After my father and I arrived in Bormio late friday evening, we where welcomed outside the hotel by our good friends George and Marie-Claire. Inside at the dining table, we met some of the others. After a late dinner, we went to our rooms for a good night sleep.
Saturdaymorning around 7.00AM, we woke up with rain. The whether forecast for Saturday and Sunday was not really good, but I hoped they would be wrong. At around 7.30AM, I went outside to pack our stuff and to check the oil. Outside, I met Jaap Kroon, another Dutchman and 1995 ///M5 owner who was accompanied by his wife and daughter.
The rain was pooring down on us
and as it looked as if the whether in the South was a bit better than in the North. Jaap told me he knows a beautifull route, other than the Stelvio that leaded us to Passo di Gavia, Passo di Foppa and the Berninapass. As a coincidence, I had choosen the same route, but than as an alternative in case the Stilfserjoch was closed.
We went for the breakfast table and there I distributed the route description to all the drivers. At 8.45AM it was time to leave as in this whether conditions, the Stilfserjoch would take us at least one and a halve hour to complete. Hermann and I paid the bills with the hotelowner and as always with Italy with large groups, there are always problems. The hotelowner made one entire bill. That was OK, we paid that and than he counted the booking-papers. There where two missing for which he wanted money.
Aside from that, Dominik paid with his credit card and the hotelowner mistakenly divided the amount by 100
. Dominik just placed his signature and left without checking the receipt. After 15 minutes, we cleared everyting, Dominik paid the rest and we left.
Outside, we missed some fun as 7 E34 M5's started their enigines almost simultaniously. You can imagine what sound that gave. Well, sound is not really the word. Schockwaves are. If there where some people sleeping on that side of the hotel, it must have been like doomsday.
The Stilfserjoch starts just outside Bormio and climbs to 2758mtr in just 18km. The road on the Italian side is rather good to drive, but the rain was treachearous and on wet mud, you don't have to do much to get in to problems with a 300+ hp car.
The following pic is made just above 2600 mtr and shows Finn and Dominik waiting for an opportunity to pass the worlds most ugly car.
Almost on the same spot, here you can see Chris in his Avus-Blue ///M5 touring and Konstantion in his Daytona Violet 1995 ///M5 touring
The summit of the Stilfserjoch is the border between South Tirol and Lombardia. In South Tirol, on teh Northern side, the road is spectacular, but extremely worse. In this whether conditions, it is not really a fun to drive, but spectacular it was.
If whether permits, the view over the Ortler (3905mtr) and the glaciers comming from it is spectacular. Although located in the Eastern Alps, the Ortler's glaciers are as impressive as those in the Western Alps.
Here you can see Chris driving down the Stelvio in his avus-blue M5 touring. Like Frosty in the UK he still uses the German export plates.
Here you can see the small radius of the curves at the North side of the Stilfserjoch. Taking them must always be done with extreme caution. In wet whether conditions, understeer is a problem and in good whether conditions, bikes can come so fast that you don't see them.
In the small vilage Trafoi, where the Stilfserjoch actually ended for us, we lined up our cars on a parking place. The entire Stilfserjoch was crowded with motorcycles. Asking around in the village learnt us that a huge motorbike treff was scheduled on Sunday 7 July. Good for us that we where there the day before.
On the left Jaap Kroon, his wife and his daughter are wataching the cars. Jaap's wife is a rally and race driver and even their daughter loves driving around. Lucky him. Oh BTW: His daughter was almost more a subject of photography than the cars we took with us.
After Crossing the Stelvio, we headed for the Ofenpass and Switzerland again. On the way to Mustair, the road was covered by some tourists which needed overtaking. Here Konstantin passes us to get hold of "flying Hermann"
Just after the border in Switzerland, many of us took the opportunity to get some fuel. The 1995 ///M5 on the left belongs to Jaap, the DV ///M5 on the left is from Noah. It took some time to fuel up most of the cars and the gas station owner was extremely happy with al those cars with tank that holds 90 liters.
After driving the Ofenpass where we had some battles passing slower cars who wouldn't want us to pass them. The 3.8's had less problem overtaking, but the 3.6 cars lacked torque below 3000RPM and passing was more difficult between the corners. Once above 4500RPM though, it was
After the Ofenpass, we headed for the Albulapass. The corners and apexes there are really nice to drive hard. On the next pic, you can see George and Marie-Claire taking the next apex. Don't take notice on the construction site, there wasn't any.
