Pre-LMC trip to the Swiss Alps

So I plan to go to the Alps and drive the 4 remaining pass’es Friday and Saturday. And I left Denmark this morning, to get started.

So left the garage, going to the ferry DK-Germany. And then one of the highlights of the tour, German highways. It’s amazing in this day and age, you can on long stretches (fewer and fewer) go as fast as you can/dare. Not that I race that much, I cruise at 150 km/h in the LC, the occasional sprint to 180-200 km/h. Last year I bought a Cadillac CTS-V in the UK, Geiger tuned to 650 HP, and drove it home. It topped out on the rev limiter at 303 km/h leaving an AMG Merc in the dust, and when you were doing 200, it felt like 130. The Longchamp is different, at 200 km/h, it feels like 400 km/h would feel in the V. Not that it’s unstable or anything, but it’s quite noisy: engine, wind, like a race car. Sorry guys, but after decades of enthusiast being able to build a better car than the factories could build these days it’s the opposite, you can’t build as good a car as you can buy today.

Still the Longchamp has its advantages. Many thumbs ups from other drives, people wanting to talk at gas stations, etc., and the very unfiltered sense of driving. And this Longchamp handles extremely well, it can be felt that Mr. DeTomaso was more racecar builder than anything else. It’s only let down by its narrow 70 profile tires, something I may fix soon. But they look so good…

Already in Denmark the first problem arose. The inside mirror fell down last trip, I glued it on last autumn and it’s been ok for a year almost, but it started to come loose. No glue in my car. But gaffa tape, but at the bottom of the well packed trunk, and rain. I saw a painter in a van, asked if he had some tape, he sure had, and being a US car owner, he would have given me the shirt of his back, a small community in Denmark. So that was sorted. After a few more km in the rain I noticed the new wiper blade was working its way out of the arm. I had feared that, the new wiper blade combined with the very unique DeTomaso left wiper arm which is a two-rod thing that turns the blade to the right angle, those parts don’t fit entirely together. A cable binder fixed that. So two hours from home, already the car is kept together by tape and cable binders. This could be a long trip. And that was small stuff compared to what happened later in the day…

I hate queues! And German highways are known for them, and it’s not just 5 minutes, it can be many km and hour delay. Worst case you’re led of the highway, then you lose an hour. I hate them, I will rather irrationally rather make a 1 hour detour than wait in queue for 30 minutes. And if I was in a 1 hour queue and someone offered me to get through for $1000, I would pay. And just so you know, when I go to work, I don’t make $1000/hour unfortunately.

My German language is not that good, adequate. I listen to German traffic radio. When I was between Hamburg and Hannover I heard “stau” on “7” between Hamburg and Hannover. What I didn’t understand was exactly where. But it was 3 km “stau”, not for me! I was 45 km from Hannover, so when to exit the Autobahn? I played with the TomTom (didn’t have the OEM GPS option in my Longchamp), while driving 150 km/h, and it didn’t really do what I wanted. I missed two exits doing this, but on the third, I thought, I have to leave now, I’m only 20 km from Hannover. So I did, and coded the GPS to go to Kassel but not on Autobahn. As soon as I left the Autobahn I crossed it on a bridge, and guess what, I could see the queue and signs, if I had not left at that exit, I would have been sitting in that queue for an hour cursing myself. 

As soon as I crossed the bridge I was on a country road in a forest. Immediately I saw a lot of RVs, strange I thought, why would all those (similar) RVs park here? As I got closer, I saw two women talking outside an RV. German camping wives? Well, they didn’t look like typical campers, they were very shapely, had very long hair and very short skirts. Hhmm, camping in Germany looks like fun. They actually looked quite attractive, at a distance, at speed. The way they looked at me as I drove by, it dawned on me, they were hookers looking for customers. These were the first hookers I’ve ever seen live, at least where I knew they were hookers. Yeah yeah, I know, I’ve led a protected life. There were many RV/hookers on that road. I didn’t stop, besides not wanting to lose my pay-for-it virginity, I’m sure you could lose a lot more stopping in such a place, money, car, life. As I said, the two looked quite attractive in a cheapo kind of way, and I think they were put out on display for that purpose, because some of the women I saw in other RVs later, I mean, I wouldn’t stop there if they were the last women on earth. Kidding aside, I felt sad for them, sitting in a RV all day, boring, only “excitement” having to have sex with any jerk that comes by with a few €. What a way to make a living. And they probably give half to some super jerk. Sad.

