GVZ Euro Tour 2012

[gerryvz]

All,

A very quick update.....

I have some really good news to share with everyone, that happened today. I will share it very soon, but it has to do with Porsche and the 500E production history. I spent part of today at Porsche HQ in Zuffenhausen.

Last night (Tuesday night) I spent the evening hosted by Jelmer and his wonderful wife Anna, in the Amsterdam area, where they had me for dinner at their house. Arkady was also in attendance and I got to see both of their 036s, together. It was a wonderful evening and I left around 11:15 PM to drive all night to Stuttgart (about a 6-hour drive + a few hours pulled over to sleep) for an appointment at 0930 this morning (Wednesday).

This evening I spent up at the shop of Gunter Lehmann, just north of Nuremberg. I've known Gunter for about 10 years and he's a specialist in Mercedes-oldtimers such as the Grand 600, Adenauer, Pontons, Fintails, 108/109, etc. Was there to pick up the Pagoda that I'll be driving on the Alpentour (which starts tomorrow -- Thursday -- evening and ends on Sunday afternoon. We'll be driving over 12 Alpine passes in the South Tirol region over the next few days. The 280SL Pagoda was being serviced for the season by Mr. Lehmann. It was a very rainy 1.5 hour drive down the A9 from north of Nuremberg (Pegnitz) to Munich. Tucked in behind an SLS AMG on the autobahn for part of the trip.

Anyway, more to report soon, but the news I have to share with regard to Porsche should be pretty exciting if it all pans out. Interestingly, FYI, Porsche has removed the E500 Limited from active display in the Porsche Museum because of a new exhibit on the life of Ferdinand Porsche (who recently passed away) and also a display on the 60th anniversary of worldwide Porsche clubs.

More soon.....

Thanks again to Jelmer and Anna for their hospitality and I enjoyed meeting both of you + Arkady !!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Jelmer]

Was great having you here, and I'm happy to read you arrived safely.

Looking forward to the rest of the report of the trip!

 

[E500W124]

Awesome Gerry.

Can't wait for this historical update...

 

[gerryvz]

A few photos of the 280SL Pagoda and 300SEL 6.3 as we make final prep to depart for Austria for the 2012 Alpentour.... Feels great to be behind the controls of a 6.3 just like I used to own....

Warming up the 6.3 in preparation for takeoff. We leave in about 5 minutes!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Just now as i was outside loading up the car, a local Bavarian farmer just stopped by, riding a very rare Swabian tractor from a company called Holder.

Love seeing this kind of stuff !!

 

[sheward]

I'm enjoying the trip through your pics and comments. Great stuff. Looking forward to any news you have relating to history of E500E.

drew

 

[195910]

Beautiful cars ! need more Pics.

 

[gerryvz]

A few photos from our drive through the Tirol region of Austria and Italy today. Also some photos from our hotel here in Italy, in the town of San Martino in the South Tirol.

Today's ride I drove was the 280SL Pagoda.and I drove it HARD, pushing it over 7 passes as fast as possible. The best one was the Timmelsjoch, which is quite spectacular.

I cooked the brakes coming down the 7th pass of the day, the Passo Rolle in Italy. They smelled something awful and I only had about 50% braking power. Had to use the manual gearbox to assist the braking.

We have 38 cars on the Tour this year (it's my 7th Alpentour) which is the largest group. I think 8 of the cars are Porsche 911 variants, including a 930 Turbo. We also have three 230 & 280SL Pagodas.

Enjoy !!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Christian_K]

Very nice shots... so the Alpentour is some kind of race?

 

[gerryvz]

Hi Christian,

No, its just a regular driving tour. You can go as fast or as slow as you want. Some of the cars are pretty fast ... the fastest was probably a Porsche 930 from Aschaffenburg this year.

