Alright, for all those thinking of a roadtrip, id thoroughly recommend it! Heres day 1 of the story.

 

Bright and early start in Ludlow - packed the car with 3 bags of food, two holdalls, foot pump, jump leads just in case, and tank 3/4 full with sainsbury's finest super unleaded. Was only the second time my dad had been in the car, and at this point he didnt know i'd had it chipped!

 

Started on a glorious morning! best day of the year so far!

 

 

Set off past Ludlow, then picked up the A489 towards Welshpool. Obviously had to go for the welcome to wales shot (we also packed a tripod :))

 

 

First stop on the tour was Powis castle, just outside welshpool. More of a country home than a castle, was in perfect working order, perched on the top of a hill with gardens cascading down to the valley floor and excellent views across the valley.

 

 

Yoinked this pic on the way out:

 

 

From Welshpool, picked up the A458 across to Dolgellau - scenery definitely picked up at this point, and the road was a really nice flowy wide A road, very nice! Car was performing well, overtaking cars three or 4 at a time no problems without even trying. However, after one particularly good overtake, we got stuck behind a lorry doing about 15 miles an hour up a 1 in 7 hill lol.

 

Quick stop in Dolgellau for lunch, then round the coast on the A496. The Barmouth estuary was amazing, and spotted the perfect place for a few photos, like these:

 

 

 

 

Then we stopped a bit in Barmouth, and i realised it was the first time id been by a beach in a good 6 months! really nice to see and hear the sea and get some shots on the seafront:

 

 

A little further round the coast and we get to a real castle - Harlech Castle. Perched on a cliff top, its a very imposing bit of medievel fortress - and still in excellent condition. Pretty much all the towers were complete and could be climbed, and then possible to walk all the way round the top of the walls.

 

 

Managed to get a brilliant shot outside the Castle entrance:

 

 

After that, its round to Maentwrog, and then took the B4410 and A4085 north to Beddgelert. If im onhonest, the zed is a bit wide for a b road... its a little bit big for the twisty nature of the road.

 

Got to Beddgelert, but then big problems with the car struck... We were looking for some milk for the following morning, but whilst driving up and down the narrow road trying to find somewhere to park, i noticed my termperature was off the scale, and there was a very hot smell... There was also a bit of steam from under the bonnet. So pulled up sharpish and popped the hood to a cloud of steam, which was peeing out the radiator overflow.

 

I then also made the mistake of opening the radiator cap (i know, very lucky not to get seriously scalded >Stupid

 

Turns out my electric fan had stopped working - not brilliant news for day one of the trip! Took it fairly gingerly the rest of the way along the A498 up to the pass of Llanberis, just to be sure.

 

Day one ended with the car in the car park at the base of snowdon. Popped into Llanberis for a tasty chinese, and accidently massively kerbed my rear alloy (i blame it on slightly stretched tyres - ive currently got 255s when i should probably be running 275s)

 

 

Days two to four to follow once ive uploaded the pics!

nice lopvely to see the zed getting some excercise and proff there not always all broken lol

Stunning pics mate. Look forward to the rest of them. Nice one.

Nice road trip fella and great pic's:thumbup:

stunning views and zed :bow:

thats brilliant mate, i live in welshpool! and was also in barmouth on the weekend in the zed!! Im suprised you didnt get any pics from the top of those massive mountains just a few miles before barmouth? (very very steep drive up on the way with an amazing view from the top and a brilliant fast long sweeping road back down the mountain) thats if you went that way?

an excellent read, I love roadtrips and pics! :thumbup1:

Amazing pics!! Some stuning views too. Glad to see the cars still putting a smile on your face :)

 

Still think those wheels would look better on my car :whistling: :whistling:

haha white wheels on a black car? not sure they'd go... plus they're in need of a refurb now!

 

what tyres do you have on your 17s? if im honest i have wondered what the ride would be like on smaller wheels, its a bit uncomfortable at the moment.

Mine are only 16's. They're on 225/50's. We'll have to got a a little drive again, see if you can keep up now ur chipped :p

WOW! Great pics there Brillo - I love North Wales too....

