As many of you showed a positive interest in another thread about our road trip to this year's Old-timer GP at the Nurburgring, I thought it worth sharing another one from earlier in the summer.

Let me start by warning that this one will be a long thread, with lots of pics of European exotics.

Can I also say that if any of it comes across as a bit smug, please don't judge...
That is not the aim: Just hope to give some vicarious pleasure to those on the other side of the pond


So this is how it started... Rewind 10 years to 2006.
I was just back from a trip to Sicily in my (now sadly sold) 2.4E, to attend that year's Targa Florio Centenary celebrations.



6 weeks later I went to Le Mans Classic. Camped on the pitch next to us were 2 guys - Mike and Brendan - who had travelled to Le Mans in Mike's orginal 2.7 RS.

The conversation moved pretty quickly to dream road trips. Mike revealed that his RS was delivered new in 1973 to Palermo.
And that he harbored an ambition to one day take the car back 'home'.

2006 was also when I first met a UK car journalist and author, Johnny Tipler.
On scrutineering day for the Targa Florio in Sicily, I had blagged myself and the E into the paddocks.
When popping back to the car, I overheard the official at the gate arguing with two guys in a hire car, who were waving press cards and trying to gain entry.
They were clearly british hacks in need of help, so I pointed at my car and implied in broken Italian that they were my support vehicle.
Within short order Johnny and his photographer were thru the gates and parked next to me in the paddock.

Since those first meetings, year after year Mike has asked me "When are we going to go to Sicily together?", and Johnny has asked "When are we going back together?".

Fast forward to 2016, a decade on from the centenary, and finally all of our diaries sync-ed up so that we were able to make it happen.

And as a cherry on the cake, Johnny and I had been invited to participate in this year's Giro Di Sicilia. What better way to hark back to the days of yore...?

Drive your car the length of Europe. Once there, add some oil and adjust the tyre pressures, participate in a 3 day historic event.
And then drive the car all the way home again.

And so it was that we set off from the UK on the last Monday of May: Mike and Brendan in their black RS, myself in my green RS rep, meeting Johnny en route at Spa race track in Belgium.

GENERAL ROUTE

The French lorry drivers were o strike at the time, so to avoid the resultant french petrol shortages, we skirted France and followed the Maginot Line on our way to a ferry from Genoa to Palermo:




DAY1. FOLKESTONE TO SAARBRUCKEN:

Johnny had been covering the previous weekend's 24 Hours at the Nurburgring, so we picked him up en route, in Spa.
By the time we collected him, he had spent 3 hours waiting in a bar. Let's just say his photography skills do not improve with Duvel:

(Johnny's photo)



It was wet for most of the day. Very wet:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)

DAY 2. SAARBRUCKEN TO GENOA:

We crisscrossed the French and German borders, then stopped for a boy band photo at Swiss customs:




After that we spent all morning climbing and taking in the views of the Alps. First person to say "I can see the mountains"...

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)



Tunnels - and fuel stops - were quite common:

(Johnny's photo)





It was sunny for lunch, as we prepared to take on the famous Gotthard Pass:




The pass was clear at first, and then we actually passed through the clouds and into the snow:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)



It got easier on the way down from the mountains.
We scooted across the plains past Como and Milan, before being confronted with more hills, lush and green, as we made the final plunge to the sea at Genoa:

(Johnny's photo)


And at about 8pm on Tuesday, we arrived at the docks at last!:

DAY 3 - ARRIVING IN SICILY:

The ferry from Genoa to Palermo takes 21 hours, and leaves Genoa at 11pm: Plenty of time for a good night’s sleep, and then to sit in the bar all next day looking at stuff on the laptop.

The evening weather was hot and sunny, as Palermo expanded to fill the horizon:







Circumventing Palermo's infamous traffic and the standard of driving of the locals is never much fun.
But it was made worse the evening we arrived, as the next day was a national holiday, so even more people were out on the roads.

I have no photos of Mike's first encounters with the infamous Palermo traffic. Perhaps Brendan does. Possibly best that we do not ...

DAY 4 - PREP FOR THE GIRO DI SICILIA

We spent Thursday morning relaxing at our wonderful agriturismo: This was my 4th stay here, and won't be my last.

The place is ideally located in the Madonie hills, nestled in the middle of the old Piccolo Madonie configuration of the Targa circuit.
Owned by the Pucci family since the early 20th Century, it is steeped in history, and offers lush surroundings, delicious cooking (90% of what is on your plate is harvested on the premises), and wonderful views down to the sea.










With 500+ miles of hard driving ahead of me on the Giro, after breakfast Mike and I tinkered with the timing on my car:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)



And then took it on a short run to clear its lungs, passing by the old pits at Cerda:



Then Johnny and I set off west along the coast, back into the centre of Palermo to sign on and have the car scrutineered...

