OT: Talking Cars Tuesday Travelin' Edition
Two ways to take this week's topic in honor of the Team's recent trip to Rome.
First: What's your best driving-in-a-foreign-country story? I'm renting cars twice in Italy on an upcoming vacation (Tuscany stuff and another day trip) and am glad I have a free upgrade, and that I can drive stick - renting an automatic doubles the cost.
Second: What's the car NOT available in the US that you most wish you could own here? Many cars aren't sold here for a variety of reasons (mostly emissions/crash safety test related). What's your foreign forbidden fruit? Remember that once the car is 25 years old it can be legally imported...
- Drove in South Africa - off road only. My (native south african) Brother-in-Law's RHD Camry was disorienting enough, I wasn't going to try to make a right turn on a road that wasn't into oncoming traffic. We went on a game drive (safari) where you took your own car onto these trails. I had the Camry, my B-i-L's brother had the Mazda 626. 8 hours behind the wheel and only a small ding in the exhaust from where I had to ford some massive potholes. My jeep would have been proud.
- SO MANY THINGS. Why the US doesn't trust the EU's crash safety ratings is beyond me. If the S3 with a manual tranmission didn't have to get crash tested here, Audi could bring one to me. I mean, I'd buy a Golf R anyways, but I could get a Golf R Wagon!
- Golf R Wagon
- Previous Gen RS3
- RS6 Avant
-
Honda S660
I have a thing for fast wagons.
I know not everyone can drive stick
So years ago we took our kids to Provence for vacation.* We left for the airport (Nice) early in the morning, with lots of twisty coastal roads to prime my oldest son's stomach for some A-grade projectile vomiting. I'm trying to read the signs at the airport to return our rental Fiat Punto, missing turns as my hack French translation was always just a tad too slow to avoid yet another missed exit. All the while our departure time was approaching, for an international flight.
We finally got the car back to the rental agency, and I was veins-showing-in-the-forehead tense. I get the family out, my wife and I clean up the vomit as best we can, and I am about ready to kill the next person that looks at me with so much as a raised eyebrow. Just then, a French guy backs his luxury rental into a steel pylon, the rear clip (i.e., bumper assembly) falls off, and he jumps out of his car. He assesses the damage, shrugs, and walks into the rental agency without a care.
Instantly, 50% of my stress melted away as I watched my new role model deal with a much bigger problem that - in the grand scheme of things - really wasn't that big of a problem.
*For the Murders Family, this was an extremely big deal. We don't normally jaunt off to the Continent with the kids on vacation. Or without the kids on vacation.
should have required pictures in this thread. Here's a Punto for those picturing your lux vacation:
1. I didn't actually have anything interesting happen while driving during my time in Sweden (the only time I've driven in a foreign country besides Canada). Maybe breaking all sorts of speed limits on the highway from Vasteras to Stockholm-Arlanda because I slept through my alarm prior to catching a flight back to the US? Thankfully I didn't get busted by any of the speed cameras.
2. Right now, probably the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34, as I'm assuming a lot of answers will be for those that grew up playing Gran Turismo. Other than that, with the Porsche 959 legal for the most part (only the post-May 1992s are still not allowed unless you go the show-and-display route, but a hearty lol for me ever being able to afford one anyway), maybe the Lotus Exige 360 Cup?
I've only driven in 2 foreign countries and Canada hardly counts.
We had a peugot 306 or sometihng like that rented for the day to go see castles. My coworker was impatient, and left before we could change the navigation to English, so our German only car was nicknamed Helga. We took off for the Autobah, which is just a highway, especially in a car with barely more than 100 hp and 3 Americans aboard. the Peugot was the Rudy of the Autobahn, in that it was a piece of crap that couldn't really hang and didn't belong.
Anyway, we switched the navigation to non highway paths only, and the trip was much better. You drive along small country roads where small picturest villages pop up every 10 miles. We saw 2 castles and a bunch of other ruins along the drive. It was a lot of fun (I'm sure it would have been cooler in a better car, but I'm cheap and this was still a fun day).
So no exciting exotic crazy adventure for me, but still something I enjoyed.
That's some good advice right there
for number 1.
1a) Germany (hence the response here). The autobahn is just the name for the national highway system in Germany, like you said. It's not like the autobahn is a separate highway for people going fast. It just is the highway which doesn't have a strict speed limit on about half of it. So I'm surprised you felt like you couldn't hang because there were three lanes for must of our drive from Munich to Belgium.
The right-most lane was mostly slow trucks. Certainly not intimidating. Middle lane was for those passing the trucks but not going all that fast. Left-most lane was for everyone going 160km/hr plus (100mph). Germans drive the right way and only move over to pass so that's why it functions well this way without constant slowing and accelerating. Even at 100mph it doesn't feel crazy but one in a while someone blows by in a Porsche at 140 mph. If you check your rearview and think you have plenty of space to get into the left-most lane, you better keep your eye out for those ones coming up on you quick.