 

.....I took my ZX for a blast around there about 4 years ago now. We stayed just outside Dolgellau for a week and visited those very same castles, among others, too! Conwy and Caenarfon (SP?) are also well worth a visit - as is Chirk!

 

I must get back over there some day soon - your pics have given me the inspiration mate.

 

I look forward to the next batch - have a great holiday!!

 

Richard:thumbup:

Heres day two...

 

 

Started off bright and early in the shadow of the snowdon range - first part of the morning was running the car and filling it with water again! didnt get a brilliant nights sleep - not used to youth hostels and shared dorms, gonna have to go for b&bs next trip.

 

 

First off was back east on the A4086 and A5 to Betws-y-Coed. Got some great shots of the zed with snowdon in the background, and also stopped alongside Llynnau Mymbyr, again another good place for pics! Tried (and mainly failed) to get some videos of the zed driving past - did manage to get a couple of clips, including a short 4 second one with a great rumble from the exhaust!

 

Click here for video!

 

 

 

Stopped in Betws-y-coed for some more petrol - worked out afterwards that super unleaded was giving me an even 20mpg, which was not bad at all considering the amount of stop start and spirited driving i was doing. managed to get 203 miles from 3/4 of a tank, which was probably the best id ever got.

 

By the lake

 

After Betws-y-coed it was off the fabled Evo triangle - northeast along the A543, then south along the B4501. I have to say - epic, epic road! Definitely worth the drive if you can!

 

the A543 starts slow, then opens up onto a well surfaced wide A road across rolling moors. didnt pass another car on the northern leg, and as the road was so well sighted it was so nice slicing the racing line through the corners.

 

Since the zed is so wide if you try and keep it on the left side of the road you're running on cats eyes - nice to be able to use all the road. On the B road back south, again, truely awesome... an even better sighted surfaced road slicing through a forest, then along Llyn Brenig. Second part of the road dropped quite steeply, a bit tighter and a good test of brakes and body control. Zed handled it all admirably, made my dad comment how fast i drove but even so was only pushing maybe 8/10ths due to clutch slipping problems! only had one slight incident when the left front locked up under braking over a slight crest on the downhill.

 

After that, continued on the B4501 to Bala, and stopped lunch. Then it was along the side of Llyn Celyn, and over the B4391. another brilliant road - unfenced across open moorland. Saw a few S2000s out for a drive coming the other way, which was nice!

 

Click here for the second video!

 

Some random statue in Bala!

 

Then down the A470 to Back to Dolgellau, and out to the coast on the B4405. My dad made a small navigation error which meant a detour on a very narrow singletrack road! Luckily didnt have to squeeze past anything.

 

Back round the A493, then out to Borth on the coast. By this point i was getting a bit tired of driving, and was having annoying clutch problems which made overtaking hard as i had to keep backing off the power mid overtake! Luckily no overheating problems today, though did get pretty hot at times.

 

Probably the longest day on the second day as it was all driving, so not so many pics im afraid!

 

Very glad to get to Borth and have a well earned Brothers Strawberry cider and fish and chips!

 

 

Days three and four to follow!

Great pics and thanks for letting us know the route you took and the landmarks worth seeing! Keep them coming mate. I hope to do a similar road trip once I've got my zed on the road as I love the welsh scenery. Great sound on that first video! I had forgotten what a zed sounded like with mine being off the road for 6 months or so. Sounds really smooth, powerful and expensive! Lol. I'm gonna have to try and get mine back together ASAP to hear that noise again lol.

hey matey how did it go? all well by the look of things, did you see the power station in the mountain at llanberis at the bottom of the pass with the big lake, i was stuck in there while you were out enjoying the beautiful weather and awsome roads,

sorry i missed out on a meet and a drive round gutted but i did manage a little trip the other day in the zed,

llanberis pass,

beddgelert

porthmadog

criceth

pwlleli

abersoch

and then to anglsey

 

im glad you had a great time here :)

haha white wheels on a black car? not sure they'd go... plus they're in need of a refurb now!

 

what tyres do you have on your 17s? if im honest i have wondered what the ride would be like on smaller wheels, its a bit uncomfortable at the moment.

