Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Riley Blue]

Following on from my 'What speed?' thread I thought I'd ask the 'How far?' question as I had two conversations yesterday that got me thinking.

The first was with a fellow Riley owner in The Orchard at Prescott. We'd made a round trip of 226 miles to attend, thinking nothing of it really, whereas the other Riley owner (and his wife) both said they only went on short trips and would never consider going so far.

The second conversation was with the driver and his wife of a classic I'd spotted, bonnet up, at the roadside and had stopped to offer any help (most likely water as the traffic has been stop-start for quite some time). They were happy to let things cool down so we chatted for a few minutes and they too said they'd never drive as far as we had and that 50 miles was a long trip for them.

So what constitutes a long trip for forum members?
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[MikeEdwards]

I must admit I tend to only attend the more local shows these days. From time to time I'll do the national show at Billing (which is around 110 each way) and earlier this year I went to Luton (around 140 each way) but they're the exception rather than the rule. The Luton trip did remind me, though, that the car is perfectly capable of doing a trip of that length, and was reasonably quiet and comfortable too.

I think for me it's the thought of the traffic - although I've not had trouble with the car in traffic jams and so on, I just don't like them. Before going to Luton I was listening to the traffic news during the week, and dreading the journey. Of course, the majority of snarl-ups and tailbacks are during the week, so once it got to Saturday the journey was fine, with nothing other than a few roadworks speed limits to impede progress. If it wasn't for the special nature of the show, I might have given in to the foreboding and just not bothered, though.

[roverdriver]

Went to Perth (W.Aus.) to visit my sister and her husband, round trip more than 5,000 miles, in our 1982 SD1. Last year drove our 1959 Rover 90 to Alice Springs and back, a mere 3,700 miles. Those trips could be called 'major annual excursions'. Visits to son and daughter involve only 120-odd miles round trips. and other drives that we are happy to tackle involve 3 or 400 miles. All done in 'classics', as we don't have a more modern car.
_________________
Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[Ronniej]

I have driven my cars to the club national days but I find any trip involving going over the border quite stressful on account of other traffic.
My pre-war Morris 8 is a bit slow but can keep up with traffic on level roads.
It can cope with hills but is slow and sometimes this causes impatience among other drivers. For this reason I prefer to use the Morris on quiet country roads. There are roads in the Scottish Borders that are similar to what I imagine pre-war motoring may have been like and a drive over these is enormous fun.
Having said that I drove the Morris from Glasgow to the rally at Glamis Castle last month using secondary roads as much as possible.
My post war (just) Singer Roadster has a better turn of speed and can keep up with modern traffic but I find driving on busy roads tiresome.
For this reason I now trailer to events south of the border but the cars are no "trailer queens". Just last weekend I had the Singer in the Peak District and drove over the "Cat & Fiddle" road into Buxton which is quite challenging.

[peter scott]

I think the furthest I've driven mine in a day was about 200 miles. That was on A class and minor roads.

Peter
_________________
https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Riley Blue]

200 in a day is about the maximum I'd do now in any car, classic or modern; a far cry from my younger days when Ostend to Austria non-stop apart from fuel stops was the norm.

We were discussing on the way back yesterday the lack of roadside 'eateries' in the UK if you don't travel by motorway - which we usually don't in the Riley. Now that Little Chefs have disappeared, unless you want to stop at a pub, there's virtually nowhere unless you resort to that haven for pensioners up and down the country - the garden centre!
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[kevin2306]

My max would be a round trip of say 100 mile in the Singer, for no other reason other than I do so many miles in my modern for work purposes that its nice not to drive, saying that however, we had a nice tootle round yesterday and did 70 mile without trying, best sort of trip that though as there was no end destination.

Kev

[peppiB]

My Landcrab is my main car. I have no problem in doing a 600 mile round trip to Surrey to visit son, a 400 mile round trip to Lichfield to visit (estranged) OH or indeed 450 mile round trip to Peterborough in a day for the BMC show. The furthest ever driven in 1 round trip was Newcastle to Falmouth, hitch another car on to an A frame whilst there and tow it home. Over 900 miles in 30 hours

[peter scott]

[Riley Blue]

[mikeC]

I think I would have second thoughts about more than four hours travelling in a day (assuming I was going somewhere, like a rally, which was going to occupy a fair chunk of the day). With my present cars 2 hours each way means not very far!

[P3steve]

Just local I'm afraid, no more than 100m (fifty each way) but then I do use it a lot for local running around ie shopping, taking rubbish to the tip etc so it gets well used. To be honest cost of fuel is a contributing factor as due to an accident at work last year I.m not at work at the moment so have to watch the pennies.
_________________
If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off

[Roger-hatchy]

Blackpool end of June each year about 250 miles one way.

This year a couple of weeks before Blackpool a roound trip to see Foxy Lady at Bournmouth airport 350 round trip on a Monday

Conningsby each May about 130 miles.

Regular down to Isle of Thanet 110 miles away.

Have a friend with a 103e rates a trip to Battlebridge as long distance, 22 miles one way.

[goneps]

Fifteen years ago, using a Morris Eight Tourer Club rally in Dunedin (at the other end of the country) as the excuse, I covered 3,500 miles in the Eight in four weeks, driving 150-250 miles per day except during the week of the rally. On the return, drove the 400 miles from Wellington to Auckland in 13 hours, on back roads wherever possible, at the end of which I was so comfortable and the old Tourer was going so well I came within a whisker of carrying on up to the far north.

Managed to rack up some 8,000 miles in the Morris that year, but sadly the expense of such trips is way over my budget these days.

Richard

[Ashley]

Trouble is for us Brits is that the roads are so congested, the traffic moves so slowly and there are so many temporary traffic lights and awful thoughtless drivers, even quite short journeys can be exhausting.

Last week I drove from near Stroud to Alcester and back, it was 84 miles and took four hours because of heavy traffic, a camper wagon with a stub axle broken off and three police cars blocking the road to "help". A lorry was parked in the road with traffic lights so workers could tend to a manhole on the pavement and so on.

By way of contrast two hundred and fifty miles in France is relaxing and can often be done in less than five hours with stops. My son did 450 miles in my Bentley to the Ferry, got off and drove the hundred home with minimal effort, but unless you're up North or in Wales, getting around the UK can be misery IMO.

On Sunday I decided to go to the Steam Fair at Cirencester and had to give up after about an hour of slow moving traffic and then a monstrous jam. It would probably ave taken another forty five minutes to an hour to get in, but the Bentley temp gauge was near the red and the engine was misfiring because of the heat, so we went home. I wish I'd gone to Vintage Prescott now.