing it before the summer to get another convertible as we have a trip planned to Tuscany.

Before that though we are planning a drive down to Oliva in Spain at Easter and a snow day is just the opportunity I need to plan the trip. 1,800 km each way, so 600 km per day should be feasible. We did contemplate doing it in two days but that would curtail the lunch stops and we do like a nice lunch. My brother-in-law and my nephew did it in one go in a Porsche 911, but they could not sit down for a week after that. The last time we did it was in the Honda S2000 over the Pyrenees, but that was a more leisurely drive. This trip we want to get there quickly.

The idea was to have a couple of weeks of warmth and sunshine, so it was a bit of surprise to hear that the F1 testing in Barcelona this week was more or less snowed off. That’s not supposed to happen!

The timing of this trip isn’t perfect as I’ll miss the first hillclimb event of the season at Loton Park and I’ve also realised that we’ll have to be careful about the hotel choice on 24 March as it will need to be showing the Australian Grand Prix on TV for breakfast on the Sunday morning. First GP of the year. How will Alonso do? Very exciting! Very exciting too to see an Alfa logo once again on a GP car. Good luck to Sauber!

Sauber Alfa Romeo

If you read my other blog about my postcard collection – Postcards for Petrolheads  – you will have seen quite a few Italian cars featured recently. This morning I posted my Iso Grifo card. What a find! And I’ve also just bought one with a  Facel Vega on it, which is a coincidence since I mentioned that rare marque only last week on here.  Here’s the Facel Vega postcard which I will be blogging about after working out the route to Oliva.

Facel Vega postcard

OK, let’s get planning; route, tolls, restaurants and hotels. I do love a road trip!

 

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