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Lotus in the Peak
28th - 30th June 2024

Fun covid19 activities.


PJT

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20 hours ago, PJT said:

Camping gear? S2 Exige!  Roof rack or trailer tent?  Or perhaps your camping alone with a one an tent and a full passenger seat.

Actually that was back in my S1. No roof rack, no trailer. Just a very small tent and every inch of space used.

 

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from kayj_prod 2015 trip (above)............
 

post-3273-0-75012800-1441629554_thumb.jpgI'm back! Well, I got back mid-day on Saturday and then headed straight out for a gig at 3pm, so was quite a hectic day. A strange coincidence that the client happened to be Norwegian!

 

I spent yesterday editing about 500 photos down to the 190 I have kept on my computer and the 40 highlights I have posted to Facebook. Maybe just a select few here!

 

Elsie behaved perfectly and any problems were either predictable or mine. I had one morning where she wouldn't start, having been out in the rain... just left her to dry while I spent more time in the hotel pool. Then there was the extra 154 miles due to me leaving the fuel cap at a petrol station! Maybe things are rattling a little more, but considering some of the roads travelled up in the mountains, she has done fantastically well. 

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My prediction of 3500 miles was almost spot on (well, I suppose if I hadn't have left the fuel cap behind, it would have been a little less). Fuel wise, my average over the whole trip looks like 50.5MPG! My best tank was 55.5. This was roof off but a steady 60MPH mainly, but also included 2nd 3rd gear sprints up hair pin mountain roads! My worst tank was 45.6 which correlates with my second worst tank; both through Germany doing 70+.  So 3544 miles on 319.2l is pretty damn good!

 

Elsie got lots of attention throughout the whole journey. Of course, the further north I went, the more surprised people were by my point of origin, but people were taking photos of the car on ferries, in car parks and all sorts. I could hear people asking each other 'what is it' and then recognising the badge. "Ahh, Lodus."

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The most boring part of the journey had to be the section from Rotterdam up to Odense in Denmark. It is pretty featureless. I was also a little underwhelmed by the Oresund bridge... Maybe it would have been more exciting if I hadn't been over it in a train last year, but I thought the transition between the tunnel section and the bridge section would be a little more thrilling. 

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The journey became more exhilarating once north of Lillehammer. Gradually the scenery became more and more stunning and I had to keep stopping to take in huge vistas.  I was also pretty blessed with the weather so I had to stop often for water. (I topped up Elsie once, though I think she was just at her normal level which seems to sit just above the minimum mark anyway.)

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Trollstigen was blissfully quiet as I headed up. I would have loved to have heard the sound from the bottom as I headed up. I wasn't being too aggressive with the throttle and brakes considering the whole journey, but I certainly enjoyed the road! (Clearly other people with a lot more horse power than me enjoy leaving Ss all the way up!)  I met one HGV on another mountain section and I have no idea how we got past each other. I swear I had half a tyre left on the tarmac as there was too great a drop off on to the verge for me to leave the road. Must have been a couple of centimetres between the lorry and me and the lorry and the armco.

 

The Lærdal tunnel was a bizarre experience. 15 miles in a  tunnel does rather feel like a journey through the earth. I was actually able to see it from both directions as the next tunnel on my route to Bergen was closed. I will never ever complain about detours here again. The detour route took about an additional 3 hours... BUT allowed me to see another mountain pass where I was driving with snow on either side of the road and massive blocks of ice still floating in the water.

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Two things I was very glad to have done to the car before this trip. Firstly, I had my seats refurbished with Probax design at Allon White. The seats felt firm but not hard and the shaping to the back really helped with hours behind the wheel day after day. I would really recommend any S1 owners with standard seats to get this done. Secondly, I fitted the VW really to be able to alter the intermittent wipe speed. There was a lot of fine drizzle at altitude so being able to put a slow wipe on was invaluable.

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Three slightly hairy moments: One night after a particularly hot day I was struggling to find a camp site and was getting really tired, I did a U turn and forgot to drive on the right for 50 m or so! It took a worryingly long time for me to work out why the car coming towards me was on the 'wrong' side. Second hairy moment joining a main route from a slip road and a small car was completely invisible in all my mirrors and hidden by the rear shell 'buttress'. Fortunately the driver was alert and moved over. Third hairy moment was on the ferry returning to the UK where a Swedish 1950s Mercedes (that looked like it might weigh about 2 tonnes) began reversing towards me after we had been packed in. Suffice to say my horn sounds quite loud inside a ferry!

