Well I made a thread for preparing the Carlton for its journey to Rome and back, but never uploaded the photos. So here they are. A sort of 'photo diary' which tells the story better than I could write it really.
We left Aberdeen on the 27th of June, and returned on the 15th of July.
Basically, the Carlton managed 5500 miles across Europe with ease! I really thought we had made a poor choice going for it, but I'm so glad we did. I think we were one of the only teams under budget that didnt have a single serious problem.
It was comfortable (apart from driving through France & Italy in a heatwave with no a/c and in fact no fan) It was a windows open affair the whole way! Even got so hot that half way through a 490 mile day I went into a services, bought febreeze, emptied it and filled it with water. We then spent the rest of the day spraying ourselves in the face and then leaning out the window to cool down. Didnt phase me though, I found it quite amusing
It handled pretty well considering the size, shape and floppiness. The tar was practically melting so even with its ling long tyres it stuck like glue. Both myself and Andrew held back for the first few days as we didnt want to push it too hard. By the 4th day we reached the epic roads in the south of France and that idea went out the window. We were actually overtaking a lot of the quicker cars on the trip in the twisties! It loved the redline and getting shoved back into 2nd for a tight hairpin, with all of our belongings getting flown to the other side of the boot while the car tilted to about 45 degrees going round the bends! I've owned some seriously good cars but I don't think i've ever driven something as fun as this. The rest of the journey followed this new found principle of flooring it which made it ridiculously enjoyable.
It was ridiculously reliable. One small problem we had was my fault as I had incorrectly wired in the dual fans for the radiator. After 4 hours in Paris traffic the switch gave up and left us just about overheating. We managed to break down infront of the Eiffel tower where I wired the biggest fan (A £10 fan from a vectra) direct to the battery. Which kept the car much cooler than before.... hmmmm. At the campsite we wired it all up correctly with a new switch (I brought a spare, smart thinking) to the relay using the single fan and it was perfect. Sat at 1/4 in any temperature outside and went up to the middle of the gauge when climbing the alps. Couldnt have asked for any better. Thankfully our original fan (from an omega) went to live on in a BMW 5 series after their fan kicked the bucket. We wired it to their foglights and it kept them cool the whole trip. Enough to run the ring on the way home too!
If you've read my other thread, you will be aware of the juddery clutch issue which the Carlton was plagued of. We decided to leave it and hope for the best as i'd done 500 miles like that and it seemed fine. Well by Nottingham it was squeaking a bit and juddering much more than before. We made it to the ACE cafe late, and then absolutely motored to Dover to get it fixed. Luckily in the week before we left I found a spring at work. Pretty thick and tight wound one. I immediately thought 'that would make a nice return spring for the clutch fork if need be'. Well aren't I glad that I brought it! I bodged the fork in Dover and its done 5000 miles like that no issue. It pulls the bearing from the fingers when the clutch is lifted. I was proud of that one. The photo is in the list!
We lived in it. The tights I used to make fly nets on the rear windows were fine until we got to Paris. This was far too hot. We ended up giving up and just sleeping with the windows open with towels over them, and the boot open a tad. This kept us cool enough in the back, which got progressively muckier as the days went on and the laziness kicked in. The double bed was perfect and we were one of the few who got a good night sleep every night! Of course the booze also helped.
It even pulled 120 on the Autobahn, which there is a photo of in here! I genuinely couldn't have hoped for a better car. Sure there were cars on the trip that were quick with a/c etc. (Like a BMW 540 that went, which also had an alternator give up and the gearbox not going above 3rd when it was too hot causing them to miss out on half the trip) but I think our bare bones experience made it much more memorable. Otherwise I might as well be doing the trip in a modern car!
Enough of my waffling anyway, enjoy the photos. There are videos too which I need to unearth from my gopro. I'll add more photos to this thread when I get the links from other people that went on the trip. There a plenty
We left Aberdeen on the 27th of June, and returned on the 15th of July.
Basically, the Carlton managed 5500 miles across Europe with ease! I really thought we had made a poor choice going for it, but I'm so glad we did. I think we were one of the only teams under budget that didnt have a single serious problem.
It was comfortable (apart from driving through France & Italy in a heatwave with no a/c and in fact no fan) It was a windows open affair the whole way! Even got so hot that half way through a 490 mile day I went into a services, bought febreeze, emptied it and filled it with water. We then spent the rest of the day spraying ourselves in the face and then leaning out the window to cool down. Didnt phase me though, I found it quite amusing
It handled pretty well considering the size, shape and floppiness. The tar was practically melting so even with its ling long tyres it stuck like glue. Both myself and Andrew held back for the first few days as we didnt want to push it too hard. By the 4th day we reached the epic roads in the south of France and that idea went out the window. We were actually overtaking a lot of the quicker cars on the trip in the twisties! It loved the redline and getting shoved back into 2nd for a tight hairpin, with all of our belongings getting flown to the other side of the boot while the car tilted to about 45 degrees going round the bends! I've owned some seriously good cars but I don't think i've ever driven something as fun as this. The rest of the journey followed this new found principle of flooring it which made it ridiculously enjoyable.
It was ridiculously reliable. One small problem we had was my fault as I had incorrectly wired in the dual fans for the radiator. After 4 hours in Paris traffic the switch gave up and left us just about overheating. We managed to break down infront of the Eiffel tower where I wired the biggest fan (A £10 fan from a vectra) direct to the battery. Which kept the car much cooler than before.... hmmmm. At the campsite we wired it all up correctly with a new switch (I brought a spare, smart thinking) to the relay using the single fan and it was perfect. Sat at 1/4 in any temperature outside and went up to the middle of the gauge when climbing the alps. Couldnt have asked for any better. Thankfully our original fan (from an omega) went to live on in a BMW 5 series after their fan kicked the bucket. We wired it to their foglights and it kept them cool the whole trip. Enough to run the ring on the way home too!
If you've read my other thread, you will be aware of the juddery clutch issue which the Carlton was plagued of. We decided to leave it and hope for the best as i'd done 500 miles like that and it seemed fine. Well by Nottingham it was squeaking a bit and juddering much more than before. We made it to the ACE cafe late, and then absolutely motored to Dover to get it fixed. Luckily in the week before we left I found a spring at work. Pretty thick and tight wound one. I immediately thought 'that would make a nice return spring for the clutch fork if need be'. Well aren't I glad that I brought it! I bodged the fork in Dover and its done 5000 miles like that no issue. It pulls the bearing from the fingers when the clutch is lifted. I was proud of that one. The photo is in the list!
We lived in it. The tights I used to make fly nets on the rear windows were fine until we got to Paris. This was far too hot. We ended up giving up and just sleeping with the windows open with towels over them, and the boot open a tad. This kept us cool enough in the back, which got progressively muckier as the days went on and the laziness kicked in. The double bed was perfect and we were one of the few who got a good night sleep every night! Of course the booze also helped.
It even pulled 120 on the Autobahn, which there is a photo of in here! I genuinely couldn't have hoped for a better car. Sure there were cars on the trip that were quick with a/c etc. (Like a BMW 540 that went, which also had an alternator give up and the gearbox not going above 3rd when it was too hot causing them to miss out on half the trip) but I think our bare bones experience made it much more memorable. Otherwise I might as well be doing the trip in a modern car!
Enough of my waffling anyway, enjoy the photos. There are videos too which I need to unearth from my gopro. I'll add more photos to this thread when I get the links from other people that went on the trip. There a plenty
)