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166 Posts
I posted this a while ago on the UK supra forum and thought you guys might enjoy reading it (I'm not sure what the word limit is for a post, so I hope I don't fubar it) -here goes:
We had a mini hoon to Wales and back over the weekend, was supposed to be Jap cars only, but one of the guys sold his FTO for an Alfa V6 GTV! Other cars that were there was a 290rwhp RX7 with turbo's in TTC, stock rev2 MR2T, supercharged 210bhp Mx5 mk1, FTO V6 with a shit sounding backbox & a FTO Mivec with one of the loudest and best exhaust/induction notes I've ever heard!
The idea was to meet at the Star Inn in Powys between 10am-3pm and use it as a base camp and go hooning around mid/north Wales for two days.
I left High Wycombe at 8am after filling up with £60 of Optimax and cruising up the M40, had a quick play with a Focus RS (saw two within 7 miles of eachother) but had a nice steady cruise at the ton. I got to warrick Services and phoned the Mivec owner based in Brum to see where abouts he was- he hadn't even left yet but was going to be meeting the RX7 and MR2 on route, and asked if I wanted to join them. I said no because they were going around the other side of Brum and it meant an extra hour on the motorway, and I simply couldn't be ******. Mistake number 1 (all will be revealed).
Carried on bombing along the M40 and M42, getting off at J1 for my cross country hoon to wales. I took the A448 to Kiddiminster, stopping breifly in a layby to consult my AA map- I had the choice of a smaller road atlas, or the biggie- I thought the small one would be sufficient- mistake number 2!!!
The A456 from kiddie to Leominster(ish) was the first bit of half decent road- you simply don't have roads like this in the South East, traffic free and a good surface atleast. Although i was on my own I was still having a blast, picking off the slower traffic and then running in tandem with a black Mondeo ST220, who set a reasonable pace.
Turned onto the A49 towards Ludlow and saw a red Supe saying 'hello'- turned out it was Max Headroom! still very nice and open, flowing A roads, I did think Craven Arms sounds more like a pub than a village though.
Next was a smaller A road to Newtown which was quite twisty with a few blind corners and crests but wow- if this was a glimps of what was to come this weekend BRING IT ON! Starving, thristy and bursting i stopped at the MaccyD's in Newtown to find out where everyone was, and it seemed I was atleast an hour and a half ahead of the next nearest group (FTO/RX7/MR2), and thought shit- I'm gonna be bored out of my brains at this BB for hours waiting for these guys, so I had a longer lunch then made my way to Llanbrynmair- that road was even better than the last, with lots of unbroken double whites for miles on end, and some bloody long straights to really open the taps, overtaking 6 cars in one hit.
Hmmmm, I've hit a roundabout. Funny, no roundabout after Newtown on my notes, or on the map. I've overshot my turning by SIX MILES! Oh well, it was a bloody nice road- real bummer to have to retrace my steps. Accornding to my notes and my odo, I should be about 7 miles away from the B&B (taking off my 12 mile detour). I find the B4518, looking for this right turn. I find a farm track and think "surely not!". There was no way the Supra was going to fit down there. Probably the next one. After 5 miles there is no next right turn. U turn in a field entrance and go back to Llanbrynmair to consult my map. Mistake number 2 comes into fruition. There is a white space 16 miles x 20 miles inside the A470/A487/A489 quadrangle with unclassified farm tracks and no place names inside. Shit.
I call the MivecFTO owner again, who says he's 20 minutes away, they'll pick me up on the way through.
30 minutes later and not only had they not turned up, not a single car had gone past in the meantime. Ghost town!
So bollocks to this, I'll try again and go down the B4518 for miles and miles and miles, and it's getting narrower and narrower, more farm tracks, then it splits into two, the left side looks a bit more serious so I take that. Another mile passes then start seeing signs for Llawyrglyn, not the Machynlleth (christened macky-mach by us) sign I was desperately looking for. Decide to try the other fork- go back and went 100 yards up that before the hedges on either side were scraping the paint off my mirrors, see an entrance to a farm and turn around. Back to Llanbrynmair.
Phone Flibbers (Mivec owner) and ask where the hell he is. He said they were in Penegoes and were 2 minutes from the Star Inn and would call me when he gets there and direct me with his (better) map. Mistake number one comes back to bite me on the arse. So I wait 10 minutes and make the most of the facilities (ie a toilet). I ask a local for directions, who mentions it's 5 minutes up the road I had just explored. Ok this is getting fucked up now. Phone Flibbers- straight to answerphone. 5 minutes later get the answerphone again. Bollocks he obviously hasn't got a signal (I didn't earlier down one of those forks). Shit I must be SO CLOSE.
