Page 171 - Classics Issue

Hotel at Fontainebleau, having covered 163 miles, and then pushed on to Joigny where we flled with petrol and lowered the hood. This we had raised in the middle of a cloudburst which ceased when the hood was up and we were already soaked. Thus we covered a hundred or more miles in a crescendo of “Blower“ and gear noise accentuated by the hood. With the hood down, helmets and goggles on, the car is truly marvellous, simply humming along with an occasional Bug whine from the “blower“ which is most exhilarating. We dined at Chalons and decided to go straight through to Cannes. We stopped at Lyons for black coffee at midnight and then struck really good roads for the frst time. For mile after mile, the car just hummed along between avenues of trees at 70-75 m.p.h. with the road in front like a never-ending roll of ribbon and no traffc except the most colossal lorries: these we met about every 5 miles. We stopped at Valence to examine the clutch bolts, as we heard noises like rending machinery coming from somewhere about every 50 miles. Everything seemed O.K. and nothing has been done since and the noise has disappeared. So dawn broke somewhere near Avignon and we did the last 200 miles with a blazing Riviera sun fat in ouralready tired eyes. The road from Avignon to Cannes is very bumpy, but with the back weighed down with luggage and shockers very tight, at 80 miles an hour, the Bug was most comfortable and held the road remarkably well, though it was a pretty good tousing. The fnal 20 miles over the mountains to Cannes was pretty hectic after 23 hours driving a hairpin bend every few yards, sheer drop on one side, appalling surface and 1 in 10 gradient. However, we averaged 41 over this section, in top gear, and pulled up at the Carlton Hotel just after 9 a.m, having covered 705 miles. Not an outstandingly good average,but we had several leisurely stops and the roads for a good part of the distance were distinctly poor. Also, a lot of traffc and, with the Frenchman, there seems to be only one place for the accelerator pedal-on the