On the 8th September, my brother Richard and I embarked on our third attempt at completing the bi-annual Ten Countries Run. This year we used my 1978 registered Triumph Stag V8 – on the previous two occasions we had attempted the run (2007 &2009) in my 1976 Spitfire 1500, only to abandon them due to breakdowns.
The Stag was well prepared and I was carrying all sorts of spares including Alternator, Power Steering Pump, Fuel Pump, Electronic Ignition module, oils, water etc. We departed from my home near Maidstone at 6.30am, accompanied by my neighbour Andy in his Toledo 1300 - a first timer on this run, although like me he had successfully completed the Round Britain Reliability Run last year. We arrived at The Plough, Crews Hill where we just managed to squeeze in a bacon sandwich before turning around and retracing our steps going back past Maidstone to Dover to catch the 12.15 ferry to Calais.
Our first stop should have been Steenvoorde, but we missed it and carried on to the 2nd stop at Charleville Meziere,we met up with Andy there and had a coffee break and rest for an hour. At our next stop Bartenheim, we parked in a large car park by a Kart Circuit where we attempted to get a couple of hours kip only to be woken by low flying jets at 5am!
At 5.15 having made sure our Swiss Vignette was firmly stuck to the windscreen and proceeded to Basel where we were stopped at the border and questioned by the guard who wanted to know if there was a rally on as there had been a lot of old cars going through!
The route book then took us up the Brunig, Grimsel and Furka Passes. These were magnificent roads with fantastic views and hairpins, which the Stag took in its stride, although being an auto it did tend to stay in 2nd and 1st gears most of the time! Andy was following in his Toledo and we pulled over occasionally to wait for him and his wife Di to catch up. We missed the Gotthard Pass, trying to be clever we decided to use the St Gotthard Tunnel not realising the Control Stop was at the start of the Pass above us! Rather than retrace our steps we continued to the next Control Stop at San Bernardino using the old road, again a lovely road with lots of hairpins through the tree line. We were supposed to approach the Stelvio Pass through the Bernina Pass and Livigno, but decided to make up time going on through St Moritz to Zernez and approached through the Umbrail and Ofen Passes. The car struggled up the last part of Stelvio, I suspect due to the altitude, some power was lost and it was getting very hot, so we had a long break at the top having a superb sausage roll from one of the street vendors there. We continued down Stelvio to our overnight hotel stop near Cavalese in Castello Di Fiemme where a number of other teams were also staying. Having stuffed ourselves with the ‘Stelvio sausage’ we didn’t have dinner, just beer!
The following morning we had a superb continental breakfast accompanied by a lovely Apfelstrudel in the hotel and departed for our Saturday start point at Passo di Lavaze. After climbing the pass and descending down it we used the old route to Vipitano which took us alongside the busy and congested autoroute with little delay. On the way to Vipitano we picked up a third car for our little convoy, Sam Shattock and Keith Bennett in their TR4a which was suffering from overheating problems and appreciated our leisurely pace! Halfway up the Jaufen Pass we stopped in a lay-by and Andy brewed up the kettle on his stove for coffees and teas. It was a typically English scene enhanced by Andy & Di producing picnic chairs from their car boot! After climbing to the top we started our climb up the Timmelsjoch (2509m) – an arduous but far more enjoyable run than Stelvio. We stopped halfway up to give the cars a breather but it was well worth the climb
The descent from the Timmelsjoch was as enjoyable as the climb up and we descended through the skiing resorts of Obergurgl and Solden to join the Innsbruck to Bregenz autoroute collecting an Austrian Vignette from a BP Station on the way to Liechtenstein,
We let the Sat Nav find our way out of Liechtenstein and continued on towards our next overnight Hotel stop in Lautrach, Germany We arrived at the hotel at around 7pm, where we had a very welcome beer or two followed by an excellent dinner and early night. Richard and I had our photo taken by Ellis Stokes next to the Stag as this was the furthest we had achieved so far in a Ten Countries Run!
Up at the crack of dawn – to be met by a welcome cup of tea brewed by Andy as we were sharing a 2 bed roomed apartment with him and Di. After a welcome shower I went down to do the usual car check, Oil, Water, Tyres, Food etc. Whilst down there I loaned the use of my Compressor to fellow entrant Steve Radley as one of his tyres was low and his spare was already punctured. After a while it was apparent no more air was going into the tyre, the valve had split and this now left him in an even worse predicament. I was pleased to hear from him later in the run that he managed to borrow two rear wheels from a couple of donor’s for his Mk1 2000.
After another excellent breakfast we left for the Sunday start point at Aichstetten, only a few miles away from our hotel, which gave us a nice early start for the day’s run up to the final overnight stop and finish at Rolduc. We had a good run up through this part of Germany with the hood down until we reached the next control point at Pirmasens. Where we refuelled both ourselves and the car, we left on the next leg to Spa. On the way we were hit by torrential rain for the next half hour or so, reducing our speed to a necessary crawl. I was told later that some of our fellow travellers were not so lucky and got caught with their hoods down.
On entering Belgium we let the Sat Nav lead us to the next control point – Spa – so I chose the Circuit de Spa Francorchamps from the Sat Nav menu and it lead us off at an earlier junction than the Road Book suggested, taking us along some very quiet straight roads to a rear entrance for the circuit where we could take a suitable picture of the cars and listen to Porsche cars racing on the circuit.
Our final leg took us back into Germany through some heavy traffic, only to find that the road we were supposed to take was closed, again, Sat Nav came to our rescue taking us along some nice country roads into Kerkrade, the Netherlands, THE FINAL COUNTRY!!, and our final destination for the day and the official end of the run.
The car was pretty much faultless given the treatment it received in the Alpine Passes, it proved to be remarkably economical for a Triumph V8 Auto returning 27.5mpg average, confirming that the car does indeed have a 3.41 ratio Diff which also accounts for the 7% inaccuracy in the speedo and odometer.
The car required no top ups of oil, auto or power steering fluids and the tyres kept their pressures, which was a surprise as at home, they regularly need a bit of air each week. The car did use a half litre of coolant, but this was more likely the result of me stupidly leaving the expansion bottle cap off whilst checking the level in the radiator causing the bottle to fill rapidly and overspill. – Stag owners take note!
After an excellent buffet meal, lots of the local beer and a good night’s sleep we had a reasonable back to Calais. After stopping at a local wine store to fill up the back seat we arrived in time for our 2.15 ferry home. The Ferry departure was delayed for a couple of hours, and once near Dover the ship had to ‘heave to’ for an hour until a berth came free for it to dock. We remained in the restaurant having ‘eaten’ our way across the channel. We made the trip home to Maidstone up the A2 in record time!
Overall this was a great run, was great fun and gave us a great sense of achievement, our thanks go to the organisers Ellis Stokes,Andy Flexney, Paul Darbyshire and Rob Southern for all their hard work in making the 2011 run such a great success.
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