by "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
Published 03/28/2017 at 11:45
by "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
Published 03/28/2017 at 11:45
Tags: Europpomeet
STARS: 2
As most have read by now; 18 of us visited (and drove) Spa and the Nürburgring last weekend, drove some attractive roads in between and had some beers at night. We had a blast and will do it again. As the memories are still fresh: what went well, what didn’t and what can be done differently? I’ll start.
But first I’d like to note that we should always welcome new blood, including that from the other side of the big pond.
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I’ve started this piece as a discussion piece only. I’m looking for general suggestions and opinions, not detailed worked out plans or anything like that. Although if you’ve got something very concrete to contribute, feel free.
I’ll list a few things I liked and what I feel needs improvement. Note that this is not meant as criticism in any way. Opinions my vary and this was a first time anyway so you can’t expect perfection. These are merely my opinions.
Liked:
The routes we drove
The destinations
Having a ‘living room’ large enough to house everyone for a few beers at night
The variation in beers
Needs improvement:
Navigating the route. A long row of 18 cars doesn’t quite work.
Housing; the cabin was passable, the trailers without running water (and thus toilets) less so. It was probably a bit too cold outside to camp.
I apologize in advance for spamming the Carbagerun again, but it is slightly similar and has some very good and some rather poor qualities. I’ll try to combine those experiences.
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My
suggestion
for the Europpomeet 2018. Note that when I mention a ‘route’, I’m talking about some interesting route. No highways or anything boring like that.
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start: late lunch at some kind of interesting landmark that’s not overly boring to wait at. A printed out (or digital) pre-prepared route is handed out to those that show up. This route will be primarily over secondary roads. Length of the trip: 3-4 hours
Those that came from far can skip step #1 and go to #2 directly.
Early evening: arrival at sleeping location. Install your stuff, shop for breakfast and other supplies (optional), get a meal, socialize, sleep.
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Breakfast. Routes are handed during breakfast. Some kind of competitive (street-legal) element might be introduced for the route. 2-3 hour drive, depending on the time required for the afternoon activity.
Afternoon activity. A track, a museum, you name it. Followed by lunch during which new routes are handed out.
2-3 hour drive, depending on the length of the afternoon activity.
Arrival at sleeping location. Install your stuff, shop for breakfast and other supplies (optional), get a meal, socialize, sleep.
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Breakfast. Routes are handed during breakfast. 2 hour drive, depending on the time required for the afternoon activity.
Brief afternoon activity followed by long lunch.
Drive home.
I named Day x, Day x because the day can be repeated if we wish to spend more days.
It’s quite similar to what we already did but with, in my opinion, slight improvements. There’s no long row of cars following and losing each other but you do meet up multiple times a day. Downside is that it needs to be prepared in advance.
I mentioned a possible competitive element. Maybe finding certain checkpoints (photograph your car with X in the background), can you find Y, buy the most tasty Z (beer, sausage, cake, whatever), photograph the prettiest female (or male, whatever you prefer) non-oppo member inside your car, mini scrapheap challenge, whatever. We can vote who won at night or during the last day.
An option is to work with teams, like 2 people per car; driver and navigator. If we stay more than 1 night at one place this shouldn’t be a problem.
I would suggest April over March, simply due the weather (temperature).
So, what do you think?
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/27/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 1
Great ideas, and i agree with all of them. One thing i did find was really useful (and fun) was having walkie talkies. It made it so much easier to keep track of where people are going, and being able to chat to each other (and point out GT40s at the side of the road!) while we drive makes everything feel more involved :)
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/27/2017 at 16:07, STARS: 0
That’s a great idea actually. I didn’t have one in my car so I didn’t get to experience them much.
The walkie talkies could be a group buy or something. Or we take a more professional approach:
"Out, but with a W - has found the answer" (belg)
03/27/2017 at 16:21, STARS: 2
I’m in favour of a central hub.
As far as region goes: Vosges and the Black Forest would be very nice.
