Video - driving my M around Europe last year

J

JT_0306

Member
 London
Video here: https://youtu.be/3NQ3PK1hNLo

Last year I was lucky enough to get a month off work. I decided there was no better way to spend it than doing a 4,000 mile drive around Europe. I drove down to the coast, got the ferry, and spent the next 20 days working my through Europe. Focusing on the Pyrenees, southern France and then a lot of time in the Alps.

This is a short video of my experience.

I recorded a lot of video, so this is just a snippet I quickly pulled together. Having sat on it for a year.

Some may not like the music in there. Which is fair enough. But it was the video I wanted to make. I have however kept some of the great engine and exhaust noise in there as well (I took a mic with me). If anyone wants to hear more of the exhaust (H&S) or engine (with Eventuri intake), or if anyone just wants to see some of the uncut footage, I am happy to share!

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the video.
JT
 
:wub: :dance2:

Oh wow! That's fantastic. Great video.

I'm thinking of doing something similar next year. I'd like to drive down into Spain for a few weeks.

What did you do for accommodation? Were you travelling everyday, or did you base yourself somewhere for a while?
 
dan yeates said:
:wub: :dance2:

Oh wow! That's fantastic. Great video.

I'm thinking of doing something similar next year. I'd like to drive down into Spain for a few weeks.

What did you do for accommodation? Were you travelling everyday, or did you base yourself somewhere for a while?
Click to expand...

Thanks! Appreciate it.

Short version: booked everything one or two days ahead, and didn't stay anywhere for more than a day. Spent most of my time on the road :driving:

Long version:
I did try and plan it all in advance in the months before. But this didn't work, at least not for me. I think that is partly due to my own way of working - and a bit of laziness, but also partly due to my not knowing exactly where I wanted to go, or how long parts of the trip would take. E.g. trying to plan exactly what town I would be in on day 15 proved to unknown. I had never done a trip like this before, or driven outside of the UK.

In the end, I had a good idea of the broad route I was going to take, key stops and sights and rough estimates of how long it would take. I then booked my stops one or two days ahead. This was in late May / early June, so apart from one week of half term it was otherwise relatively quiet. I then used various websites to find nice places and booked accordingly. It's amazing what you can get out of peak season. I would find lovely little hotels or chateaus for £80 a night. Not a huge amount more than staying in some of the basic hotels, so I figured it was worth it for the experience.

I don't think I spent more than one night in any one accommodation. Maybe one - my memory isn't great.

On reflection, I really enjoyed the approach I took and am glad I didn't stress myself about not having the whole trip planned out. But if it was peak season or if I had kids I would probably take a different approach.

Hope that helped?
 
What a superb video! Thanks for posting. Must have been blast - literally!

Great that you had the courage to just go and do it and the like the way you planned it, booking your accommodation as you went that way not having to keep to a timetable too much.

Love the sounds of the car. I do like the idea of fitting a carbon airbox to my Z4MC but I do wonder if the sound is worth the £££££. Some videos I hear of cars with carbon airbuses make me wonder as they don't sound that different to my standard car but I could definitely hear a worthwhile difference from your car.

Would be great to see some more video of this trip. What you posted looked very professional! :thumbsup:
 
nickw6666 said:
What a superb video! Thanks for posting. Must have been blast - literally!

Great that you had the courage to just go and do it and the like the way you planned it, booking your accommodation as you went that way not having to keep to a timetable too much.

Love the sounds of the car. I do like the idea of fitting a carbon airbox to my Z4MC but I do wonder if the sound is worth the £££££. Some videos I hear of cars with carbon airbuses make me wonder as they don't sound that different to my standard car but I could definitely hear a worthwhile difference from your car.

Would be great to see some more video of this trip. What you posted looked very professional! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...


Thank you very much. I appreciate it! This is my first time editing anything like this. That said, I spend many hours a week on YouTube watching car videos which really helped with some inspiration. It amazing what you can do with a Go-Pro and some basic editing software.

RE: the sounds of the car. I think it is all subjective. I find the air intake gives it a bit more roar in the mid range. Not much below about 3,000rpm, and the impact fades as you get towards redline. But ~3,500-6,000 sound great to my ears. How much that is worth depends how much you like it and funds. For me, it was worth it as I think it sounds great :evil:

However, one point worth noting is that the sound is not as pronounced as it is i the video. I had a mic hooked up to my Go-Pro, which I placed under the bonnet (when you hear the engine), or off the back of the car (for the exhaust - which doesn't feature much in this cut).

I have hours of video. This is just a snippet. I will try and create a 5-10 minute video with some more raw footage of the roads and the car, without the music/with less music :thumbsup:
 
For anyone interested in the modifications, here is a previous thread with some details:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=86963&start=15
 
JT_0306 said:
dan yeates said:
:wub: :dance2:

Oh wow! That's fantastic. Great video.

I'm thinking of doing something similar next year. I'd like to drive down into Spain for a few weeks.

What did you do for accommodation? Were you travelling everyday, or did you base yourself somewhere for a while?
Click to expand...

Thanks! Appreciate it.

