Been a while since I have posted in general but hopefully this post will be worth it so please bear with me, this will be long or just scroll through and admire the photos
If you have kept up to date with this thread, I had the fuel pumps installed and software updated to deal with the heat soak issues I experienced at the last drag event. I was then planning to compete at the next event in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland but unfortunately this was cancelled.
The next event "local" (Dublin) wasn't until October but that was not confirmed. I would have loved to have gone to Santa Pod but was just concerned about the overall cost (you may quote me on that later) and timing.
Crail Raceway, Scotland run an event every month and the next one was 21/07/19. Every year, my family have a reunion in Findhorn in Morayshire so the timing was perfect as it was the following weekend so what better time for a road trip!
My wife and wee boy were not available for the whole trip plus I would have felt guilty so had
@Carson as the next best thing to keep me company.
So, we left Belfast harbour at 0730 on Saturday 20th July
Boat ready and tank near empty, ready for some 99 in Ayr as we do not get 99 here in NI.
Time to set the Revo map via SPS to 98-100 ron!
So this is the route that my mate Carson and I had planned for the Saturday, head straight to Loch Lomond via the Crow Road to the Trossachs and Dukes pass, head north to Ballquiddher to McLaren grave, then over to Crieff to Dunkeld which Top Gear had listed as one of their top driving roads in Scotland - it did not disappoint! Finished off at my mates in Cowdenbeath where we would rest our weary heads after a few drams of whisky!
Callander - Trossachs
Stopped off at this lovely pub for a quick half pint of Caledonian before heading north to the grave site
Must have been a MG TF run that day as there were at least 6/7 parked up as well as this lovely car:
Then mine
Then onto the grave site in Ballquiddher, pretty cool spot and run
The road from Crieff to Saint Fillans to Dunkeld, my word!!
Carson doing his best Dirty Dancing routine
The picture doesn't capture it but we just had to stop and just look around, a theme of the trip, just mind blowing!
So that was Saturday done and stayed at my friends house in Fife. Took the train to Edinburgh for a night out and meal - great craic! Next on to Crail!
Raceday!! Was really looking forward to this, car was stripped the night before and all systems go! Had 13 runs in total for £20!! Such a well ran event, so smooth and quick, people were great and competitors all up for a bit of banter.
My S3 didn't perform as well as I had hoped. Kept spinning the wheels at the line (even with pressures altered) and if I had a good start, I would have hesitations or misfires maybe higher up the revs! Strange day but had 2 good runs and recorded a time of 11.38 (slower than previous run) which was quick enough for 4th place behind a GTR (9.6), RS3 Stage 2 (10.6) and R8 V10 (10.8).
What a cool place, such a lovely area and perfected by the weather!
Once were done for the day, another driving route was to St Andrews called the East Neuk, just lovely scenery and had a cheeky stop over at Kingsbarn distillery for a gin tour!
The onto St Andrews for coffee and a tour around!
Headed back to my mates for dinner, drinks and early night to then hit the road early to spend times in the Cairngorms
Monday, our tour really started. If anyone follows Carfection on youtube, you will know about the two main roads Henry Catchpoole does in Scotland. The return home in the McLaren which we did on Saturday to the grave site through the Trossachs and Dukes Pass, then the Old Military Road through the Cairngorms.
This is my 3rd or 4th time doing this run but it will never become tiresome.
You head to Blairgowrie which is the starting point, head to Spittal of Glenshee then follow the winding road through the vallies and glens, just unreal!
The weather as quite poor which we had expected but it wasn't going to get in our way!
Spittal of Glenshee just before the ski centre
As said, I have a family reunion around this time of the year so randomly met up with my parents and puppy at the ski centre for a coffee, nice to see them all!
During our coffee, never seen sheet rain like it, came down in waves! Then once we left and came down the other side of the mountain, it was like another world!
At this stage I crashed my drone ***, hit a phone line of all things in such a vast area! After a moment of panic and heading over to find it, i had turned off my remote. Next thing we see this drone fly through the air back towards my car! Couldn't believe it! Turned everything back on and brought it back to me, thankfully just a broke propeller but amazed it was able to fly!
Then progressed through the route as detailed below:
At this stage, my parents were in Ballater, so we headed there to get lunch. From there we took the B976 to Tomintoul to rejoin the Old Military Road
Pictured at the top of the Lecht at 2020ft
Then on down to Nethy Bridge to drive along the loch towards Aviemore
Finished up in Aviemore at a lovely Air B&B and headed into town for plenty of gins and dinner! Love Aviemore, such a nice place!
Anyway, this was our planned route, long way ahead!
Our plan was to head straight from Aviemore to Inverness, head down Loch Ness to Fort Augustus but my Sat Nav took us a detour at Invermoriston along the A887 and my word, what a surprise!!
Our stop off was Portree in Skye to hike up Old Man of Storr - weather was dull and foggy but had to get up to the top to see what this place was like. Oh, my, days!
The weather changed in a heart beat, just amazing. So spectacular and could have spent all day there - I have so many photos from my iPhone and Go Pro HB 7 so if anyone wants any, just let me know!
Next stop, Applecross!
The Bealach na Ba, literally, no words!
Single track road, some crazy foreign drivers, perfect weather and just breath taking views!!
Think that will do for now - once i get more time i will post up about the rest of the trip!