Just arrived back in Freising just now and unpacked the car, and put it away. Started the drive home from Northern Italy (Dolomite region) at 930 this morning. We drove home over the Brenner Pass, through Innsbruck (Austria), Telfs and then through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, up along the A95 to Munich, through Munich and then home to Freising. Some spectacular stories to share ... including a rally we saw yesterday in Italy called the Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. I was standing 5 feet from the road filming our group of cars navigating down a pass (looking down, multiple switchbacks) and then this group of more than 90 cars came through....we are talking Bugattis from the 1920s, Porsche Speedsters, Jaguar XK120s and D-Types, Ferrari Testa Rossas, a Bentley 3.5 Liter from 1935, etc. All cars from the 1920s through 1950s and all racing models -- stuff you only EVER see in museums. The sound of these cars going by one after one made me almost poop my pants. Easily 20 or 30 million dollars worth of cars. The link for the rally is www.assiclub.com

Coming through Munich just an hour ago on the A99, a familiar sight of a 124 grill came up behind me on the Autobahn, with flared fenders and a low spoiler. It was a 500E, driven by a blond, pretty middle-aged woman. She saw me admiring the car (I was in the Pagoda, top down, at 130 km/hr). She gave me a big smile (there were three of us in our group -- 6.3, and 2 Pagodas) and slowly passed us and exited the Autobahn. Her license plate indicated STA (Starnberg) which is a very very wealthy town just south of Munich, at the northern tip of the Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg). It is where a lot of the German movie stars and famous personalities live....

Anyway, that was my only 500E sighting of the trip thus far. I will post photos hopefully soon, if I can import them from my camera into the computer. Tomorrow morning I am off to London through Thursday, then back to Munich. Hope to visit Christian in/near Aschaffenburg next weekend, and then I have my appointment at Porsche on July 4th.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[sheward]

Very nice to catch that rally going by. Exciting even to read about it. Incident with the 500E must have increased your smile. Thanks for the update. Enjoy.

drew

 

[gerryvz]

Last night I met Bing. Yes.... BING !!!

We had a nice hour or so at a pub near my hotel in the Paddington area of London. Great guy, and we had a couple of beers and some good chat. Tonight is my last night here in London and I'm off back to Munich in the morning, for the "hard core" driving portion of my trip.

Plans are to visit Christian this coming weekend (looking forward to meeting him) and hopefully LiquidIron as well.

Here's a little slice of a view, taken of two of the Tour's three Pagodas. We went over a total of 11 mountain passes nearly 20 times over the four days, and both the red and silver Pagodas (I drove the silver one) were camera cars, filming the rest of the group. We pushed these cars HARD up and down the passes, and really worked them out.

 

[szvook]

Great picture!

 

[bing]

Cheers, Gerry, for finding time to meet up.

Sorry we couldn't extend our discussion over dinner as planned. I sincerely hope that there will be a next time so I can go all the way with the beers with you

Bing

 

[500AMM]

Gerry,

Great thread and pics, and the latest with two Pagodas was very nice. It seems you have a nice GVZ Euro Tour this year too...and a tight schedule flying around, sounds great. I guess you'll see how it went on with LiquidIrons 5-speed manual conversion too.

About that comming "hard core" business, hmmm....you'll keep it car related only or...?

Cheers

 

[gerryvz]

Here's the "hard core" tool I'm using for driving over the next week....

I am in Stuttgart now, just finished my appointment with the Geschäftsfūhrer at the MB Classic Center a little while ago.

Plans are falling into place to hang with Christian on Saturday. Some friends are having a BBQ in my honor on Sunday in Munich, so I'll be heading back down south on Sunday morning. A little swing into Austria will happen after that... Then only a couple of days left.

Weather is beautiful today -- around 25-27C. Had a top down drive up the A8 to Stuttgart, but there is a TON of construction going on on that autobahn right now. Only a few places where I could really open her up (caravanned with a Porsche Carrera RS2 for a little while).

The new SLK is only a moderate improvement over the previous one. Getting ever more computerized & loaded with gadgets that frankly are more annoying than anything else. Fortunately you can turn many of them off (like the ECO mode that shuts the engine down at stop lights -- I hate the abrupt jerk when you lift your foot off the brake and the engine starts back up).

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

126s for sale at the Mercedes Museum in Unterturkheim

There were two 126s for sale at the "Young Classics" area of the MB Niederlassung at the MB Museum in Untertuerkheim. Both were late (Gen 2) 126 models either of the 1990 or 1991 model year.

The first was a 1991 560SEC, with about 80,000 km on the clock. It had the rear sun shade and trip computer and MB was asking ~ EUR 45,000 for the car.

