Lands End to John O Groats 94' K11 1703 miles .... Never Missed a Beat!

Happy New Year Micra People.

Well we talked about it on PollyP's excellent blog a few days back and now we've done it!

15.00 pm December 31st, I collect the wife from her shift at work and straight off down to Land's End. Arrived at 20.30! Nearly zero traffic .... managed a comfortable 70-75 level all the way. Took a quick picture and off we go again.....

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So it's nearly new year and of course no champagne but the wife pulls out two champagne glasses and a bottle of fizzy ginger and lime drink. Sounds grim but not bad in fact. And where do we bring in a new decade? Yep, pump no.2 at Gordano Services! The rather excellent lady doing the night shift at the Shell garage even boiled a kettle and gave us hot water for the flask and coffee! Then off again....

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Just before midday on the 1st Jan we arrive at John O Groats! No stops save for petrol, not even coffee or a burger. We reckon each petrol stop was maybe 8 mins or so and we stopped four times from memory and I bought a 20ltr petrol can which I poured maybe a quarter out of. Wife packed a load of surplus Christmas fare, a flask and cans and bottles. Again we drove at legal limit all the way ... 70/60 (maybe +5!!!) .... road so clear it was unbelievable. The engine tone didn't vary a jot.

Another pic just out of Inverness going over a bridge .... champagne glasses still on dash. Got a couple of those sticky mat things off Amazon last year. Idea sounds rubbish but they work really well.
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Then after taking a pic we drove straight back down to the center of Edinburgh arrived at about 18.00 I think it was, maybe a little later, 26-27 hours straight driving. Checked into a great great hotel, gave them our driving story at the desk and they gave us the best suite in the hotel! I kid you not. Apparently George Clooney stays in it when he visits! Scrubbed up, several cocktails later, we go to the best steakhouse in town, tell our story again and get two glasses of champagne on a board with congratulations written on it! Nice folks in Edinburgh that's for sure. I think the hotel were more impressed by the fact that we still had the energy go out that night till late. :)

Distance end to end was 874 but we clocked up 1496 with getting to Lands End and then back from John O Groats to Edinburgh. Then to get home a couple of days later it was 1703 in total I think which coincidentally is the same distance if you left our front door and drove to the center of Vienna! And just to add more to the story, Vienna was were I officially met my co-pilot in the photo above some years ago! Spooky eh?

And in the words of the Kaiser Chiefs the car never missed a beat, neither did we. It sat in the Q Park Omni by John Lewis's a couple of days between a new S class and a Q7 under the VIP parking section basking in it's achievement.

Strangely the drive itself was a lot less hard work than I thought. I did the 80%, the wife did some of the later stage. I think the road being clear was a significant help for sure. Two days after (yesterday) I was knackered.

Are we glad we did it? Hell yes .... way way more fun than we imagined. Would we do that one again? Hell no ... would be harder a second time effort wise but why would you? The target was hit. Would I recommend anyone else to do it? Absolutely yes. Was the best couple of NY days I can remember.

Would we do another long distance drive in the Micra? Absolutely yes and it's already in the planning. A visit to friends in Alicante via Lyon, Marseilles and on to Marrakesh and up back up the left hand side of France has been discussed a while now and having done this, it is definitely doable with a few days off work. But not as a marathon, to stop places and see stuff as well ... not just petrol stations! :)
 
Congratulations are in order for your 2020 New Year landmark adventure Lands’ End to John O Grouts 94' K11 875 miles & 21 hours’ time! Jolly well done & the K11 as well.

Perhaps this could start a new MSC K11 Micra challenge that far surpasses & exceeds going round in circles on track days out that seem so predictable on here.

The car looks in great shape, wears its age well & proves how these old cars just keep on going with no problems when treated right.

Let’s hear your gas fill up records & calculate accurate consumption figures achieved at your steady Eddy 70/60 MPH ? :cool:
 
Congratulations are in order for your 2020 New Year landmark adventure Lands’ End to John O Grouts 94' K11 875 miles & 21 hours’ time! Jolly well done & the K11 as well.

