Spikey's Irmy road trip pics

[Spikey©]

Firstly I have to say a big thank you to Mark The Cabby and all those responsible for putting this event on. It was a huge undertaking to get 14+ cars and around 30 people to Stuttgart and back. Not a job for the faint hearted.

There are so many tales to be told that I have no chance getting all of it and the 200+ photos I took into 1 post! So i'll do a Spoons break it down a bit.

Day 1

For me the trip started early Friday morning when Harry ame and picked me up to go down to Dover (thanks mate ). I think we were just about the last to arrive in the freezing fog, so quick collection of the shirts then I jumped ship to Big Phil's car as I was to be sharing hotels etc. with him. First part of the convoy then was round to the ferry port. We had a slight hiccup here as the ferry company had stuffed up the payment for our booking. This was soon fixed and off we went to the ferry. A nice smooth sailing and I think everyone managed to get onboard without ripping and splitters off!

Once off the ferry, we started off and ended up in a couple of groups as sat navs were taking people all over the place. It soon became apparent that it was going to be a scorching day with the temp quickly rising to nearly 30 degrees! It was a long drive but very pleasent none the less, made a couple of stops for fueling both us and the cars. More sat nav fun was had when Duncan decided to have a row with his nav and set off in a different direction than the rest of us, taking a few cars with him on a little detour through the French countryside Eventually our convoy regrouped at some services, at which point some Irmscher stickers appeared for the cars.

A couple of hours later we were aproaching the outskirts of Stuttgart, when Duncan suddenly decided to have another row with his sat nav this was met with much hillarity by Ian_c and Andyvec who were right behind him. Me and Phil were laughing and we could see the other 2 at it as well. So on we go, less Duncan when blow me, 100 yards down the road Ian_c decides to have a row with his sat nav and ends up going the wrong way too. You can imagine the reaction in our car by now. I was nearly crying with laughter and Phil had to slow down until he could stop laughing himself.

Eventually we got to the hotel, told at reception they had no more twin rooms free for me, Phil, Dean and Harry so we'd all have to have singles, fine we thought so off we went. Me Big Phil, Plasma and Mr & Mrs pacarcher went off for KFC whilst most of the others went for an Italian.

We all regrouped a little later for a beer or two at the local pub, nice place with good cold, cheap beer. You know how over here you get kicked out of the pub at 11? Well we were actually kicked IN the pub at eleven. Slowly the long drive caught up with people and they drifted off back to the hotel. Leaving me, Plasma and Ian_c there to keep the british end up. We managed to do until about 2.30 when Grand dad (Ian) had finally had enough. By this time we had put the world to rights, cleared the national debt, planned the winning of the next world cup and discovered the meaning of life. Don't ask me what it is though! Me and Plasma lasted a bit while longer until we crept back to the hotel a little after 3am

So here's a few pics to be going on with...

Dougie, the TV features editor asleep on the ferry:



A few shots from the morning at Irmy:







Cripes just found myself nodding off. Will sort some more out tomorrow.

[martind511]

Oh no Neil! Not again! I was enjoying reading that!

[Spikey©]

Oh no Neil! Not again! I was enjoying reading that!

Don't panic, got the coffee on, will continue shortly...

[Stevel]

Excellent Plan to fit false number plates for the trip. Should have waited for the ink to dry though.

[ditchp]

looking good m8 but need the rest of the pics pleeeeeease

[Ian T]

That was a good read so far Neil

[Spikey©]

Day 2

Breakfast planned for kin early. Suffice to say me and Plasma were late arrivals having been awoken by the Boss man MTC, I was quite badly hungover but Plasma was nothing short of a wreck. So much so that when Cabby asked him for his phone he just kind of mumbled and passed it over with this result:



So, after much hillarity and finding a substitute driver for Plasma as he was clearly unable to drive, we headed off to the factory. We were the first ones there and everyone set about cleaning their cars up. Irmy let us have a decent position along the fence so we lined em up and let the show begin.

There was quite a lot of interest in the cars, we were clearly the shiniest club there too The weather was incredible, much sunburning went on and the consumption of liquid was a neccessity.

There were loads of interesting cars on show, just about every type of Opel you could imagine. The irmy museum is great, they have some stonking pieces of machinery in there. Their were also some bargain bits to be found both in the museum and in the sales room. Lots of modding commenced, including several sets of decals, pillar trim kits and chrome mirror covers.

At around 2pm, Irmscher had arranged for us to get a private tour of the factory, led by Jurgen, one of Gunther's top men. He was great guide and they were very open about their business and their manfacturing/design process.

All the staff were extremely good to us, helped in every way they could and showed a real interest in the club. At the end of the tour, the main man himself (Gunther Irmscher) arrived and Cabby and Ian had a chat with him about getting something to auction off for the CIN appeal. More about that will be unveiled soon. Here he is with Cabby and Grand dad:



After a few more hours we headed off back to the hotel for a sit down/shower/change of clothes and met up again to go off for food at the Italian that had been found the previous evening. They must have had a heart attack when they saw all of us turn up! At this point, a problem with the hotel reared it's head, in that they had stuffed up the booking from the previous night, when we had been told there were no more twin rooms left and had put us in singles and now wanted to charge us for it! It took a while, but Cabby and the team managed to get it sorted out and so we all went for more fun down the pub. Getting kicked into the pub at 11pm again!

Poor old Plasma had to stick to soft drinks, as did a few of the guys, can't say I blame them as they had to drive in the morning, but a pretty fair amount of beer was consumed and lots of hillarity ensued once more. Including Dougie finding a Playboy magazine:



And some Russian songs ably performed by Martind511 and Elena with a little help from some of the locals. Remember Hunt For Red October? Well if you do you'll get the gist of it! There was also lots of kissing of Grand dad's head (Ian_c) by a rather drunk local, all good fun. Ended up with me, Grand dad, Comedy Dave (martind511) and Elena having a right laugh and good chinwag until the early hours. Not sure what time everyone else left, but me and Grand dad rolled back to the hotel at around 2.30am. Mysteriously, the copy of Playboy ended up in my bag!

[Spikey©]

Couple more pics:

[ditchp]

more quality pics and write up dude

[andy.l]

nice 1 neil,gud write up and piccys