The second was a 1990 or 1991 500SEL, with about 70,000 km on the clock. It also had the rear sun shade, but did not have headlight wipers. MB wanted ~ EUR 34,000 for the car.

The SEL was the same color as mine, and I honestly couldn't see much difference except that mine has a few scratches in the paint (typical garage/parking lot stuff). And mine has nearly $15,000 worth of quality work done on it over the past 6 years. Anyway, hard to imagine they could ask well over 3x what the typical going price would be.

Heck, they wanted EUR 19,000 for a decent E320 cabriolet (C124) and I think like EUR 24,000 for a C123 (!)



The factory tour in Sindelfingen has changed quite a lot in the past few years. Used to be partly by bus, and partly walking. Now it's pretty much ALL walking. The cool thing is that you get to walk really right through the middle of the plant - up close and personal with what is going on. The old tour they bused you through the plant and you only got to walk through the final assembly area.

The new tour you only get to see the body welding shop (where they assemble the chassis/structure of the car) and the final assembly plant. The old "bus" tour also showed you the stampings plant where the big pieces of sheet steel were pressed into various pieces of bodywork.

However, with the new tour you get so close that they make you wear safety glasses. I almost got hit two different times with sparks from the welding robots !!

Anyway, so it goes. I've attached a photo of the 126s for sale at the Museum.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Christian_K]

Yesterday i met Gerry, the Site Honcho. We had a veeeeeery nice day together, lots of beer and a lot of fun.
First we were at home at my 500E, i showed him my SDS System, then i was going to drive his rental SLK to the Aschaffenburger Schloss at the Original Schlappeseppel Brewery (which is today a little Beergarden/Restaurant), where we were drinking some "Faust Bier" and had a nice meal. LOL.

Disapointed that they wont serve us "Schlappeseppel Beer" in the original Brewery, we went to the Heylands/Eders Brewery which today produces the infamous Schlappeseppel Beer. They also have a litte restaurant attached to the brewery and were serving the freshest Schlappeseppel i've ever had.
The "Dicke Priester" took a picture of us 2 at the end directly in front of the Schlappeseppel Brewery...:

Judging by my posture, i already had "Die Hefe" (means i was already slightly drunk).
As we went back home, we were doing a short and crazy speeding test-drive in my C36AMG and Gerry was then heading to Würzburg to meet some other Friends.
I hope Gerry you had a lot of fun too.

It was very nice to meet you

 

[gerryvz]

Yes, thoroughly enjoyed my 10 hours with Christian. Indeed, MUCH beer was consumed. I think it was at least 4 liters of kellerbier and hefeweizen .... EACH. I got to see Christian's 500E up close and also took a short ride in his C36 AMG. That thing REALLY pulls hard - there is a big difference between the C36 and the normal M104 motor.... It has been a REAL treat on this year's trip to finally meet the likes of Jelmer, Arkady (036), BING and now Christian.

Christian, after I left your house I got on the autobahn but it was raining REALLY hard, so hard that I couldn't even see the cars in front of me. It was like a gray haze. So, I pulled over at the first rest area that I found. I slept for a few hours until the rain stopped, then continued on my way southward. I visited some family friends in the Wuerzburg, then Augsburg and Landsberg areas and am now back in Munich safely.

My trip is winding down (coming back home on Thursday) but I still have one place to visit - my secret 126 and 124 wrecking yard on the north side of Munich. I will visit them tomorrow to look for more interesting parts to bring home. Hopefully as in past years the owner will give me as many fire extinguishers and warning triangles (warndriecke) as I can carry. The SLK cargo area is pretty small but I will try to stuff it full.... I will also drop down into Austria and Switzerland as well. Since I'm in Munich and never have seen it, I'm also going to try to visit the new BMW Welt (BMW World) & Museum here, probably on Wednesday.

I understand that another meeting will be happening soon ... Jelmer and Christian. I also expect many good stories from this gathering of the 500E minds.

Thanks again to all 4 of you (Jelmer, Arkady, Bing and Christian) for making the time to meet up with me. Definitely a big highlight of the 2012 Edition of the GVZ Euro Tour.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

I made it back home just fine. Here are the "official" photos that I took with my digital camera, with captions. These are specifically from the Alpentour portion of the trip. I'll post the other photos in another post.

