Monday and the Stelvio Pass

After a hearty breakfast all the teams assembled in a small side road a few hundred yards from the hotel before moving off in convoy up the mountain.

We had to climb up to almost 3000 feet above sea level, the last 1500 feet of which was through falling snow and low cloud.

About 10 miles from the summit we stopped and had coffee in a nice roadside cafe before tackling the final ascent into Italy and the mountain top village of Stelvios which the famous pass is named after.

A quick lunch of soup & rolls was followed by the awesome drive down the Top Gear road.

The AA team went ahead to set up several camera locations and we followed at intervals of about two minutes.

About half way down we swapped seats so that both of us could experience a once in a lifetime drive of 50 plus hairpins and spectacular shear drops.

We had no trouble with the car, the brakes held firm and as a bonus we used hardly any fuel on the descent.

Thanks to Msar Safety we were held firm in our seats by the Schroth harnesses and the Tran-X diff and Goodyear tyres provided all the traction we needed.

The drive down to Brescia was punctuated by a brief stop at Lake Garda where we sampled the delights of Italian ice cream and relaxed in the sunshine until all the teams arrived.

Two hours down the road saw us arriving at our hotel in Brescia and the start of our Mille Miglia Rally.

Day 2 Metz to Davos

Sunday began with Roy opening his Father's Day cards from two of his three children, (looks like Niel will miss out at Christmas)!.

After a quick briefing we all set off at intervals and on our chosen route to Davos.

We elected to take the scenic rote via Strazbourg and entered Switzerland at Basel. The road up to Davos was fairly quiet and the scenery was spectacular to say the least. We obviously started to climb higher and the roads began to twist & turn in every direction.

The car behaved very well even though the engine temperature did rise well above normal . The increasing altitude was expected to have an adverse effect on the performance of the engine but it didn't appear to miss a beat all the way up the mountain.

We arrived at Davos at about 5.30pm and borrowed a key card from Team DB4 which allowed us to park in the underground car park.


As you would expect, the Sheraton Arabella is a first class Hotel and obviously we dressed for the occasion.



Despite the overcast weather, the views from our balcony were breathtaking after a superb meal we sat around and exchanged stories with the other teams until time for bed.