Exploring the Alps in a Volvo Amazon, 2012 edition

[Lupo TDI]

Hello,

some of you might remember this thread I made last year; me and a couple of friends did a bit of alpine driving.

This year we're at it again. We're currently in Ischgl, in Austria and it's the third day of the tour, tomorrow will be the last. Unfortunately we have had bad weather today but that creared up the roads a bit as there were virtually no bicycles and very few motorcycles.

The cars this year were:

The same Amazon as last year,
911 (964),
Z4 3.0,
350Z,
PT Cruiser 2.4 GT convertible.

We started on thursday by driving from Luxembourg to Livigno, passing the tunnel we passed last year as well as the Flüela Passroad, which was covered in snow last year...) where we stayed one night; second day we drove to Ischgl by crossing, among others, the infamous Stelvio pass. On the third day we drove a loop around Ischgl going up to the Furka pass among others.

I am currently uploading pictures to my photobucket account, we'll see how fast it is. If it fails to upload I'll do it once I'm at home.

Day 1:

[Shmi]

Love travel logs. In for later!

[Lupo TDI]

Day 2:

From Livigno to Ischgl passing the aforementioned Stelvio pass. This year we had nicer weather so we were able to see the glaciers. Quite impressive to see how big they are. But it makes me kind of sad to know they used to be bigger and that with our enthusiastic approach to driving we're not helping it...





Of course there were unimpressed locals again:



















The xxx Glacier (forgot the name...); the road has a 13% slope almost all the time, but fortunately enough the switchbacks are wide enough for us in the Amazon to be able to carry enough momentum around the corners. You could really feel the car getting anemic with every 100 metres of altitude we gained. Still, it fared pretty good for its 75 hp. I got to drive it a bit more this year and it's something different. The thin, smooth, plastic steering wheel had the tendency to slip out of my sweaty hands, and it has only 4 gears, but it's involving and it seems to like being pushed around.









Wild nature:







Enjoy!

[Shmi]

Jesus those pics are beautiful. The cars and the glaciers. I seriously envy your trip!!

[VwG60Kid]

amazing pics of an amazing trip... sucks to be the guy in the PT Cruiser though

[Lupo TDI]

Thanks; but thank mother nature for the scenery, she deserves more credit

amazing pics of an amazing trip... sucks to be the guy in the PT Cruiser though

Haha, I know what you mean; he's constantly getting sh!t because of that car. He is only driving it because his right wrist is bad and his Peugeot has no power assisted steering. Although we are all quite impressed by how strong it pulls, and being the only turbocharged car in the group it doesn't suffer the elevation as much as the other cars. Yet we'd prefer to have him in the Peugeot he drove last year

[VadGTI]

Beautiful. Makes me want to hop on a plane

Sent from a rotary-dial phone using Edna the Small Town Operator

[John Y]

Very timely thread - I look forward to doing the stelvio pass one day, but today I was in another part of Italy, in the Dolomites. In my GTI I did the 4 passes of the Sella Ronda - a loop starting in Canazei, through Arabba, Corvara, Val Gardena and then back to base. I know, I know, needs pics - but damn it I was having way too much fun driving to stop for a lot of pics! I will update this and add some that I did take later. the roads are a blast, even when you are stuck in some traffic - I ended up getting my curve-busting fix for the year, I think. The scenery is just breathtaking- the Dolomites are a once in a lifetime kind of place; fortunately I hope to be back in February to ski.

[Live-Wire]

Love that speedometer!! Giant red bar FTW!

That PT tho... ugh. I'd have got a rental

The Volvo looks pretty good! Pics are very nice.

[lagunaroone]

Great diversity amongst the cars.

Cool photos! Thanks for sharing.

[DUBLUV401]

IN!

[Lupo TDI]

I'm going to kill my photobucket account, but I think it's worth it. So on we go:

Day 2, more pictures:

Apple plantations in Vinishgau, Südtirol, Italy:



They looked really delicious, and the plantations are literally everywhere! It is just a bit too early to eat them





Castles were everywhere too:





I wasn't the only one taking pictures:



Chasing the Cruiser:



Just before the Stelvio pass:











On the way to the glacier xxx (still haven't found the name...)













The tunnel connecting the two glaciers, elevation 2890 meters:

[warren_s]

The same Amazon as last year,
911 (964),
Z4 3.0,
350Z,
PT Cruiser 2.4 GT convertible.

Anyone else read this and go, "Nice! Awesome! Wicked! ....dafuq?"

[Lupo TDI]

I see the Cruiser bashing is still going strong

On to day 3:













Roadblock, Cow Style (Nissan got stuck behind them):





Glacier:



Bad Weather:

[alex_bgnet]

Beaut pics and Volvo!

I was there three years ago and loved it.

PS: PT, really?

[a2a4raddo]

amazing photos. Thank you for sharing.

[MrRoboto]

That looks awesome. And was that a traffic jam on the Stelvio Pass? Want to give it a try next summer...

[Saintor]

I have a fascination for the Alps. I drove in them twice for a few days . You gave some itching to do it again!

[Lupo TDI]

I have a fascination for the Alps. I drove in them twice for a few days . You gave some itching to do it again!

That looks awesome. And was that a traffic jam on the Stelvio Pass? Want to give it a try next summer...

We didn't really have a traffic jam, but there's traffic; and sometimes loads of it, actually. But we had to stop only at a couple of places like roadworks or customs.

On to Day 3 part 2:









The B18 engine in the Amazon:

[Shmi]

OK that's it, I really need to move back to Europe.

[goin440]

Nice

[Lupo TDI]

Day 4:

Ischgl by night during summer; empty like you'd never expect it when you've been there during winter. They don't even take off the christmas illuminatio as you can see:







Crazy bridge:





Local fauna:





Steep (13%):



It got foggy too...





Later the same day:





Look where the right lane goes:





Flüela pass, partially unpaved:













Stelvio again:







That's it for this year. The Amazon once again proved to be a stout, reliable, somewhat sporty car. Yes, it was a handful to put through the hairpins without power steering and power brakes, but it still made it feel like fun. The 350Z was probably the car to have (from our group); more than acceptable fuel consumption (11,6 liters per 100km), power and a well-sorted chassis made drifting out of the hairpins where it was safe to do so a breeze. The PT Cruiser has been a surprise to most of us. Somewhat unknown to almost all of us, especially in the turbo version, it pulled like a freight train going uphill and thanks to the suspension mods (and maybe partially also thanks to the winter tyres) it wwas quite good at taking corners too. Shame it looks like it looks... The Z4 is very similar to the 350Z, except it had the bonus of an open roof. And the 911? Best car in the tunnels hands down!

As for the tour itself, we are looking for ideas for next year. Maybe around lake Garda, or maybe France; who knows? We're looking for roads not too far away from Luxembourg so we can get there in one day.