Enjoy !!


Here are the daily driver cars of Mercedes oldtimer-mechanic Gunter Lehmann.
Gunter is an old friend of mine from my M-100 days and he lives about 20 km north of Nuremburg in Krottensee am Pegnitz.
Gunter was servicing the Pagoda just ahead of the Alpentour to ensure everything was in tip top shape. We drove up to
Krottensee to pick up the car, and I took a few photos of his compound from the street....


This is a sign that Gunter has placed on the outside of his barn, on the main road through his village.
Every car driving through would see this very large sign...



Here's a pile of axles and other Mercedes-oldtimer suspension components that Gunter has placed in his barn.



After getting home to Freising (just north of Munich) from Krottensee, we store the Pagoda in the garage in preparation for departure on the Alpentour the following day....


Departure day for the Alpentour. Loading up and warming up the 6.3 in the afternoon, about 10 minutes prior to heading southward to the Alps.



Waiting in line to pay to cross over the Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstrasse, one of the higher passes in the Tirol region.
— at Timmelsjoch 2500m.



Taking a quick rest stop at the top of the Timmelsjoch Pass.

2,509 meters = 8,232 feet above sea level.... in other words, "it's up there !!"
— at Timmelsjoch 2500m.



Still a bit of snow at the Timmelsjoch, but not as much as in past years...
— at Timmelsjoch 2500m.



Getting ready to pack up and "keep moving!" onward.
— with Chris Cross at Timmelsjoch 2500m.







A view of our Pagoda at the Timmelsjoch. See the HD (GoPro) camera mount on the hood of the car.
— with Chris Cross at Timmelsjoch 2500m.



A few of the other cars in our group.
— at Timmelsjoch 2500m.



This is the scenery during our lunch stop on Friday, June 22. On the left side of the photo is the Gasthof Natz, where we had lunch.
— in Merano, Trentino-Alto Adige.



Another view of the Berggasthof Natz, where we had lunch. The view was unglaublich....



Pagoda at lunch time



Keeping the Pagoda cockpit cool with an umbrella in the high-altitude sun in the Alps.





More of our cars in the lineup for Alpentour 2012, at the Gasthof Natz in Platzers, Italy.

That's an Austin-Healey Bug-eye (or as the Brits say, "Frog Eye") Sprite on the left with the bonnet open....



This MGB was quite special. It has a V-8 engine and is quite ... well ... "hopped up" as we say it.




Porsche 912 Targa engine.



The group having lunch at the Gasthof Natz.



A beautifully restored German Opel Rekord coupe that attends the tour every year.







Some Italian horses that I fed at the Gasthof Natz.



I love this Triumph TR3 that goes on the tour regularly.



The engine of the Bug-Eye Sprite from Darmstadt that came on this year's Tour.





Taking a quick late-afternoon break from driving....



At the top of the Passo di Manghen, which is 2,047 meters (6,716 feet).



Awesome view of a house at the top of the Passo Menghen.
— at Passo di Menghen.




You can see that it's quite cold and foggy at 6,700 feet, even in summertime !!
— at Passo di Manghen.



Yet another pass ... Castello Molina di Fiemme




Fog, fog, fog.... and chilly too !!
— in Castello-Molina di Fiemme.



For some reason, Europeans love to sticker the signs at mountain passes. Seen it in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein...
— in Castello-Molina di Fiemme.




That's right, you have to pay 14 Euros ($17.25) to cross over the Timmelsjoch. You do get a sticker for your windshield, though....



View from the cockpit of the Pagoda. You can see the GoPro HD camera mounted on the windshield, one of two HD cams we were running in the Pagoda.
— with Chris Cross.




Here's where we had lunch on the third day, at the Agritur Malga Rolle at Passo Rolle. We had about 10 different kinds of meats and cheeses, and all were from the local area. Totally delish !
— at Passo Rolle.

 

[gerryvz]

The rest of the photos from the Alpentour portion of the trip....



A few of our cars at Passo Rolle.

You can see the second tripod camera mount in the rear of the Pagoda, for rear and side-facing shots.
— at Passo Rolle.


