After leaving Como we all headed our separate ways. We headed north towards the Stelvio on Monza +1 .     Quite a long drive from Como, the route along the lake looks amazing but is quite tedious to drive. Narrow and traffic filled. Once north of Lake Como traffic drifted away and we started to make good progress. We took the opportunity to give the car a bit of a wash and we arrived into the mountains and started to really enjoy the drive.      Reminding us of the dangers of over driving these roads, we soon came across these two wreckers. A Porsche on one and a UK new gen Vantage on the other.      Just before we reached the summit you get great opportunities for some photos. We also came across a group of German Lotus owners and had a good chat. How lovely they get to access these roads so easily?     2.75 times the altitude of Snowdon. Car was faultless and was really enjoyable. Not feeling heavy or ponderous. The good tarmac and wide roads helping.      These roads often attract commercial photographers who picture every car and bike that goes up and down the mountain. You look up the location, time and date when you get home and buy the picture if you like it.      This one is mine. Cost about €15 to buy.     Kanyarfoto - Locations Europe   The car is parked here just below the summit café. Showing the roads going down towards Austria.    There is the opportunity to take a funicular to the higher café but the cost was quite ridiculous.      We stopped overnight at a Ski Hotel near to the bottom of all the hairpins. About a 15 minute drive from the summit. Several other drivers cars were present at the hotel. Quite a few bikers and nutter cyclists also present.      Our destination on Monza +2 was Berchtesgaden via the Grossglockner pass. Another very long drive as including the "High Alpine Road" means a bit of a detour. But when would we next be in the region? We had to include it.      I wasn't expecting the Toll on the Italian side. No wonder the bikers where nowhere to be seen till after this toll. They ride over from Austria/Germany and summit, ride down and do a U turn at the Café just past this toll booth...        Summit on the Italian side, just before the short tunnel. Their is a café here and gift shop. Immediately after the tunnel there is another Café & shop. But its a little bigger. The Austrian side is probably the better stop. This is a great road, well worth including on any trip. But very hard to get great photos as few places to stop and nowhere that gives you the bends as a back drop.     This is the second café stop. Only about 1/2 mile apart.        Tunnel entrance to the Eagles Nest.       The Golden Elevator. You can imagine the names of some of those who frequented this place in the 30's and 40's era.        Views from the top.       Believe it or not, it only had one fireplace and no sleeping rooms. The man himself kept a house in the Garrison grounds at the foot of the slopes.    Berchtesgaden itself was lovely and a nice place to spend a day or two. Decent restaurants and bars in town.    Monza +3  & 4 meant heading to Baden Baden. But many will know I had a funny noise in the car by this point that would later be diagnosed as a dodgy rear wheel bearing. I was also starting to get low on tyre tread despite having 5mm on the rears when leaving Cheshire. The Swiss Alps had taken their toll. When planning one of these trips, take notice of tyres and if needed plan in the tyre change on route. I hoped Munich would yield tyres.      We swung into Munich and headed to the AM dealership. Dirk Pannier was amazing. His team took a good look at the car, despite the noise being very loud by now and concerning me quite a lot his team was unable to detect any play in the wheel bearing. Their opinion was tyres, they were worn badly by now. But still had tread. They searched everywhere for tyres. Even the Pirelli centre didn't have any. One of the issues was Vanquish have a bit of an odd size. But as it was September they all mostly had Winter Tyre stock only.      The drive to Baden Baden was a long motorway slog, made terrible by rain and a 4 hour traffic jam. We arrived so late we had supper in a fuel station in town. At least they made the food fresh, much better than a UK affair.        Morning brought more rain. Torrential rain. So a beautiful coffee shop came to the rescue until the rains stopped. Then we did a little shopping in the excellent centre district. Then the afternoon was int the Spa, we came out to pure sunshine.    To our delight the Town fair was also on that evening and we were treated to local street artists, street food and lots of music.      We had a lunchtime RV with the legendary Paul Bollinger, fellow Aston Martin enthusiast at Ramstein Airbase. It had been a long time since I'd been to a PX. They used to be the cheapest shop in the world when I was serving in Germany in the 80's & 90's but sadly exchange rates have killed all that.    Monza +5  & 6 was our final stop at Bruges.  Land of chocolate, medieval city and beautiful buildings. A sort of mini Venice with all its canals. A great place to spend a couple of days unwinding, enjoying the local food and wine.      The final run home was nearly 500 miles. I was worried about the tyres and the bearing is getting noisier still.     The trip computer says it all really.    The tyres were probably not legal by the time we got home. But the car was brilliant. The wheel bearing was replaced as part of winter maintenance.   I'm already planning the next big trip. But I fear it will not be until 2025 as I have far too many things in the diary for 2024 already.    Next time round where will it be? Pyrenees, Iberia and France I feel deserves our attentions. 