 

 

nothing wrong with white wheels on a black car!! :thumbup1:

 

some really nice pics there bud.

Yep thats the sound of a decatted, custom 4.5" dual exit 'zorsts! Was clocked at a track day at 99db, so should well have been noticable on the driveby!

 

with any luck i'll shoot a decent video over the brecons near abergavenny, which should have lots of zorst noise!

 

FASTREDZ - I saw a mahoosive quarry at llanberis, missed the power station though.

 

Might have to come along to a north wales meet at some point - the Evo Triangle is definitely worth the drive over there!

You should of posted that you were poping over and we could of had a little meet and drive abour :cool3:

Good write up bud,

 

Looks like your timing was purrfect!

 

Nice one! :cool2:

All those pics bring back memories - I used to be a white van man, and travelled many of those roads regularly.

 

Think I might revisit, it looks great, although no more the roar of a z for me, its the howl of an RX8!

 

:thumbup1:

Alright, so day three....

 

Started as was the norm by now by filling up the radiator... the hose in which the electric temperature was reading from was slowly slipping off which was making things worse! Up and over the B4572 to Aberystwyth - a really nice seaside town, long beach and a scenic promenade. Its a bit french feeling in the town - quite a few of the streets were lined with trees and quite a few flowers were out.

 

 

 

 

After Aber, we took the coastal A487 down to Aberaeron, and then inland on the A482. Quick stop at the Llanerchaeron national trust property, and then a bit further along the A482 to the Dolaucothi Gold Mines. Unfortunately we didnt find any gold when we did some panning!

 

 

The A482 between Lampeter and Llandovery is a really good road too - recently resurfaced, with no cats eyes to run over with a wide zed! Got a little stuck behind some slower sunday drivers, but not generally a problem for long, apart from the clutch problems mentioned previously.

 

 

Stopped for an ice cream in lampeter, and happened to park in the same place as a biking meet. On exiting the car park I was sure to give the throttle a bit of a blip to show the bikers what a real engine sounds like!

 

Prizes for identifying the mystery car?

 

After Llandovery we took the A4069 over the brecons, which was a brilliant road - or at least it would have been if we weren't stuck behind some people carrier doing a steady 20. Also had the annoying trait of refusing to move over to let me past! Finally managed to get past using about 20% of the cars potential - but doing 20-30 in 2nd was uphill was doing nothing for my cooling, so on the downhill the other side it was heaters set to full, and try and get some air through the radiator. Again, didnt help to get stuck behind more sunday drivers, doing a religious 28mph all the way from Brynamman to Gurnos.

 

Just turned onto the A4067 and the car had had enough - temperature was just off the scale. stopped in a layby and let the engine cool for an hour, luckily we were prepared with a good 7 litres of water in the car. Also, by this point it was a good 23 degrees out, so pretty toasty!

 

Once the car was cool again set out on the last drive of the day back across the Brecons again on the A4067 - a very scenic road, just pootling along at 60 to keep the car cool. actually had a slower car indicate to let me past on a straight, which was surprisingly nice!

 

 

Gotta love the zed side profile!

 

Cut across the A4215, and found another place for some nice photos. Also saw all the newborn lambs out - gf would have loved it! Into Brecon, but one final incident for the day - the youth hostel has a particularly tight entrance track, and trying to turn up the track was so tight and steep managed to scrape the exhaust tip on the tarmac! Luckily no damage done, although the tight maneouvering did overheat the engine again!

 

 

Final day to follow!

well, this is annoying... just been rereading this post, and i've just realised that breaking my zed when the engine went was a very stupid thing to do....

 

I mean, look at it! Just look at it! with a 99spec front bumper, high level spoiler and 18s, i have to say it is the most gorgeous car ever designed - it looks perfect from any angle!

 

My girlfriend would kill me if i bought another one though, but still... Jeff, any chance you could put mine back on the road???

Just read this now. Absoulutely wicked road trip, with some superb pics of the car, excellent descriptions of places/routes etc. :dance:

Actually, i never got round to posting day 4, which was the elan valley! might put them up in a bit, its a very nice drive round the reservoirs :)

Looks like a fabulous trip! That's why they call it 'God's country' :)