Brief 'drive report'

[MGV]

Finally got to take Tiggy for an anticipated long weekend away, up into the southern highlands & Mt Buller. I hadn't as yet had much opportunity to really put the APR ecu program to the test, so a drive in the country was in order!
GF & i left Melbourne early Saturday morning, keen to hit the slopes by mid-day. We were a little loaded up with skis (her), snowboards (me), full esky etc, probably about equivalent weight to another passenger. Let the fun begin... :
Apon arriving at the park entry gates at the base of the mountain, i noticed that my fuel consumption was no better or worse than last year with stock fuelling. The route comprised of about 2 hours freeway, 100 - 110kph & about 1 hour of undulating countryside, 80 - 110kph. Consumption was on 7.9l/100. A stroke of luck & good timing saw me through the ticket gates well behind the previous customers & had 15 of the next 20 km's virtually with the road to myself with plenty of tight (25 & 35) corners, a good surface & a chance to have some fun! GF wasn't overly impressed, but 'boy', i sure did/was!! 35-40kph out of a 25 corner in third at around 1400rpm & watching the tacho climb justifies all reasoning... Felt like 2 seconds elapsed & i was doing 100 & onto the brakes & into the next corner.
On the way home on Monday, we did a bit of siteseeing & tried out a couple of slippery rutted tracks in the Howqua Hills historic area & although i had the 'wrong' wheels & tyres for that type of driving (19x8.5 LP), Tiggy had no trouble & for the 1st time ever was quite happy with the low ratio of 1st gear. A guy in a landcruiser said to me "i wouldn't go down there in that if i were you", but i already had, with no trouble at all & was only going back down to get a couple of photos...
GF's camera needs downloading & images forwarded to me of the slippery slope bit so i can post them up here, but here's a couple for starters:





All in all, a great weekend! Although i do have a bit of detailing ahead of me this weekend coming...

[team_v]

Sick!
Looks ace with teh candy white on the snow.

Wish we could do that drive up here but we are limited to forrest trails.

[Tigger]

Sounds like a fun trip! Glad the Tig went well!

But, from experience...there is a direct link with the 'fun-ness' of a road, and the 'unimpressed-ness' of the female counterpart in our lives!!!

I find that I will enjoy the drive (winding mountain roads etc) and then not enjoy the resulting "I'M fine!" responses and silences that follow.....

Well that is the trade off for a good drive hey?

[jimbomort]

yeh frustrating in that opportunities to 'enjoy' a road are sometimes far and few b/w and I appreciate the frustrations with a quite often different comfort level for the Mrs - mine included

However another view on this is are we respecting the comfort level of our passengers? As frustrating as 'the brakes on our fun' as applied by the Mrs might be, it does in the end boil down to respect for their comfort level. If we are not doing that they have every right to fume and moan, if not more. I respect her calls for restraint, even if I have a very different view and keep most of my fun to solo trips - noting of course there is then the extent to which we moderate ourselves in consideration of other road users................ Somewhere there is a reasonable balance and some fun. What we need is some good old fashioned guilt free opportunities to go nuts......and therein lies where this thread started in another pursuit - snowboarding. Think thats the closest I have to that!

[MGV]

Well, she did a pretty good job of biting her tongue... I mentioned to her that i hadn't had a proper opportunity to fully explore the potential of the APR software, but looking at it from her point of view, while i was driving enthusiastically, yet smooth, the only thing between her & the cliff off to the side was a 1 metre wide strip of slushy snow covered gravel...

Hey, team_v, funny, you have mentioned candy white a couple of times now, but my Tig is a silver leaf model. It's a weird colour in that it seems to change colour depending on what time of day it is! Goes from almost white sometimes to almost gold. I came out of the supermarket once (night time, fluorescent lighting), surprised that someone had the same wheels as me in a white tig, only to realise it was actually mine...

Still waiting for girlie to forward me the 'off the beaten track' photos...

[team_v]

Jeez, i could have sworn it was white from that first one.

Silver leaf is the sandy gold colour in normal light isn't it?

[zhenjie]

good to see a Tig on the snow! Curious, what chains did you use or carry?

[MGV]

Silver leaf is pretty well just silver (nice depth to it though) in normal or bright light, but seems to photograph lighter/whiter. Goes more goldish just before dusk for some reason... Especially when just washed! For the record, i'm happy with the colour, but if i had a choice at time of purchase, would have gone with white. Sorry, blackies!

Did not carry or use chains, not required for 4WD/AWD quite just yet! I just drove about 10m onto that little stash of clean snow off to the edge of the car park for a photo! It was only about 10cm deep...

[jimbomort]

..........I just drove about 10m onto that little stash of clean snow off to the edge of the car park for a photo! It was only about 10cm deep...

what?..........I am shocked and appauled..........

very nice photo.

Sounds like you had a great trip, jealous as I love the Vic snow country and would love to spend more time in the itg in it, alas it is some 18 hours drive away! At least I'll be snowboarding in it myself in 9 days time....whoohooooo

[MGV]

Hi all, finally got to see the photos downloaded, they didn't turn out all that well as i dont think my friend was all that happy about standing in the mud with a camera as i drove by... Oh, well! This is about the best one:



Hard to tell the gradient, but quite steep & slippery!

[TDI DSG]

Hi all, finally got to see the photos downloaded, they didn't turn out all that well as i dont think my friend was all that happy about standing in the mud with a camera as i drove by... Oh, well! This is about the best one:



Hard to tell the gradient, but quite steep & slippery!

Looks like the the road from Merrijig down into Sheepyard Flat - Howqua Hill's Road ?

[MGV]

Looks like the the road from Merrijig down into Sheepyard Flat - Howqua Hill's Road ?

Ya must have been there before, that's exactly it! Just before the old cottage at the flat, there was a 'left' that was signposted 4WD ONLY. Couldn't resist exploring a little...