Stelvio 2005 – The Lotus Alpine Tour

The organisation of this years trip was transferred to a new group of individuals, inspired by their first Stelvio run in 2004. Ben Rye was the main instigator and ironically, although he put a huge effort in the organisation of the event, wasn't able to attend due the birth of this first child. The modern day tools available today were not in existence then, so most of the planning had to be done the old fashion way. I contributed to the route for the first time and still have a route book with scanned images of the maps, produced in PowerPoint with a red dotted line painstakingly outlining our intended route. TomTom, although available, had not been widely accepted by the group and we were still in the dark on how this relative inexpensive Sat Nav could completely revolutionise the whole issue of reliable map reading whilst we were away.

In 2004 my hard earned cash had been spent on upgrading all things suspension. This year it was all about power so I had a 160 Head conversion fitted to the Elise. Typical with these decisions, I left it to the last moment having the head conversion completed only three weeks before the off. I had a quick run to Wales planned as a shake down, giving two weeks grace should I require further fettling and bedding in. It completely transformed the car both torque and BHP were all increased. What I hadn't planned for was a Cylinder Head Gasket Failure on my run through to Wales. Thankfully the car was fitted with a new cylinder head and returned to me just before the we left although I suspect it was slightly de-tuned to ensure I didn't breakdown on the Stelvio run.

Once again the year brought with it new faces. This was Irish's first Stelvio year and someone who I would share the road with for may of the subsequent Stelvio years. Andrew Lees accompanied me for his second consecutive year, so he must have felt that I still had a lot to learn from a standpoint of driving technique. It was also the first year that we saw a number of the newly launched S2 Exiges on the run. Rob Beaves and the two French guys, Pierre and Raymond (who wasn't a hairdresser but a lorry driver) in the two matching Lime Green Exiges. Although I was packing a bigger punch this year, these cars were in a league of their own. I didn't know it at the time but this would be my last outing in my Elise S1. Having been hugely impressed with the three Exiges on the trip this year, I sold my S1 shortly after returning home, replacing it with a shiny new Laser Blue Exige of my own which has been my faithful steed ever since.

Day One : Let’s get to the Alps quick

That's just about the size of it. Friday will be a long day and if it is hot, it will make the day seem even longer. We have chosen a route which will take you the majority of the way by motorway, with a lunch time foray into the hills of the Champagne area of France and an interesting ﬁnal 50 mile section to warm you up for the delights of Saturday.

The French police have been known to frequent regularly the ﬁrst Peage payment booth on the motorway and can, if they are of the mood, check the time you left the Channel Ports on your Peage ticket. Undoubtedly, this will be embarrassing as they will certainly know how long the trip takes at a steady 110kph. A hefty ﬁne could ensue however if you were to accidentally mislay your ticket, the maximum distance charged will only be from the Channel Ports, but of course the Gendarmerie will not have the incriminating
evidence re your average speed!

The lunch time section will exit you from the Motorway at Reims and take you to the Old GP circuit at Guex. This was the start of Stelvio 2004 and, although we won't be having an official start this year, there is absolutely no harm in stopping at the old pits for a photo call. . ..even a photo of a single Elise with this backdrop will stir the ghosts of a by-gone age. The route takes you around the old circuit but do be very wary of the speed bumps in Geux....they are all over the place and are more like launch pads rather than speed bumps.

Might be an idea to stop here for lunch rather than risk the delights of a French motorway service station. The route then takes you through the Champagne area for 20 or so miles before putting you back on the motorway...it’s a great run, although it can be quite bumpy in places. Take it gently. . ..no point in trying a ditch out on your ﬁrst day!

The ﬁnal cross country section is very much uncharted, but looks great on the map and in Tom Tom. An ideal work-up for tomorrow. For Tom Tom users, a fairly straight forward day.....load the itinerary and it will take you all the way to the Hotel in Malbuisson.

Day Two: Eleven of them....let the Col’fest begin

We will overnight this evening in Villard de Lans, which is just south of Grenoble in the Vecors. We have planned in an optional loop to take in the delights of the Vecors; but with it's additional 3 cols and twisties, it might make the day too long for some. The decision point for the loop is Grenoble. . ..see how you are doing then or leave early from Malbuisson to ensure you complete, what we believe, will be a memorable section.