We went with a Benz C-class which is basically standard there and had a good time going about 160km most of the way, even though there was a lot of construction that caused us to have to slow down somewhat frequently. I got it up to 220 at the fastest, but that was good enough for me on an open highway.
1b) Drove through Tuscany from Florence to Rome taking a couple days to do it. Stopped in a lot of hill towns, stayed in Siena. We just had a little fiat or something unmemorable but the scenery and lazy winding roads were incredible. To the OP, enjoy. It's a good trip.
We didn't feel endangered or anything. It was just boring driving on a highway with no speed limits in a car that can't go very fast. I've gone faster on highways in the US in my cars, which are a lot more fun. If I had my Mazdaspeed 3, it would have been fun.
The area near Stuttgart was two lanes like most of I-96. Going 80-85 mph on a highway in germany is no different than driving in Michigan. Taking the backroads was way cooler and a lot more fun.
I drove to Windsor one time for a Cheetah hunt.
I've been on that same safari!
I have to admit that when I was in Sicily (first trip overseas, ever) I developed a bit of a thing for the Peugeot 307cc. That was in 2005. Not the fastest thing on four wheels, but it's kind of like a European Fiero, only with a retractable hardtop, another not-the-fastest car that I've always had a thing for.
Question 1: I don't drive overseas. There is ettiquette and such that the locals understand and I don't, so I just take taxis. FWIW many taxis in the UK/Netherlands are Mercedes Benz so not a bad taxi ride.
Question 2: There are a lot out there, and many badass super-cars are not available in the US. But if I had to choose ones that I could also afford, I'd go with the Land Rover Defender, and the Peugeot RCZ or the BMW Alpina B4 Bi-Turbo.
Don't drive overseas in big cities. But absolutely do find a rental car place on the outskirts of the city and drive through the country. The driving is easy and the scenery is beautiful (assuming you traveled somewhere beautiful - if not, it'll probably be interesting). You should stop in random small towns where they might not speak English but they'll be way more friendly and welcoming because tourists are novel in small towns rather than part of annoying hordes that infiltrate large cities.
I'm waiting for the first person to brag about his oh so awesome station wagon.
Only out of country sort of was St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Only differences was driving a standard US left drive Jeep on the left side of the road. Only a couple of close calls when habit would cause me to drive in the wrong lane.
Riding in foreign country horror show - Bali in Malasia. I am not much of a world traveler so those of you who have traveled in asia probably have great stories - but in Bali - all sorts of vehicles - motorcycles, scooters, bikes, tiny trucks, busses and everything else share the road without any defined lanes. It's like one of those scifi death race movies without anyone trying to kill each other on purpose.
Ford Ranger sold outside of the US - sorry I love small pickups. Would rather have the 2 door version.
Malaysia sounds a bit like the Philippines in that respect. They have lines to mark lanes at least buy they always seem to be ignored where they do exist.
Have to say I'd love one of the Jeepney's though. That was rather unique in my opinion.
but car I want here that is only available abroad? Holden Maloo. 580 HP through a 6-speed manual
_R8_utility_(2015-08-07)_01.jpg/1280px-2014_HSV_Maloo_(Gen-F_MY14)_R8_utility_(2015-08-07)_01.jpg)
Me and the Avatar honeymooned in Europe and one of the places we went to was Munich. We took a cab to the airport and I had a chance to see the German Autobahn up close and personal. So we're about 20 minutes or so into our 40 minute ride and I become VERY aware that we are travelling at an extremely high rate of speed. We were in a Mercedes (everybody in Germany I think drives a Mercedes - especially cabbies) and the damn thing was shaking, bouncing and generally giving every indication we were going much, MUCH faster than the car wanted to travel.
So I looked over the drivers shoulder to see the speedometer and it turns out we're heading to the airport at 180 Killomters/hour or just about 110 MPH. My wife asked me "how fast are we going" and I just said "dont ask" cause I knew she would flip out if she heard.
Best part of the trip though was we were getting PASSED by most cars on the road. 110MPH on the Autobahn is for grannies and cab drivers it seems.
Just had a blast.
