Some quick highlights of when I drove my Prodrive STi UK to Austria on holiday last week, and what it feels like now it's almost done 10,000 miles.

Driving to Austria...

Not having driven my STi for this sort of distance before we were all unsure what to expect, so fully fueled up and eager with anticipation, we set off on Friday afternoon looking forward to arriving at our destination. The journey to the channel tunnel was probably the worst bit of the drive. There had been a accident which completely closed the M25, so after a quick consult of the map book we faound an alternate route. The traffic was awful, but I suppose it meant that I got a decent amount of posing in . Once on the train, and about half way through the tunnel, the train staff started admiring the car and asking many questions. This car definitely draws attention. Once off the train, we started the long drive to Austria, down the autoroutes and autobahns in France / Germany, stopping for a bit of a kip in France at about 2am. I was one of the slower vehicles on the road (the roofbox limited the speed I could travel at), so I was being passed by a large number of cars on te way. Practiaclly every one was pointing and waving as they drove past. I guess the STi is a pretty rare sight over there. We finally arrived at our destination (Murau in southern Austria) on Saturday afternoon, (almost exactly 24 hours later), having driven 950 miles pretty much non-stop. Much locally brewed beer was consumed that evening

Murau...

When we arrived in Murau, it just happened to be the date of the annual local modified Opel event. As I drove past the field where the event was taking place, I dropped it down a gear to let the Scoobysport backbox sing, and everyone turned round to watch, giving me the thumbs up etc. Guess it had the desired effect Another experience later in the week was that I was sitting in a car park in Murau, (waiting for the folks to get the food shopping), and a group of locals drove in just to have a look at the car. I speak very little German, and they spoke no English, but between us we managed to gesticulate enough to understand each other. They'd never seen anything like it before.

Innsbruck...

One day we had the mad idea that it would be interesting to drive to Innsbruck for the day. Rather than going on the motorways however, we decided to go the scenic route. We ended up driving 450 miles that day over twisty mountain roads, down into Italy (round the back of the Dolomite mountains), and back into Austria through the Brenner pass. The scenery on this route was stunning, with some excellent scooby roads. Due to the 33 degree temeperatures outside, I was also very grateful for the air conditioning!! On the way back through Germany (autobahns) I gave the loud pedal a bit of a squirt and managed to get it well into triple figures (no roofbox and unrestricted bit of autobahn). First time I've really tried her out and I couldn't believe how much power there was, and how stable the whole car felt.

And the rest....

The rest of the holiday was mainly taken up with mountain drives, riding cable cars / chair lifts, walking to the tops of mountains, eating in the local huttes / restaurants, and sampling a fair amount of the locally brewed beer and schnapps, (lucky we had two drivers ). I had no problems in finding 98ron super unleaded in France, Germany or Austria, and it's cheaper over there than here as well. I reckon I spent abount £340 over the two weeks in petrol. Not bad considering the distance.

Sumamry...

At the end of the trip we had driven 3638 miles over two weeks. I worked out the fuel economy, and I reckon it probably averaged out at around 25mpg (I got over 30mpg on the trips there and back home). None of the passengers got tired of travelling, and everyone commented how much more comfortable the car was than old last Impreza (a MY00 turbo in which we did the same trip last year).

The car seems to attract much attention (all positive) over in Europe, more than with my last Impreza. It seems as though they are a very rare sight over there. In fact, in the whole trip I only saw three other scoobs. A very frindly old shape turbo in Itlay, (who waved and flashed lights etc), and a couple of very grumpy English new shape cars in France (near the tunnel).

The trip has increased my mileage so that I'm almost at the 10,000 mile service stage. Over that time I've noticed that the car has lossened up considerably, and even got a bit quicker. If I had one criticism, it would be that the power below 2000rpm is a bit lacking (especially when trying to hill start on a mountain road), but hopefully the PPP should fix that (assuming Prodrive ever realease it )

If you're interested, I've put some pics of the car etc on my website http://www.iainbyoung.co.uk/myscooby.htm

Other non-scooby pics can be found in the Austria bit of the photography page.

Cheers,
Iain

 

24 hours to Austria?

