To Munich and back - A Road Trip Story (with pics)

[HYFR]

So, after a bit of fretting that Darth would not be out of the Stealers in time; thankfully I picked him up the day before and so the A2 took a sigh of relief I wasnt going to ask 1,600 miles of it !

Day 1:

Leg 1:
Welwyn Garden City --> Folkestone

With the Road Trip bible (itinerary) in hand, Darth (RS 6) and I left work at 12pm to take the short drive across to the train station to pick up my co-driver and head of security (aka. Pete and BIG Dan)

Bang on time, their train arrived and Pete took the reins to acclimatise to the beast on UK roads in preperation for what was to follow on ‘foreign soil’

So we set off, down the A1 and plugged our first destination, Folkestone, into Mindy.

Now Mindy is a nickname given to the RNSE Sat Nav women by my missus after a series of cock ups in trying to direct us. These only really became apparent after we had the pleasure of Martha in my S4 Cabriolet. Now Martha is what Mindy is but with TMC enabled – then she’s so much cleverer!

Anyway, Mindy’s stats showed we’d arrive at Folkestone at 14.00, and check-in closed at 14.20. Excellent we thought, 20 mins ahead of schedule!

That was until we hit the M25!

The approach to the QEII Bridge was chocked up and lost us 30 minutes, so from a position of strength of +20mins, we were now in deficit by 10 mins! There was only one thing that could save us….a V8 Bi-Turbo!!!!



So, once on the M20, Pete’s right foot got acquainted with the accelerator pedal and we cruised close to 3 figures all the way, with a/c on as it was a warm sunny day, a trend that was to be continued throughout the trip.

It was close, but 14.19 we checked in! Phew! Still on track…..quick check on average MPG, 18.4! Damn it; off track our target average of 22….note to self, no more air con!

Darth in the queue for the eurotunnel



Darth in the train



Leg 2:
Calias --> Amsterdam

Whilst on the Eurotunnel I made us of the time to plug in all the required destinations for the journey, so they were all saved in memory.

Set the destination for our Hostel in Amsterdam and we were ready to roll.

Off the train we came, into the French sunshine and ready to power on….I was driving now! I kept an anxious eye on Mindy as it still said we were in Folkestone….I was thinking it was work it out in a second, but we kept driving and….nothing….was getting slightly worried

Then; out of nowhere, Martha appeared! Yes TMC enabled in Europe and we now had a new companion! Right 300 odd miles to Amsterdam…

Through France, which was pretty quiet, 2 lanes in annoying though but pretty clear…there was a Ferrari behind me that came off the Eurotunnel. I tried to entice him into a play but burning off when the road was clear, but he wasn’t interested, so I stuck it to 80 in cruise to try and get the MPG up.

Into Belgium in no time at all, but all was not to be well for much longer, as Martha piped up to inform us of traffic ahead and that she was to change our route.

As it turned out, the traffic was around the dreaded “Antwerp Ringâ€

[posterboyj]

Nicely written David!

[s4-99]

Like it

[darrenswift]

Looking forward to the second chapter!
Did you have a schmoke and a pancake?!?

[HYFR]

maybe....

[HYFR]

Day 2;

Leg 3;

So, after a heavy night out, we were up surprisingly early…the road trip bible said we were to leave Amsterdam at 2pm to get into Frankfurt before dinner, so our plan was to have a hearty breakfast, do a bit of sight seeing and hit the Autobahns !

Luckily the hostel we stayed in was above an Irish pub, so a cooked Irish breakfast it was !

Had a walk around Amsterdam, but it was all canals and bicycles ! Although on the way back to the car we did find a particularly interested mode of public transport !



Right, we hit the road….Martha guided out of Amsterdam and on to the open road, we were out of Holland quite quickly actually and in the Mother Land (well for Darth anyway!). I wasn’t driving at this point and as soon as we were on what was clearly a derestricted Autobahn I was itching to get behind the wheel. I gave my mate license to give it full beans on an open stretch but he only took it to 140mph which was prob way fast enough for him as he only drives a Corsa normally.

Now, have you ever sat in the back of your RS 6? Its like a limo back there, amazingly comfortable and spacious, and a very different experience when going fast when your in the back….try it, just make sure the wife isn’t driving or it could end in divorce!

Right, time to swap over…my time to drive !!!!



SODS LAW, I hit traffic !!



But, thankfully it clears and I hit some fast moving Autobahns !

The Autobahns are amazing things….it’s such a strange experience, sitting in the middle lane doing 90 whilst so many cars a flying past you on the left….this is the way motorways should work.

Now for a bit of a story that nearly cost us our lives…

Going along the Autobahn in the middle lane, I see a mk1 TT fly past, looked lowered, aftermarket exhaust etc, so I thought, “there a fast Audi I can show who’s boss!â€

[Spacecowboy]

great stuffff !!!

you described a very funny and interesting trip through some great towns and countries !

great car, too.........