I'm looking for names on organising a drive through Snowdonia.    It will be impossible to sort dates to suit everyone. I'm going to suggest we do it on July 1st. We can always bump it back a week if the weather is terrible and not paying ball.  Looking to start from the Ponderosa Cafe, arrive early if you want breakfast and looking to depart at 11 AM.     This is the route I would run the drive over.   Ponderosa Cafe on the Horseshoe Pass, allowing a late breakfast for drivers and passengers. Hotels in nearby Llangollen, Chester, Mold, Ruthin etc for anyone travelling a long distance.  Down the back of the Horseshoe pass via Nanty Garth Pass towards Ruthin Through Clocaenog Forest where the RAC/Welsh Rally is often has a stage. Cross the A5 at Cerrigydrudion, t/clipping the end of the Evo Triangle and down the B4501 towards Bala, often used by Autocar on road test. Then the A4212 to Trawsfynnyd which is one of my favourite roads in the UK, fantastic views of the hills of southern Snowdonia. A short hop up the A487 where we turn right onto the A496 to Blaenau Ffestiniog.  Then the Crimea Pass towards Betwsy Coed, probably the best road in Wales these days?  Then onto the A5 to Pentrefoelas and the EVO Triangle, which was the best road in Wales but now massacred by average speed cameras.  Then we can visit the beautiful lakeside cafe at Llyn Brenig before people can head their different ways or head of on the final leg back to the A5 and on towards Llangollen if you are heading towards the Midlands or the South.  Looking forward to it already. 