I’ll put together my pluses and minuses when I’ve got a bit more time later this week.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/27/2017 at 16:27, STARS: 0
Those are quite decent suggestions. I can think of a few alternatives, but none are as well located as those two. It’s not that efficient for me to suggest South Tirol or south-east France when the most south bound visitors live on the line Paris-Munich.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/27/2017 at 16:30, STARS: 0
Yeah it’s good fun :) especially if we do a scatter rally type thing as we can talk when we bump into each other
Oh, and you need to bring the CTi turbo next time ;)
"Clemsie McKenzie" (thestirringcolumn)
03/27/2017 at 16:37, STARS: 2
Yeah the norten parts of the Alps would be awesome, but that’s starting to get quite far for everyone else. I think the roads we took this year were awesome, and I wouldn’t mind driving around there again. What I certainely would not mind is another afternoon at the Ring... That stuff’s addictive!
"Clemsie McKenzie" (thestirringcolumn)
03/27/2017 at 16:40, STARS: 1
I think the main thing would really be to make groups when we travel around. And yeah the small competitive event sounds fun! If we make three or four teams of similar cars, we can go round hunting for stuff.
"Jobjoris" (Jobjoris)
03/27/2017 at 17:05, STARS: 2
Somehow I feel every Europpomeet should host a day at the Ring. There is no compare. And I’m afraid it will disappoint a few if we leave it out.
If we want to do something different we could opt for a few French tracks. Le Mans is partly drivable and has an amazing museum with an amazing lineup of Le Mans cars.
The old track at Gueux is completely drivable, a lot of straights make it not the most daring track but the old buildings are awesome.
Gueux (Reims)-Le Mans is quite a drive though, 350kms. Then again: For the Brits it’s not that bad to come to. Then again, Gueux-Ring is about the same distance.
"EL_ULY" (uly)
03/28/2017 at 11:33, STARS: 0
I had no clue Green Hell and SPA were so close. To compare, it’s like from Houston to Austin TX which is a piece of cake drive.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
03/28/2017 at 11:35, STARS: 0
How many miles were covered for europpomeet by the person who traveled the farthest?
"bhtooefr" (bhtooefr)
03/28/2017 at 11:48, STARS: 1
I know that if I ever get to Europe, I’d want to drive the ORIGINAL Le Mans circuit.
Basically, this involves driving all the way into Le Mans itself on the original front straight (which parallels the current one), then going back out on the road that becomes the Mulsanne Straight. Last I looked at Google Maps, the entire old track is drivable on public roads, except for one road in Le Mans that can’t be crossed, so a right turn, a U turn, and another right turn has to be used to cross it.
Edit: Here’s the route:
Shared route
From 20 Boulevard des Italiens to 20 Boulevard des Italiens via D139 and Rue de Laigne.
24 min (11 mi)
26 min in current traffic
1. Head north on Boulevard des Italiens/D139 toward Rue des 24 Heures
2. Turn right onto Boulevard Jean Moulin/D338
3. At the roundabout, take the 4th exit and stay on Boulevard Jean Moulin/D338
4. Exit the roundabout onto Boulevard Jean Moulin/D338
5. Turn right onto Rue de Laigne
6. Arrive at location: 103 Rue de Laigne
7. Head north on Rue de Laigne toward Rue Henri
8. Arrive at location: Point on map
9. Head northeast on Rue de Laigne toward Avenue Georges Durand
10. Turn right onto Avenue Georges Durand
11. At the roundabout, continue straight to stay on Avenue Georges Durand
12. Exit the roundabout onto Avenue Georges Durand
13. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit and stay on Avenue Georges Durand
14. Exit the roundabout onto Avenue Georges Durand
15. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Avenue Georges Durand/D338
16. Exit the roundabout onto Avenue Georges Durand/D338
17. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Route de Tours/D338
18. Exit the roundabout onto Route de Tours/D338
19. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit and stay on D338
20. Exit the roundabout onto D338
21. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Route de Tours/D338 heading to Tours/Mulsanne/Chateau du Loir
22. Exit the roundabout onto Route de Tours/D338 heading to Tours/Mulsanne/Chateau du Loir
23. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto D140
24. Exit the roundabout onto D140
25. Arrive at location: D140
26. Head west on D140 toward Pierre Baude
27. Turn right onto D139
28. At the roundabout, continue straight onto Boulevard des Italiens/D139
29. Exit the roundabout onto Boulevard des Italiens/D139
30. Arrive at location: 20 Boulevard des Italiens
For the best route in current traffic visit https://goo.gl/maps/Uzsjops193z
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 12:00, STARS: 0
For the continental Europeans the google maps result from oppo user Klaus_Schmoll for Home-Spa-Ring-Home was about 1800 km. In reality a bit more due to the large variety of B roads we drove, so maybe 2000 km. That’s roughly 1250 miles.