Took Carolyn's STi7 to Lech in Austria in March to ski, 9.5 hours from Calais - through five countries - France, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria.....and not over 4000 rpm in 6th as it was only a week old and running it in

 

Ah, but we were going with some friends in an aging (10+ year old) Isuzu Trooper. Had to keep the speed down to 60mph for most of the way there..

Still, the slow spped allowed for some excellent posing

Iain

 

A nice thread Iain, much more interesting than some of the tripe on here

 

BG, have to agree with that.
Iain, that makes for good reading.

Chip.

 

No worries chaps, glad you enjoyed it

Btw Dave, the 24 hours was from Swindon. From Calais it was more like 19hrs (with about 5 hrs of rest breaks - we had children with us).

Iain

 

Iain
The Trooper explains it!

 

Iain

Excellent thread, love the pics on your site, some absolutely stunning shots - the Impreza's not bad either !

 

A good read, do you have route details as I need to drive there sometime as well?

This makes up for the lack of Felstead novels recently

F

 

Thanks guys

Floyd, I'll see if I can find the details and let you know.

Btw, if anyone is undecided as to whether to get some of the waxwizard stuff, then think no more. I gave the STi a good coating of wax before I left, and all those orrible baked on bug splats just washed straight off when I got there. Not to mention the fact that it looks soooo shiny Can't recommend the stuff enough

Iain

 

nice pix

 

Sounded a great trip Iain.
Looking to do something similar in the STI UK next year.As the Scooby "Rug rat" will have just passed his 1st birthday and all the prams,toys etc that goes with the territory. Would appreciate some advise on the roof box that you mentioned .
Many thanks
Neil

 

Iain,

Good stuff and agree with Big Goon. I've just purchased STi7, so it's nice to get an insight into what I can expect when the thing has done a few miles.

Cheers
Steve

 

Thanks again folks ,

Neil. Not sure what advice you're after but I hope this helps. The roofbox I have is a standard halfords jobby. These have punch out holes in the bottom for the fixings, so should fit almost any vehicle. As far as roof racks are concerned, I'd get the Subaru one. I've seen many reports of the 3rd party ones (Thule, Halfords etc) damaging the paintwork and causing dents.

The Subaru one is a bugger to fit. You have to first lift the black plastic / rubber strip that runs the entire length of the roof. Underneath this are some fixing points for the roof bars. Basically you attach some "hooks" (for want of a better word) onto these and replace the strips. These hooks protrude just above the level of the roof once fitted (if you look carefully in the pics on my site, for example http://www.iainbyoung.co.uk/images/s...glockner01.jpg you can just see them). The roof bars themselves hook onto these and can be added / removed very easily. I left the hooks in place whilst on holiday, and just unattached the bars when not using the roofbox.

Note that when travelling with the roofbox on, you are (in theory) limited to 60-70mph. The lift they produce can be destabilising for the car, and too much lift can also stress the plastic causing the box to rip off the roof (I saw this happen to someone whilst driving on the M4 a while ago). Also I've been told that travelling at excess speed whilst having the box on can also warp the roof panels (but I think you'd have to be in triple figures to do this). They're perfectly safe as long as you don't go silly

Subaru do make their own roofbox, but it's not very big and somewhat overpriced.

Steve, they do get quicker and easier to drive as they "run-in".

Iain

 

Hi Ian,

ace story about the Austria trip - it's nice to be noticed is it not?

Checked out your website - are those pics of your car in the Lake District taken at the side of Wastwater looking at Yewbarrow? It certainly looks like it to me - I stopped my own WRBlue car there only a couple of months ago for some very similar posy piccies!!!!!!

cheers
Dave (London)

 

Cheers dave. And yes they are. Good spot for piccies isn't it

Iain

 

Thanks for the advise Iain, have been in touch with my local garage,and yes your right the box is a rip off & the bars are not to cheap either.
My STI has just passed 7500 miles & with having not long just had a Prodrive BB & filter fitted.(allready had mid section de-catted) The power delivery seems to be more smoother like my old MY98 rather than a large kick in the pants.
Thanks Neil