Incredible! True bucket list stuff!! The scenery is stunning! - Thank you for sharing this!

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!!

you guys make fun and interesting trips. Wow. really nice.
Thanks for the post !

Thank you for sharing! Sicily is my ancestral home. LOVE IT.

NIGHT 4: GIRO DI SICILIA

The "paddock" was on a very fancy shopping boulevard, closed off all day for competitors to line up in echelon, in order of start position.

There we met Rosario, the race director, who took us to a local hotel to get registered and our road books:

(Johnny's photo)





And then we stickered up:

(Johnny's photo)


Gianni e Vince:




Mission control for the next few days:

8pm and they start sending the cars off at half minute intervals.

30 secs to our start:






We got sent around Palermo's fancy buildings and squares, to let the local press get their snaps:

And from here is when the whole experience kick into another gear...

What we had anticipated to be a relaxed tour for classic cars around the island turned out to be fierce and fast road racing... And all the better for it!

For the first few kilometres we had to press through an endless narrow tunnel of cheering locals, then headed out of town and up into the mountain roads, west along the coast.

It was dark and fast. A mix of sweeping long stages, punctuated by twisties with sheer drops to the sea.

Every other town we passed had a timed checkpoint, and on the first night everyone and their mother was out in the streets cheering, clapping and taking photos. A true carnival atmosphere.

In some towns we had special timed stages through the narrow streets: it was pretty good fun getting the back end out on the cobbles, rounding ancient town squares replete with fountains and centuries old churches 8-)

Although officially we are meant to be obeying the speed limits, the police were treating it as a legalised road race, holding traffic back and taking photos themselves as competitors pushed on by. As a result most of us were going flat flat out.

Our car was running very strong, despite a tendency to backfire dramatically on the overrun. Running a 2.7MFI 911 made us one of the quickest cars in the line up (of almost 200 runners!), but we couldn't hold a match to 2 locals in their Stingray, who seem intent on breaking some kind of record for derring do.

On the first night we finished about 1am, and I almost fell asleep fully dressed as soon as we got to the hotel.

Jumping back to the start in Palermo...

From there we wound out and up into the coastal roads, and then were encouraged to blast through hilltop towns:

We finished the night stage in one piece, somehow not having got lost in the dark on a seriously complex route, using just the road book, a small torch and some good humour.

(Johnny's photo)


We then had a fast 30km transfer to our hotel in the company of the leader at the close of day 1, a sicilian 2.2E.



We rocked up to a beautiful palazzo. They lined all the cars up around the premises, it was already past 1am, so we headed to bed pretty sharpish.

(Johnny's photo)

GIRO - 2 TAPPE

Today was going to be hot, and some competitors were leaving on the transfer leg to the start before we'd even got dressed:





After breakfast it was impossible to count, but of the 166 starters, surely only a handful had dropped out on day one.





From the sublime...



...to the scooby-diculous:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)

With detours, double backs (hopefully few!) and transfer legs, in total we were going to cover about 850km over the 4 days - made up of 2 half days and 2 full ones.




Day one set the rhythm for the remainder of the event: Inter town sprints on windswept A roads:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)


Check points at photogenic spots:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)

...hilltop climbs to lunches in old towns

(Johnny's photo)




(Johnny's photo)


...runs on local race circuits....

Working with road books is all well and good when you are experienced, but not when your navigator confesses he's not used them before.

Note the "!" reference to "dosso". There were a F*q of a lot of serious (bumps), mainly on the road bridges, and we hit a good dozen over the weekend, at high chat.
2 or 3 properly grounded us :shock: I checked it all out after every checkpoint, and that tough little car took everything in its stride.



Doesn't help if your navigator is distracted when the route sends us by historical monuments:



And loses focus trying to make you linger too long in the outside lane for tracking shots of the cars we are passing:

(Johnny's photo)


You can lose your page in the road book, worry for 5-10 mins if you are off track, only then to catch another car up, follow them... and start to wonder if they too are lost:

(Johnny's photo)

We finished the 2a tappa and were directed to another grand church square.







We tried the cannoli, and for a second I swear I heard the opera music from the scene in Godfather 3 when Don Altobello gets poisoned!





Our new hotel was located in the middle of "The Honoured Society" country.



There we were treated to classical canapés, followed by top notch Sicilian dining, the day's prizes, and then bed.

3a TAPPE - PERGUSA TO MODICA... AND BACK AGAIN

Loads of cars to look at on Saturday morning:


For a bit of fun, I'll let you name the cars: YEAR / MAKE / MODEL.

(Nobody can stop you google cheating, but where's the fun in that?)

This car was to finish 6th in the final standings. Proof that regularities are about experience and not outright performance:

Beautiful cars, beautiful country and very cool you were enjoying your car for what it was intended for. Professor Porsche would be proud!

