Zathras wrote:
> Just back from a 10 day overseas trip to Donegal in the Alfa - which
> is a rare breed there!
>
> Out on the western coast there were a few roads that were no-go for
> the Alfa due (in the main) to adverse camber though settlement was
> also an issue on the peat bogs. The Garmin satnav was absolutely
> amazing - it appears to have *every* road and track in Donegal mapped.
> It sometimes took us on *shortcuts* that a normal car would not have
> blinked at but, in the Alfa, things were often a lot more exciting
> and, frankly, tiring!
Went there in a hire car, hilarious innit>
>
> Some observations:
>
> 1/ UKP to Euro exchange rate of 1.22 was quite painful.
> 2/ Diesel in the ROI can be bought at 1.30 Euro but 1.30UKP here.
> 3/ 450 miles at an *average* rural speed of 31mph. Donegal average was
> about 20mph!!! That was while trying to drive as hard as possible
> without scraping the underside of the car!
> 4/ 46mpg
You *serious*? What do you normally get? And what year is it?
> 5/ P&O slightly scuffed my car by leaving a cone leaning on the
> paintwork for the duration of a rough crossing. :-(
Bastards.
> 6/ Drove for 9/10 days and suffered between 10-20 underbody scrapes
> and bangs each day. Most of the scrapes were at the
> worst-of-the-UK-scrapes level of severity.
> 7/ Wife and bairn had to stay in the back seats for the duration west
> of Letterkenny to try and keep weight away from the scraping front
> end. Wife wasn't best pleased and felt frequently nauseous!
Ooh, did you go to the Hotel there?
> 8/ Obligatory stone got trapped between the brake ****eld and disk.
> That makes a superb bearing-about-to-fail-in-next-30-seconds metallic
> screech. Reversing a couple of yards cured.
>
> Most amazed by:
>
> 1/ Magnificent houses (put shame on the UK)
> 2/ Resiliency of Alfa polypropylene under tray - took everything
> Donegal could throw at it and didn't budge or bits break off - it just
> scuffed. Without it I would have burst the sump on several occasions
> (for sure).
> 3/ Engine tractability - I'm not used to driving slow.
> 4/ Apart from one suicidal sheep that (when it saw the van - a Citroen
> Berlingo - just ran straight towards it from 200m away in a bizarre
> take on the game of chicken) they have a better road sense than many
> human pedestrians!!!
> 5/ Citroen Berlingo - go anywhere (at any speed!) in Donegal without
> scraping - I had a couple of amazing roller-coaster rides in one.
>
> Most disappointed by:
>
> 1/ Alfa's idea of suspension and, in particular, body control. As a
> direct comparison, a BMW was vastly, hugely, embarrassingly better.
> :-(( Little wonder Alfas are rare in Donegal - if I stayed there I
> wouldn't have one either. :-((
> 2/ Weather - wind, cold and rain *every* day FFS! :-(((
Oh yes. You should try December. Then you should try Kerry air****t for 6
hours with the Christmas tape...
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