A long time ago in a time before Covid, 23 Aston Drivers planned a road trip to the Monza Grand Prix of 2020. 3 Years later that trip finally happened in 2022. Somewhere in the middle of all that we created a new club for likeminded Aston enthusiasts. The numbers dwindled a little bit in between due to plans that other drivers already had in place. But we assembled 7 Cars and 12 people to drive round Europe and finishing at the F1 Monza race. Plans changed slightly over the years as we added in more days to enjoy more of the alpine passes and a rest day at Lake Como. The original planned was always to gather at the old Reims Grand Prix track at Gueux in France and explore the old buildings before traveling to Taittinger to who were hosting use for a tour of the Caves and taste their Champagne. Taittinger was a great experience and their tour rep was very knowledgeable. We were treated to tales of the locals seeking refuge in the cellars during WW1 and then the Taittinger family feeling the wrath of the Nazi's in WW2 for selling them some sub standard Champagne against their will... The tour was very atmospheric and enhanced by the sub terrain engravings and wall art. The wine champagne tasting needed to be put under some control as we were due to drive to Beaune for our overnight stop. So we restricted ourselves to 1/2 glasses for the second and third bottles that were availed to us. We set off for the long drive to Beaune were we had a meal booked in the local Le Monge restaurant. This was just a short walk into the centre of town from our local hotel. Where we all managed to secure our cars in a very tight but secure underground car park. We all gathered at the local supermarket to refuel before joining the Autoroute when we realised one of our group was geographically challenged when leaving the hotel and had somehow managed to turn left instead of right. But we had all agreed 2 more RV points on our way to the Swiss border and the high alps. Have you ever parked your car in the empty corner of the car park and returned to find it surrounded? Well we all know our Aston's are attractive but somehow we managed to attract 2 interlopers at the swiss border while waiting for our geographically challenged peer. Despite parking clear of any other cars 2 slipped into our little huddle... The Alps followed, despite forecasted bad weather we seemed to be getting weather much better than we had reason to expect. This continued into the Alps. We headed towards Andermatt via the Grimsel and then the Furka passes. We stopped for a quick catch of our breaths at the Rhone Glacier where we bumped into some fellow Aston drivers and a rumour that AML were in the area photographing the new DBS Volante F1 Edition. We soon stumbled into them a few miles up the road. Along with a 707 DBX escort vehicle. We of course had the obligatory stop at James Bond Strasse. Where some enjoyed the experience of re-enacting a certain pose. Onto Andermatt and a deserved rest stop before we spent the next day re-tracing our steps around the Furka and Grimsel and following on to the Susten pass as a clockwise loop back to Andermatt. We had a booking on the Gelmebahn Funicular but we recived the news overnight that the railway with a 107% steep climb to the top of the mountains was closed to do a small rockfall that day. So we swapped our plans around a little a spent extra time exploring the Rhone Glacier and the internal tunnels that you can explore for a small fee. We called into the Gelmerbahn to collect our refunds and marvelled at the steepness of the track and the brave amongst us took a walk across the steel rope bridge. Actually scarier than it looks. The views down to the waterfalls were great. But the amount of movement in the bridge was not to be disrespected. We then took a light lunch in Innertkirchen before heading off to the Susten pass. This was another real delight and felt very different to the other two passes and was much faster and more flowing for much of its length. A little bit of climbing offered the chance for a great picture. The evening came and we all headed into Andermatt to enjoy a typical Swiss meal of Cheese Fondue at the well respected Ochsen restaurant. To say it was a funny night would be an understatement as we battled to get our heads round sharing the fondue pots. When some realised the fantastic taste of the burnt cheese at the bottom of the pot I thought we might have a wresting match on between drivers. Morning soon came and the drive to Como. But we still had mountain passes to explore. We had decided to drive down the St Gotthard and then back up again via the old Tremola Road. Before visiting the Sasso San Gottardo Museum. The old cobbled road was in great condition for most of its route. But I have no idea why a cyclist might find it fun. I don't think anyone knew quite what to expect inside the museum as it was dual purpose. Part of it was telling the history of the mountain and the rest of it was telling the story of how the Swiss Army used it to mount Howitzers aimed into the valleys below to prevent an invasion force reaching the top of the pass. The size of the Crystals they recovered during its construction were amazing. The interior varied from dark and damp to warm and dry inside the accommodation areas. A steep rail lift took you to the machine gun positions and the Howitzers. The museum was well worth a visit as it is quite unique. We then headed down to mountains and towards our Hotel at Lake Como. We hit some terrible traffic around Lugano. Some headed off the motorway and trusted their Sat Navs. Others toughed it out on the motorway. We ended up at the lovely Hotel Villa Belvedere within 20 mins of first to last arrival. The hotel was right on the water and offered the most amazing views out. We all headed into the village for an evening meal while 2 drivers headed to the airport to pick up partners. Saturday was a rest day and most people took boat trips to Bellagio and some well earned rest and tourist shopping. One couple hopped the waterbus and train to Monza to watch qualifying. Some of us spotted the Villa Del Balbianello used as a convalescent clinic in Casino Royale on our travels. Race day soon came and we had transport organised to drop us off and collect from the circuit. Needless to say we were dropped off somewhere near and picked up again somewhere else entirely. But great communication with drivers made it less stressful on the day than anticipated. Queues getting in and the quite ridiculous system of buying food and drink tokens before you then queued up again for food and drink did put a little bit of a spoiler on the day. The race was all lined up for a frenetic finish before a slow bunch of marshall's ensured the race finished behind the safety car. Max seemed happy about that on this occasion though. Sunday night marked our final meal together and everyone saying goodbye before setting off in different directions. Some heading home quickly, some slowly, some squeezing in a few days in Monaco and Nice before heading home. I headed off towards the Stelvio and more alpine passes. I will write a separate report for that though. All in all we all had an amazing time and have definitely made new and lifelong friends. 23 cars might just have been too much to handle. 7 Cars was a great group and great atmosphere at all times. The group is already planning a new trip to Norther Spain, the Pyrenees and France for 2023. Thanks to everyone that made this possible. For myself and Pam this was a trip of a lifetime. Regards Steve & Pam

