My European Road Trip
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:22 am
Last month I went on a 8 day European road trip in my Prelude. The route took me through France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and back through France over a total of 2,595 miles. The highlights were:
First up was Black Forest route / B500 in Germany. Fantastic road, but unfortunately I couldn’t drive the full length as some of it was closed for resurfacing.
The best bit for me (but not my passenger) was the fantastic roads through the Swiss Alps, especially Furka Pass (made famous in Goldfinger) and the Flüela Pass. The Furka Pass is absolutely fantastic, not just for the road itself, but also for the scenery. Seeing photos and videos is one thing, but being there and seeing it for myself was amazing. Knowing that I had driven hundreds of miles there in my car (albeit with the help of a ferry to cross the Channel) and feeling the chill in the air made it even more real.
We arrived at the Furka Pass in the evening and was relieved to discover that the road was very quiet. I had visions of it being clogged with coaches and old people driving Peugeots but I was very wrong, however it might be like that during other times in the day. Not once was I held up by a slower vehicle. The road is a mixture of sweeping corners, snaking left & right and plenty of hairpin turns. I highly recommend people visit this place at least once, I loved every second of it. Also, I reckon my car enjoyed getting to let its hair down for a change. The Prelude is quite a Jekyll & Hyde car and this was demonstrated by its apparent change in character. The handling was sublime, aided by its LSD & 4WS and the engine note was smile inducing. I drove the Furka Pass in the opposite direction the following morning but was held up by a coach for the last few minutes towards the end.
Later I drove the Flüela Pass, it’s a great road and very worthwhile visiting, but not quite good as Furka Pass. However, what made this a fantastic experience for me was chasing a new shape Audi RS6 Avant. I established that on the straights, the Audi was able to put distance between us (not surprising seeing as I think they have over 500 bhp) but the driver just cold not shake me off along the twisty bits and I was able to close up the gap. Either the Prelude is better handling than the Audi or the driver wasn’t very good. That was such an amazing experience, loved it. My 16 year old Honda made me proud.
I also visited the famous Stelvio Pass which Top Gear claimed was the best road in the world. It isn’t. Yeah, it was OK, with nice views and some bendy bits, but Furka and Flüela were much better. Maybe it's more enjoyable climbing uphill though. I’m glad I did it but I wouldn’t bother doing it again. To get there, I drove up the Umbrail Pass which was very twisty and tight at times. At its peak, according to my sat nav software, we were over 9,000 ft above sea level, however Wikipedia states it's actually 8,205 ft. Or maybe there was another section of road after Umbrail which climbed to 9,000 ft? The views were amazing and we were surrounded by snow, which fortunately wasn’t on the road.
Throughout the whole journey my car was near enough flawless and never let me down. There were only 1 or maybe 2 minor issues. Firstly, following some enthusiastic driving on the downhill side of Furka Pass, after stopping for a photo opportunity, smoke was coming from the front brakes so I promptly drove off. This isn’t a fault as such and is to be expected. I have upgraded front ATR brakes (calipers, carriers and ATR sized MTEC grooved discs) but prefer to use standard OEM Honda / Nissin brake pads for everyday use. If I was to do it again, I’d consider high performance brake pads, such as Ferodo DS2500 just for the trip. I had previously painted the brake disc hub sections with silver paint and that had turned a tad bronze due to the heat (rectified last weekend). The last time I experienced this was after a lap of the Nurburgring in 2013. The other issue experienced, which wasn’t particularly a fault with the car as such was pinking / pre-detonation after filling up with supposed ‘super unleaded’ at an Esso station in northern Italy. It cleared after two subsequent fill-ups so must have been crappy petrol.
While on the subject of petrol, my car achieved a frankly amazing (for a Honda Prelude) 39.1 mpg over 2,513 of the 2,595 miles - I didn’t fill up when leaving home, I filled up at Dover instead, hence why I can only calculate the 2,513 miles of the 2,595 total. 39.1 is very surprising, even beating Honda’s claimed figure of 36.7 mpg for extra urban driving. It consumed 291.6 litres of petrol costing £367.96 excluding currency conversion fees for using my debit card (additional 1.25% I think). This equates to 14.6 pence per mile and a theoretical range of 517.06 miles per full tank.
Some car and travel related things I learnt on my trip:
Furka Pass:
Flüela Pass:
Stelvio Pass:
Toyota FT-1 in Paris:
Reims / Circuit de Reims-Gueux:
- Black Forest / B500 (Germany),
- Furka Pass (Switzerland),
- Oberalpstrasse (Switzerland),
- Flüela Pass (Switzerland),
- Ofen Pass (Switzerland),
- Umbrail Pass (Switzerland / Italy),
- Stelvio Pass (Italy),
- Lake Garda including Monte Baldo (Itlay),
- Ferrari museum (Itlay),
- Lamborghini museum (Italy),
- Monte Carlo (Monaco),
- Paris (France),
- Reims / Circuit de Reims-Gueux (France).