Not being in a hurry, at about 4pm I decided to start looking for hotel, maybe a beer in the sun, a read in Motor Trend, so keyed in Hotel along Route, and 30 km up ahead was a hotel. I drove there, it looked good, it had a Biergarten next to it, I could be happy here. But…they were full. On a f…… Wednesday!

So out in the car, finding the next hotel on the GPS, idling, and as soon as I put it in gear it died. WTF? How can it die just from being put in gear? I mean I tuned that idle, and I quite literally wrote the book on tuning your engine! So how could that happen? Tried to start, nothing. No fan=no ignition, and no starter. Just like in Apollo 13 when they get a wake up call about the (lack of) stability of engineering, when the Corvette totally dies at a red light. But the GPS being fed from the lighter, that showed current. How can that be? Normal power ok but no ignition and no start current. Major ignition switch failure? Not good, sitting in a car park in front of a hotel that has no room for me. After the initial 0.1 second panic, and remembering Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, I started to analyze. So, normal current available, so no battery failure. About the starter current, I remembered this had happened when I put it in gear, and of course in gear it can’t start. So put it in Park, and it started. All was fine. So drove towards the next hotel. Then it died again. And then I could start it again. This was on and off. But starting always worked when in Park. So the “only” problem was ignition current. OK, so one step wiser. Had it overheated? I turned off A/C and fan and opened the window, that seemed to help when not in a city, but in the cities looking for a hotel it died 6 times. No fun driving a car that can instantly lose all power without any warning.

Finally found a hotel, and while I had a craving for sitting down and have a beer, I’d better try to find the fault. Luckily (very lucky) the hotel was opposite a garage. I went over there, bought a few electrical parts and asked if they were avail in the morning if I could not fix it. “Vielleicht”. Then I started analyzing with all my tools, had to empty the trunk since tools were at the bottom. I always pack the tools at the bottom, but I always seem to need them first, maybe I should pack them at the top. The theory I have right now is that with the powerful ICE ignition, fan at full speed, A/C on, radio on, the current draw through the ignition switch is too much. The multi connector just above the steering column seems a bit burnt. So I’ll do one of two things. If the local garage has the parts, I’ll build a make shift relay so most of the ignition current comes directly from the battery, not via the ignition switch. If they don’t I’ll use a cheater wire. Can’t switch off the engine without opening the hood then, but that’s livable. And better than not having any A/C!

So right now I have a plan. Hope it works, and that tomorrow will be less eventful… Writing this in the restaurant eating a Jägerschnitzel and having a large beer. So this is what they call vacationing, so far it seems like a day at the office to me.

Updates on my trip will come at random intervals, depending on wireless availability and the events of the day. Today was worth writing about.

So woke up at 4:30. Pretty annoying, but with the Longchamp not in good shape and the rest of the trip potentially hanging in the balance, I didn’t sleep well. I could still probably get me and the broken car home, take the Cadillac and drive to LMC trip and be buuh’ed at for a week But that was not the plan. No, I knew that the garage opened at 8 am, so had plenty of time. They insisted I spoke German, which for normal conversation works fine, but describing car parts in German, that’s not easy. So I did it another way. I made a small powerpoint (finally powerpoint can be used for something useful) and pasted pictures of the stuff I needed, and wrote the quantity besides. So no need guess. Then I just needed to bring the laptop to the garage. Probably their first customer ordering parts like that.

However, the laptop was low on juice, and the cable I had with me, which been modified to fit in French sockets, it didn’t fit in the German sockets. The legs were OK, but it’s round and the German sockets want round with small indents. So I had to make some indents. I asked reception for a knife, they only had a pair of scissors. Can you imagine cutting a plug to a new shape with only a pair of scissors? Had to be done, took a while. But it worked, so now I was ready for the garage.

Had breakfast, paid my bill, and then looked at the garage, the port was open before time, so went over there. One guy was working, no English, my broken German again. Showed him the powerpoint, then he took me to the parts shelves. We found every connector I needed, but no wire and worst of all, no relay.

