Road trip (buying a car from UK and driving it back home)
09-05-2011, 05:49 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Road trip (buying a car from UK and driving it back home)
I finally had time to make a write-up of our journey. We finally found an S2000 to replace our beloved 'Nob'. At first we needed to get to London as cheap and fast as possible. We left 6. am. home from Joensuu and drove 250 miles to airport. Then we took a flight to Stansted. Then train to London and to Bry's place with all the luggage. After 16 hours of travelling we finally saw our new car. The car was better than described and we were very pleased. On a test drive I had to focus quite a bit because of narrow country roads, darkness and having been awake for 40 hours 
. Thanks to exellent driving skills of Bry, we made it to the train station just before the last train and got to our hotel five minutes before midnight (latest check-in time).
The next two days we spent exploring London. We walked at least 30 miles during that time and saw all the tourist attractions and a lot more. Luckily my fiancée selected proper shoes for walking. On fourth day of our journey we checked out of our hotel and took a train to Bry's place. We did all the paper work and finally got our lovely car. Thanks for everything Bry and Nat! We're hoping to see you again.
And then the actual road trip started... At first we headed to Eurotunnel. The left side traffic didn't feel strange anymore. It's quite funny to see the majority of people people driving on left side after disembarking in France. The second picture is taken at petrol station in Calais. We had perfect weather for driving top down. We arrived in our first destination Brussels in evening. I found out that the speed bumps in Brussels are too high for my S2000. I scraped the plastic flaps in front of the wheels even when going extremely slow. Luckily they were the only parts to touch the ground. We managed to find reasonably priced hotel just outside the city centre. It was about 5 minutes walk to centrum and we parked safely to underground car park. The next day we spent walking through the Brussels. It was an extremely hot day. The sun was shining and it the temperature was at least 30 degrees. We stayed another night in our hotel and decided to continue driving the next day.
On sixth day of our journey it started to rain. The temperature was still +25 degrees. On the way to our next destination we decided to go to see the Euro parliament. I had to make two rounds in a roundabout to see it better. And off we went. We had Amsterdam in mind but we checked the weather forecast; continuous rain for five days. 100 miles before Amsterdaym we decided to drive straight to Hamburg. It was a very good decision indeed. Right after we arrived in Germany the rain suddenly stopped. We stopped to the next petrol station and put the top down. And so started the autobahn glory. No speedlimits between 8 pm. and 6 am on most of the roads on our way. A few parts of unlimited speed 24/7. It was a good time to test the top speed of our fully loaded car. There were only few chances to make top speed runs because of other traffic. We managed to go 242 km/h (150 mph) top down. And it was the real speed from our satnav. The speedometer of car was showing 252 IIRC. Then it started to rain again and we had to make a stop put the top back up. I got one chance to try top speed top closed when the road was dry and it stopped raining. I pushed the car 252 km/h (157 mph) on a slight downhill speedo showing 262 km/h. Every time when tried to hit the top speed the car was still accelerating slowly but I had to start slowing down because of the traffic. I noticed that the average speed of 200 km/h affected to the fuel economy a bit. It was still around 20 mpg (14 litres / 100 km). I fed the car 102RON ultimate in Germany because it was not more expensive than 98RON in Finland (1.65€/litre). I thought it might be safer to use it when driving flat-out all the time. After our last final high speed run it started to pour down and there were lots of road works before we arrived in Hamburg.
It stopped raining again when we saw Hamburg. We found a lovely hotel from centre of Hamburg. One kilometer from the center to be exact. On seventh day of our trip we walked through Hamburg and in the evening we went to famous Reeperbahn/St. Pauli area. It didn't rain even a drop during our stay in Hamburg. We stayed another night in our hotel and started driving on the eight day. We booked a ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki online and our next mission was to drive to Stockholm. We went through Denmark to Sweden. We didn't want to take a ferry to Sweden because we wanted to see the famous long bridges between Denmark and Sweden again.
After a few stops and fifteen hours we arrived in Stockholm. We had to wait for our ferry a few hours until morning. We tried to get some sleep in the car but didn't succeed in it very well. Luckily we had booked a cabin in a ferry and we spent all the time sleeping. We arrived in Turku in the evening of the ninth day of our trip. At first I needed to go to customs to fill a permit to drive the car temporarily in Finland without paying tax. We still 400 miles from home. At took a few hours to get home but we finally made it despite the rain, darkness and wild animals on the road.
Here's the picture take after the trip before the first propere wash. Unfortunately the battery of the camera died after taking that picture. You can't really see that the car was extremely filthy.
Here is our new car at our summer cottage after the first wash. You'll notice lots of insects on the front of the car just after 60 miles drive.
I had to drive to summer cottage quite carefully with my lowered car
And some pictures after the latest proper cleaning. You can see the mascot of our car sitting on the center console in the last picture. There are some birch seeds on the car. They're everywhere in Finland right now. Please don't mind them.
. Thanks to exellent driving skills of Bry, we made it to the train station just before the last train and got to our hotel five minutes before midnight (latest check-in time). The next two days we spent exploring London. We walked at least 30 miles during that time and saw all the tourist attractions and a lot more. Luckily my fiancée selected proper shoes for walking. On fourth day of our journey we checked out of our hotel and took a train to Bry's place. We did all the paper work and finally got our lovely car. Thanks for everything Bry and Nat! We're hoping to see you again.