Short version: booked everything one or two days ahead, and didn't stay anywhere for more than a day. Spent most of my time on the road :driving:

Long version:
I did try and plan it all in advance in the months before. But this didn't work, at least not for me. I think that is partly due to my own way of working - and a bit of laziness, but also partly due to my not knowing exactly where I wanted to go, or how long parts of the trip would take. E.g. trying to plan exactly what town I would be in on day 15 proved to unknown. I had never done a trip like this before, or driven outside of the UK.

In the end, I had a good idea of the broad route I was going to take, key stops and sights and rough estimates of how long it would take. I then booked my stops one or two days ahead. This was in late May / early June, so apart from one week of half term it was otherwise relatively quiet. I then used various websites to find nice places and booked accordingly. It's amazing what you can get out of peak season. I would find lovely little hotels or chateaus for £80 a night. Not a huge amount more than staying in some of the basic hotels, so I figured it was worth it for the experience.

I don't think I spent more than one night in any one accommodation. Maybe one - my memory isn't great.

On reflection, I really enjoyed the approach I took and am glad I didn't stress myself about not having the whole trip planned out. But if it was peak season or if I had kids I would probably take a different approach.

Hope that helped?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. My brother and I did a similar thing a few years ago for the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix. We did book accommodation in Belgium (camping) and then in Germany and Italy (camping at Lake Como, and then a hotel near Monza) but for the return leg, we didn’t book any accommodation. We found it easier to drive until we got tired, then find the nearest McDonalds on our sat nav POI, navigate there and pick up their free wifi in the car park. They seem to have McDonalds everywhere in France! We then booked something with Hotels.com as a cheap last minute deal and drove there.

We may well take the same approach when my girlfriend and I do it. I want to explore Spain with a view to spending some time living out there in the near future. So we want to explore some of the areas.
 
Lovely stuff - cannot wait to get my new boxes on soon and detail my car when I get my drive back!
 
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
 
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
Click to expand...

Rubbish! Two gents and their buddies from Amore Autos just took a 570 engine swapped Griff and Chim around the Italian Alps! God I wish I could join them... Jealous of the Griff! Any photos?
 
JAD said:
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
Click to expand...

Rubbish! Two gents and their buddies from Amore Autos just took a 570 engine swapped Griff and Chim around the Italian Alps! God I wish I could join them... Jealous of the Griff! Any photos?
Click to expand...

I took the Griffith out on the Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Went from Lymington up to Gatwick, it was that day it was really hot, around 30 degrees C. My god it was hot in the car!! The engine and gearbox kick out sooo much heat! It was very close to being unbearable. And it’s so loud. Fun for a blast, but not sure I could cope with it all day, every day for weeks!

A few pics here from a while back. Must put some more up. I want to create a website/blog for it.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94294
 
dan yeates said:
JAD said:
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
Click to expand...

Rubbish! Two gents and their buddies from Amore Autos just took a 570 engine swapped Griff and Chim around the Italian Alps! God I wish I could join them... Jealous of the Griff! Any photos?
Click to expand...

I took the Griffith out on the Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Went from Lymington up to Gatwick, it was that day it was really hot, around 30 degrees C. My god it was hot in the car!! The engine and gearbox kick out sooo much heat! It was very close to being unbearable. And it’s so loud. Fun for a blast, but not sure I could cope with it all day, every day for weeks!

A few pics here from a while back. Must put some more up. I want to create a website/blog for it.

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94294
Click to expand...

Ahhhhh yes I've seen that thread. Lovely stuff. Unfortunately I hardly drive my Zed so something silly like that would be my ideal. I'll be looking at Chims and Cerbs as prefer the styling to the Griffs, with them basically being the same car (Chim and Griffs).
 
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
Click to expand...

I can understand why people don't want to put too many miles on. They won't last forever, they don't make replacements, and of course - depreciation.

My personal point of view is that driving a car like this is one of the highlights of my life, and something like a road trip touring the best drives in Europe (or wherever) is an amazing way to do it. You also get the experience of seeing all sorts of places and people etc. But, it is cost dependent :headbang:
 
JT_0306 said:
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M! But I wouldn't want to do it in my TVR Griffith, as it's just too loud and too hot!
Click to expand...

I can understand why people don't want to put too many miles on. They won't last forever, they don't make replacements, and of course - depreciation.

My personal point of view is that driving a car like this is one of the highlights of my life, and something like a road trip touring the best drives in Europe (or wherever) is an amazing way to do it. You also get the experience of seeing all sorts of places and people etc. But, it is cost dependent :headbang:
Click to expand...

Yep, you're right, my girlfriend and I have been discussing the road trip in the Z4M this evening!
 
dan yeates said:
My only reservation is putting several thousand miles on my low mileage Z4M!
Click to expand...

As others have said, you've just got to do it and not think of the mileage/value. Better to drive a few thousand miles and enjoy an amazing experience than waste the miles commuting or stuck on our clogged roads. I have had at least one roadtrip every year for the past 15 years and although Beth and I keep saying we really ought to have a 'normal' relaxing holiday we always choose a driving holiday.
I think the Z4M Roadster is one of the best choices for this kind of Euro jaunt. 8)
 
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