Aston Martin Works is inviting owners of a Newport Pagnell built V12 Vanquish (Built 2001-2007) to an exclusive anniversary event that will hopefully be one of the largest Vanquish gatherings to take place. The event itself will include: A concours feature judged by Mark Donoghue and Steve Waddingham Opportunity to meet and talk to team members who built the cars Picture gallery Complimentary refreshments Tours of Aston Martin Works If you haven’t already done so already book your place by clicking on the link below and complete the registration form: https://astonmartinworks.com/vanquish

"I see a red door and I want it painted black. No colours anymore, I want them to turn black. I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes I have to turn my head until my darkness goes. I see a line of cars and they're all painted black." The fantastic words of the Rolling Stones. Now I have had had my fair share of black cars over the years. Starting with a Toyota Celica GT ST202. We did many European touring miles in that car and I still miss it. The wife loved it so much that when I told her it was time to move it on she begged me not to. She argued we should invest half the value of its replacement in rejuvenating it. It was duly overhauled complete with a new leather interior. It stayed with us another 6 years and was a spare car for its last 12 months. But lack of use forced me to move it on to a deserving home. It was replaced by a black Boxster. And here she is shortly after that long ago refurb and touring Scotland for Hogmanay in 2007. A trip I went on with 2 Aston's an i6 and V12 DB7. I wish I could have gone in this beauty though. It is not quite a Unicorn car. But pretty close to one. A DBS UB-2010. Not a car I had heard of before. Part of a limited run of 20 cars, where only 13 were actually built. And this is car number 12. Apparently only 1 manual Volante was built. Now that is the true unicorn car. DBS V12 UB-2010 Volante « Aston Martins.com But what about this car, what makes it so special? Well I absolutely love the colour of course. But the fact the interior is trimmed in fabric down the centre of the seats makes this a true Riviera cruiser. But I reckon that Bronze Metallic leather looks fantastic in the sunlight. Has anyone seen any Gaydon era cars with a half leather & half fabric seat? I cannot recall another. Mr Ulrich Bex has even personally signed the car with his best sewing machine. I really do see myself cruising along the Corniche from St Raphael to Cannes and enjoying the sea breeze and the clifftop views. I've enjoyed many a trip to southern France. Often taking the scenic route down and taking our time. We once went in the E Type shortly after buying it. Starting off at Good FoS and then banning ourselves from the Motorways and taking the 1960's roads. In England we even took the back roads to Dover via Battle, near Hastings. But If I was going to take this car to Frejus (our favourite place) we might just take a wine derived route. I can see it now. Reims for the Champagne, Beaune for the red burgundy, past Lake Annecy for the bread and cheese. Into the mountains via Val-d'Isere where I would take my overnight stop. In the morning I would be heading out onto the Col du Iseran. A beautiful mountain pass road that takes you to Italy without the traffic and onto Lac Du Mont-Cenis for a cheese and wine picnic lakeside. After the picnic I would be heading over to Asti to pick up some cheap Fizz for my week long stopover in Frejus. I would be driving along those coast roads as proud as a peacock in this V12 beauty and safely knowing it will stand out form the crowd without being shouty. What's not to love about V12 GT top-down cruising? Even all the carbon fibre is tastefully done. Mr Bez has wonderful taste, no wonder he put his name to this one. Even my luggage worries are going to be taken care of with this seductress. Now all I need to do is locate that manual Volante to know I will never see another one as beautiful. A true Unicorn car. Extra lottery ticket for me this week. Aston Martin Car Sales | Hatfield, Hertfordshire | Nicholas Mee & Co