I’m not entirely sure about the UK members, although I doubt it was significantly more for any of them. They did need a ferry or the Eurotunnel, which adds time and cost.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 12:10, STARS: 0
You sneeze and you’re there, it’s nothing. However, culturally there’s a rather stark difference when you drive trough the adjacent villages. Language too, obviously.
"facw" (facw)
03/28/2017 at 12:10, STARS: 0
But South Tyrol is pretty and has a frozen dead guy!
"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
03/28/2017 at 12:12, STARS: 0
Generally I liked it, but I do agree with your weather point, since the nights and mornings were maybe a bit too cold. Also I like the idea of adding the game element in to the drives, especially if we were to stretch the number of days, and were to cover a slightly larger area that could keep the drives fun.
Also seeing how everybody liked the ‘Ring, I’m almost certain that needs to stay.
I think the biggest point of improvement should be the way in which routes are driven though. Since the planned routes were nice, but driving them with a big group didn’t always work out, due to the walkies having too short of a range and maybe due to performance gaps between the cars. Maybe driving in smaller groups would work, or just having a driver-navigator pair for every car, figuring out their own route.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 1
I know, moreover I spent a weekend in Ötztal last January. However, when a significant number of people will need to drive 2 days (one way) in stead of 1 it becomes less viable.
"runnersp, formerly known as t_s" (runnersp)
03/28/2017 at 12:34, STARS: 0
I was late to this party this year, however all that scavenger hunt stuff sounds like a lot of hard work. I think amazing roads to drive on are all an Oppo meet truly needs.
Allow me to suggest Tuscany.
"Chinny Raccoon" (chinnyraccoon)
03/28/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 1
Total was ~1700km for me, including all the driving in the region. Not sure where the northern U.K. Guys live in relation to Newcastle, their overall distance may have been further.
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
03/28/2017 at 13:01, STARS: 0
If we could synch it with my vacation schedule that would be awesome.
http://www.schulferien.org/Kalender_mit_Ferien/kalender_2018_ferien_Mecklenburg_Vorpommern.html
I like the rally idea with the chackpoints.
Also, now that I am hooked, maybe we can include some small track that has a track day and lets us drive?
"Chinny Raccoon" (chinnyraccoon)
03/28/2017 at 13:01, STARS: 0
Sets are quite cheap on eBay, so it wouldn’t be too pricy to equip one for everyone. Would certainly help with not getting lost.
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
03/28/2017 at 13:07, STARS: 0
According to my odometer, I did 2050 km that weekend.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 13:09, STARS: 0
There you go, I was only 2.5% off. I do wonder how many km the other UK guys drove.
"Jobjoris" (Jobjoris)
03/28/2017 at 13:13, STARS: 0
Yeah, good call:did that one mostly in 2013. Year later I did the Targa Florio. That one was truly epic.
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
03/28/2017 at 13:31, STARS: 0
The Skoda-E39-Twingo trio cut a lot of it short with their overnight ferry, and the three sportscars guys are from the South.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
03/28/2017 at 14:21, STARS: 0
I think it is important to find things that the attendees can do together, not trapped separately in car. Driving is fun and all but you can do that by yourself. You’ve come to a meet to meet people!
