We Go Merano!

[Mr Pharmacist]

and use some Rainex anti fog on the inside to avoid the misting up - it works very well!

[jeremyg]

Thanks once again for all your support and feedback, and I've heard more about Rainex from some of the people here too, so I'll be exploring it ASAP.

I'm afraid that Trish and I have so far been defeated by intermittent hotel wifi to be able to post further well illustrated reports ( we spent several hours last night trying to retrieve pics and post successfully) but in the end, frustratingly failed.

Anyway suffice to say we are here in Merano now and collecting experiences, friends and a mountain of pictures to share with you all when we are back. Sorry to let you down but it'll definitely all happen, but just a little later than planned!

[Mitch]

Sorry to let you down but it'll definitely all happen, but just a little later than planned!

Haha! You shouldn't feel under any pressure to post... good things come to those who wait & afaik the purpose of the trip isn't to entertain the rest of us!

Enjoy the International and everything it offers, have fun

[jeremyg]

Thanks Mitch for letting us off the hook, but we've had a think about it and maybe we can split the posts up a bit and make things easier. So this is what I was going to post on Wednesday, just to keep the story theme going! 

Outside the hotel on Wednesday morning I found Mark checking his windscreen as the day before he'd sustained some stone chip damage, and quite rightly he was concerned lest it should "spread". With things like that you realise just how vulnerable you are to such events on the road, far from home.



Well we reckoned at least we had one good thing on our side that day. The sun had come out. The sunnies at last made an appearance as I began behind the wheel headed for the spiritual home, Stuttgart, and the Porsche Museum. There was anticipation in the air, and little car willing, we would enjoy the ride.



Mark and Tony had left earlier to visit Hockenheim, to pay their respects to where Formula One champion (and if I remember correctly, 356 owner and racer) Jim Clark had met his untimely death. Soon their text messages started to come through. They were stuck in traffic. They were making their way off the motorway to head for Worms.  That place will always make me squirm now. We met the wall of stationary traffic several minutes later. This appeared to be a roadworks problem. We'd heard no warning and seen no notices of closure, but clearly, there were roadworks all around with restricted lanes.



You don't want to know the tedious details. Let's just say the 2 hour journey to Zuffenhausen took  a creeping, crawling, juddering, unnecessary 4 hours. 

The police we asked told us the motorway would be closed for 5 hours. This was planned? There were no attempts at signposted deviations and clearly all the Germans caught out by the delay were as dumbfounded and surprised as we were. I didn't expect this in Germany. Really. Rant over.

[jeremyg]

It was a huge relief  to eventually make it to the Museum, and take up a parking spot next to this Brit 356A 1600s. 



Who are you I wonder? On your way to Merano?

Perhaps we'll get to meet there.







The museum visit was exciting for at least 3 reasons. The first is obvious. Great, iconic, fabulously presented cars, and all sorts of Porschery, both serious and not so.



The next is something our German friends had told us about the night before, Maultaschen, a Swabian delicacy, basically minced meat in ravioli, available in the canteen, sorry, Boxenstopp restaurant, complete with Vic Elford now featuring as a part of a menu cover in a rather tackily decorated section (the rest is of course uber-cool). 



Finally, and most importantly, the younger ones in my family had given me 50 euros to spend at the Museum for my birthday. Inspired I thought. I sent them a picture of me pondering on that tough decision. Which one could I now afford?



In the end I went with a very early 356 (model) to add to my boys' own collection (actually that's not strictly true as it also has Trish's Dinky Toy vehicles from her childhood), and I made up the balance with some postcards to send.



The next thing we had to do on our way to Merano was just drive a couple of hours to our next stop, the city of Ulm.

[Graham]

Fantastic Jeremy,so nice to see you guys enjoying the car...

[Bootsy]

Loving this thread!

[jeremyg]

Before leaving the Porsche Museum, Hendrik, you'll be pleased to know that as the good citizens of Stuttgart went about their business oblivious to something that no doubt happens with some regularity, we did as you suggested, and took advantage of the swish pavement concourse.



As usual, Trish planned the route to our next overnight stop. Ulm should be just a couple of hours from Stuttgart.



I can't say we hadn't been warned, as the night before Uwe had told us that Thursday is a public holiday and the traffic out of Stuttgart would be bad. Once more it was a hopeless stop, go, stop, go, affair. At least this time we knew the reason why, and having been warned, it was our own fault for not waiting until it had died down. But you know journeys. It's on on on. 

But I fear what with that, and a dreadful crawl into Ulm, and a nightmare time finding the hotel with sat nav blurting contradictory orders in an ever more frenzied spiral of directions, the 356 suffered. It started misfiring. Badly. Try hard as I could, there was just no space to really rev it off, and tired and needing food and drink, not in that order, we parked up.



As the car sat outside the hotel, I had no idea whether it could be coerced into running smoothly when I started it up. And that was with the tough part of the journey coming, finding a way through the Alps that had just seen snow. It would have been a shame to take the easy route, but we suspected we had a car that needed nursing, or even worse, serious attention. I wish I knew more about its mechanics. Clearly I shall have to learn.

[roy mawbey]

Jeremy,

Possibly one of your idle jets has picked up a little dirt. If your car has Zenith 32NDIX carbs the main jets and idle jets are under the small square cover on the side of the carb. A 10mm spanner will undo the cover. The 2 idle jets are on the top the bottom 2 are the mains.
Page 60 and 61 of the 356A drivers manual ( if you have one in the car ) show the pics.

You can remove and check them without taking the carbs off though its a bit of a fiddle. Best to blow the dirt out or if its stuck there use a bristle from a stiff brush the jet hole is very,very, small in diameter !

Roy

[Graham]

Jeremy,my number 07787718047,if you need to call over the weekend,and maybe I can at least give you some pointers.

[jeremyg]

We were now only a few hours to go to Merano, but the next morning it was clear it had been a very cold night.



The 356 started okay but around the streets of the city it was spluttering and misfiring. Having stayed in another hotel Mark was only a few minutes behind and, as he's mechanically proficient, I texted him to say I might need his assistance. On the motorway though, as the sun warmed the day the car got back in its stride, and within an hour we began to see the wondrous view that lifts the spirits for travellers south.



We entered Italy through the Brenner Pass and then from Vipiteno took the Giovo Pass, a fabulous twisting  but perfectly cambered road with good sight lines. It was a pleasure in the 356, and at the summit we asked a German tourist who started taking pictures of the car if he could do the same for us. All three had made it, at least this far.



As we queued to enter Merano the stutter returned. We put the car in the car park and went to register for the 356 International fearing that at some time soon, with more hard driving in the alps on the programme, this misfire would have to be tackled at some stage. 

But as an Italian town reverberated to the sound of 356s gathering from all over Europe, and old friends, and newcomers like us took in the evening sun, the problem receded. Tomorrow was another day.

[jeremyg]

Hi Graham and Roy.

Don't worry, the story is still unfolding, but I appreciate you offering help. Wait for the next instalment!

[Mitch]

Loving the story so far... and that's a proper road trip pic! Bet reaching the pass summit made the Autobahn mayhem fade into a distant memory

[KS]

Cool story and photos! We really do need to tie up when you get back!

[Darren65]

Wonderful story, thank you for sharing