Penegoes eh? Look on the map and it's only two inches away, I elect to go there and try Flibbers again. I get there, find somewhere to park and ring- zip, zilch, nada- Flibbers still has no service. I'm loosing the will to live and toying with the idea of going home. I have no-one elses number from our party either I call Pete (my bro) and ask him to call up the Routefinder on his PC and find out where the fuck I am, and where the fuck I'm going.
After spelling out "Machynlleth" five times we have a route "hey Gaz you're almost on top of it- Go forwards, then turn right at the T-junction and go up the hill..."
Now I know for a fact that ain't right. After a 5 minute argument of Never Eat Shreaded Wheat I realise that my brother will never make a UPS driver- he doesn't have that blokey ability to picture yourself on a map and 'see' where you are going. I realise this is a non-starter. Then I get a call from Batty the Alfa driver who tells me to find a big landmark wheich he can put into a GPS unit and come find me. I tell Pete thanks but no thanks "I've been rescue'd!" and go in search of something in macky-mach. BP station with a train bridge! that'll do, phone Batty and tell him where I am. "I'll be there in 20 minutes mate!". It turns out to be a bloody long twenty minutes, but I do notice that in the distortion of a window opposite the Supra looks like an Ascari KZ1....
I hear Batty long before I see him, mainly because I'm looking for a Black Alfa GTV and not the illuminous orange FTO that he's a passenger in. We go back through macky-mach then turn into a very descrete right turn and go up a moutain, and I really do mean up a mountain! Ah, the back way! The road climes, and climbes and climbes, my ears are popping constantly as we climb nearly 500 meters in one inch of the map. The FTO is really struggling with the 1 in 3 hill, at times crawling up in second at 5000rpm. Christ it sounds shit. I'm starting to think it's a 1.8 by the way it sounds, but I later see a V6 under the bonnet. We summit, then the road simply falls away again, as quickly as it rose, and then a fucking great big sign saying WELCOME TO THE STAR INN. We turn up a farm track to the carpark, where I find out I'm stone last to turn up, cos sitting there is the MR2, the RX7, the Alfa, and the other FTO (the MX5S arrived on Sunday). I walk into the bar to a round of applause, and feel a complete cock.
We had a mini hoon to Wales and back over the weekend, was supposed to be Jap cars only, but one of the guys sold his FTO for an Alfa V6 GTV! Other cars that were there was a 290rwhp RX7 with turbo's in TTC, stock rev2 MR2T, supercharged 210bhp Mx5 mk1, FTO V6 with a shit sounding backbox & a FTO Mivec with one of the loudest and best exhaust/induction notes I've ever heard!
The idea was to meet at the Star Inn in Powys between 10am-3pm and use it as a base camp and go hooning around mid/north Wales for two days.
I left High Wycombe at 8am after filling up with £60 of Optimax and cruising up the M40, had a quick play with a Focus RS (saw two within 7 miles of eachother) but had a nice steady cruise at the ton. I got to warrick Services and phoned the Mivec owner based in Brum to see where abouts he was- he hadn't even left yet but was going to be meeting the RX7 and MR2 on route, and asked if I wanted to join them. I said no because they were going around the other side of Brum and it meant an extra hour on the motorway, and I simply couldn't be ******. Mistake number 1 (all will be revealed).
Carried on bombing along the M40 and M42, getting off at J1 for my cross country hoon to wales. I took the A448 to Kiddiminster, stopping breifly in a layby to consult my AA map- I had the choice of a smaller road atlas, or the biggie- I thought the small one would be sufficient- mistake number 2!!!
The A456 from kiddie to Leominster(ish) was the first bit of half decent road- you simply don't have roads like this in the South East, traffic free and a good surface atleast. Although i was on my own I was still having a blast, picking off the slower traffic and then running in tandem with a black Mondeo ST220, who set a reasonable pace.
Turned onto the A49 towards Ludlow and saw a red Supe saying 'hello'- turned out it was Max Headroom! still very nice and open, flowing A roads, I did think Craven Arms sounds more like a pub than a village though.
Next was a smaller A road to Newtown which was quite twisty with a few blind corners and crests but wow- if this was a glimps of what was to come this weekend BRING IT ON! Starving, thristy and bursting i stopped at the MaccyD's in Newtown to find out where everyone was, and it seemed I was atleast an hour and a half ahead of the next nearest group (FTO/RX7/MR2), and thought shit- I'm gonna be bored out of my brains at this BB for hours waiting for these guys, so I had a longer lunch then made my way to Llanbrynmair- that road was even better than the last, with lots of unbroken double whites for miles on end, and some bloody long straights to really open the taps, overtaking 6 cars in one hit.
