Road Trippin', Spec-B style!
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:39 amThought I'd give you guys a rundown on the great road trip adventure I did over the Easter/ANZAC break in the new car, my MY06 3R-B 6MT wagon. Covered about 1,280kms in total over the 5 days (8.8L/100kms average consumption if you’re interested...impressed with that considering some of the spirited driving I did). The trip included the wine regions of Yass/Murrembateman, driving and camping through the Great Dividing Range / Snowy Mountains, as well as visiting an old mate in Canberra.
The 3RB, nice and clean, prior to the trip...
The highlight of the trip has to be the drive along the full length of the Alpine Way / Link Road (the 'tourist drive', alternative route to the Snowy Mountains Hwy). Oh my, what a road! I've always wanted to do this but never had the chance or time. I highly recommend this drive if ever you’re in the area and have numerous hours at your disposal! The road, the scenery & changing landscape, the dams (okay, perhaps only the engineers out there will appreciate these
). The road from Yass to Wee Jasper is also seriously epic!
Link Rd / Alpine Way...
The views at Wee Jasper were awesome...
Big pipes! (Talbingo hydro station)
The 3RB drove amazing on the mountain roads. Serious kudos to the previous owner for getting this chassis seriously sorted! Such an enjoyable car to throw around, even with a fully loaded boot. I could really feel the 6 or more degrees of caster (from the Fulcrum LCA's) working into the corners, and combined with the huge absence of roll and aggressive alignment settings it was just planted, any speed, any corner. My g/f may not have been appreciating it but I sure was!
Subies + Alpine Way = WIN...
One of the lower moments of the trip was during the long 60+ km drive along the unsealed logging road from Wee Jasper to the Snowy Mountains Hwy. Hit a massive pothole at about 30km/hr and bottomed out the front right hard. Hard enough in fact to pop the front right of the front bumper! Amazingly the 3RB still feels fine so fingers crossed it was only cosmetic...
How the car emerged from the off road adventure... filthy, broken, but still smiling... or is it angry?
Popped front bar, still need to work out how to fix this...
Overall though the 3RB didn't miss a beat throughout the whole adventure, and it was an amazing way to get to know the car intimately. A total freight train on the highways and awesome fun on the twisties, all in a safe, practical, luxurious package - you can't ask for more than that! We even used the car to camp in. How was the metal tent? Well sleeping in the back with camping mattresses and doona worked out great actually, I think we were warmer than our fellow fabric-tent campers LOL. I am bang on 6ft tall and had no real issues with length, as long as I was sleeping on my side (which I do anyway) and had the front seat moved forward a bit. We could even observe the stars from our warm bed through the sun (moon) roof! ...and come on - who doesn't enjoy waking up to the smell of black leather in the morning!
Our cozy bedding arrangement...
Thanks for reading. BTW apologies for the crap mobile phone photos - i have much better ones but they are still on my main camera... might upload them at a later date.
Cheers guys,
*3o3
The 3RB, nice and clean, prior to the trip...
The highlight of the trip has to be the drive along the full length of the Alpine Way / Link Road (the 'tourist drive', alternative route to the Snowy Mountains Hwy). Oh my, what a road! I've always wanted to do this but never had the chance or time. I highly recommend this drive if ever you’re in the area and have numerous hours at your disposal! The road, the scenery & changing landscape, the dams (okay, perhaps only the engineers out there will appreciate these
). The road from Yass to Wee Jasper is also seriously epic!Link Rd / Alpine Way...
The views at Wee Jasper were awesome...
Big pipes! (Talbingo hydro station)
The 3RB drove amazing on the mountain roads. Serious kudos to the previous owner for getting this chassis seriously sorted! Such an enjoyable car to throw around, even with a fully loaded boot. I could really feel the 6 or more degrees of caster (from the Fulcrum LCA's) working into the corners, and combined with the huge absence of roll and aggressive alignment settings it was just planted, any speed, any corner. My g/f may not have been appreciating it but I sure was!
Subies + Alpine Way = WIN...
One of the lower moments of the trip was during the long 60+ km drive along the unsealed logging road from Wee Jasper to the Snowy Mountains Hwy. Hit a massive pothole at about 30km/hr and bottomed out the front right hard. Hard enough in fact to pop the front right of the front bumper! Amazingly the 3RB still feels fine so fingers crossed it was only cosmetic...
How the car emerged from the off road adventure... filthy, broken, but still smiling... or is it angry?
Popped front bar, still need to work out how to fix this...
Overall though the 3RB didn't miss a beat throughout the whole adventure, and it was an amazing way to get to know the car intimately. A total freight train on the highways and awesome fun on the twisties, all in a safe, practical, luxurious package - you can't ask for more than that! We even used the car to camp in. How was the metal tent? Well sleeping in the back with camping mattresses and doona worked out great actually, I think we were warmer than our fellow fabric-tent campers LOL. I am bang on 6ft tall and had no real issues with length, as long as I was sleeping on my side (which I do anyway) and had the front seat moved forward a bit. We could even observe the stars from our warm bed through the sun (moon) roof! ...and come on - who doesn't enjoy waking up to the smell of black leather in the morning!
Our cozy bedding arrangement...
Thanks for reading. BTW apologies for the crap mobile phone photos - i have much better ones but they are still on my main camera... might upload them at a later date.
Cheers guys,
*3o3
'
I could imagine having a nap at lunchtime at work, woooo.