What car would I like? I saw a Smart Car in London.... it was a 2 seat, soft top convertible with a trunk. Saw it again in the movie "Knight and Day." The bad guys were chasing the protagonists through the streets, shooting, dodging bulls and eventually crashing. Basically it is like a go cart, only faster!
oldest brother and i were on walkabout. great, once-in-a-lifetime trip. we end up in sydney on superbowl monday (date line) and the game comes on in the morning. we are at some pub at 0-dark-hundred drinking a beer i still remember, called 'dog bolter' (not a joke).
so we are very well served and go to the house of one of his ex football teamates from northwestern to watch the game. blow-out by the skins.
the driving part: i end up driving a stick shift dune buggy through the streets of sydney. they are on the wrong side of the road, stick shift on using my left hand? blood alcohol content was not zero, nope, probably not close to zero. thankfully no problems/issues.
Drove a rental in right-hand-drive Australia. Some harrowing moments in Sydney, but nothing much out of the ordinary if you spend much time driving in any city. I almost reverted to the left side of the road one time not paying attention on a drive that was thankfully out of town.
Maybe I'll get my nuts kicked in for humblebrag, but I "drove" a rental airplane in Australia on the same trip. Before I go full fetal position, let me just say it was a plain jane single engine Cessna out of the airport in Rockhampton. Did the check ride, then took the GF and another couple for a ride to the coast....his GF barfed, smell of vomit....domino effect....had to turn back. It was crazy, we did not have subs.
I've previously describe our summer vacation about 15 years ago when I got to drive the European version of the Ford Mondeo on the autobahn. 140kph was the best I could do and I dared not stray into the left lane given the big BMWs and Mercedes that would come flying by. Somewhere in Germany, our car decided to toss its front license plate. Maybe that part of the car couldn't handle 140kph. I got to the Danish border and got stopped by the border guard. He starts asking me all these questions about my car and I have no idea what he is saying. Danish is not a language I speak. He makes me get out of the car and shows me that the front plate is missing. That was news to me. I'm pretty sure I showed genuine surprise on my face. After a few more minutes of non-communication, he let us through.
I have to say that Peugeot used to make a very hot version of the 305 hatchback that looked very sexy when I was in Paris. Could have been Paris on the brain, but it did look very nice and it was a solid competitor to the GTI as I recall.
My husband and I drove from Paris down to the south of France over the course of a week and it was fantastic. Do I remember the car? Heck no, that was 23 years ago. Honestly, when you're driving past castles and amazing fields of lavendar and sunflowers, a Toyota Corolla with crank windows would be fine.
No real good foreign country driving stories.
As for foreign cars I lust(ed) after....
As a kid, it began and ended with the Porsche 959. Twin-turbo and AWD in a freaking sports car in the 80s! Even today, it would easily be one of the fastest cars on the road.
If I could have any recent-ish car, it might be the JDM 2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT DIT wagon - AWD with a turbo 2.0L churning out 296hp.
Of course, my love of JDM sports cars started with the '93 MR2 Turbo, but if I could have ANY MR2, it would have to be one of the 1998 special edition TRD2000GT conversions.
1. Kenya and France. The former is right-hand drive. Shifting with left hand (it was a manual) was interesting. The turn signal and wiper are reversed, so I repeated started the wipers at turns. Was told in advance, "if you get pulled over you just pay cash to the office, there are no tickets'.
Somehow got elected to drive the second vehicle from a vendor visit in Orlean to Paris, behind the car driven by the sales guy. I'm having trouble keeping up with him and certainly can't read any of the signs so that's a problem. When I look down I notice I'm doing 130 (and NOT KPH). That was on the freeway, of course. Paris traffic is utterly insane...
2. Can we please have the Lotus Elise back?
The turn signal and wiper are reversed, so I repeated started the wipers at turns.
My cousin had that problem. He married a wonderful Peruvian gal, and we were in Peru for the wedding. Peru drives on the right like we do (so the cars are left-hand drive) but her mom's car was imported from Japan and converting it meant just switching the whole dash assembly to the other side - meaning the wipers were on the wrong side and he kept putting them on when he wanted to turn. His wife got exasperated with that and she had this habit of putting on the turn signal for him before he could reach for it. On the rare occasions she would let him drive, that is, because she didn't really have a high opinion of his ability to navigate Lima traffic, in which your choices are to either be an aggressive dickhead or sit in the same spot for hours.
So this is not me driving. It was supposed to be, but I couldn't figure out how to put our Fiat minivan in reverse. Neither could the next person they put in the seat after I was fired. The third person in our van finally discovered you have to lift up the knob or some weird thing like that.
Anyway, here we are driving through the Sicilian countryside from the ship on the way to Catania. A bit into our 45-minute trip, we discover what the Sicilian unwritten rules are for passing on a two-lane highway: just fuckin' do it regardless of oncoming traffic. Put on your turn signal and go - the car you're passing will move over onto the shoulder, and so will the oncoming cars. Our driver watches this unfold in front of him, goes "holy shit, look what they let you do here!" and floors it. 45-minute trip becomes 25.