From Malbuisson it is only 9.2 miles to your ﬁrst pucker Col, albeit a low one...but a Col nonetheless. At the top of the Col du Marchairuz (1,447m) you will enter Switzerland for the ﬁrst and only time this year..and for only thirty miles or so....is that a sigh of relief I hear from the old Stelvio'ers amongst us?

A ﬁnal Col to get us out of Switzerland and back into France, where we will play for the rest of the following two days. The route will take you south/south west through the Haut Jura area of France where the roads are smooth, twisty and well maintained. . .true Lotus country. There are also motorways that are in easy distance of the planned route if you need to cover the distance to Villard de Lans quickly. The hotel in Villard de Lans is a small affair without a restaurant, although we have been assured that there are a number of restaurants in the village which will be happy to feed us.

Day 03: Alps Maritimes and the Med

Only four official passes today but there won ‘t be a straight road all day.

Heading off west through the Marintime Alps from the Vecor we will pass through the small towns of Vizille and Le Bourg-d’Oisans. Just beyond Le Bourg-d’Oisans the route takes us off the main road up north to the skiing village of L’Alpes d’Huez. The ascent is spectacular with huge drop offs with limited barriers and a narrow road to contend with. The route then takes us east to the small village of Clavans-en-Haut via an unmarked road. The road then descends back down south to the main road. Although we only have pictures to go by, the descent looks very, very steep on a gravel single carriageway road, with huge drop-offs and no barriers. Please, do exert huge caution on this section. . ...no one will blame you if you opt to turn round!

We continue west and pass through three open pasture cols....for those of you who really enjoy the twisties, but are just a little cautious of the huge drop-offs experienced in other Alpine passes, then these are the ones to drop a cog and let rip. . ..they don ’t come better than this!!

We then head off south and then west and then south again into the middle of nowhere until we pop out at the coast in the Nice area. Once again, no straight or busy roads here and very few fuel stops for that matter. We pass through some wonderful gorges, tunnels (to truly experience the sound of your exhaust) and some great twisties. Unfortunately today doesn't really afford us any nearby detours to a motorway to catch some time up as with other days. However, the mileage total from the day is 270 miles.. so it should be very achievable, without busting a gut.

Our only ﬁnal piece of advice is this is now very much the south of France and it can get extremely hot. ....so take plenty of water with you and get the high factor sun cream on.

Andrew had a telephone call during day and discovered that his mother had passed way during the previous evening and we all really felt for him. At first he was keen to continue with the trip but I persuaded him that he should catch the first fight home from Nice in the morning to be with his family. So unfortunately Andrew made his way home the following day.

I was also experiencing some problems of my own, mechanical ones. My Elise was still running on the original MMC disk which were just fabulous. However the original pads where wearing low prior to my departure from the UK. MMC disk pads were now discontinued from Lotus however I managed to secure a compatible after-market set. Compatible they were not, as they were scoring huge groves in my MMC Pads. I needed a new set of disks and pads if I had any chance of finishing the run this year. Having retired early in 2004 I was pretty keen not to retire this year too. We established contact with the Lotus dealership in Milan who had a front set who also agreed to us to fitting them in his garage. Pierre's passenger that year was a garage mechanic so he passengered with me to Milan and kindly fitted the disks and pads for me before we high-tailed it up to Gravedonna to meet up with the rest of the group. It di however mean I missed out on all the twisties as we motorway'ed it all the way.

Day 04: Slow. Slow, Quick-Quick, Slow.....

Tomorrow is Stelvio day and we are still miles away from an “easy morning drive” to the pass. Hence a fairly long motorway section is planned today, to help us make a big and relatively quick impact on the mileage . However we are still in some fabulous Lotus country and it would be a crying shame not to sample some of the delights that this part of France has to offer.

We haven't planned a short route today, but for those of you who would prefer a day that isn't “full on”, on small roads, then an option could be to visit Monaco. Head south from the Hotel, pick up the Motorway north of Nice and head east to Monaco. After the stop in Monaco rejoin the motorway and continue to head east and join up with the plan route at Leca, ltaly.

For those of you gagging for some more twisties, then what treats we have in store! We will start with a number of the Monaco Rally stages, taking in the famous Col de Turini. For those of us on last year's trip will remember that we struggled through this fabulous pass in the pouring rain. Fingers crossed for sunshine this year. From there we will head on into Italy by the small roads and pick up a number of the old San Remo Rally tarmac stages.

