Stu's 2010 Gran(d) Tour
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Budapeststu
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Morning All, we're in Frankfurt right now, having driven from Kent yesterday. To summarise the last few days, we arrived in Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday afternoon to a warm welcome from Jane and Neil at Auto Sportiva. My car would clearly be in prestigious company as there were already an Enzo, a 250 California, a couple of racing F430 Scuds (one of which Neil was taking to the Britcar 24 for this weekend) and another 4200 GT. The Enzo was owned by a friend of the garage's and the only one in the world with a bespoke Tubi exhaust. I'm informed it's louder than an F1 car when it's cold.
The girlfriend and I then went off to Brighton and returned on Friday morning to pick the car up. The Larini's made an enormous difference, both in sheer volume and in tone. I have to say my favourite bit is lifting off in 2nd or 3rd, the popping and fizzing on the overrun is just amazing and EVERYONE can here you. I closest comparison I can think of is when Jeremy was testing the Alfa 8C and he was so excited by the sound on the overrun. I do have a couple of videos but it'll take me a while to upload them.
Otherwise the service went smoothly with Neil giving the car a clean bill of health, including the brake pads, which I'd guessed might need attention. The car has also been successfully lowered by an inch or so. The handling has definitely improved, with less floating, even in non-sport mode. Of course it's a little harsher on the bumps but that's something I expect from a sports car. I didn't have much chance to check the high speed stability; as soon as the de-restricted part of the autobahn started, we arrived at a huge traffic jam. After 90 mins or so we go through that and then it started to rain heavily, which reduced everyone's speed significantly. As such I never made it past 110 mph the whole trip.
We've decided to stay in Frankfurt for another night so we'll be back to Budapest tomorrow sometime in the late afternoon. Overall it'll have been 2,400 very enjoyable miles and unless I'm very sadly mistaken tomorrow, the car has been completely reliable. It's exactly 12 months since I bought the car and I can say with pride that no other car I've owned has been this reliable over a year. I hope I can say the same in another 12 months!
The girlfriend and I then went off to Brighton and returned on Friday morning to pick the car up. The Larini's made an enormous difference, both in sheer volume and in tone. I have to say my favourite bit is lifting off in 2nd or 3rd, the popping and fizzing on the overrun is just amazing and EVERYONE can here you. I closest comparison I can think of is when Jeremy was testing the Alfa 8C and he was so excited by the sound on the overrun. I do have a couple of videos but it'll take me a while to upload them.
Otherwise the service went smoothly with Neil giving the car a clean bill of health, including the brake pads, which I'd guessed might need attention. The car has also been successfully lowered by an inch or so. The handling has definitely improved, with less floating, even in non-sport mode. Of course it's a little harsher on the bumps but that's something I expect from a sports car. I didn't have much chance to check the high speed stability; as soon as the de-restricted part of the autobahn started, we arrived at a huge traffic jam. After 90 mins or so we go through that and then it started to rain heavily, which reduced everyone's speed significantly. As such I never made it past 110 mph the whole trip.
We've decided to stay in Frankfurt for another night so we'll be back to Budapest tomorrow sometime in the late afternoon. Overall it'll have been 2,400 very enjoyable miles and unless I'm very sadly mistaken tomorrow, the car has been completely reliable. It's exactly 12 months since I bought the car and I can say with pride that no other car I've owned has been this reliable over a year. I hope I can say the same in another 12 months!
GransportFan1
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Glad your having a great time Stu.
lozcb
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Brilliant Stuart, so pleased to see another satisfied Larini convert , almost goes without saying these engines if looked after are Bullet proof , and the cars in general excellent GT tourers hope the rest of the journey exceeds 110 mph at some point
Warm regards loz
Emtee
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Great to hear that everything is going well Stu. Sounds like you're proper chuffed with the Larini's. Being interested in lowering mine a little after all the recent posts on the subject, I'd be interested to know how you get on with the firmer ride after you've lived with it for a while?
Oh, if you fancy a nice restaurant for tonight you could do worse than Nizza, Untermainkai 17 down by the river. I've eaten there twice now and it was lovely on both occasions. Cheers, Miles.
Oh, if you fancy a nice restaurant for tonight you could do worse than Nizza, Untermainkai 17 down by the river. I've eaten there twice now and it was lovely on both occasions. Cheers, Miles.
Parisien
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dickygrace
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Stu, Sounds great, good of you to share it all with us.
I've been over that way in a 911, s2000 and an elise before but finally heading down to Italy in the Gransport on Tuesday, you're mini-blog has got me even more excited!
I've been over that way in a 911, s2000 and an elise before but finally heading down to Italy in the Gransport on Tuesday, you're mini-blog has got me even more excited!
lozcb
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Good on yer Dicky , great to see your still using it , least you can always look back at the experience , even if it does put a few extra miles on it before its sold , what the heck experience of a lifetime , worth every penny, even if you have to knock an extra monkey off the price to sell it eventually , back in the late 70's i used to reguarly deliver new Jags to Iran for the Guy i worked for , another once life time experience for a youngster , but not a patch on taking the Masser over the Alps o Italy and the south of France last year, think it was probably my peak , unless camelot comes up trumps in the future
regards
Budapeststu
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Dear All, I worked out how to upload the before and after videos of my car. The link to the before video (check out the Enzo in the background) is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTTmA3-gYJc
The video of the first start up after I arrived back at the garage is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rec-Fdv1bAc
The difference in sound is dramatic, I'll think you'll agree.
The video of the first start up after I arrived back at the garage is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rec-Fdv1bAc
The difference in sound is dramatic, I'll think you'll agree.
Budapeststu
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Fabulous....definitely pulse quickening......
P
As I think is always the case, Parisien, the video doesn't do justice to the change in tone, volume and sheer presence of the car, now that the Larinis are on. I have a different car in so many respects, every penny was well spent and now it sounds like a supercar as much as it looks like one.
Budapeststu
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Oh and I can't get out of the office for a couple of days, having been away for 10 days on the tour. I'm trying to think of reasons to go out in the middle of the day. I just offered to collect a colleague's sick note from the hospital and I'm the company's owner and managing director! Needless to say the offer was received with surprise and incredulity.
Parisien
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I can see you amending your job description to include......"Any other driving duties as demands arise, for any reason, at any time, 365 days pa....no additional renumeration required".......
P
Budapeststu
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Yeah, basically it's "anyone need me to pick up their lunch/dry cleaning etc." I'm also offering to take my g'friend to the supermarket in the evening, whether the actual act of shopping appeals or not. Finally I'm also looking for any excuse to use the Chain Bridge in Budapest as access to Buda. The main reason being the tunnel straight after the bridge, which for some reason is now much more appealing place to be than it was thus far.
No, I don't need a pay rise, at least not until the fuel bill from running everywhere at 5,000 rpm+ starts to mount up!
No, I don't need a pay rise, at least not until the fuel bill from running everywhere at 5,000 rpm+ starts to mount up!
Easyplan66
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that's fantastic, add that to my wishlist
Parisien
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