Hmmmm, I've hit a roundabout. Funny, no roundabout after Newtown on my notes, or on the map. I've overshot my turning by SIX MILES! Oh well, it was a bloody nice road- real bummer to have to retrace my steps. Accornding to my notes and my odo, I should be about 7 miles away from the B&B (taking off my 12 mile detour). I find the B4518, looking for this right turn. I find a farm track and think "surely not!". There was no way the Supra was going to fit down there. Probably the next one. After 5 miles there is no next right turn. U turn in a field entrance and go back to Llanbrynmair to consult my map. Mistake number 2 comes into fruition. There is a white space 16 miles x 20 miles inside the A470/A487/A489 quadrangle with unclassified farm tracks and no place names inside. Shit.
I call the MivecFTO owner again, who says he's 20 minutes away, they'll pick me up on the way through.
30 minutes later and not only had they not turned up, not a single car had gone past in the meantime. Ghost town!
So bollocks to this, I'll try again and go down the B4518 for miles and miles and miles, and it's getting narrower and narrower, more farm tracks, then it splits into two, the left side looks a bit more serious so I take that. Another mile passes then start seeing signs for Llawyrglyn, not the Machynlleth (christened macky-mach by us) sign I was desperately looking for. Decide to try the other fork- go back and went 100 yards up that before the hedges on either side were scraping the paint off my mirrors, see an entrance to a farm and turn around. Back to Llanbrynmair.
Phone Flibbers (Mivec owner) and ask where the hell he is. He said they were in Penegoes and were 2 minutes from the Star Inn and would call me when he gets there and direct me with his (better) map. Mistake number one comes back to bite me on the arse. So I wait 10 minutes and make the most of the facilities (ie a toilet). I ask a local for directions, who mentions it's 5 minutes up the road I had just explored. Ok this is getting fucked up now. Phone Flibbers- straight to answerphone. 5 minutes later get the answerphone again. Bollocks he obviously hasn't got a signal (I didn't earlier down one of those forks). Shit I must be SO CLOSE.
Penegoes eh? Look on the map and it's only two inches away, I elect to go there and try Flibbers again. I get there, find somewhere to park and ring- zip, zilch, nada- Flibbers still has no service. I'm loosing the will to live and toying with the idea of going home. I have no-one elses number from our party either I call Pete (my bro) and ask him to call up the Routefinder on his PC and find out where the fuck I am, and where the fuck I'm going.
After spelling out "Machynlleth" five times we have a route "hey Gaz you're almost on top of it- Go forwards, then turn right at the T-junction and go up the hill..."
Now I know for a fact that ain't right. After a 5 minute argument of Never Eat Shreaded Wheat I realise that my brother will never make a UPS driver- he doesn't have that blokey ability to picture yourself on a map and 'see' where you are going. I realise this is a non-starter. Then I get a call from Batty the Alfa driver who tells me to find a big landmark wheich he can put into a GPS unit and come find me. I tell Pete thanks but no thanks "I've been rescue'd!" and go in search of something in macky-mach. BP station with a train bridge! that'll do, phone Batty and tell him where I am. "I'll be there in 20 minutes mate!". It turns out to be a bloody long twenty minutes, but I do notice that in the distortion of a window opposite the Supra looks like an Ascari KZ1....
I hear Batty long before I see him, mainly because I'm looking for a Black Alfa GTV and not the illuminous orange FTO that he's a passenger in. We go back through macky-mach then turn into a very descrete right turn and go up a moutain, and I really do mean up a mountain! Ah, the back way! The road climes, and climbes and climbes, my ears are popping constantly as we climb nearly 500 meters in one inch of the map. The FTO is really struggling with the 1 in 3 hill, at times crawling up in second at 5000rpm. Christ it sounds shit. I'm starting to think it's a 1.8 by the way it sounds, but I later see a V6 under the bonnet. We summit, then the road simply falls away again, as quickly as it rose, and then a fucking great big sign saying WELCOME TO THE STAR INN. We turn up a farm track to the carpark, where I find out I'm stone last to turn up, cos sitting there is the MR2, the RX7, the Alfa, and the other FTO (the MX5S arrived on Sunday). I walk into the bar to a round of applause, and feel a complete cock.