Z4 Euro Road Trip - And MPG

Well about 2 weeks ago I got back from my 3 week road trip with myself, the better half and the Z.

Car started off the trip all nice and polished with freshly refurbished 108's (Metallic Black inner stars, Chrome powder coated rims).

A breif overview of the trip:

Stafford to Dover.
Calais to Annecy. Annecy to Geneva and back. Annecy to Grenoble, then took the fantastic Route Napoleon down to Antibes. Did day trips to St Tropez, Monaco, Eze, Marseille, Cannes and Nice. Then drove across to Lake Garda, took day trips to Lake Como, Lake Idro (via mountain roads), Venice, (took train to Milan). I then wanted to do Stelvio Pass, but the GF said it was too twisty , so I settled for the San barnadino pass, but that was closed so I then had to head for the San Gotthard pass... which was great but not as great as the other two might have been.
I then blasted through switzerland (I wanted to stop off at Grindelwald but did not have time), stopped in Basel for a night (which was a dump in my opinion). Then headed to Brugges via luxembourg. Then Brugges to calais. FInally Dover back to stafford, which took ages due to traffic issues on M2, Dartford Tunnel, M25, M1... in the end I got off the M1 and took the A5 north and did lots of overtaking (lots of fun).

So in total I racked up 3500 miles pushing my 03 plate 3.0 to just over 40K. I have to sing praises for the car... it didnt miss a beat, it was comfortable to cruise in and a blast on the mountain roads. It turned no end of looks even in places like Monaco??

I averaged 38mpg over the full trip, but when you consider I was cruising at 80-90mph on motorways and blasting through mountain routes I think 38mpg is very impressive. The best tank range I got was 460 miles!! I admit that this consisted of a lot of 60mph crusing and gentle acceleration and running with the red light for a long time... but still it just shows you how good these engines can be if you drive carefully.

Lowest point: Curbing my new front left rim... on a stupid french toll booth... could not reach the ticket so had to get closer... it was raining,, I was tired.. :headbang:

Best point: Route Napoleon, racing with a focus ST (I have to admit that I was struggling to keep up).

Worrying point: Watching the predicted mileage drop from 100 to 20 as I was in the middle of no where on a mountain road... with no fuel stations near... Thank god for sat nav which found the nearest one!

Entertaining moment: Driving the cobbles streets of Brugges... so bumpy.

Apologies for the essay, and spelling mistakes, just thought I would mention a trip that was well worth it. Not had chance to put any pics on just yet, will try in the future.

sounds like fun - bummer about the wheel though

and that mpg - well done

Glad you liked Route Napoleon. It is a great stretch of road. Last time we did Stelvio my mate took a huge chunk out of his alloy and the side wall of the tire by clipping one of the hairpin kerbs. These things happen.

I did the same with my 108 on a bloody French Toll...
Sounds like a good trip!

Pictures.....

I am so jealous, I really want to do a European road trip, sounds awesome. Shame about the alloy, even more annoying after the refurb, with our cars are hard to see the curbs sometimes .

Do you think the Focus ST was standard or modded/ I think they have a turbo so probably easy to increase power.

I recommend it to anyone. I want to go back and see some more of switzerland and the Alps, trouble is its not cheap!

Yes, I am majorly impressed with the MPG recently. I currently run two cars but considering consolidating both, to get one nice car. The problem is, I do nearly 20K a year... so this morning I took the Z4 to work (26 mile trip). I drove to the speed limits and the average (according to trip comp) was 39.2Mpg.

So I am toying with the idea of getting a Z4 coupe... I think as long as I can average 35mpg it will actually be cheaper than running my two cars at the moment... but realistically I am unsure whether 35MPG is obtainable with normal and enthusiastic driving. lol.

It was a local Frenchman in the ST, so I have no idea whether it was modified. All I will say is that yes they are a 2.5 5cyl turbo so up hills they are pretty quick. ANd as you say, they are easily remapped I imagine, and like all Hot hatches they are very "chuckable".

THe damaged alloy was annoying, even more so because I had just spent £400 getting them done up, but as said, these things happen.

Thanks for comments.

that sounds a great trip, enjoyed reading about it and an amazing mpg figure I think. Over that distance I think you're bound to catch a kerb or pothole somewhere so don't beat yourself up, especially with some spirited driving. Looking forward to the pics. Hoping to do this (or more probably a shorter version) next year so gathering thoughts and experience of others is very useful.

I have done very similar trips this year and last in my 3.0i. Blasting round the nurburgring, 155mph autobahn, hooning around the alps. In 2009 i managed 37mpg bring to brim running 95 octane. 2010 i had a heavy passenger and the boot was crammed with heavy kit, 34.5mpg running premium 98.

I also managed Reims to York (via a slight detour in Brentwood) on one tank (460miles).

I am continually impressed with the ecomony.

However it works both ways, these 24v beasties dont half druink when you nail it. My range read 78 miles when i started my nurburgring lap (12.9 miles), i had to coast the final 1/3 because it was going to run out!

Agree with you about brugges drove around there with a stinking hangover after going out on the piss there the noght before. Serious headache!!

I got left for dead on Route Napoleon by a local in a Pug 205 GTI. I was in a VX220 Turbo. Local knowledge is everything (at least that's what I kept telling myself :? )

Fabulous trip, Provence and the Italian lakes are wonderful for scenery and great driving roads.
I love all of that area and clocked up 3000 miles through switzerland to Como, across to Venice, FLorence, San Gimignano, Parma and then Provence. That trip was back in June/July.
Feel for you on the rim front, easily done unfortunately. Have dinked mine and it still smarts.

Forgive a newbie for asking this but Is there anywhere on the forum where people list their favourite driving routes? Over the years i've covered quite a bit of ground in parts of europe but am always looking for new ideas. It was great to read a little about speed12's adventure.

Currently in the pipeline for me are drives along Germanys Romantic Road in Bavaria and i would love to do a trip to Sweden and Norway. Even hearing about places you think you know is great as people discover different roads on different trips. And i mustn't forget good old blighty, we have some great roads of our own. Had a great time recently in the Cotswolds showing a clean pair of heels to a friend and his boxster.

Sounds like a great trip, I heard from a lot of people that the Stelvio pass isnt really all that good and there there are another couple that are far better, particularly for a car like a Z.

I really want to do a European trip in mine, trying to convince the gf but I dont think she fancies sitting in a car for such a prolonged time, she would rather get to a destination and get tanning. Thinking about going to the Spa GP with the lads next year though. Maybe that could be a Z weekend out??

Sounds like a great trip and very impressive MPG.

Sorry about the wheel never had that prob with the tolls on my mini road trip a few months back as i was driving solo so would jump out and run round to the booth.

Cobbles are fun as you say drove round the Old Town Le Mans and in Lille sounded like bits were falling off the car :rofl: .

Did you stay in Brugge ? as i was thinking of stopping there need to find a hotel with decent parking for the Z.

How was Luxembourg ? another place that could be part of a trip i had planned

I must have been doing my own 3 and a half week European road trip at the same as you speed12 although it didn't cover as many countries as you. Bizarrely I also managed to clip both my nearside CSL's off the first peage that I came to in France. The transponder for automatically opening the barriers wouldn't work after a years inactivity so I pulled closer to the peage, too close as it turns out, and just caught both wheels as I pulled away. First time I've damaged wheels for years but I'm convincing myself that I was going to change the colour of them anyway, so there's nothing lost lol.

I covered 3000 miles in the Z4MC and to be honest I could only dream of 38mpg. I averaged 24.5mpg (OBC figure) over the whole trip, I could have done a bit better by taking it easier but a major part of the holiday is enjoying the car and using it's performance so I'm happy with that.

We took the ferry from Rosyth to Zeebrugge and stayed in Brugge, first time I've been and I was very impressed by the city. If you're looking for a hotel GAZA62, I would recommend Hotel Aragon which is right in the centre and a stones throw from the Markt. There are a limited amount of parking spaces in the hotel but there is a public car park right next to it which had a good security set up, an attendant is present 24 hours a day and the gates close between 11pm and 7am. You can get cheaper than the 112 euros it costs but the location is excellent.

From there we went to Reims and then onto Beaune. We took the B road from Reims to Dijon which took us through some beautiful countryside and along some great driving roads. I don't know what it's like on a weekday but on a Sunday in bright sunshine with hardly another car on the road, it was a fantastic drive. From Beaune we went on to Avignon and then to Le Lavandou/Bormes-les-Mimosas which is about 15km from St Tropez.