Then we have the fast motorway run north. The route purposely has been chosen not to go near Turin, although on the map it seems a shorter route. Last year, a number of us got stuck on the motorways around Turin for two hours in the mother of all traffic jams. Something, we later discovered, is very much the norm. So, don’t be seduced by the shorter distance. . ..stick to the planned route.

The ﬁnal section takes us up the western shore line of Lago di Como where all the Italian rich hang out. Although this will be new territory for us, Italian lake roads are normally well maintained, twisty and interspersed with short tunnels which, when in a Lotus, it is mandatory to drop down a gear and keep the engine spinning over 6,000 rpm. This is Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini country, the Italians will be stunned to see an old K series producing that throaty roar.

Day 05: The Stelvio signature Day

The official Stelvio day! However, it will be a demanding one with some of the best passes and tunnels on route. Some Swiss delights the Albulappass and then the Fluela Pass to start the day off with. After Zerner the Munt la Schera Tunnel (Max’s “Tunnel of Love’) a rare ﬁnd indeed from 2003, which is a 2.5 mile single carriageway “Toll” tunnel. When you go through the tunnel, make sure your car is the ﬁrst in the queue, otherwise you could be forced to do the whole thing at 20 mph. BEWARE, there is a signiﬁcant right kink in the tunnel after 2 miles....could catch you outil Once on the other side, you'll come out on the Italian version of the Hoover Dam, simply stunning!!

A short cut is possible at St Moritz to Stelvio via Forcola di Livingo and Livingo cutting out the Albulapass, Davos, Fluela Pass, Zernez and the Munt la Schera Tunnel. Might be a wise idea if you leave late from Gravedona.

No official agenda as been set for Stelvio this year, although 12:30 at the top is generally the accepted time at which people will be arriving. No lunch has been organised....although there are a number of restaurants which will offer a “value for money" lunch. Parking will be on a ﬁrst come ﬁrst served basis.

Back down the southern ascent of Stelvio and onto the Passo di Gavia and then to the Dolomites for the night in Colfosco.

Hitch-hikers of all ages have always been fair game. At the top of one of the passes we stopped for coffee and there was an old Swiss gentlemen in national attire who wanted a ride down to the restaurant lower down the pass. Done of my driving companions showed any interest so I volunteered and put my hand up. It turned out that he could not have had a bath for a week or perhaps even a month. Even with the roof off and travelling at speed his smell was most pungent. He certainly was keen to enjoy the delights of the Elise again and all I was interested in was getting him out of the car as fast as possible!

On the final section of the day, not five miles from the Hotel and in the dark, I came across our first accident that had involved a Lotus. Thankfully no one was hurt and no other car involved. A member of the group in front of mine had mis-negotiated a hairpin and had mounted the inner wall of a left hand hairpin on his entry to it. The damage at the time didn't look to bad however under further investigation it had taken out its radiator and badly damaged the front sub frame. Unfortunately it was game over for the driver. I will always remember the scene of the five Lotus's parked up in the dark, on this hairpin bend, surrounded by pine trees, with mist settling on the road surface and our hazard warning lights blinking out of time, in complete silence....very eerie.

Day 06: A day in the Dolomites

The Dolomites, due to their exceptional beauty, are a favourite for tourists and therefore traffic at times can be very heavy and, more importantly, agonisingly slow. We have therefore created both Short and Long Route options for you to choose from. Both routes take in the Passo di Giau. The short route takes the pass East to West and the long route West to East. From there, the long route heads east to Coitina d’Amprezzo, loops east and then south to Tonacdico and north to Bolanzo, where it joins again with the short‘ route for the trip north and then West, back into Austria, for the ﬁrst time this year, and on to Obergurgl. Both routes are packed with stunning scenery and passes (six on the short and eleven on the long) ....the choice is yours.

Passo di Rombo is a Toll road with a tunnel at the summit which could be right out of the “Lord of the Rings”. Beware this road shuts at 2O:00hrs. The big wooden gates at the tunnel are locked and there is absolutely no way through. Your only alternative, is to head back to Vipiteno and North to Innsbruck, West to lmst and then south to Oburgurl. For those of you who do not heed this warning, then we will see you in Oburgurgl for breakfast on Thursday.....it’s a long way round. You could, of course, use the Motorway between Bolanzo and Vipiteno, to accelerate your ETA at Passo di Rombo, if you were running short of time.