The group having lunch at Passo Rolle



Unbelievably gorgeous.
— at Passo Rolle.



Quick pause for some filming .. and the unexpected first-hand running of the "Billionaire's Alpentour" that rumbled by in cars that you only see in museums...
— with Simon Anders, Roland Pacemaker and Chris Cross.



Pagoda with some nice Alpine scenery...



Me at the helm of the Pagoda, heading down from the Passo Rolle at the beginning of the day on Sunday.
— at Passo Rolle.



The Staatskaross (300SEL 6.3) with GoPro camera mounted on the windshield.



Quick stop at the Passo Rolle as we head home on Sunday morning.
— with Roland Pacemaker and Chris Cross at Passo Rolle.



Pagodas at the Passo Rolle, Sunday morning heading HOME !!
— with Simon Anders, Chris Cross and Roland Pacemaker.



At the controls of the Pagoda, getting ready to head into Austria. Just south of the Brenner Pass.
— at Passo del Brennero.



Heading over the Brenner Pass.
— at Passo del Brennero.



Heading down into the city of Innsbruck, Austria.
— at Innsbruck.



Sunday lunch at the Gasthof Lamm in Matrei, Austria. Just over the border.
— in Matrei am Brenner, Tirol.



Charging the 6.3 battery over lunch after the voltage regulator failed earlier in the trip....
— in Matrei am Brenner, Tirol.



A few of the cars at lunchtime at the Gasthof Lamm, in Matrei, Austria.
— in Matrei am Brenner, Tirol.


Scenes from the town of Matrei am Brenner, Austria.



This was a bad-ass Porsche 930 from Aschaffenburg, Germany that came with us on the tour this year.



Staatskaross-pfanne.



This husky was hanging out in the shade on the lawn next to where we were having lunch.
— in Matrei am Brenner, Tirol.



Some detail of the 400-500 year old barn next to the patio where we were having lunch.
— in Matrei am Brenner, Tirol.



Rolling through downtown Innsbruck, Austria behind the 6.3 and the "arrest-me-red!" Kratzmeier 230SL Pagoda.
— with Simon Anders and Roland Pacemaker.



Heading up the A95 toward Munich....
— at A95.



Rollin' the German B-roads (Bundesstrassen) toward home...


The voltage regulator that died, causing a major "Apollo 13" moment on the trip as to whether the 6.3 could run the rest of the trip (3 days) solely on the battery....

 

[gerryvz]

I have some really good news to share with everyone, that happened today. I will share it very soon, but it has to do with Porsche and the 500E production history. I spent part of today at Porsche HQ in Zuffenhausen.

Anyway, more to report soon, but the news I have to share with regard to Porsche should be pretty exciting if it all pans out. Interestingly, FYI, Porsche has removed the E500 Limited from active display in the Porsche Museum because of a new exhibit on the life of Ferdinand Porsche (who recently passed away) and also a display on the 60th anniversary of worldwide Porsche clubs.

Hello all,

Now that I'm back I am in a better position to talk about what happened a couple of days after I arrived in Germany. After visiting the van de Velde wrecking yard on Tuesday morning/early afternoon and Jelmer and Arkady on Tuesday night in Amsterdam, I drove all night from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, where I had an appointment on Wednesday morning June 20th. Later on Wednesday I went to Porsche headquarters in Zuffenhausen. There we spoke on the phone to the executive at Porsche who OWNED and RAN the 500E program, among many other Porsche special projects over the years (such as the 907 race car program, 959, and so forth). In any case, he was very willing to meet face to face to answer questions and provide me with any and all documentation that he possesses on the program. However, he did say that most documentation was provided by Porsche back to Mercedes, so Porsche Archives in reality have fairly little information about the 500E project.

We set up a tentative date and time of Wednesday, July 3 to be back up in Zuffenhausen for our meeting. This was always going to be a "schedule permitting" thing, and thus why I didn't disclose/hype it on my first post in this thread. Though, actually talking to the senior executive who ran the program for Porsche, and who is still with the company, was in and of itself ... let's just say quite exciting.