[MarkusRS6]

cool write up man!

did you know the Super unleaded you fuelled in Holland at the Shell pump only has 95 octane! Gotta love the 100 in Germany though

[thebig25]

Great write up- Looking forward to next installment!

SK

[Spacecowboy]

I want read more...

[quattrokid1]

it looks remarkably clear screen for a 165 mph blast, eas expecting it to look like you have done a stint at Le Mans.

great dit, keep it comin'

[HYFR]

im in croatia at mo...will complete right up on sunday

Still got frankfurt to munich to write which includes an epic 170mph race with an S5

And munich to london which includes gettin breathalised!

Watch this space

[HYFR]

Day 3:

and so Day 3 began with a hangover, very similar to Day 2 in fact. Luckily the 24 bottles of lucozade sport Id packed were beginning to pay their way!

Ideally we would have liked to leave Frankfurt as early as possible to get into Munich at the same time as the stag...unfortunately we had to wait around for my cheap skate mate who Ryanair'd it into Frankfurt Hahn (which btw isnt anywhere near Frankfurt!). He would then get a coach into Frankfurt

This allowed us to sleep off our hangover and get lunch.

So, finally he made it and we set off - now 4 men strong....his cheapskatedness was to backfire as although he may have got up at 5am, he now had another 3 hours in the car



As the norm, I let Pete do the first 100 miles to allow me to sober up before I aimed to better my personal best of the previous day on the public race tracks that are the Autobahns!

100 miles passed quite quickly without event as I task Pete to get the MPG up before I gave it a beasting !

So, time to swap over....Cars



Darth is still looking pretty fresh considering he had now stacked up over 500 miles, though you can see the front wheels are getting darker than the rears as the brake dust piles up

So, off I set, on the wide and open Autobahn on route to Munich.

Let me tell you, this route is AMAZING, it goes through the heart of German country side and as a result the roads are stupidly wide and stupidly straight, and combined with no speed limit they are just plain stupid when your in an RS 6.

There were 2 distinct occasions where the road opened up with no traffic and so I stuck the loud pedal deep into the carpet to let the 4.2 bi-turbo do what is designed to do

I got back up to the 160 territory but this time with 4 people in the car - thing is, at this speed im no michael schumacher (nor CornishMoocher either for that matter!) and so with 4 peoples lives in my hands I held off as I approached traffic in the other lanes as things happen way to quickly

This was until I came across one of these

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I was poodling in the middle lane probably about 90 when this thing flew past me, prob at 130....

RightI thought, first fast Audi I've come across on this stretch so lets go an show him the difference two tubrochargers make !

So, I pulled out, wackd it into Sport and entered hyperdrive

He was quick! Had to take it up to 150 to catch up as he slowed ahead for traffic, but when I did catch up it quickly became apparent that he had clocked me and was up for a bit of fun

So at this point, my balls grew accordingly and I was soley focused on being faster than this guy and if we died trying well at least it was for a good cause !

So, plenty of bursts of power but had to slow for other cars...whilst I was keeping up, it wasnt conclusive that Id power past him given the chance. The S5 was quick! Obviously I had 4 grown men in the car and half a tank of fuel and so weight was seriously not on my side, so id have to beat him with speed rather than acceleration

Then, off we go with another power burst... but this ones different

We get to the top of a slight incline and then its downhill, I can see ahead and the road is clear ahead...this is it, a true German runway vs. an S5

We get up to about 140 and he moves over to the middle lane...I keep my foot to the floor

Up to about 150, he still in front, but im just catching up to his tail

then

KAPOW !

5th Gear !

An extra surge of twin turbo boost and im passing him, at this speed im clinging on for dear life but the exhilaration starts going through me as the testosterone indicates I am the winner !

"f*cking hell Dave, you're doing 170mph !" shout Big Dan over the wind noise

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! S5 put in its place

Funny, as we passed him, my mates looked over and it was an old man! Now that how I want to retire

Still kudos to the S5, never knew it could have put up such a good fight !

So, 300 miles fly past as I was doing some serious Autobahn speeds

Into munich we arrive, Martha gets up to The Tent with no issues and even finds us a place to stash Darth only metres away

So, after an epic day of speed and true mile munching, he had a sleep for two days



We then set off into town to meet the rest of the stag....they were in a beer house just off what proved to be the poshest street in Munich, as I caught these

R8 V10 and the Chysler with ridiculously huge wheels



This has been vynl wrapped





Then, the Stag do - he's the T-Shirts





and he is the stag (and Chris Moyles behind!)



there was plenty of this



plenty of this



The stag didnt come home that night....he went missing about 10pm and didnt turn up until 9am the next morning at The Tent asking anyone if theyv got 60euro to pay a taxi

Apparently he ended up in a field 40km outside Munich!

Day 4 to follow....