This was my impression from the Chicago oppo meet last year, that said our roads are a bit boring here. If I were in a far away land with new interesting roads that might have changed things somewhat.
"MultiplaOrgasms" (themightymultipla)
03/28/2017 at 14:30, STARS: 0
I like the Carbagerun idea. Teams of two to Share expenses and to allow any type of car. I’d like to do a pre-Opporun lottery where each Team has to draw a piece of paper with three random words written on it and then buy a car that fits those three words best.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 14:33, STARS: 1
Agreed. That’s why there’s shared breakfast, an afternoon thing, diner and having a drink at night. With the walkie talkie suggestion Simon did plus maybe doing driver/navigator combos with some kind of rally thing during the drives there should be plenty of interaction.
Dutch roads are rather boring as well, mostly because it’s utterly flat. However, the routes Wout prepared through Belgium and Germany were not boring in any way. Great driving roads and great views.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/28/2017 at 14:38, STARS: 0
While I like it a lot the issues I have is that we have to keep in mind that people don’t live that close to another, which makes it harder to prepare. You’re probably the closest to me, (close to) Oldenburg wasn’t it? That’s almost a 1.5 hours drive one way. Another issue is cost related, remember that many wanted to camp outside to save maybe €30 a night.
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/28/2017 at 16:38, STARS: 0
Yeah for me the walkie talkies completely fixed any feeling of isolation driving by yourself. We spent a lot of time pointing out cool things, saying how nice each others’ cars sounded, laughing about pulling as many drifts as we could and generally egging each other on. They’re really good things to have, and i’d be happy to chip into a group buy for them even though i already have one :)
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/28/2017 at 16:40, STARS: 0
I think i worked out that i did about 1450-odd miles from start to finish, although we did do some roundabout routes on the way there to visit Ypres and places so that probably made up the difference :)
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/28/2017 at 16:53, STARS: 1
I don’t think it was the performance gap that caused any issues once we put the slower cars up front (as the faster cars had the legs to catch up most of the time). Being at the back what caused the issues was getting split up when pulling out of petrol stations by 2 or 3 cars and then losing where people went. To fix that we could just head out of a petrol station and pull up on the side until everyone’s out on the road and then head off :)
"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228)
03/28/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 0
Ah, another thing i’ve thought. Really the only issues with getting split up were from having 3 or 4 civilians split up the group so people couldn’t see where to turn. To fix that we could just make sure to pull up on the side of the road when leaving petrol stations until everyone’s out and then crack on :)
"Out, but with a W - has found the answer" (belg)
04/04/2017 at 13:56, STARS: 1
So, pluses and minuses:
+ Daytime weather
+ Surprisingly reliable cars
+ Activity variation. Museum + track would be a good combo for the future as well.
+ Enough time to socialize
+ The beer idea
+ The roads. I hadn’t expected them to be this epic, as apart from the Malmedy area, it was my first time passing through too.
+ Pre-meet. Would be cool to have different convoys form en-route towards the meet.
- En-route communication. Walkies for everyone next year, and split the group if necessary (10-12 cars per group seems to be the feasibility limit). Additionally, I’ll see if I can find a way to get everyone the routes.
- Nighttime temperatures. End of April - mid June seems more opportune.
- Lodging. Ideally, we can find a spot with a bigger shared room and cooking facilities next year.
- Better pre-trip communication (mea culpa). The Whatsapp group was (and is) fun, but information gets lost easily. Not everyone was in there either.
As for future innovations: the scavenger hunt/navigation challenge would be cool, but will require a serious amount of work, probably involving a scouting trip. I’m up for that, but only if there’s one to three other people involved.
Not sure about the cheap car thing, as most Europpos are quite spread out geographically. It can quickly become a lot more expensive than it was now as well.
We might need to find a better way to even out bills and costs as well.
Already looking forward to next year!