And then the actual road trip started... At first we headed to Eurotunnel. The left side traffic didn't feel strange anymore. It's quite funny to see the majority of people people driving on left side after disembarking in France. The second picture is taken at petrol station in Calais. We had perfect weather for driving top down. We arrived in our first destination Brussels in evening. I found out that the speed bumps in Brussels are too high for my S2000. I scraped the plastic flaps in front of the wheels even when going extremely slow. Luckily they were the only parts to touch the ground. We managed to find reasonably priced hotel just outside the city centre. It was about 5 minutes walk to centrum and we parked safely to underground car park. The next day we spent walking through the Brussels. It was an extremely hot day. The sun was shining and it the temperature was at least 30 degrees. We stayed another night in our hotel and decided to continue driving the next day.
On sixth day of our journey it started to rain. The temperature was still +25 degrees. On the way to our next destination we decided to go to see the Euro parliament. I had to make two rounds in a roundabout to see it better. And off we went. We had Amsterdam in mind but we checked the weather forecast; continuous rain for five days. 100 miles before Amsterdaym we decided to drive straight to Hamburg. It was a very good decision indeed. Right after we arrived in Germany the rain suddenly stopped. We stopped to the next petrol station and put the top down. And so started the autobahn glory. No speedlimits between 8 pm. and 6 am on most of the roads on our way. A few parts of unlimited speed 24/7. It was a good time to test the top speed of our fully loaded car. There were only few chances to make top speed runs because of other traffic. We managed to go 242 km/h (150 mph) top down. And it was the real speed from our satnav. The speedometer of car was showing 252 IIRC. Then it started to rain again and we had to make a stop put the top back up. I got one chance to try top speed top closed when the road was dry and it stopped raining. I pushed the car 252 km/h (157 mph) on a slight downhill speedo showing 262 km/h. Every time when tried to hit the top speed the car was still accelerating slowly but I had to start slowing down because of the traffic. I noticed that the average speed of 200 km/h affected to the fuel economy a bit. It was still around 20 mpg (14 litres / 100 km). I fed the car 102RON ultimate in Germany because it was not more expensive than 98RON in Finland (1.65€/litre). I thought it might be safer to use it when driving flat-out all the time. After our last final high speed run it started to pour down and there were lots of road works before we arrived in Hamburg.
It stopped raining again when we saw Hamburg. We found a lovely hotel from centre of Hamburg. One kilometer from the center to be exact. On seventh day of our trip we walked through Hamburg and in the evening we went to famous Reeperbahn/St. Pauli area. It didn't rain even a drop during our stay in Hamburg. We stayed another night in our hotel and started driving on the eight day. We booked a ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki online and our next mission was to drive to Stockholm. We went through Denmark to Sweden. We didn't want to take a ferry to Sweden because we wanted to see the famous long bridges between Denmark and Sweden again.
After a few stops and fifteen hours we arrived in Stockholm. We had to wait for our ferry a few hours until morning. We tried to get some sleep in the car but didn't succeed in it very well. Luckily we had booked a cabin in a ferry and we spent all the time sleeping. We arrived in Turku in the evening of the ninth day of our trip. At first I needed to go to customs to fill a permit to drive the car temporarily in Finland without paying tax. We still 400 miles from home. At took a few hours to get home but we finally made it despite the rain, darkness and wild animals on the road.
Here's the picture take after the trip before the first propere wash. Unfortunately the battery of the camera died after taking that picture. You can't really see that the car was extremely filthy.
Here is our new car at our summer cottage after the first wash. You'll notice lots of insects on the front of the car just after 60 miles drive.
I had to drive to summer cottage quite carefully with my lowered car
And some pictures after the latest proper cleaning. You can see the mascot of our car sitting on the center console in the last picture. There are some birch seeds on the car. They're everywhere in Finland right now. Please don't mind them.
09-05-2011, 07:27 AM
#2
There you go 
09-05-2011, 10:49 AM
#4
Registered User
Thread Starter
Thanks unclefester. I'm a software designer and I should know how to use this editor. It has worked before but all I get now is the broken image. Any tips before I continue writing? It would be easy if I could just write html.
09-05-2011, 12:56 PM
#6
Registered User
Just looked the journey up on google maps, 1750 miles one way, that must be a record for buying a new car 
Looking forward to the photos, always love these road trips!
Looking forward to the photos, always love these road trips!
09-05-2011, 01:13 PM
#7
Registered User
Thread Starter
Winfreak that's not a record. I guess I'm the record holder from last summer. Then we drove from Preston to Joensuu Finland. Your route is almost correct. We drove near Amsterdam but decided not to go there because it was rainy and the weather forecast said that the weather will be much better in Hamburg. In Denmark we didn't use a ferry. We drove near Copenhagen and then via the very long bridges to Sweden. We got a total of 2000 miles drive back home.
The car is still in one piece. I wish I could keep her (the S2000) many years.
The car is still in one piece. I wish I could keep her (the S2000
) many years.