The Dolmites have proved to be a great play ground for us over the years and this, being our first, we made another great find. The one way, controlled by traffic lights, Passo Stalle. This year our route took us down it and I can remember thinking at the time that one year we should plan to come up it. It actually took me a further ten years to put that thought to bed as it wasn't until the trip in 2015 that we were able to do it again. Ironically even then we were held up by some bikers who queue jumped us at the lights.

Finally, on each of the three Stelvio runs that I had been on by this time, I have driven the Passo de Rombo and have always been in awe of it's huge vertical drop off's. Following Rob Beaves this year, at the top this pass we came across a fairly large heard of mountain goats. Seeing us they jumped onto the safety wall on the drop off side of the road. I had always assumed that the Italians had built this solid low lying wall because of the huge drop off on the other side to prevent cars from going over the edge. They are normally barriers not solid walls. So when the goats, and the whole herd I may add, started to jumped off the wall and disappeared out of view. I really thought they had all plunged to their deaths in a vain attempt to avoid our cars. I was so concerned that I actually stopped the car and ran to the wall, only to discover there was a four foot wide path, a good goats height below the wall, that they had all jumped down to!!

Day 07: Austria - uncharted territories

As this will be our last day in the Alps we have, once again, given you a choice of both a short and long route. Both routes take the road north down the valley from Oburgurgl. This, at best, is rather dull but do be aware of the speed traps and the over zealous Austrian Traffic cop.....this is a well used route for Italian super cars making their way over to Germany for the freedom of their unlimited motorway speed restrictions. Fines can be heavy and will put a signiﬁcant dampener on what has hopefully been a fabulous week.

The shorter route takes you through lmst and through the Hantennjoch (1,894m )and then west through the Hochtannberg Pass (1,676m), before heading north again to Muselbach. We will then head east to lmmanstadt and then north to lsney im Allgau and ﬁnally west to Bad Saulgau. To our knowledge, this is the ﬁrst time any Stelvio trip has travelled on these roads, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

The longer route heads east at the end of the valley and loops out north through the Fernpass and back to lmst through the Hantennjoch pass. We will then head south-west through the Bielerhohe and then northwest to join up with the shorter route at Au for the run through to Bad Saulbau. As with the shorter route we don ’t think this has been a playground in previous years, so it's suck it and see!

Two memories, the Hochtannberg Pass was extremely slippery as it was billiard smooth and the torrential rain we had for the last hour of the run as we approached the hotel. I had fitted a fire extinguisher to the floor of the passenger footwell and forgotten to seal it properly. Consequently when I got to the hotel I had about two inches of water sloshing around the foot-wells of the car. I had to commandeer most of the hotels in the hotel to sort that little problem out. The hotel owner was a pretty grumpy individual and she must have gone apoplectic the following morning when she found out what I had been using her precious towels for!

Day 08: Gettin’ down on the ring

This is the Nurburgring... a famous, historical race track, situated in the beautiful Eifel region in Germany. Still rated as the most demanding race track in the world. Also known as The Green Hell, or Griine Hdlle, or 20.8 km's of sheer fun. According to Sir Jackie Stewart: "The greatest and most challenging race circuit in the world". It used to be the German Grand Prix circuit until Niki Lauda's crash in 1976...

So, if you're a novice: take it easy! Take plenty of time to learn the track. Study a map of the track. Read the safety leaﬂet and beginners instructions It is also a good idea to watch how the other drivers are doing. While on the track: check your mirrors often. Speed differences may be huge. if you intend to let another car past, stay on the right side, use your car's direction indicator to blink right, so the other driver knows you've seen him.

The Nordschleife can be overwhelming at ﬁrst time around. lt will take a lot of laps to get the track layout pinned down in your head. Like BBC Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson wrote: "... l was barrelling over others, only to ﬁnd myself at a hairpin bend that I could have sworn wasn't there last time around. "

Also bear in mind, you have been driving hard for eight days and your car might just be getting tired....tyres, brakes all could be beginning to feel the strain, so take it easy and enjoy. The are virtually no run offs here so an off could be very painful and expensive.

Restricted Content
These downloads outline both the TomTom ITN files and Hotel details for this years Stelvio Run which has been organised by the SELOC Group. Therefore to keep our plans confidential a password is required to access its content. This password will be made available by default to Toad Members and run participating SELOC Members. Other interested parties can contact me, via my website, and I will make representation to the Tour Organisers for their agreement for the information to be shared. Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply