Brits on tour
Our biennial tour around Europe in sub-£300 cars is happening again in September. If you’ve seen our road reports in previous years and thought about joining us, then maybe a trip to San Sebastián in Spain is on your bucket list.
San Sebastián sits just 12 miles from the border with France and I reckon the total mileage from Calais to the Spanish coastline will be around 800 miles, so plan for 1600 miles plus your UK mileage to and from the ports.
The rules are pretty basic. Your team has to buy a vehicle for £300 or less. It must be Y-registered (2001) or older and be fully roadworthy – you can spend what you like on making it legal, of course.
Our European tour doesn’t have an entry fee. I don’t organise hotels, food or ferries for you, but I do plot a simple route. We use a sat-nav with either tolls ticked or unticked depending on the mileage per day. We can drive up to 400 miles a day, so the more drivers in your team, the less time you have to spend at the wheel.
Prior to departure, you’ll receive a route and timing schedule from me, which shows where we are hotelling, the start time each day and planned lunch stops.
I have, so far, planned the route out to Spain, but not back. We stay overnight in Calais on Friday, September 15, then set off early the following morning, travelling west. Our lunch stop is at the picturesque port of Honfleur and we’re aiming to reach Rennes by evening. A short drive the next morning takes us to a local motor museum (€10 entry fee) from 10am-1pm, followed by a fast drive down to Bordeaux. After a night in Bordeaux, we’ll spend the following morning driving to Spain.
On leaving Spain on September 19, we’ll have two nights to get back to Calais for the afternoon ferry on September 21. You can, of course, head back for an earlier or later ferry crossing if you prefer.
This year, we will have a spare seat in the CM team car. If you’d like to join us, please send an email to martyn.knowles@
bauermedia.co.uk with the subject line ‘Brits on tour’, telling me why you think you should be part of the CM team. Or if you’d like to form your own team, please email me so I can send you full details.