PERTHSHIRE - OCT' 2000
Authors : Campbell Ford / Kelvin Hughes / Steve Moore / David 'TUT' Duncan
Well it was even better than I'd hoped, so if you couldn't make it, shame -
but get a look at the route (Shared Files area, Routes folder) and have a go
yourself in the next week or two if you can! A
solid turnout, kicking off with Bacon rolls served by the delightful young
ladies of Powmill Milk Bar. And no, not the Butterchurn Restaurant, some
10 miles south-east on the other side of KH, as mistaken by Del! We took
time to lament the AWOL status of a certain Lawrence Hoy - Katrina hid your car
keys again, eh, Lawrence? And Ricky...where was our representative mustard
pot?
It was as good as I expected given Campbell's knowledge of
the Scottish road network. Best combination of roads I've driven.
I was concerned to set an "appropriate" pace on the first leg
through Glendevon, so I hope I neither fazed Mike (our newest owner) or dissed
Tut (who probably never got out of 3rd gear all day). By the time we'd
reached Muthill, we'd blasted through the first scatterings of leaves - those of
you further back in the queue would have then appreciated the working title
"Sweeping up the leaves" !
It was fast enough to be fun but not so fast that it
became reckless.
The
pace was fine for me, and funnily enough, I was mainly in 5th, as she
pulls fine with the C/R box and extra power.
The criteria for the run is being able to go at the pace that you want
to. That means the leader has to
pass slower cars, and the rest have to get past as quickly, but safely as
possible. This I think we achieved
except when it was physically impossible.
Sunday mornings in Muthill will
never be the same again. I imagine we'll get a mention in the local paper
next week - picture the VW telly ad from a year or two back with the two
hillbillies discussing the Veedub phenomenon on their garage forecourt.
"It was this, urr, greaatt laaaytt from nowhayyr, yuh know? And a
kinda, burble sortah noise. Like, like a...fart in a jaahm jaahr". Having
popped and banged our way through that sleepy High Street, we quickly descended
upon Paul Gibson for well earned morning coffee. Total respect for the Air
Traffic Control talk-down on the way in, Paul - nice one! This man has a
house to rival Tut's...and a garage nearly as big as Tut's hallway ;-)
Good to meet you Paul. Thanks for the coffee, Kit-Kat and
insulating tape!
Would
love to pick up our place and put it in his setting.
Envied him his garage, that’s what you call a bloody garage.
Thanks for the coffee and apples Paul.
Then we had the first highlight -
the Sma' Glen and the moor to Amulree. The Elise is quite unsighted over
much of this so it can be a leap of faith to the uninitiated. But once you
know the road, and realise there are only a handful of genuinely sloooowwww
bends, it's a blast.Did
anyone else smell the brakes of that bus on the descent into Aberfeldy?!
Is that what caused the awful smell, I thought it was one
of the Elise's ahead of me (-:
Then
a lowlight - effing minibus on the way out of Aberfeldy :-( No amount of
team overtaking was going to sort that one out, ignorant git.
Anyway, loved the comment from
the forecourt attendant at our refuelling stop in Ballinluig shortly after -
"do they only come in two colours, then??". Cue another VW
advert...And Ricky, where were you?Quite liked the stark contrasts over the next
20 miles or so: straight/sweeping dual carriageway, mixed "Old
A9" bends, dodgy and narrow Old A9 surface near Calvine, then - woah! -
single track and cattle grids to Trinafour. Crayzee. Forgot how good
this road is, but again, the Elise is a bit low and every crest is an adventure
for the man in front. Sorry for all the disco frenzy of my brake lights
but I want to preserve my front clamshell! Have a couple of reasonable
pictures from when we pulled up to wait on Nick...only to discover he was not to
appear again until much later :-( I'll leave Nick to fill in the details
here, assuming he's still subscribed to the list!!
Yet again Nick's coolant system lets him down. Very
frustrating, esp.as it happened at the most Northerly part of the trip!