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It was certainly the trip I had hoped for. I wouldn't have changed anything on my itinerary. I could have covered more miles per day, but this way I was able to stop and walk places. It was a shame I resorted to two extra hotel nights than I wanted due to a couple of days stormy weather, but the downside of an ultra small tent is that it just doesn't work if the weather is bad.

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It would be possible to reduce the overall driving distance by getting a ferry from Kiel in Germany up to Oslo, but half the fun is the journey! Obviously doing it in a Lotus is going to be the ideal for all of us, but the trip was made by the outstanding scenery and that looks the same from any car window. Besides, we all know hire cars are the fastest cars. 

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bump.  I hope you don’t mine.  I figured that during lockdown, these were just the sort of pictures and memories we needed.

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13 hours ago, DeanB said:

Love the plane Phil.  The paintjob is super cool.

Thanks Dean, I was quite taken by the look of it too. It's a bit of a homage to the real one that was sadly lost along with it's pilot in a crash in 2012, barely a year after restoration. Plenty of photos and info on the real one here for anyone interested:-

https://www.air-and-space.com/Goodyear F2G-2 NX5577N.htm

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So things are bad.  Just been clothes shopping at Hethel.  Someone come around and knock some sense into me, while remaining 2m away of course!🥺

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On 22/04/2020 at 11:34, Phil S1 said:

I have finally finished the Super Corsair, parts used in the construction this time were Correx, plywood (wing spar), balsa (spinner), two pop bottles (rear canopy section and engine fairing), the metal bottom of a Pringles tube and kebab sticks (pilot's seat), plastic drink straws (exhausts) and white cut vinyl for all the graphics. Thanks also to Laura for sorting me out with photo-shopped and resized prints for the engine and cockpit detail.

I still have the paper plans to build 2 other aircraft although I'm not sure I dare start building another one just yet 😁

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That looks superb matey. Well done, a true craftsman. I was sat under Derwent dam wall yesterday - on my own and it was a tad spooky, so do you think you could rattle me up a model Lancaster before lockdown ends, so I could have a little bit more fun than cycling in the Peaks without seeing a soul?

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1 hour ago, Mutley00 said:

That looks superb matey. Well done, a true craftsman. I was sat under Derwent dam wall yesterday - on my own and it was a tad spooky, so do you think you could rattle me up a model Lancaster before lockdown ends, so I could have a little bit more fun than cycling in the Peaks without seeing a soul?

Thanks Andrew, a Lancaster before lockdown ends! That might be a bit tricky 😄

I currently have plans printed off for Hawk and Sabre jets so one of those would most likely be the next build... hopefully not until Winter though, I want to get out and fly the ones I have built already!

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We're starting to work our way through a stack of model kits we have never got round to building.

Completed a 1/48 Spitfire and a 1/72 Hawk. Still have a 1/72 Lancaster, 1/48 GE Lightning, 1/48 SEPECAT Jaguar and a 1/32 Bf 109. Oh and a Stratos WRC car.......

My 13 year old son is taking charge so they are a bit 'rustic' 🤨 but good to see him getting into doing them.

Unearthed an airbrush and compressor I forgot I'd bought years ago so learning to use that.

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16 hours ago, Dr H said:

We're starting to work our way through a stack of model kits we have never got round to building.

Completed a 1/48 Spitfire and a 1/72 Hawk. Still have a 1/72 Lancaster, 1/48 GE Lightning, 1/48 SEPECAT Jaguar and a 1/32 Bf 109. Oh and a Stratos WRC car.......

My 13 year old son is taking charge so they are a bit 'rustic' 🤨 but good to see him getting into doing them.

Unearthed an airbrush and compressor I forgot I'd bought years ago so learning to use that.

Excellent Leigh, exactly the stuff that memories are made of. Some of my best memories are those with me and my dad building things.

Like you, I also have an unfinished Stratos kit that I really ought to get around to sometime. I'm sure yours will be finished before mine though 😄

 

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On 21 April 2020 at 12:48, timbo said:

I think I can cap all your efforts...

...every time anyone uses our vacuum cleaner one of the wheels falls off the little plastic axle. So I have just spent a gainful 1/2 hour or so on my lathe, making a nice stainless steel replacement, complete with internally-threaded ends so the wheels are now held on with threadlocked M3 screws 😇

Of course you have :lol::tup:

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Dunc well done, graftastic :matrix:

Phil I love that, hits the right note here. I love vintage single prop planes. Know FA about the guts and glory but I do absolutely  love the aggression in motion they bring from a photographic point of view. :plane:

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14 hours ago, jonnyfox said:

Of course you have :lol::tup:

Glad you're impressed! If I factor in the time and materials they're probably worth more than the vacuum... however the anorak warmth is immeasurable! 

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