Volcano Red, V12 and a Volante, have I tickled your interests yet? I have always had a soft spot for soft tops, ever since I bought the wife (myself) a Honda S2000 in 2007 as a going away present when I disappeared off on a military holiday. I don’t think I have ever gotten over how quiet it all seems in a drop top car with the roof down. You still feel isolated from the world while all sounds from outside the car flood into the cabin. But once the speeds pick up and you start to drive the car more vigorously you feel so much more involved. You hear the engine, the brakes and you sense speed so much more than in the closed cockpit of fixed head cars. For me everything is better in a drop top. When the weather sets in you put the roof up and you feel like you are in a saloon car with these modern convertibles. It was not quite like that in the S2000 though. Now I have always been an admirer of the Vantage. But when the V12 dropped into the scene I was truly smitten. I have always been a lover of Volcano red also. So to see this little beauty pop into the classifieds has really made my palms sweaty. I have even put an extra lottery ticket on. If the numbers come up Mr Mee will be getting a call this weekend. So just why does this car tickle my fancy so much? Just look at it, not too big, not too small (don’t mention the boot) glorious colour. Carbon fibre in all the right places. Proper Michelin PS4 tyres and vehicle history as thick a cylinder head. And it is manual, with a gear stick that reminds me of Optimus Prime. I’ve always wondered what that thing feels like in your hands. Now this is the older car with the first generation of the Gaydon dash, which is well known for the terrible Volvo sat nav. But Aston Installations can sort that for me. It is not an S so missies out on the three stage electronic dampers. But am I really going to drive it that hard that I will miss them? Depreciation? I think it might have bottomed out already. Only 101 of these cars were made and possibly only 30 were sold into the UK. So it is a pretty rare car already. V12, convertible, manual and in a desirable colour with great a great specification it will always be more desirable than a Sportshift car, especially for me. I just love the double bubble headrests that swoop into the rear. The perfectly specced carbon fibre and the wheels all go together so well. But is the car perfect for me? Well I’m a bit worried about all that black leather. Might be a bit toasty in there when touring the Corniche. Could I have a bit of oxblood thrown in to mix it up a bit? Or better still could we go to Ivory? That might work quite well. Now I’m not particularly tall so I could see myself having some custom-made bags to hang behind the seats. At least then I could fit in two weeks’ worth of clothes for touring. I mean I have been known to camp at Le Mans Classic and then go touring to the south coast straight afterwards. I wonder if it could take the boot rack from the S2000 and a waterproof bag? Or would that be sacrilege?

What a lovely surprise on Thursday of this week. 3 days away with work and came home to this little beauty.