But he had a friend in a town 8 km away. I asked: “South or North?”, realizing it didn’t matter, it was my only chance to get anywhere. He gave me an address for my GPS, and off I went. I used a cheater wire straight from the battery to ignition wire in engine room, so I could drive. That garage was quite big, nice reception, huge area for repair, and plenty of morning customers coming with their cars. I got back in line, let whoever came later go before me, so I would have the owner alone. English? Deutsch bitte. OK, explained I had a problem, could fix it myself but needed parts. He had it all. Then I quite casually asked if he thought it would rain? And then he invited me to park inside

It was now 8 am. I got to work. First I lowered the steering column, and there was the answer to what was wrong. Simply too much juice running through the ignition switch, so the connectors had gotten too hot. This car has always had its unique smell when very hot. Not a burnt smell, more like when something that’s been damp for month dries from heat. This was probably that smell.

That was an easy fix. Cut the wire on both sides, and connect it with a yellow connector, and the wire was long enough. So now it could start and run, but for how long? Apparently with hour after hour of running, feeding the ignition, the A/C, the fan, the lights, the fuel pump and the occasional wipers, that was too much. Funnily, my wipers have always been a bit slow and weak. When I fixed the ground they got a lot better. But now they were even faster. About the lights, when I bought the car the lights worked on the ignition. Not sure that that’s original, please chime in, but I liked it since we have to have DRLs, so I would not forget to turn on and off the lights. However, I now have the Carellos as driving lights, so no need. That will be changed. Regardless, I was pretty sure the new wire would hold up if I used the A/C, lights and fan sparingly. But who likes to use anything sparingly? I want full A/C when needed. So I used the relay to draw the current to all of these directly from the battery, and the current from the ignition switch is only used to control the relay. So now all the current runs through the relay, will it manage that? Don’t know, so far it has. As the picture shows, this was done more to be functional than to make it pretty. When I get home I’ll redo it with a proper amperage relay, and rewire the lights to non-ignition current

That took an hour. Needed a few extra parts during, but he had it all. I showed him the problem and my solution (plus showed the car to a couple of old geezers handing in their Golf for service, as one of them said: “Neues kan alles haben”, I think that was praise), and he looked impressed. I think he was thinking to himself, if only my guys worked that fast! Or maybe he was thinking why didn’t he fix that before going that far away from home.

So now it should work. I repacked the trunk, paid a measly €35 for parts, nothing for using his garage (it rained cats and dogs 3 times in that hour), I said “Danke Sehr”, and drove off. Great feeling, it could start, it could drive, and I could stop the engine. And I knew the problem, and I had a cheater wire if everything failed. So, going south again.

Had to fill the tanks for the second time. So I could see my mileage, it was 8 km/l which is 20 mpg. Bloody impressive I think, that means it’s the most economical car I have.

Now, men, be prepared, now it gets a bit emotional. If you don’t care for that kind of thing, skip this part. I won’t hold back, so expect the worst.

When I was a child, we almost always drove to Italy on vacation. I’m not sure how we could afford it in the 60s, my father was in the military, and nobody else in my class drove that far. We drove 4 days from Denmark to Venice area in a VW Bug. Back then you couldn’t go through the Alps in tunnels, you had to drive over them. It had no A/C, max speed was around 110 km/h and my sister and I sat in the back seat with two large suitcases between us, fighting for space. The roof was filled with the tent that we raised every evening on the way, and air mattresses had to be inflated. While I of course enjoyed the vacation, I also looked enviously at some of the cars we saw on the way. Needless to say, they all overtook us, it was a minor sensation when we overtook anybody. Being very interested in cars already at that age, I was not satisfied. I dreamt of crossing the continent in a proper luxury car. The first super car I saw up close was the car of the owner of the campsite, he had a Ferrari 500 Superfast. What a car, what a name. 300 on the speedo, we could do 110. Compared to a VW Bug, you can imagine. I could stand and look at his car for hours. And I said to myself, one day...

Too emotional? It gets worse. When driving to Italy, both as a child and later as a grown up in crummy cars I could afford, one highlight of the tour was when suddenly the Alps appeared in the horizon. South of Germany is quite flat until it isn’t, so the Alps in the horizon come as a small surprise every trip. Now, on this trip, I was driving a new road, had no idea when the Alps would appear. I knew it would be today. So I prepared for it. That meant putting on the Opera CD. A new one, Pavarotti’s Top 50. I had to listen through it all to find the good ones, so I knew which ones to listen to. I would have no time for that when the winding roads appeared. So on flat German Autobahns, Opera was blasting from the loudspeakers.
Also, to add enjoyment to yet another sense, I was holding on to one if the finest works of art, created by immaculate craftsmanship, my wooden Nardi steering wheel.

