On the road again

I got Dante back from 3 months at the mechanics, just in time for the first outing of our mixed marque classic car club here in Southwest France. Its been almost six months since our last outing and we had 25 cars show up, including the testarosa of my fellow member, the one who steered me to my mechanic. At this point, Dante is about as good as he is going to get without a total interior redo. He is all cleaned up and ready to go as shown in my pic.

We rendezvoused at 8:30 south of Bergerac and headed across through the south Bordeaux wine region. The countryside is rolling but not particularly twisty. As is our method, we try and follow along with each other. So it is speed and attention to the car ahead, not to the countryside around. Nonetheless, we passed through some wonderful countryside, miles of vineyards and lovely small villages and town squares.

The other Ferrari in the club is a Testarosa. We arrived at a riverside (the Garrone) restaurant/picnic area at around 11:30 for an "apero" and a knosh. I've a pic attached (I hope) of Dante, with his friends. It is clear that the Testarosa has won the "engine lid up for admiring" prize. His 5liter, 12 valve engine sort of overwhelms my 3.0 QV. But of course, all car guys enjoy all cars. And you can see after the testarosa is a porsch, followed by the unmistakeable outline of a Morgan, a 73 red porche behind and in the back, a yellow matra. It was a lovely time together to talk about and look at cars. And then of course, this being france, it was off to a restaurant for sunday dinner.

After a very short, maybe 20 minute drive after lunch, we arrived at the Chateau de la Brede, which is the ancestral home of Montesquieu. His last decedent lived there until her death in 2004. She had no heirs and had set up a foundation which maintains it in its original state. The family has lived in it since the 1500s. So the furniture and spaces are as they were. A great visit. Another pic attached.

Then it was goodbyes and next month and off we went. Me to get onto the autoroute south of Bordeaux and up to the ring road and a right onto the autoroute home. It is a beautiful road, wide and perfectly surfaced and at a speed limit of about 80 mph which I only pushed maybe to 85, was a wonderful drive home. No shifting after a morning of driving at cars in a row speed, and getting lost. We did a half dozen u turns today, very unusual, and the traffic inevitably would halt and sit quiet as we completed difficult turn arounds. Anyway, it was a great chance to put some easy miles on Dante. Get the engine nice and hot and all the fluids flowing easy, a nice midrange rev for it at speed.

I drove home without looking at the speedo once I knew I was running at about 135kph. After that it was all about the pitch of the engine behind me, running at 4100 rpms. It was the wonderful easy, fast, road ahead, the beautiful scenery around, the sound of the motor in my ears and my hands feeling the car through the steering wheel and going where I wanted. It is truly an intuitive experience once engaged in a long, high speed run like that.

And then there is the final 25kilometers down from the autoroute to my village. A terrific two lane road the winds through the valleys and over hills to here. In some ways, that was the best part of the trip. The car feeling the road and without effort or really speed, just turn and climb and descend and shift the sound of the engine behind me with each movement.

There is a final 2k long hill down to the turn into my village. At that point I let the car slow itself down, and took off the pressure of the high speed and the local roads and begin the cool down that was completed by a slow drive into the village and to my house. It was perfect day.
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Yes, a working sunroof, though slow, as if its thinking about it. On the other hand, the passenger window does not. So it is with our Mondials.