Or do you have a budget in mind and have a mental picture of exactly what you want? Are you lurking ready to pounce on that dream once in a lifetime buy? Well you might just be a bit like me. As I do all three. Now I think I have always known what an Aston Martin is. Sean Connery sorted that for me before I was even born. I don't know how old I was when I first watched Goldfinger, but I don't think I have ever been the same since. That Silver Birch DB5 just had everything you could ever want in a car. Beauty, Speed & Gadgets... But, like all Aston Martin cars it had phenomenal presence. Now I would buy a lot of cars if my numbers ever do come up. Not all would be Aston's but these posts will be mostly about Aston's for sale that have caught my eye. They will have to stand out from the crowd of course. So if you see something special during you prowling of the classifieds please let me know on here and I will see if it is worthy of mention. Now I can remember when I first decided I was going to buy an Aston. I was delivering the papers to a rather large house on the edge of town. This house was at the very end of my long list and so it was always relief to drop that last paper. Especially as it had a deep gravel driveway that prevented me from riding down it on my bike. But one day the drive way haul was different. I looked up to see something that really did make me stop in my tracks. A V8 Vantage Oscar India. I must have spent 20 minutes just looking at it. The wheels and tyres just seemed impossibly large. My dad was driving a Mini Van at the time with 10 inch wheels. My world had changed once more. I was now saving up for an Aston. I was 13 years old and lived on the local Council estate. I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. But I was going to pay for it. I just hadn't worked out how. 12 years later I was serving in the military, I had recently met my future wife whilst serving in Northern Ireland before being posted to Germany. I had agreed to meet her in London when coming home on leave to spend the weekend seeing the sites before heading home to the North. The lady in question knew London after working there long before meeting me. She took me to Bayswater Road to see the artists selling their wares along the road. I saw a DB7 for the first time and she watched me quite literally fawn over this beautiful car. I swore it was the most beautiful thing on 4 wheels. Thinking about it now she must have thought me quite strange at the time. Now whilst my tastes have changed many times over the years I still love all Astons since the DB4. Feltham cars are not really my thing. Fast forward 21 years and a long time after leaving the regulars I was really started to look at the Gen 1 Vanquish and thought I might just be able to afford one if I caught them at the bottom of the depreciation curve. I was now a classifieds lurker in earnest. I went to see a few of the cheaper cars and walked away almost immediately each time. They either didn't appeal to me in the flesh, had patchy history or looked rough once you started to look underneath. Then it just happened I saw one, it was the one, I already knew. It was near to my works so I snuck out one day and took a very quick look. Saturday came and before I knew it I had the wife in the E Type 2+2 and we were headed over there to try and do a deal. I was sorry to see the E Type go, but I could not afford both and had nowhere to store two. Two weeks later I was a 13 year old all over again. I don't think I have ever ben so nervous as I was driving that car home. We took a scenic route and had an afternoon meal out. Staring out the window of the pub just looking at the car. Several hours later I was confronted with a car did not fit through the garage door unless I folded the mirrors. All my enthusiasm had evaporated. The fear I felt driving that car into its new home was very real. I now a method, fold mirrors, wind down the window, lean out and drive straight forwards and follow the line on the floor. Do not look at anything, just drive straight. So now I find myself beginning the lurking all over again. So if something takes my fancy I will drop the seller a line and find out what I can about the car and do a feature here on the website. If you like, or don't like the car tell me all the reasons why. I've spotted a beautiful looking Vantage GT8 at McGurk in Metallic blue Gulf colours. It might just be the first feature. Or do you have a better car in mind?

LOL

The last true Aston Event I was on in late 2019. It seems so long ago now. Made some great friends and we formed the Vanquish Day group. Cannot wait for the Vanquish Day 2021 (postponed from 2020) to happen this year. We stayed at Petwood Hall hotel, formerly the Officers mess for the Dambusters 617 SQN during WWII. We were made very welcome and had our evening meal in their former SQN bar. The hotel manager gave us a great after dinner talk all about the escapades of the airmen. Some fantastic artefacts are now featured in that bar. Including a chunk of pine tree that as collected by the front of one aircraft during the Tirpitz raid. Truly skimming the tree tops. Bomber command museum was also well worth a visit. Again an excellent tour was provided by an ex RAF airman and volunteer.

Tell us what you want from us and we can ask what you want from the club.

Well who would like to be part of this little road trip? A scenic lap of Snowdonia starting at the Ponderosa Café and then looping around the mountains and back to the Ponderosa. Saturday 22nd of May 2021. We dare not make it the Sunday as that is Monaco GP race day. We might get lynched. We can't include all of the best roads in all of North Wales. There are simply too many of them. But we have included a couple of options to allow people to make the most of what Snowdonia has to offer. So come in groups or as singles, arrive in an appropriate car. Meet and greet at the Ponderosa, grab some breakfast and make some friends who like to drive. Leave in groups or tag along with someone you just met, enjoy the journey and just smile. Take a look at the roadbook and see if it might just scratch that itch. Remember it is free. Just turn up and take part. Remember to tell all your friends about this trip and get them all to come along. Locally there are lots of hotels in case you want to make a whole weekend of it.

Travels of a Vanquish