Road Trippin', Spec-B style!

[starship303]

Thought 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

[BUDDAH]

There a great touring car must do that trip again some time

[bosc0]

I've driven some of those roads also on the way to Canberra (Rally of Canberra to be exact) a few years back. Without a doubt the most fun i've had (while moving) in a car.
Great twisty roads, aswell as some amazing fast sweepers where you can see for miles ahead.

Looking forward to doing them again one day.

[RAN94A]

got a google map of your route??

[josho]

nice trip man!
ive been around that area before but it was in an old ford explorer, so probably not as fun. (fuel consumption was no where near that good either, haha)
im jealous of the big wagon sunroof and the sleepin in the back set up, wouldnt be very comfy in the sedan! haha.

i rekon ill try and do a similar trip at some point. might go for a ski this season if i can spare the money, its pretty expensive up there.

[The Sean]

Yep, us Engineers do appreciate those dams!

I did a quote for some fire upgrade works years ago for 4 sites of the Snowy Hydro and the three things I quite like were:

1. WTF?!? That water level wasn't nearly that high 5 minutes ago

2. We were escorted to the sites by a SH employee, a 55 year old aussie bloke called Schultzand the conversation with the group went like:

Me: 'Hey, where's Schultzy?'

Pete: 'Buggered if I know'

(half hour later back at the motel)

Schultz: 'Hey guys, sorry I was late, just had to get these'

(Schultz holds up 3 BIG ASS TROUTS he just caught)

Pete: 'I'll do this job for love, where did you get those?'

Schultz: 'Just pulled over to one of the dams and cast in, no one in particular'

Me: ' '

3. The size of the water pumps they have within the facilities and the fact that the whole thing was built decades ago, you would struggle to do it with the retarded builders we have these days

[Adrian2627]

Did you happen to notice that every second car up this way (Snowy Mountains) was a Subaru? In case you did you now know why. Living up here gives real meaning to the "Sunday Blast".

[Ben]

Great pics for a mobile, glad you enjoyed your roadie!! Seeing the camping pics makes me wish I got a wagon.

The are nice cars out on the open roads and fuel consumption is always surprising out of the city pushing it through mountains.

Oh and I think your car was smiling in anger…

[Lucy]

Stuck in the office so much these days, I tend to forget what a beautiful country we're so lucky to live in!

Thanks for the reminder!

Looked like you had a great trip, right car too! The last time I was in the snowy was on 2 wheels, many years ago, we had a family of Emus walk out to greet us on the Alpine Way. What a place!

[Lucy]

Thought 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!

Are my eyes deceiving me or is your front bumper coming away from the gaurd? Front right, just near the seem between gaurd & bumper
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

[teK--]

That last pic of the bedding in the back almost makes me want to trade in for a Wagon I could imagine having a nap at lunchtime at work, woooo.

[The Sean]

I sleep in the front seat of my work camry all the time, they are way more uncomfortable, you just need to practice more

[teK--]

I nap in the passenger seat occasionally with the recline right back, but I'm a side sleeper so nothing would beat stretching out in the back of a wagon

[Lucy]

I nap in the passenger seat occasionally with the recline right back, but I'm a side sleeper so nothing would beat stretching out in the back of a wagon

Do we need to worry about you two?

[The Sean]

Not really, I work for the Gumbyment so it's kind of written into my job description