Chester to the Mille Miglia and back in the SWB
 

Chester to Mille Miglia 2018

As per the title we are driving down to Italy in the SWB , first day Mon 7th
Chester to Dover staying at the Premier Inn (Central Dover) approx 295 miles averaged 34mpg .

The owner of the Jaguar XK150 I parked next to has owned the car for 30 years it was brought from Africa .He had carried out a full restoration apart from the paint some time ago and it has gained a wonderful patina .

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He was driving down through France to watch the Historic Monaco Grand Prix .

Next morning after breakfast we queued up for the 8am ferry to Dunkirk sailing time approx 2 hrs plus the extra hour so got away from Dunkirk at about 11:15 .

Our next overnight was an IBIS just south of Luxembourg at Thionville this was 265 miles from Dunkirk , the route we took was Lille/Charleroi/Namur/Luxembourg .

The next overnight was an Agritourismo in Camorino/Switzerland this was 350 miles from Thionville , the route we took was Metz/Strasbourg/Basel/Lucerne .

We had to stop at the Swiss border to buy the Vignette .

We were making good time until the queue for the Gotthard tunnel , the queue probably started about 5 miles before the tunnel , crawling along in first gear up the side of the Alps for what seemed like a couple of hours (probably closer to an hour) was not fun .
We are staying in Cervia/Italy approx 265 miles from Camorino, the route we took was Lugano/Milan/Piacenza/Parma/Modena/Bologna/Cesena , we have a 3 bed apartment from the 10th to the 20th .
The main reason for booking the apartment in Cervia was because this is the location for the overnight halt after the first day of the Mille .

We took the opportunity to visit the Republic of San Marino and ended up parked in the darkest tightest car park ever , I don’t really know what I was expecting from San Marino but it is incredibly touristy but saying that the views are to die for .

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The Mille Miglia would end day 1 in Cervia in the main car park and for a couple of days before-hand there were signs up everywhere stating that the car park would be closed at 14:00 on the afternoon on the day the Mille Miglia cars were due to arrive , of course not everyone takes any notice and this is what happens (oops).

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The first cars were due to arrive at 21:30 and were still arriving at Mid-night , it was packed and the atmosphere was brilliant , after clocking in the cars then drove about a mile away to Milano Maritima where the crews were staying overnight , where else would you have expensive classic (racing) cars left on the street overnight.

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Next morning I drove down to Milano Maritima and was able to park up about 400 yards from the start and ended up next to the waiting Mille cars .

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We drove back over the same roads as on the way down but stayed at a different hotel in (expensive) Switzerland , this hotel was at the foot of the Gotthard pass which I was hoping would have been opened , but no and there was police making sure you didn`t try .

The next day on the section from Switzerland to France we were driving close to Mulhouse so took the opportunity to call in to the Schlumpf Museum ,16€ entry more classic/vintage/racing cars you could ever wish to see well worth it .

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In total we covered approx 2,800 miles and used 1.5 litres of oil , with no mechanical problems at all .

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We took in case of problems the following.

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I had read up about the Mille Miglia and it doesn`t matter how it is described it is better , my best car experience ever , Geoff .

+1 from me. I've been twice- to see the start and finish in Brescia and the atmosphere is magic.

:thumb: Great write up. Mille Miglia is on my bucket list (as a tourist)

As Bill and Ted would say, "Excellent".

Great trip and something many of us would like to do before we get to the 'Nursing Home'.
What adjustments were you planning to make with the sledgehammer? Looks like something out of WCA's toolbox.

Good morning Froggyman i did wonder when somebody would ask about the sledge-hammer! approx a year ago i had the wheels stove-enameled , now what i should have done was to grind out a small amount of metal from the centre of each wheel so that when the stove enamel was completed the wheel would still slide on and off the the hub , but i didn`t and so i have to give them some help with the sledge hammer when removing a wheel , Geoff .