dannorris Road trip rule #1 – only when things go wrong, is it right. Every now and again, Google or Instagram or Tic Tac or one of the other social harvesting – sorry, social media – companies send me a sinister email, reminding me of what I was doing this time last year. Usually, I just sit there admiring their brazen cheek at pointedly reminding me that they’re monitoring my every activity – but this time it made me realise just how stupidly fast these particular twelve months has zipped by. Of course, we’ve all put our lives on hold in many ways for the majority of the year so far, and as I write, the prognosis for the remaining couple of months doesn’t look great either. But one thing is for sure – you’ll never forget 2020. And that got me philosophising. Isn’t life just one big road trip? After all, with a road trip, it’s very much not about just going from A to B. I mean, imagine saying to a mate in the pub ‘Oh, and I went on a great road trip this summer’. ‘Really? Where?’, ‘Well, I left home, and a week later, I arrived back again’. Nor is it much good, let’s be honest, if everything goes well – or according to plan. Take the picture in question. This time last year, me and the wife had to go from France to the UK in time for Munich Legends’ yearly car meet, Legends in the Fall (another casualty of Covid this year) and we decided to drive - rather than fly – from our start point in Nice. In fact, as Sara had to meet a client doing
18 BMW Car Club Magazine November 2020
a road trip round the Dolomites - leaving from Munich (Germany) - we thought we’d combine the lot - take the E30 M3, and make a proper road trip out of it. Cramming the M3 full of small dogs and luggage we set off towards Italy, winding along the French coast and crossing the border around lunch time. The car had been a long time away from ML and we were soon reminded that a 30-year-old E30 can get a bit indignant if you ask it to leave its warm garage and embark on a surprise 2000-km adventure, without notice. On the motorway an E30 M3 can be a bit skittish, and with a shorter diff – seemed like a good idea around the Ashdown Forest – the engine is noisy even at relatively normal cruising speeds. Then it started to rain. And it rained very hard all the way across the Italian planes until we crossed into Switzerland, over the Simplon pass. Once we were in Switzerland it started raining a bit harder and got a bit darker, as we climbed up the Grimsel pass towards our hotel. Luckily as we ascended, it got foggy too. Anyone that owns an E30 M3 – or any similar era classic – knows that the lights are not its strongest suit. Or the wipers. And the heater didn’t work very well, so it misted up inside. And actually, it’s not that comfy. The dogs were hungry, we were hungry, and it was still foggy. But it would all be fine, because we had a lovely hotel booked with a view of the lake.
When we arrived at the hotel, there was a special surprise waiting for us. It was dark - but that didn’t stop us having a marvellous view across the water. What in fact stopped that was the fog, which had reduced visibility to around two feet. And it was the same the next morning when we left. It was probably a lovely lake, but we’ll never be sure. Undaunted, we headed down to the valley below and headed towards the Furka pass where we hoped to get some shots of the car for Sara’s blog, notably in front of the abandoned hotel Belvedere, an iconic but ghostly spot immortalised in the film Goldfinger. Unfortunately, someone else had the same idea. We were greeted by a bizarre sight - of all things – a full scale BMW press shoot for the newly launched 8 Series, with a full camera crew and kit, an M850i Gran Coupe and an E31 850CSi. They’d nicked our spot, and after a quick photo bomb it became clear they weren’t going anywhere soon, so on we went, through undulating fields of Swiss cows, their bells clanking softly as they watched us pass, gingerly picking our way through more fog on the narrow roads across the ridge and down the other side. Our next destination was Lucerne, The Burgenstock Hotel, a fabulous, sprawling 5-star complex perched high above the lake, and this time we really did have a view. We wandered around
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