And then it all clicked. I had been through the CD, and I was listening to my favorite, Nessun Dorma. And just as the crescendo was building, the truck in front of me returned to his right lane, I could accelerate and I could see far. And there were the Alps in the distance. I got chills. Yes, sorry if this is getting too emotional for all of you, but I warned you. I was living my childhood dream. Not all dreams come true, this one did! I’ve had similar moments before, they always involve three things: DeTomaso, Alps, Nessun Dorma.

Still reading? ;-) OK, then you are in touch with your emotional side. I’ll make it short: We’re all pretty old, right? I’m sure we have plenty of vacations in front of us, but suddenly health takes its toll, and the only vacations you can go on are cruises where all you have to do is walk to the buffet and to the amateurish magic show. How long will we be able to take vacations like this one with Charlie? It requires a classic car that most of us maintain ourselves, and often quite a bit of wrenching on the way. That ability won’t last forever. So if cruising the continent of Europe is on your wish list, better get it done now, not later, maybe you can do it twice. But not if you wait. OK, I’ve had a beer now.

I’m now in Switzerland, found a “Bellevue Hotel” on route, and the view is nice. I promise, tomorrow won’t be as emotional as today

So today it was time to drive in the Swiss passes. I had both Friday and Saturday for this, but with great weather today and rain promised Saturday, I decided to drive as many as I could today. So I got up early, 6 am. To prioritize I put on yesterday’s clothes, because I wanted to wash the car first before the sun got up over the mountains. I had brought sponge and microfiber cloth, but no room for a bucket. So I took the room waste paper basket, lined with a plastic bag and filled with water. The receptionist looked a bit as I came down the stairs with what looked like a heavy waste paper basket, but she said nothing. Almost didn’t need the water, as the car was soaked with mountain dew. I got it washed, admired the lake view over the Longchamp (picture) and then went up and washed myself.

The pictures I have come in a blur, because I managed to get through 5 passes today! So Mikael 7 – Alps 0. I started in Susten Pass, perfect weather, shifting between the opera and open window to get the full ambience. This is a playground for enthusiasts, almost like LMC, in the sense that half the cars are enthusiast cars, and btw there are more motorcycles than cars. Most drove reasonably, a few thought it was a race. I drove like the locals, didn’t feel a need to overtake a local who knew the roads, unless it was a slow one. Susten was more winding roads than hairpins, hairpins are ok but after 10 of them, I’d rather get some more speed in the car.

After Susten, I did Grimsel Pass. After a spirited drive down, when standing still a bit of smoke came from my brakes. Hhmm, but all worked fine all day.

And then Furka. Furka is quite challenging and closed most of the year. It’s different to the others in the sense that there are stretches with no guardrails and a dramatic drop. That didn’t seem to slow down the locals though. I discovered that my mileage was not as good in the mountains as on the Autobahn, I needed gas. I coded “gas station along route”. There was only one, well might as well take that. Drove to where the GPS said it would be, no gas station. Only a restaurant, went inside and asked about the gas station, oh yes, just outside, he came out and pointed. Oh, that shed thing, yes there was gas there. Did lunch and then filled the car

So far the passes had been like pearls on a string, I didn’t have to double back any of them, but I expected I had to in the next one: Gotthard Pass. So up, over the top, down. Coding the GPS to the next and last pass, I expected to go over the pass again, but the GPS led me into the mountain, probably the Gotthard Tunnel, over 16 km long.

Lastly I drove to Oberalp Pass. This would be out and back the same route. I stopped at the top on the return trip to sit in the sun for an hour.

I was a bit tired by then, the level of concentration and corrections needed is very different here. A great ride today, best day so far for sure. Only problem is that my daily commute will seem even more boring after this trip 

The Longchamp didn’t act up in any way, and had plenty of torque to deal with the mountains. The thing that put me out of contention last time, I believe, was the very hot PS fluid after 2 passes in rather cold weather. This year I had a simple Summit oil cooler installed, and after 5 passes in varmer weather, the fluid was nowhere near hot. Such a cooler makes a big difference.