Yes it's a Merc, but do you know the YEAR and MODEL?

I wondered if this one might run on water:

Are these rare in LHD?

Fur real?

This was seriously quick at stopping and going:

This thing was patina-tastic, and made a fantastic noise:

My dad likes these:

This guy is a plastic surgeon from Rome.



He said his silver car is a real one, found tucked away in Portugal.
But looking at the exhaust, along with a bunch of other details... we were not sure...

Plastic surgeons, eh

(Johnny's photo)

After a short sprint, our first proper test on Saturday was a run on the Autodromo di Pergusa.

We arrived at the circuit in the company of the 2.2E, which was running third at the start of day 3.










Johnny interviewed someone important:



And we followed her 356 for part of the circuit:

(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)


(Johnny's photo)

We left the circuit behind the austrian 924 Turbo:



We had a good view of this car over the event, and it's a pretty attractive proposition for rallies like this one 8)

(Johnnys photos)




Although in this heat I reckon his wife was missing the aircon, which kept fusing:

(Johnny's Photo)

We performed another swift twisty climb, to the last hilltop town before the plains:



And parked up in the town square for lemonade, parked amongst the local car club's members:





I wasn't the only ducktail in town:





Liked this quite a bit:

It's was downhill to the next major checkpoint, and we caught the E up just as we came into town.

(Johnnys photo)


(Johnnys photo)


We had started the day with them, and in finishing with them for this the lunch stop, we somehow did OK on penalties:

(Johnnys photo)


It was another gravy train stop in a classical location.

This place had a broad 1/2 mile long straight for a high street. Some people couldn't resist but make a spectacle:



Nice E-Type:





Flashy 356:

Letting lunch go down before setting off, the drag strip offered more cars to guess at, some dead easy, some not:

Getting a bit late here in the UK now: I'll post more of the rest of the trip tomorrow.

In the meantime, anybody want to try naming some of the cars I posted?

Euro classics pop quiz time!

Absolutely fantastico! Bella bella. Good on ya's. I could only dream of taking
that on. Great pics and very nice commentary.
Thanks for posting this. Palermo is where my Great grandmother was from.
More incentive to get back to the homelands.
Cheers.

If you don't mind me asking, what's the entry fee for something like this??

Wow that was awesome to read (and look) through! I lived in Sicily, near Catania (looks like your trip didn't take you over there) when I was a boy. Just a few years in the early 80s. So I was able to spot the front ends of a pair of 70s Fiat Cinquecentos in a picture and of course a legendary Alfa Romeo Giulia (a Super I think) by itself in another picture. Those other older cars, I don't know. But they're cool! Again, awesome trip!! I'd love to do that some day!

that's a Fiat 850 Spider ... late 60ies ...?

Modell: 300 SL Roadster
Year: somewhen around 1955

Jaguar C-Type, early 50ies

Porsche 718 RSK

Renault 4CV, somewhen around 1950

Bi Turbo for sure!

Good effort, Wolfgang.

The Merc is indeed a 300SL.

The little green car is indeed an 850 Spider... Specifically an Abarth model (hence my water joke).

The C-Type is a replica ("Fur real?")

The 718 is not real either (hence my jibes at the plastic surgeon who owns it).

The red car coming up that beautiful street is a Maserati Bi Turbo, yep...


As it may be hard to get, I'll fill you in on the red pre-war race car: It is a Maserati 1928 Tipo 26.
A well known and campaigned car, it is owned (and driven by) by Heinz Hofer.
As a young man in the 60s, Heinz was a Swiss ski champion.
Who went on to work as Penske's Can-Am and then F1 team manager (he got the job after working as Roger Penske's ski instructor in Colorado!)

So what about all the others!?

Saturday afternoon was 2 long stages on fast, deserted sweepers, heading north west.

We resumed our rhythm of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow allowing Johnny to snap a variety of slower cars.

All the photos in this specific post are Johnny's: no sharing these please :wink:



This was my favourite car on the event.



Ex Carrera Panamericana:






In the heat, we were jealous of later pork with air con:



Campaigned by two sun dried Italian women:



Not just sleek, but highly competitive also:

And once again we finished the day in a postcard location.



For many of the far flung towns we passed through during the event, life is generally pretty slow. Having the Giro come to town is an excuse to have a party.



Smiling people everywhere, asking questions about the car, the Giro, how fast you went.




Quite a surprise at every stop was the number of locally owned classics brought out for the occasion.
It feels like somehow the love of old cars is in the locals' blood. Nostalgic memories of when once a year the Targa brought speed, noise and glamour to this quiet island?

The owner of this 72 T introduced himself when we parked up. He's owned it since the late 70s. Dalmatian blue?







The Sicilian passion for oldtimers is both prevalent and regional: many of the major towns still have their own individual classic car club.