First up was Black Forest route / B500 in Germany. Fantastic road, but unfortunately I couldn’t drive the full length as some of it was closed for resurfacing.
The best bit for me (but not my passenger) was the fantastic roads through the Swiss Alps, especially Furka Pass (made famous in Goldfinger) and the Flüela Pass. The Furka Pass is absolutely fantastic, not just for the road itself, but also for the scenery. Seeing photos and videos is one thing, but being there and seeing it for myself was amazing. Knowing that I had driven hundreds of miles there in my car (albeit with the help of a ferry to cross the Channel) and feeling the chill in the air made it even more real.
We arrived at the Furka Pass in the evening and was relieved to discover that the road was very quiet. I had visions of it being clogged with coaches and old people driving Peugeots but I was very wrong, however it might be like that during other times in the day. Not once was I held up by a slower vehicle. The road is a mixture of sweeping corners, snaking left & right and plenty of hairpin turns. I highly recommend people visit this place at least once, I loved every second of it. Also, I reckon my car enjoyed getting to let its hair down for a change. The Prelude is quite a Jekyll & Hyde car and this was demonstrated by its apparent change in character. The handling was sublime, aided by its LSD & 4WS and the engine note was smile inducing. I drove the Furka Pass in the opposite direction the following morning but was held up by a coach for the last few minutes towards the end.
Later I drove the Flüela Pass, it’s a great road and very worthwhile visiting, but not quite good as Furka Pass. However, what made this a fantastic experience for me was chasing a new shape Audi RS6 Avant. I established that on the straights, the Audi was able to put distance between us (not surprising seeing as I think they have over 500 bhp) but the driver just cold not shake me off along the twisty bits and I was able to close up the gap. Either the Prelude is better handling than the Audi or the driver wasn’t very good. That was such an amazing experience, loved it. My 16 year old Honda made me proud.
I also visited the famous Stelvio Pass which Top Gear claimed was the best road in the world. It isn’t. Yeah, it was OK, with nice views and some bendy bits, but Furka and Flüela were much better. Maybe it's more enjoyable climbing uphill though. I’m glad I did it but I wouldn’t bother doing it again. To get there, I drove up the Umbrail Pass which was very twisty and tight at times. At its peak, according to my sat nav software, we were over 9,000 ft above sea level, however Wikipedia states it's actually 8,205 ft. Or maybe there was another section of road after Umbrail which climbed to 9,000 ft? The views were amazing and we were surrounded by snow, which fortunately wasn’t on the road.
Throughout the whole journey my car was near enough flawless and never let me down. There were only 1 or maybe 2 minor issues. Firstly, following some enthusiastic driving on the downhill side of Furka Pass, after stopping for a photo opportunity, smoke was coming from the front brakes so I promptly drove off. This isn’t a fault as such and is to be expected. I have upgraded front ATR brakes (calipers, carriers and ATR sized MTEC grooved discs) but prefer to use standard OEM Honda / Nissin brake pads for everyday use. If I was to do it again, I’d consider high performance brake pads, such as Ferodo DS2500 just for the trip. I had previously painted the brake disc hub sections with silver paint and that had turned a tad bronze due to the heat (rectified last weekend). The last time I experienced this was after a lap of the Nurburgring in 2013. The other issue experienced, which wasn’t particularly a fault with the car as such was pinking / pre-detonation after filling up with supposed ‘super unleaded’ at an Esso station in northern Italy. It cleared after two subsequent fill-ups so must have been crappy petrol.
While on the subject of petrol, my car achieved a frankly amazing (for a Honda Prelude) 39.1 mpg over 2,513 of the 2,595 miles - I didn’t fill up when leaving home, I filled up at Dover instead, hence why I can only calculate the 2,513 miles of the 2,595 total. 39.1 is very surprising, even beating Honda’s claimed figure of 36.7 mpg for extra urban driving. It consumed 291.6 litres of petrol costing £367.96 excluding currency conversion fees for using my debit card (additional 1.25% I think). This equates to 14.6 pence per mile and a theoretical range of 517.06 miles per full tank.
Some car and travel related things I learnt on my trip:
- There aren’t many Japanese cars in mainland Europe, Hondas are especially rare;
- Subsequently, Honda Preludes are a rare sight, I only saw one other Prelude during that week which was a silver 5G in a car park at the Calais ferry port,
- Mountainous areas have lots of tunnels, including Switzerland and northern Italy;
- There are lots and lots of toll roads, we must have spent over £150 on tolls;
- In hot weather, my car’s engine oil was about 10c hotter than it normally would be back in the UK, including cruising along a motorway;
- Not all petrol stations are manned or open 24 hours;
- Shell (my preferred choice) do not have petrol stations in every European county.
Furka Pass:
Flüela Pass:
Stelvio Pass:
Toyota FT-1 in Paris:
Reims / Circuit de Reims-Gueux:
awesome trip plus great pics 
I always wanted to do something like that in my Lude.