Saw many interesting cars: Lotus, new Camaro, 66 Corvette,Ferraris (one gave me thumbs up, happens a lot but never before from a Ferrari), Subary 555, Renault 5 Turbo. And then the tons of motorcycles, some sporty, but most are touring bikes with overweight pensioners…

Currently I’m in a 3 room luxury apartment in Andermatt. It’s the type of apparment that they rent out for a fortune in the winter when people come to ski, in the summer they offer them at 25%, so price like a normal hotel room.

Looks like a great trip.

You are living the dream.

Rocky (a.k.a. Chuck)

Today was Saturday, and appalling weather, rain and fog, not weather to drive in with any kind of pleasure. Bummer, but good that I got it done yesterday, and that was why I had given myself two days here. So I was couped up in my rented apartment with a 50” TV. I saw some material in the apartment that offered me to buy it, at a price og €700k. I watched Wimbledon, F1 Qualifying, Tour and later EM, where my Italian favorites lost on the n’th penalty. I had thought about just walking to the town to have dinner, but the fog was such I didn’t I cooked my own pizza that I with perfect foresight had bought yesterday.

So last day of the Pre-LMC Tour. Today I would pick up my wife in Lyon and drive to Dorgogne to meet all the rest of the partticpants. An almost 1000 km drive, and the initial part in the Swiss Alps at maybe 30 km/h. I could have saved maybe 50 km, but a Dane I briefly know that lives in Switzerland recommended to go via Sion for the scenery, so I did. Helen’s flight schedule meant that I got up at 5 am, packed and drove off. The weather was a bit better than yesterday, but there was drizzle and low clouds. And I had to drive through my least favorite pass on the way: Furka, the one with the massive drop and inadequate guardrails.

So on slippery roads I took it easy. And when I got up the mountain I drove into the low clouds

Nearing the peak I saw sun through the fog/clouds, and at the peak I was above the clouds.

Then a 100 km of winding roads, and then it was highway rest of the day more or less. In France I got blitzed once by a stationary camera when I was doing an apparently highly criminal 116 km/h on a long steep downhill where 110 was the limit. When I got blitzed twice in one day 4 years ago in France, fines never arrived, let’s hope not. The roads were great, shame about the limits. Normal limit is 130, then I saw a sign saying 110 km/h the next 40(!) km, for your safety. Thanks a lot!

I dived into Lyon Airport to see if I could pick up some company, and indeed I was lucky, my wife arrived. So no more quiet in the car, no more opera either. Only after-26-years-of-marriage conversation. Which is not too bad…We lunched on sandwiches in the car, and drove on, looking forward to seeing everybody again and some new faces, people I had communicated with on the forums with but never met before.

The scenery got a little less interesting the last part, roads were fine, so a constant 130 km/h was the norm. We arrived just after 4 pm, soapprox. 9 hours for me, so I was a bit tired. It was a hotel apparently known for their tame goose, I thought it was dinner.

So that was the Pre-trip. And my diary ends here unless something dramatic happens, because from now on there’ll be no time. Too many people to talk to, too many chateaus to visit, too many cars to look at, too many courses to eat and beers and glasses of wine to drink. Tough. A bit stressful, but we’ll manage.

So enjoy your summers, hope that your summer plans includes driving a long trip in a DeTomaso? You have a limited number of summers in your life

Happy 4th of July to my American friends

Nice story Mikaël !
Did the Swiss trip years ago in my '72S Porsche... See you at LMC
Philippe

Mikael,

Just sat still long enough and read all your postings.

GREAT adventure. Thanks for sharing.

Larry

quote:

.... It was a hotel apparently known for their tame goose, I thought it was dinner.

I love that picture of three Panteras, a Longchamp and a Goose.


Rocky

i love the windy alpine shots, reminiscent of the "Gold Finger" Radar equipped DB5.

How did I miss this thread when you were posting it?! Great diary! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us Mikael. Wish I were there with you.

OK, so I'm late posting but I really enjoyed reading about your trip. No, it wasn't the longest distance travelled, but it was a great road trip :-))))

Great to see you and Helen - wouldn't be the same without you!

quote:

- wouldn't be the same without you!

Hhmm, I hear that often. When I was younger I sometimes worried about what people meant by that. Now I'm old and wise enough to not care...