The original plan was to spend a couple of weeks there before returning home but a jokey exchange of texts about going to a stag weekend in Barcelona led to me extending the holiday. We drove down to St Cyprien near Perpignan and then into Spain. After spending the night in Girona, which has a fantastic town centre oozing in history, I dispatched the mrs on a flight home and took the B road from Girona to Barcelona. That's not a road I can recommend though, it's busy with few overtaking opportunities and is populated by prostitutes sitting on plastic garden chairs every few hundred yards. That was at midday and they stretched out into remote wooded areas. I feel sure that anyone stopping to engage their services must have a better than evens chance of being relieved of their car and valuables at knifepoint. And before anyone asks, no I didn't! :lol:

After 3 days in Barcelona I left the hotel at 6.30 am on a Sunday and set off for home. My intention was to see how far I got before fatigue got the better of me. The drive through the Pyrenees and into France was spectacular, along the mountainous N75 motorway and over the Millau Bridge which is even more impressive in real life that in pictures. The only downside at this stage was that the battery on my peage transponder had chucked it and I was having to get out of the car and pay the tolls by credit card. As I cracked on through France at a decent pace, I decided to do the journey home in one go. I phoned my wife and asked her to book me on the Eurotunnel but then got caught in heavy traffic in Paris. I made the scheduled train with only 20 minutes to spare and arrived in England to be greeted by a torrential downpour which heralded the end of the holiday. There were 5 crashes within 10 miles of Folkestone with the accompanying delays they caused. Once clear of that there were roadworks aplenty until I was a third of the way up the country and it brought home how poor our motorway system is compared to that of France. I arrived home in Glasgow at 2.30 in the morning, 20 hours of driving and absolutely shattered. It's not something I'll be doing again in a hurry.

Overall though the Z4 proved what a fantastic car it is for this sort of journey. We had enough room in the boot for 3 weeks worth of clothes and other bits and pieces and the car performed faultlessly in all weather and traffic conditions. We're already thinking about next years trip, Italy is definitely going to feature and there's plenty more of France to see.

dgm said:

it brought home how poor our motorway system is compared to that of France.

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You must remember that in France most motorways are toll roads.
If all of the French roads were toll free - I think things would be very different. :wink:

Great trip dgm. Bormes and Le Lavandou are fabulous. There's a really great drive over the massif des maures northwards of Bormes, hair raising at times when looking over the edge but beautiful. Ramatuelle is lovely and the drive from st Tropez to Le Lavandou is wonderful. I've been visiting that area for years and there's so much to see.
Anywhere around the Italian Lakes is glorious and if your over there the trip from Forli to Florence through the hills is long but beautiful. I haven't done much exploring in Spain so it is interesting to hear some places of interest mentioned. Thanks.
PS i only managed around 34mpg on my 3000 mile trip but in the 35i i was pretty chuffed with that. It was around 36 mpg at one point but we do the trip from near toulon to dover in one hit, a 10 hour drive. Normally leave south of france around 7am to catch pm ferry home.
Luxembourg is wonderful, only spent a short time there as we were touring the Moselle and Rhine but would happily go back there.
To malibudave, my wife loves sun and sand, i originally managed to sell the tour idea by breaking the first journey. we went away for 2 weeks, took 3 days to get to the south coast and spent 8 days sun and sand, well i was driving the mountain roads while she sunbathed. We took a scenic route back. After that she became quite happy to do the dash to the med in one hit and spend more time there and out driving around. Good luck talking the other half round.

MalcZ4 said:

dgm said:

it brought home how poor our motorway system is compared to that of France.

Click to expand...

You must remember that in France most motorways are toll roads.
If all of the French roads were toll free - I think things would be very different. :wink:

Click to expand...

You may well be right but the way things are just now I wouldn't be surprised if we see more toll roads here. If it improved the standard I think I could just about stomach that but somehow I suspect nothing much would change. The 130/110 kmh limit is much more sensible than our 70mph limit as well and safely allows for much better progress.

Thing that helps the French toll roads is there are a lot less exits (bitch if you miss your exit ) compared to our Motorways so no local traffic plus as you say better speed controls slower speeds before and after junctions but higher between and the French seem to get the overtaking done then pull back in not just sit there

all sounds great fun, im tempted for next year but the wife just asks...

"where will we pack all our stuff?"