Lunch at Rannoch Hotel was
perfect, other than the amazing length of time it took some kitchen skivvy to
rustle up a few bowls of soup and some sarnies. And nearly nine quid for
the privilege! That could've bought the fuel Tut used around the Loch
Rannoch loop we did next (approx 20 miles) ;-)
"the loop" was another highlight. Uncooperative 4x4s and other
tourist queues took some shine off occasionally, but this was soon restored when
I paused for a pee and could hear nowt but Elise exhausts howling along the
shores in the distance. Lovely, but what *would* the deer have been
thinking?!
Yep, I too was stuck behind the Rav 4. All I did was park
up for 10 mins, nothing passed me and the Rav 4 was well ahead. As a result, I
had a clear run all the way to the top of the Loch when I met up with the rest
of you. Fantastic views back across the Loch and the mountains beyond.
When Tut finally lost his patience and blasted off up the High Street the wrong
way I could have wet myself. Especially when a copper showed up at the
Hotel again while we waited for Pete's Carol to finish her cuppa. Apparently
he was looking for the two eight year olds who'd just held up Rannoch Post
Office and General Store with toy machine guns..
Didn't we agree that one of the convoy etiquette rules was
not to attract unnecessary attention to ourselves. After all the sight and sound
of 7 Elise's with rorty exhausts attracts enough attention on their own. Anyway
Campbell and I kept well behind the "convoy of sight seeing tourists"
and enjoyed the route back to Kinloch Rannoch at our "own pace".
..how
I felt about that convoy of three twats with 6ft between them, that I got stuck
behind on the south run around Loch Ranoch.
I did stop twice for us to regroup, but with our four cars behind me
started off again. I expected them
to pull in and let us past. However
when we got back to the village and they were still there, afraid I saw red, and
showed them what I thought of them. I know it was not good etiquette, but can
not always control my temper as well as you do.
At least I had a good run for a few miles down the wrong road, turned
around, met them on the way back, and of course smiled sweetly at them, and
waved them merrily on there way.
Was
just about to go to the gents when I saw the cop and leave you to it, but he
walked past us.
I really let loose on the Schiehallion road, our next assault. So much so
that an Elise sandwich nearly resulted when I reached the T-junction at the end,
just around a nice blind bend. Obviously I drove off in time to ensure
no-one destroyed *my* rear clam but I don't think it was quite so pretty farther
back in the convoy!
What a great road! It's the kind of road that you drive
intuitively as you get yourself into a rhythm of acceleration, braking and
flicking left and right down the mountain. The whole day would have been worth
it just for this one road (and Dukes Pass for me).
Yep, I got a bit of a fright. Came round said blind bend
to see Peter's stationary Elise. Stomped on the brakes and lit up the fronts
with a big cloud of blue tyre smoke. The back end started to break loose just as
I came off the brakes. Very exciting!
Glen Lyon proved to be a
bit too much for me, really. It's pretty narrow, and featured a lot of
oncoming traffic. We all negotiated it well enough, but it was quite
wearing and the sun was directly ahead. On reflection, the way to do that
Glen is the other way round, from the west, downhill instead. Would've
shown the Autumn colours better too. Would also have avoided my *very*
near miss with a Rover 600, laden with blue rinses, which was descending the
Alpine-like road above Bridge of Balgie.
You looked a little shaken at the bottom when we all
stopped to collect our puff. )-:
This is an epic single track with
no armco, etc, to rival the Beallach na Ba I guess. Having been held
up behind a Merc Panzerkampfwaggen part of the way up, and being at the back of
the convoy for once, I dropped well behind and of course set out to catch up.
That is, until I met said Rover on the way around a tight blind bend and nearly
spaded him off into the glen below. Gulp. Backed off after that and
accepted that my ninth life of the day was well and truly up!
