Team 96 Italian Job 2017

Up before the birds, and departed at 4.15 am on a cold very dark Wednesday morning. All went well - car behaved superbly and arrived in good time for ferry, which departed slightly early, and we disembarked at Calais at 9.55am local time. Everything went downhill from there !! We had wrongly programmed the Sat Nav, which was determined to avoid any Motorways, and we saw areas of France which not many people are unfortunate enough to experience. You must make allowance for our age - we ev...

We survived – 10 days covering 2,649 miles – to our almighty relief. It may have been a faltering (and extremely stressful) start, but David’s beloved Jaguar XJS subsequently performed with grace, power, and extreme comfort. The magnificent Awards Dinner was attended by over 100 people, including many people who had completed the Rally in previous years, and some of the major corporate sponsors. The room was bedecked with photographs of all the cars, and a running video o...

This will be a short Report – we are both exhausted. For the first time since we left the UK we had a leisurely breakfast, because the Schlumpf Motor Museum in Mulhouse does not open until 10 am. The Schlumpf’s were two Swiss Brothers who were very wealthy following the establishment in1935 of their Textile business - they acquired extensive factories and textile production and processing plants in the Alsace region of France. One brother, Fritz, became a motor racing fanatic ...

We had intended a pleasant 320 mile drive through the Alps to Mulhouse for a visit to the fabulous Schlumpf Motor Museum – as usual, things didn’t quite go to plan !! We left Turin at 8.15 and spent almost an hour travelling 10 miles to get out of the City. Our journey to the foothills of the Alps, and Domodossola, went well, and then we faced the challenging Simplon Pass, taking us to over 6,000 feet. The weather was warm, and the sun was shining, and our engine again began to...

Just how many departures before dawn can be suffered by two old geezers on an Italian Job? 6.15am today as the sun rose in our rear mirror as we headed west from Venice towards Turin. 270 miles, and we arrived a few minutes before the 11.30am allotted time as we all assembled on the famous Fiat Lingotto roof test track. What an amazing place on the top of the five story impressive 1930’s Fiat factory, with steep banking at either end. More driving tests ensued prior to driving round the...

Hope you are looking at all our pics in Photo Gallery. Farewell to Imola - again up with the larks and on the road at 6.45am with no breakfast and a journey of 135 miles to Venice. We watched a beautiful sunrise as we travelled north east along a country route avoiding all motorways and large towns, and skirting huge lagoons along the Adriatic east coast. We made good time and managed a quick stop for coffee and croissants served by a very bountifull Italian waitress - we managed to extrac...

Last night we had the Charity Auction Dinner which comprised the usual excellent 3 course meal, lubricated with a plentiful supply of fine Italian Wine. The auction raised £4,000 with some very competitive bidding from the sufficiently inebriated audience, though we were paragons of sobriety and didn’t compete having donated a couple of items to the Auction – A model straight eight Bentley from the “Bentley Boys” era, which fetched £200, and a set of 4 Ferrar...

Our Rally Stage today took us on a 45 mile drive to Maranello for a visit to the Ferrari Empire.  Clocks went back yesterday, so it was a cooler start though we have yet to drive with the roof up since we arrived in Imola. An Autumnal drive through lovely scenery with sweeping bends and a series of hairpins to get up into the hills and then down into Maranello.  We did have a rather major navigational error today though we recovered and arrived on schedule still talking to each othe...

The stress of the last few days caught up with us today - we didn’t wake until 8.40am and we were due off at 9.12am – we nearly ended up as DNQ. Another beautiful day of clear blue skies and bright sunshine as we travelled into the hills of Emiglia Romagna for a drive to Brisighella with a visit to a local Wine and Olive Oil Co-Operative. The plonk quality wine was on sale as if on a petrol forecourt, with pumps offering a variety of wines at Euro 1.50 a litre. We also had a ta...

The day dawned bright with the sun a red glow in the sky as we left the hotel in Milan at 7.45am. The 150 mile drive to Imola along the Autostrada went smoothly and found us in the Hotel Molino Rosso in time for the first briefing at 11.15. The car passed scrutineering and, after a buffet lunch, we set off for the Imola race circuit with the other 25 or so cars where we enjoyed a few laps of the circuit, some with Bob trying to hang out the rear of the XJS at high speed. An ho...