I received an email from this executive on Friday, June 29 very regretfully saying that he wouldn't be able to meet on the time and date that we'd previously arranged, because a meeting popped up in Hamburg where he'd be needed, in conjunction with an event involving race car driver Jacky Ickx. He was certainly open to meeting again at a mutually convenient date, and even working with me to get specific questions answered in the mean time. So, I guess I'll have to get some time set up well in advance of my next trip over there, on his calendar, so we can have the promised meeting.

The cool thing is that I have his contact information (email, phone, cell phone) and he's open to meeting. I'll figure out how to structure this over email in the coming weeks and months so as to get answers to the most burning questions regarding the length, depth and extent of Porsche's involvement in the project. I'm also hoping that he follows through with pulling together some materials for me about the project -- hopefully stuff that's never been seen before. Also hoping to get some Porsche photos of the production, if possible.

Anyway, that's what all of my hullaballoo was all about. So it's a bummer that I wasn't able to get together with Herr Bischoff, but we'll certainly git 'er done for next year if not before. it's cool to know that the project was run by such a high-level guy who ran some of the other landmark Porsche race-car projects, and who is still with the company.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Some spectacular stories to share ... including a rally we saw yesterday in Italy called the Le Mitiche Sport a Bassano. I was standing 5 feet from the road filming our group of cars navigating down a pass (looking down, multiple switchbacks) and then this group of more than 90 cars came through....we are talking Bugattis from the 1920s, Porsche Speedsters, Jaguar XK120s and D-Types, Ferrari Testa Rossas, a Bentley 3.5 Liter from 1935, etc. All cars from the 1920s through 1950s and all racing models -- stuff you only EVER see in museums. The sound of these cars going by one after one made me almost poop my pants. Easily 20 or 30 million dollars worth of cars. The link for the rally is www.assiclub.com

Here's an example (real photo) of the type of cars that we saw going by from this Rally. This was taken by one of my friends about 100 meters down the road from where I was at one of the hairpin turns. I saw more than 80 of these old cars go by at the hairpin - literally 3-4 feet away ... so close that I could "high five" the drivers and co-drivers as they took the turn. It was incredible to see and hear these cars......

Look at those friggin' hairpins in the attached photo !!

 

[szvook]

The cool thing is that I have his contact information (email, phone, cell phone) and he's open to meeting. I'll figure out how to structure this over email in the coming weeks and months so as to get answers to the most burning questions regarding the length, depth and extent of Porsche's involvement in the project. I'm also hoping that he follows through with pulling together some materials for me about the project -- hopefully stuff that's never been seen before. Also hoping to get some Porsche photos of the production, if possible.

Dude, you F'ing rock! That would be icing on the 036 cake!

 

[mistermiata]

Fantastic news Gerry!

I am looking forward to any info you can get from Herr Bischoff. The Porsche/Mercedes connection of the E500E is still slightly mysterious, I for one am fascinated by it and eagerly await any light you can shed on it!

Thanks!

 

[gerryvz]

Here are some scenes from other portions of my trip. Regrettably I didn't get anything in the way of photos from the times where I had the honor of meeting Jelmer, Arkady, Bing and Christian_K.

Some scenes from the MB wrecking yard of Marc van de Velde in Belgium...

 

[gerryvz]

And a few scenes from the MB Customer Center in Sindelfingen (this is where both regular MB and Maybach customers pick up their cars when they do Customer Pick-Up (or for US customers, European Delivery at the main MB factory....)

 

[gerryvz]

And some photos that I took at the private Fritz B. Busch Automotive Museum in Wolfegg, Bavaria, Germany. Busch was a very well known writer for German automotive publications (sort of the German equivalent of David E. Davis) who died about 2 years ago. He started his museum several decades ago. It's in a very small town and a bit out of the way, but quite interesting nonetheless and worth seeing as it's on the way from Munich to Lindau (Germany)/Bregenz (Austria)/Zurich (Switzerland).

The museum is really well known for its eclectic collection of more than 200 cars, as well as lots of motorcycles and scooters. It has a collection of farm tractors too.

Apologize for the quality of the photos ... taken on a point and shoot digital camera on handheld setting, often without flash.

But, you get the gist of it.