Going up the "hill" into the sun was tough right
enough and I never had my shades with me. The stretch from the Bridge of Balgie
to the A827 with the dam half way down was stunning. Peter, Tut and I came down
this stretch together. Although we did come across some traffic on the way down,
we managed to despatch them with the usual Elise aplomb. Tut and I slowed down
(for a nansecond) to take in the breathtaking views.
That sun hit us a few times, and there is very little you
can do except snails pace until it has gone. I think that you took too
much on taking the lead for almost the whole day. It was solid
concentration for you most of the day, especially on all those single track
roads, so the next one, we arrange a changeover system, so that you can relax
and enjoy yourself more in the middle. Even I, who has no idea where he is
going, can take over on a straight road, then stop at the junctions if not sure.
Killin to Lochearnhead was nice
but not exceptional, and Lochearnhead to Callander was utterly destroyed not by
a truck, as my route plan suggested, but by a mile long gravy train of cars,
some with trailers, and none leaving any filter-in space for us to dispatch them
with. Had Tut been with us at that point, I guess he'd have toasted 'em
somewhere but we elected to cool the jets and parked up at Kilmahog to wait on
the forlorn Nick, fresh from his not too happy meeting with Mr RAC man north of
Perth.
I quite enjoyed the reduced pace. After all we had
been going for over 4 hours at full steam ahead up until this point. It also
gave me a breather for the forthcoming Dukes Pass blast (-:
Think that the
adrenalin was satisfied by then Campbell, but if it had been at the start of the
day, then yes.
I had a very sore accelerator leg by this time, and couldn't face
the Duke's Pass - how was it for you, Kelvin?
Wow what a f%$@~:@ road! I've driven this road on several
occasions before but never in the Elise and always during the day when it is
quite busy with tourists etc. By this time it was getting quite dark which added
an extra challenge. There was still fair amount of traffic on the road and with
the straights being so short and the
corners so tight, blasting past much slower cars (<20mph) in the dark and
suddenly reaching the next turn after your normal braking point had me on a real
high when I got to Aberfoyle. The most challenging stretch is from the top of
Loch Achray downhill through the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park to Aberfoyle. If I
hadn't been on a 19:30 curfew, I'd have turned round and and done it again. If
you haven't driven this road get yourself up there pronto! Once into Aberfoyle I
took the quick route home through to Kilsyth over the A80 and onto the A73. BTW
I passed an Elise on the other side of the A73 (going towards the A80
roundabout) Anyone on the list? (Incidentally, your full beams and driving lamps
were blinding all the motorists on the other side of the road (-:)
Dukes Pass- my local race track, most excellent between
08:00 / 10:00 when the tourists are in bed... More difficult doing it in the
reverse direction though.
I arrived home knackered, but invigorated at the same time - what a blast.
Follow that, somebody.
As I said, as good a set of roads I've driven. I fully
intend going back to the Duke's Pass ASAP as it's only 30-40 mins from home.
Same
here. Got to the pub in New Deer
about 2030, Graeme was in there blootered, so had a couple of pints, then took
the dog out for a walk. Slept like
a log, but felt that I must have had a great day the next morning.
For the others. At one point we met a number of cars
coming the other way on a single lane road. To get past required putting the
nearside wheel into the muddy ditch at the side of the road. Each time we had to
do this, Tut would spin his near side rear pulling away showering me and my car
with mud. I'm sure he didn't mean it (-;
Excellent
summation as always Campbell, and Kelvin has added his views (sorry about the
mud Kelv<BG>). My
own just back up yours. Great day,
and although I had seen some of the roads before, some of the new ones were
almost unbelievable. Mainly the
single tracks with passing places.
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Another run up to the infamous T.T.
No reports available but have a look at the photos anyway.
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http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v286/scottish_elises/gairloch_07_2004/
There's also a vid here:
http://www.simonarnot.dsl.pipex.com/gairloch_07_2004/IMGP1352.AVI
http://www.simonarnot.dsl.pipex.com/gairloch_07_2004/IMGP1369.AVI