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Journal: One Car And A Weekend To Spend In It: What's Your Ideal Road Trip?

One Car And A Weekend To Spend In It: What’s Your Ideal Road Trip?

By Alex Sobran
September 21, 2018
18 comments

Pick the car, pick your passengers (or lack thereof), pick the route: it’s almost officially the weekend, most of the world is still a ways away from winter, and while many of us will be out for a drive of some kind in the coming days, we want to know what your perfect one would look like if you could engineer it away from the constraints of budget and what’s available in the garage. Choose the season or the exact day of the year. Choose the time of day, the mileage on  the odometer, whatever details you find when you start to picture what you wish you could be doing instead of watching Friday’s clock tick toward Weekend.

It doesn’t have to a be a continent-crossing trek that leaves you and the car dilapidated at the end of it, but if your idea of the ideal road trip involves packing an original Defender full of hand tools and sand ramps then by all means, let us know how you’d prepare the rig and where you’d go in it. In contrast, who wouldn’t want to take a 250 GTO on a legally-questionable sprint along the B roads between Maranello and Milan? Then again, who’s to say you need to be the one doing all the work in your daydreams: having Jeeves wheel you and some friends around for a weekend in London all cozied up in the back of a 600 Grosse would be a different approach to this hypothetical game of automotive indulgences. No wrong answers here, and if your reality happens to match up with your fantasies this weekend, please do send us a postcard.

Photography by Chris Koch, Mathieu Bonnevie, Alex Sobran, Will Broadhead, Máté Boér, Andrea Klainguti, and John Montesi

Tags Questions Asked/ Road Trips/ Travel
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buraktheweekender
buraktheweekender
5 years ago

on this road (Kocaeli, Samanli Mountain Road, TR)
https://flic.kr/p/2d8CbJo
https://flic.kr/p/R5hBtW
https://flic.kr/p/2d8CcPE
with this car
MB SL600 AMG
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh9PfQyAUbE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh9RItwASpd/

0
Tharanga Wijayaratna
Tharanga Wijayaratna
5 years ago

Transfagarasan Highway in an Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Or

AH4 in a Bugatti EB110 SS

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Jorge Rueda
Jorge Rueda
5 years ago

Monte Carlo Rally in an Alpine A110

OR

A snowy mountain road in a ’71 911

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pope400
pope400
5 years ago

I want to take an MC12 Corsa around the US with my brother, hitting my favorite roads like Trinity Highway in Northern California and Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina and Tennessee as well as roads I grew up driving in Eastern Maryland. Along the way we’d hit
race track after race track.

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Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago

My other annual road trip is to the Techno Classica.

I usually try to combine it with a worthy automotive site nearby Essen.
This year, it was the Toyota Collection in Cologne.
Last year it was the Classic Remise.
Next year, it will be a (re)visit to the Schumacher Collection ( http://egzostive.com/the-schumacher-collection-2018/ ).

-1
Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago
Reply to  Zold Fulu

The afternoon I spent in Mulhouse, at the Cité de l’Automobile ( http://egzostive.com/mulhouse-2018-en/ ) , I think it was named best on Petrolicious already. There may be areas in which others might be better, but the Cité has very few weaknesses, and easily harvest the best overall title.

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Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago

9. The trip finished in Hangar 7, that is the headquarters of Red Bull founder Mr Mateschitz. ( http://egzostive.com/hangar7-en/)

I would not dare to give away award for being the best. These museums are perfectly complementing each other, like the Peugeot and Mulhouse or Merc and Speyer. Between the Porsche Museum Stuttgart and the Porsche Family Collection Salzburg, there is hardly any redundancy…

I also include here a g-map to the entire route. All that In about 2.5 days…
It was a bit tiring, but certinly worth the effort.

-1
Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago
Reply to  Zold Fulu

I see that the earlier parts did not make it yet through the filter, so here is an intro to give it a bit of direction:

I would differentiate between joyfoul roads and longer road trips. There a few longer routes that are fun (like the Route Napoleon near the French Alps), but if you would drive 200kms on the Stelvio or the Col de Turini, you might as well replace half of your car afterwards,

So I rather preferred a 900km road trip in Europe’s highest car museum density region. Driving was not the objective, but to discover great automotive sites. My Key stops were the following ones :
1. Sochaux, Peugeot Museum
2. Mulhouse, Cité de l’Automobile
3. Technik Museum Speyer.
4. Porsche Museum.
5.Mercedes Museum
6. Mazda Museum
7.BMW Welt
8. Porsche Fahrtraum Salzburg
The ninth is already in the comment above

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Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago
Reply to  Zold Fulu

So the journey started in Sochaux, at the Peugeot Museum (for impressions see: http://egzostive.com/peugeot-museum-2018-en/ ). If you visit Mulhouse, its less than an hour away, and really worth the detour.