Perhaps this could start a new MSC K11 Micra challenge that far surpasses & exceeds going round in circles on track days out that seem so predictable on here.

The car looks in great shape, wears its age well & proves how these old cars just keep on going with no problems when treated right.

Let’s hear your gas fill up records & calculate accurate consumption figures achieved at your steady Eddy 70/60 MPH ? :cool:

Cheers Plmval. I did record the out and in miles and do have the receipts (or at least the credit card records). Yes will dig them out and try do the math.

Yes we really did keep the needle level .... mainly Motorway at 75 in reality. Rarely dropped below 70 or 60 on the A roads.

I cannot believe how well the car ran. As you say, old cars treated well. They make sense and as we discussed on another thread recently, I have the option to do the alternative ..... and I still occasionally look and read. Read this last week about the Polestar 2, essentially Volvo's new electric small car and have to say it reads very nice. But that was before this trip. The new cars are getting tech and environmentally cool but simply don't have the persona in the main.

No reliable as ours is I don't think it would win any prizes on the track :) .... but on the long haul it seems be were it's best.
 
Great story! What an amazing colour your car is. Happy 2020 to you guys x

Many thanks Beth .... it was a great great event and it is a happy colour you right but a swine to match on resprays! :)

And a very happy new year to you as well.

if you get a chance to do that trip, we'd recommend it for sure. it's quite an experience if the weather with you ... which amazingly it was, sunny dry and beautiful scenery north of the border.

All the best
 
Many thanks Beth .... it was a great great event and it is a happy colour you right but a swine to match on resprays! :)

And a very happy new year to you as well.

if you get a chance to do that trip, we'd recommend it for sure. it's quite an experience if the weather with you ... which amazingly it was, sunny dry and beautiful scenery north of the border.

All the best

I dont think id be able to keep awake lol
 
I've always wanted to do this, but the problem stopping me is I live pretty much at the half-way point, it would feel strange to drive all the way up, and then back down on the same road, and then to pass my house, continue south, then come back up again

I suppose I could always get it towed there lol

Well done on completing your challenge and Happy New Year
 
I've always wanted to do this, but the problem stopping me is I live pretty much at the half-way point, it would feel strange to drive all the way up, and then back down on the same road, and then to pass my house, continue south, then come back up again

I suppose I could always get it towed there lol

Well done on completing your challenge and Happy New Year

Hi Matt, yes same here very near the middle and it does add a shed load of miles on being in the middle for sure.

Think I'f I was you I'd go down and stay close to Lands End the day before. We got a quote for a Holiday Inn in Exeter for the night before when planning and it was £35! Would trim a go bit of pain of the following day.

But it was a great laugh. Is weird, have driven up to Edinburgh any number of times over the years and it used to fell like a haul. But the drag drown from John O Groats to Edinburgh is much harder. Dropping back from the center of Edinburgh till the 15 mile home run at J12 M6 was a doddle by comparison! :)

Definitely do it if you get the chance and NYE was a great time.

Shouldn't say this (and it was a long long time ago) but I was on the outskirts of London at my office on 31st December 1999 at midnight co-coordinating 42 locations across EMEA in the Y2K click over. Was a total damp squid that cost millions as we all know now but it gave me the chance to floor my 3.0 ltrs of V6 company car the entire way home at 1.00 am! Insane but a commute that I did daily for years that took 2.5hrs in the morning and up to 3 hours coming home, I did in 1 hour 10 mins! When I parked up, that car ran on for over a minute after turning the ignition off! Was insane and I truly believe it has never been done so quick ever! Double legal + 8! Road was totally empty. You could have had a Ferrari and not done it quicker! Not admirable stuff, totally illegal and I was a lot younger but when thinking about this trip I sort of knew the MO ... good or bad as that was. But it sort of confirmed to me it was the right time to do it ... legally this time! Not to encourage anyone do the wrong thing etc.
 
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