Dominik, Herman and Konstantin arrived approx. 15 mins gefore us at the Albulapass. Here are Herman and Konstantin making fun of the rest that still have to arrive.
Jaap and his family arrived only minutes later after them. After the rest of us arrived, we saw smoke coming from Finn's car. Dominik and I clearly identified that coming from the gearbox. Most likely the seals are leaking. Finn's son also bolted on a missing screw from the valve cover. After a break outside we went inside the restaurant for lunch. There, Jaap made a small joke about me. The only answer I could give him was that I don't have a 3.8.
From the Albula, we drove in the direction of Thusis and the San Berdardinopass. We made a stop near Via Mala, a very deep canyon. The Via Mala has been a dramatic scene in the latest "Eco challenge", a survival trial, that is held once a year al over the world.
Although it doesn't look really deep, the water is flowing 120mtr below. With the Eco challenge they had to descent on a rope down in there.
Oh well, it better not be me. Thankfully, I do have other hobbies
As the Via Mala is very deep and narrow, daylight hardly shines there.
After a 15 minute long stop at Via Mala, we drove the old road to Splugen, where we wanted to take the old San Bernardinopass. Looking at the maps, Splugen is a good place to start for the old pass, but there where no directions at all. The best thing to do is drive the highway until the exit to the San Bernardinopass. Nowadays, the traffic is guided through a tunnel. That leaves the old pass just for enthusiasts. The whether was still bad.
Here are some pics of Chris Jones driving down the old San Bernardinopass that we left near Mesoco where we took the highway to save some time.
The rain does have some advantages though. In the dry, this waterfall would not have been that spectacular.
Dominik, Hermann and Konstantin drove the entire old San Bernardinopass. But with the high weight of his touring, Konstantin had problems with his new brakes while driving the 40km down and they had to stop to let them cool down. This is also the place where we passed each other, but without knowing that as they used the old road and we the highway to Belinzona.
From Bellinzona we drove North to Biasca where the second last pass of the day begins. The Lukmanier is a very nice pass to drive and fortunatelly the whether improved also. Here I could make some pics from out my sunroof.
In front of me are Gerorge and Marie-Claire in their Ametyst-metallic 1995 ///M5 touring and Chris Jones in his Avus-Blue 1993 ///M5 touring waiting for the stoplight that blocks a road construcation zone.
Behind us, you can see Noah and one of our Danish friends. As Noah was alone, I think the friend from Finn's son, stepped in Noahs car for the meeting. Apart from some company for Noah, this also balanced his car a little bit better.
On top of the Lukmanierpass, we discovered that nobody was there, untill 10 minutes later to our surprise Dominik, Herman and Konstantin arrived. Before they arrived, George and I joked that they where in the custody of the Swiss police because they always drove the **** out of their cars.
At the Lukmanier pass, we took a break of almost an hour. First to exchange our experiences of that day and second to drink some coffee. Although the sun was shing a bit, the wind was very cold. Nevertheless, we where outside for more than halve an hour before going in to drink some coffee.
When we left the restaurant, we saw this (M)318i. I never knew such a car existed. Anyhow, it's driver must have gotten a red face when he saw 8 real McCoy's parked next to each other on the same parking place.
Before we could leave the parking place, we had to wait for an E46 ///M3. We quickly passed him and hoped that he would join us in our 120km/h+ drive down to Disentis. Unfortunatelly he didn't, but only five minutes later, we approached an Audi S3, but he was friendly enough to let us pass without a battle. The Lukmanierpass end in Disentis. Disentis is an important intersection between the Lukmanierpass and the Oberalppass.
In Disentis, wey drove the Oberalppass to Andermatt where we stayed in Hotel Kronen. In the evening, we ate and uploaded our pics to the notebooks we had with us. The other guests must have found that very strange.
This is the end of part 2. Part 3 will cover the last day of the meeting. If you want to know how the whether turned around completely and the two mishaps we faced on the Furkapss, then stay tuned.
Rgrds,
Raymond
Webmaster 
, post the rest soon ! Makes me remember my latest trip through Europe (mid May) with nostalgia.
There I will stay in Switzerland for 2 weeks and then drive all the way to Monaca (through Italy ofcourse) 
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