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Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago
Reply to  Zold Fulu

I really don’t want to detail every single location (there is ample reports on Petrolicious), what might be new even for avid Petrolicious readers is the Porsche Family’s private collection near Salzburg. ( http://egzostive.com/porsche-fahrtraum-2018-update/ ) The Porsche Fahrtraum is a brilliant place, its about Ferdinand Porsche, rather than the modern car company, e.g. he made a Prius in 1900 for Lohner and a Tesla for the Asutrian Kaiser a few years later.

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Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago

I forgot to mention, below, there was a sleepover next to Speyer, the Cité itself consumes an entire day.
6. Audi Forum Ingolstadt ( http://egzostive.com/audi-museum-en/ ), The real value added is the history of the former Auto Union, with cars like the speed record chaser silver car.
7.The BMW Welt (They closed down on that specific weekend, I am still furious). So rather include here a photo from the Peugeot Museum, that I couldn’t add in the first Pt of the trip due to the 3 photo restriction.

8. Porsche Fahrtraum Salzburg ( http://egzostive.com/porsche-fahrtraum-2018-update/ ) Brilliant place, its about Ferdinand Porsche, rather than the modern car company, e.g. he made a Prius in 1900 for Lohner and a Tesla for the Asutrian Kaiser a few years later.

-1
Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago

4. Porsche Museum. Does the number 70 ring the bell? 🙂
5.Mercedes Museum ( http://egzostive.com/mercedes-museum-2018-en/ ) That is simply the most awsome facrtory museum in the world,
6. Mazda Museum Ulm ( http://egzostive.com/mazda-classic-museum-en/ ), If you have time, a good stopover btw Merc and Audi/BMW

-1
Zold Fulu
Zold Fulu
5 years ago

I would differentiate between joyfoul roads and longer road trips. There a few longer routes that are fun (like the Route Nepoleon near the French Alps), but if you would drive 200kms on the Stelvio or the Col de Turini, you might as well replace half of your car afterwards,

So I rather preferred a 900km road trip in Europe’s highest car museum density region. Driving was not the objective, but to discover great automotive sites. My Key stops were the following ones (Since one can only add 3 pix I copy the link, hope it wont violate the comment rules ):
1. Sochaux, Peugeot Museum (for impressions see: http://egzostive.com/peugeot-museum-2018-en/ ). If you visit Mulhouse, its less than an hour away, and really worth the detour.
2. Mulhouse, Cité de l’Automobile ( http://egzostive.com/mulhouse-2018-en/ ) , I think it was named best on Petrolicious already. There may be areas in which others might be better, but the Cité has very few weaknesses.
3. Technik Museum Speyer. If you haven’t been there you should really check it out…

-1
PDXBryan
PDXBryan
5 years ago

Something that I’ve fantasized about often and for years. My dream trip is me and my brother in a long hood 911S (or RS!) traversing the alps then finishing up at the LeMans 24 hr! I’d love to take my wife but mountainous twisties are not here forte. A friend of mine just did a great weekend tour through the Rockies in his E39 M5 wagon. That would be a very decent consolation prize!

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Darel Matthews
Darel Matthews
5 years ago

My life goal is to do the Mille MIglia with my wife as navigator, in a car I restored myself.

2
Martin Philippo
Martin Philippo
5 years ago

Next year holidays will bring us to Cornwall in the UK. That sounds like a very fine roadtrip. The vehicle will be the 1996 Saab convertible we have. A perfect car for the purposes. The camera goes with us so we’ll send you a card.

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daryl pickering
daryl pickering
5 years ago

The road trip has to gotta be to the Transfagarasan Highway in Romania, i think i would take my current car a 2004 Alfa Romeo GT 3.2 V6 Q2 and i would have to have a couple of friends with me for laughs and good banter

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Straight
Straight
5 years ago

Funny question, this… the cars will be diverse and the routes will vary, but all the best answers will involve unpopulated/rented ways that meander some nice comtours, and always with the right friends – you know, like three of them, like a show we know of…

2

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