It has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. After a bit of vacation in June a lot of work, family stuff and chores around the house and garden kept me busy – to a point where I did not have the energy or time to update the site. One highlight in the last two months was the Morgan Club Germany “MCD Alpine Challenge – Mixed Generation” event. A special edition of the 12-in-12 Alpine Challenge – just with the twist that you need to take part in a Morgan and the crew needs to be at least a generation apart.
12-in-12 is not a rallye or race. It is a pure driving event. The goal is to do 12 mountain passes in 12 hours.You get a list of (more of less) famous roads – you choose your own route and just document this via pictures and GPS coordinates. Before the trip starts you only have a rough clue in which region of the Alps the event is going to be – the rest is a bit of a surprise. I will not spoiler too much locations details in the text (cannot avoid some in the pictures). More information of car preparation, spare parts, technical aspects, problems I had along the way and my repair list will follow in Part 2.
The main communication channel for the group was a WhatsApp group. A few days before the event we got the information that that we will meet in vicinity of Troyes, France. We left on the last Saturday in June in late morning. After about six hours Motorway driving in the heat via we got to a nice Hotel/Appartmant vacation resort. Most of the other teams arrived a bit ahead of us – but we had enough time to check out the pool and refresh before dinner. Besides the MCD organizer we did not know anyone else – but especially thru the mix of generations it was easy to connect and get to know the other participants. The evening ended early – mainly because the hotel did not serve more drinks after 9pm. Well – “C’est la vie” – many it was better to get a bit more sleep.
At breakfast on Sunday morning we got a list of suggested stops between Troyes and Lake Geneva through the French Jura. Using these as references we choose a route and started at about 9am. We decided only to use D (Departmental)-roads in France – as these are perfect for our slow and old Morgan. The next 450km took us through beautiful old and small villages, landscapes and a number of Chateaus along the way. It was a sunny day and we only had one a few short breaks. When we got to the hotel close to 6pm all we wanted is a drink. But that was not possible – there wasn’t any personal around. My daugther and I decided to go back to the last village and buy a few drinks at a supermarket. When we returned an hour later somebody finally managed to get the hotel to open the bar and dinner was about to start. A very enjoyable Fondue evening with great wine from the region made up for the closed bar mishap earlier.
Part of the 12-in-12 is the Hannibal challenge which started on Monday. Like the day before a list of suggested mountain passed was handed out in the morning. With 400km and nine mandatory passed it sounded easily doable. When we started that morning – we were ambitious to do all of the mandatory passes – maybe add one of the optional ones. The first five passes offered incredible views, hardly any traffic or cyclists. But driving in the heat in an old and with 85BHP underpowered open Morgan on curvy mountain roads is also very demanding. Rocks that have fallen on the road can come up around any corner and we passed a few large ones.
During our lunch break in a simple but nice Café we found on the roadside – we got the message that one team hit one of those rocks. This damaged their (alloy) oil sump and caused an immediate complete loss of oil. We were about 30 min ahead of them and there wasn’t anything we could do for them. After a 45min break we headed to the next pass but just as my daughter took over the driving – the engine die. In part 2 I will explain what happened and how we fixed it. But it was already the point where my daughter and I decided not to “compete” but to just enjoy the trip.
For the next couple days, we just drove a few passes on the lists but took longer breaks and did not even attempt to do all. And instead of spending the “free-day” at the hotel pool – we opted for more driving – all the way to Nice and Cannes which we had never seen before and just to swim in the mediterranean sea. The actual 12-in-12 day was Thursday. After getting up early we started as first team. We decided as least try to do 12 passes and had a good start. Incredible roads and views were promised – and this promise was kept. 8 passes later we arrived late but not as last team at lunch break just behind the Italian border. A bit more than 6 hours of driving in the heat was exhausting. Even the quickest route back would mean a few more mountain passes and another 3.5h of driving. We decided to cancel the attempt and head back on the shortest possible way. In the end we just did 9 mountain passes in 11 hours – but all was good.
Fixing C6622 
That sounds like an amazingly fun time…and, great pictures.
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