DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

DAY 9

We were heading back north today, a basic straight run from Salamanca to the picos. Originally we had planned on avoiding motorways but experience had shown that on these days where we needed to cover some distance through relatively plain countryside the non motorway routes ended up being town, speed bump, traffic lights etc on repeat. So motorway for most of the miles and then the planned route took us off once we got near the hills and we had a lovely twisty end to the day .

Before we at off, Gary wanted to swap his Tyres around as the fronts were wearing excessively . He had tried to buy some new ones but had no joy so this was the next best option.




Whist Gary was doing this, some of us walked back into Salamanca for a coffee and to buy some Iberian ham.

Tyre swap done , breakfast eaten and we all headed off for fuel then onto the motorway . This part of Spain is pretty uninteresting so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything.



p155 stop / lunch stop approaching we pulled off at was signed as services, only to find it was actually a mile so off the motorway and was actually just a slightly downtrodden village that had seen better days before the motorway was built to bypass it.



As it turned out lunch was good.

With a bit of shuffling around of cars when leaving the village we ended up with MarkM upfront who promptly put his foot down … now I was hanging back with Gary as he’d already mentioned his car was happy in this heat at about 3500rpm… so as it turned out it was just me and Gary crusing up the motorway until it was time to pull off ( if only some others had read the instructions )



Off the motorway these back roads were superb fun , starting off as open sweepers …. The irony being the self imposed 3500rpm limit was completely ignored for the remainder of the day. Got to say me and Gary had some real fun.



We headed up these new to us roads which lead onto some of the roads we had travelled on the first day. You know your having fun when Gary says over the radio he’s having to drop off the pace as his brakes were starting to fade






As it turned out, not long later up in the hills, the skies darkened and we had our first proper rain of the trip.




We sat back a bit and had a steady run down to our final hotel .







Now nearly everyone had ended up split into small groups, so cars arrived at different times but with it being wet, the best option was to meet up in the bar and settle in for drinks and we decided the bar food rather than the restaurant. It was a great way to end what actually turned out to be a good day of driving.

Apart from the tyre hassle it was a brilliant day.

The inside of my fronts were a little ‘thin’ so had booked into a tyre shop in Salamanca for some ‘get me home’ tyres. Black and round, no more than that! Once I got there they only had one… so plan B.

Usual practice is best tyres on the back but as the fronts were getting scrubbed (excessive toe out) I decided to split the difference and get home by putting them on the back.

The pic above is a little misleading, the DDK pit crew sprang into action and with impact drivers and torque wrench’s had them all swapped in 5 mins



My oil temp runs a bit high (and climbing) when running fast in a high ambient hence needing to ease back a bit on the motorway. James stayed back as the wing man and as he mentioned we had a cracking drive once off the motorway to the point of a bit of brake fade.

Having removed the remaining microns of tread obviously this was the time the torrential rain hit



Super chilled evening followed ready for the ferry home the next day.

That all looks amazing and so many fabulous photos.

Not being the very mostly widely traveled of chaps, I had no idea Spain could be so green, lush and beautiful.

Everyone associates Spain with Marbella or benidorm , but yes it’s a lovely country

DAY 10

That was it, the days of fun driving were behind us we now had a 1 hour or so drive to Bilbao to get the ferry back to the UK.

A good breakfast consumed , all us loaded up and ready to roll when all of a sudden, Boyd’s car wouldn’t start ! Boydy swapped around the dme relays and it still wouldn’t start ! Original DME put back in and some advice from Gary who has some experience of these ‘modern’ FI systems and it kicked into life

After that it was a normal day of motorways to catch the 1pm ferry, where for some reason we all got split up when being loaded so we had cars on different levels etc .




By this point I knew my social battery was done .. and I think everyone else was pretty worn out too, so the ferry trip back was quite a relaxed affair but still enjoyable.

Day 11

We arrived back into the UK and finally got through passport control about 6pm on the Sunday ….. you then remember how crap driving in the UK is. Sunday night traffic combined with motorway closures meant a long run for me back to Yorkshire & even longer for Boydy.


Summary …

We’ve all landed back in the UK on the 1st June so its quite nice writing up about it as it brings back the memories and makes me think about the days as when in the midst of it all its easy to take things for granted. Generally I’m out front leading the way with my eye on the route, the road, hazards ( especially on narrow fast roads not knowing who’s around the corner or which person is about to cut the corner and almost wipe me out ) , looking in my rear view to make sure everyone is with us, so don’t always get the chance to take it all in.

This trip was up there with the best we’ve done , and we’ve done a lot. Great roads, great weather, great cars & great friends .

Originally Ian & Jack were all booked up to come as Ian loved these roadtrips and right up until a week before departure Ian was wanting to come still. Health deemed otherwise and unfortunately Ian had to cancel . We dearly missed Ian & Jack not being with us but Ian was still on our WhatsApp group so could follow all the usual banter & photos etc.

We all had plans to meet up with Ian later this month so the weekends news of Ians passing was devastating and really focussed how lucky we all are to be able to do these trips with friends and in cars that can take this kind of abuse.

Don’t put off doing trips and things !

A great write up with fabulous photos and a real sense of the true DDK spirit. It’s a lovely part of Spain and as you say often overlooked. The roads and the overnight accommodation all looked fabulous but the company and camaraderie is the best part. Thank you all for sharing and what a real shame that sad circumstances meant Ian couldn’t make it. I’m sure he would have loved it.

Thanks

Regards
Mike