A Windy Blast

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The intrepid CCC crew assenbled at Pultusk

A group of hard core spankers turned out on a sunny but blustery Sunday for what might be the last dry run this year. Ian turned out in an E-type full of kids, George turned out in his modern 911, Jerzy represented the old school classics with one of his Austin Healeys and Przemek did the young-timer thing in his Mazda MX5. Yours truly wanted to come out in the M3 but the gearbox mounts are kaput so the more sensible Volvo 480 turbo was aired instead.

Once again kick off was at one of McD’s newer establishments, this time in Nieporet. Newer means outside seating  and a McCafe. The kids were appeased with happy meals though I’m not sure who’s happier the kids or the parents at the prospect of 10 minutes of silence. George had some sort of breakfast stack while his wife did the cheesecake thing which lifts McD out of the burger bar category in my books. Me, it’s the egg and bacon bap with a coffee and using McD’s ‘2 for U’ deal it only cost 5zl. This means that for the price of one Bristol dinner all the club members can have a breakfast.

But now the trip. To reduce the risk of losing the fleet whilst in transit I’d set a mid-point destination and given everyone a little map. By starting in Nieporet we had no traffic lights to worry about. The simple route was R631 from Nieporet heading towards Modlin, hang a right onto the R632 heading towards Debe/Plock then R571 towards Pultusk. Just over 50km’s and an easy hour at as steady pace.

After years of complaining about the state of Polish roads it’s got to be said there are some good surfaces. The only danger today was the risk of being side-swiped by the odd tree branch due to the high winds. The 632 and 571 were pretty much arrow straight for the bulk of the way which on a less blustery day would have tempted higher speeds. They’d be good for those looking to run in their engines after a winter lay up of rebuild. The 631 and early parts of the 632 also have a lot of double white lines so progress is hindered if there are HGV’s out. Today there was only one so we got some mid-range acceleration testing done as well.

So we arrive at Pultusk and I was thinking picturesque town with one of Europe’s biggest town squares so plenty of places to sit down with a coffee and talk bollocks about cars while they sat outside in the sun. Our refreshments were limited to either the Café Malgosia or the cake shop where we actually stopped. Tea all round but no cakes Well we’d only just had breakfast, and talking cars mainly about the sub (Ian’s) standard of repair on the E-type and George’s rectifier on his TR3.

Now Przemek in his MX5 had kept his roof down on the way out and Jerzy decided to pick up the gauntlet for the way back and dropped his roof on the Austin, and on a sunny day with the heater on why not. The way back was a simple blast down the route 61 to Nieporet in case the team wanted to catch their next coffee on the lake. But given my mission to find routes for next year I peeled off down the 618 towards Wyszkow to find more challenging roads. This route home took in the 618, S8, 636 and 634 which again offered good surfaces but with the odd gap judging by the sump gouges on the undulating bits. The S8 allowed for some boost but the cross winds kept me below 140kmph which was a bit dull so the 636 was used for some of its tighter bends.

Overall the trip was 150km in 2 hours road time so not bad. I think the general plan of a start at a McD and have a specific destination with hour stop over is the way to go. I just need to find more challenging roads.

Neil Crook

The off at McDonalds, Nieporet

The crew assemble and rest in a remote place on a changeable autumn day of
gales, cross-winds and leaf missiles

Down the bonnet of Ian's E-Type, hungry for a diminutive Mazda...

In the enormous Rynek at Pultusk

The Famous Five Have An Adventure in Poland

The rear view or view of rears

Nothing wrong with the 'E' - just admiring the recent handiwork to the engine

Photo credits: Neil Crook, Jerzy Bylica and Ian Booth

Members present:

Ian Booth
George Makowski
Jerzy Bylica
Neil Crook 
Przemek Vonau