 

[sheward]

Welcome back, Gerry and thanks for all the interesting photos. It's exciting to learn of your connection with the individual responsible for the E500E project at Porsche. Looking forward to any more information which will likely come of it.

drew

 

[gerryvz]

Official review of the Alpentour is here (nür auf Deutsch):

http://www.oldtimerfreunde-freising...entour Review 2012/alpentour review 2012.html

 

[gerryvz]

Couple more cool Alpentour photos....

 

[gerryvz]

I borrowed a photo from Christian taken of the two of us at a regional brewery ("Schlappeseppel") near his house.

This was taken at sundown by a very fat Catholic priest (i.e. "dicker Priester" auf Deutsch) who was sitting at the next table from us at the brewery's beer garden. I remember calling him "Herr Cardinal" and "Herr Papst" when we were talking to him.

Yes this was near the end of the night after 3.5-4 liters of beer were consumed each....I think we drank for about 10 hours straight....

 

[Randy Crooks]

Nice pics Gerry, That white Borgward has Felix Wankle written on the hood,wonder if that was once his car or perhaps had an expirimental Rotary engine in it.

We used to call them "Dicker Priester" here in Nova Scotia too..But most of them got caught.. Sorry couldn't resist.

 

[gerryvz]

Yes, that car actually did belong to Dr. Wankel, and it does have a Wankel rotary engine.

 

[gerryvz]

Here's the "hard core" tool I'm using for driving over the next week....

I am in Stuttgart now, just finished my appointment with the Geschäftsfūhrer at the MB Classic Center a little while ago.

Plans are falling into place to hang with Christian on Saturday. Some friends are having a BBQ in my honor on Sunday in Munich, so I'll be heading back down south on Sunday morning. A little swing into Austria will happen after that... Then only a couple of days left.

Weather is beautiful today -- around 25-27C. Had a top down drive up the A8 to Stuttgart, but there is a TON of construction going on on that autobahn right now. Only a few places where I could really open her up (caravanned with a Porsche Carrera RS2 for a little while).

The new SLK is only a moderate improvement over the previous one. Getting ever more computerized & loaded with gadgets that frankly are more annoying than anything else. Fortunately you can turn many of them off (like the ECO mode that shuts the engine down at stop lights -- I hate the abrupt jerk when you lift your foot off the brake and the engine starts back up).

Cheers,
Gerry

I finally did the fuel consumption calculations for the SLK

I filled the tank 4 times ...

averaged 9.09 liters / 100km (the most consumption was 10.636L/100km whilst driving from Munich to Passau and back on the A92...least was 8.006L/100km)

this equates to 25.88 US MPG or a little more than 31 UK MPG

This is what it looked like on the Autobahn between Deggendorf and Landshut, near Dingolfing (where BMW has a major manufacturing operation). This stretch of the A92 is commonly knows as BMW's real-world "test Autobahn" as it is relatively free of cars, particularly at night, and it is pretty straight and flat. Car spy photographers have been known to set up "fake accidents" when BMW test drivers are out on this autobahn at night, in an attempt to slow down and/or stop prototype BMWs so as to catch them on film. As a result, the German Autobahnpolizei often run unofficial "escort" to BMW protos being tested on this length of Autobahn....

Both of the photos below were taken with the top of the SLK in the down position, and I was wearing a baseball cap.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[bing]

Gerry, I'll dig out my receipts of my recent trip in the V12 and you can calculate the average for me.. I lost count how many times I filled up, but in all honesty it wasn't as bad as i thought. The most I got was 520miles in 1 tank of 100liters from Lyon to Nice there abouts - averaging 85 - 90mph A/C on all the way.

 

[Jelmer]

Be a smart chap and get a little Android app (I'm sure they exists on the iPhone as well) called "mileage". It'll keep all forms of statistics. For me:
Avg: 7.05km/L (16.57mpg)
Worst: 5.96km/l (14.01mpg)
best: 9.02km/l (yesterday, new record!) (21.21mpg)

Average cost/KM: €0.25 (what the!!!)
Total fuel: 2530 litres
Fuel per year: 3930 litres (lmao!)


Hmm. On second thought: better not get the app, and just fill it up when needed, and don't look back

 

[gerryvz]

Uhhh ... yeah