Saturday
Imagine you live in the perfect world and have the impression that all cars are above all silent. Then suddenly, on your Saturday morning walk through the village, you hear strange rumbling noises escaping from an underground garage, after which you see an old five series driving out of the garage backwards and then suddenly, all hell breaks loose. Inside the garage, seven more cars are waiting and one by one start their engines and generate that typical loud rumbling noise that is so characteristic for an E34S, but what most people would never have heard before so in fact we can imagine that some locals and holiday guests were shaken and not stirred by this experience.
For the participants, the day started with breakfast at around 8.00AM. Some of us might have preferred a little later, but being part of a group tour, one cannot alter the planning that much. Stevie was not obliged to wake up early, but joined us outside just before we left Despite his long journey from Sicily to Fiss the day before, Stevie waved us out for the Saturday part towards ‘San Vito di Cadore’, a village in the Italian Dolomites, south of ‘Cortina d’Ampezzo’.
Due to the fact that some of us had to do some shopping, it took some time before we left. The awaiting E34S line up did draw some more attention and some of the locals and holiday guests seemed to realize that those old fives could be more special then others. After all, two of only 211 1995 E34S M5 Touring’s and another outside the line up is not a sight what you get to see each day. Martijn’s M5T, also nicknamed ‘Kaiser Wilhelm’ is an immaculate example. Being only one of three originally Dutch delivered 1995 M5 Tourings, it is very rare indeed.
We left Fiss shortly before nine a clock. Since main road between Fiss and Ried is has an average slope of approximately eight percent, we used the alternative road over Ladis. This road allows a gentler warm up since it doesn’t require braking on the engine. Granted, after Ladis, the road towards Ried has a slope of more then ten percent, but with the oil already warmed up a little, one doesn’t have to worry for the engine speed to rise to 4000RPM. In Ried, we entered the main road towards Landeck, albeit for not more then a few kilometers until reaching the village of Prutz, where we turned right towards the Kaunertaler Gletscher strasse. Unfortunately, this forty kilometer long scenic road is not a pass as it ends in front of the weisssee ferner (glacier) on the northwestern flanks of the weisssee spitze (3518mtr). Instead, we used the small but lovely Pillerhohe between Prutz in the Oberinntal and Wenns in the Pitztal. This pass reaches an altitude of 1558mtr and thus doesn’t even reach the tree-border, but on the Prutz side, one has a spectacular view on the Kaunertaler Alps.
From Prutz onwards, the road towards the Pillerhohe runs through a series of small communities before it enters the village of Kauns, where we turned right towards Kaunerberg and Wenns. Actually, the Pillerhohe isn’t mentioned on the road signs and even on the maps, it just is a white road with no mention of it being a pass. This may be the reason why apart from a few tourists and locals there isn’t that much traffic. From logistical point of view, the Pillerhohe cannot be disregarded though. Not only is it the scenic alternative to the Pitztal, it also is shorter (albeit not faster) then the main road through the more then eight kilometer long Landecker tunnel for which one needs an Austrian autobahn vignette.
Despite being narrow on some sections, the Pillerhohe isn’t that difficult. The largest problem for the driving enthusiast is the single local or tourist who don’t expect groups of cars and or motorcycles. During our ascent between Kaunerberg and pass height, I spotted a Ford Fiesta with Munich plates driving down the pass from the opposite direction. With some goodwill on both sides, it is perfectly possible for two cars to pass each other without that much trouble, yet he choose to stay on the middle of the road and thus try to force ascending traffic, who normally have the right of way backwards. I already had positioned myself to the utmost right of the road when he suddenly stopped. Instead of driving backwards to the passing point not more then thirty meters backwards, he opened his window and said something. Due to the sweet sound of twenty-four valves, I was not able to hear what he said so I drove a little further with my cars front nose at just a few centimeters from his rear left fender and opened my window. An elderly male into his seventies accused me of going up the pass to quick and therefore didn’t want to give way. I replied that the entire group was driving within the applicable speed limit and that he must be aware that ascending traffic has the right of way unless other directions say otherwise. He rumbled a little more to his wife and passengers and drove a little bit backwards to the passing point to let us continue.
The Pillerhohe ends in Wenns, the first larger village in the Pitztal, which like the Kaunertal is blocked by glaciers that mark the end of the valley in front of the so called ‘Weisskamm’, a group of mountains of which the 3774mtr high Wildspitze, Austria’s second highest summit is part of. Our next goal was Imst, from where we followed the B171 towards Innsbruck for about eleven kilometers before turning south towards the Timmelsjoch. Since we were driving in a convoy at roughly 120km/h it was inevitable that the group got separated due to all that overtaking of slower traffic, reason why I stopped briefly for regrouping before entering the Oetztal at roughly 10.30PM. Since the B186 is a large main road that runs through several tourist towns and villages I expected the group to become separated again so I added another regrouping in Solden, which also is the last possible place to refuel before driving into Italy.
In 2005, we also intended driving the 2509mtr high Timmelsjoch, but technical problems with one participating car forced us to visit a BMW dealer in Innsbruck. By the time we could continue, we were two hours behind schedule and with the worsening weather conditions, driving the Timmelsjoch would be troublesome. Instead we drove directly to Vipiteno over the old Brennerpass before picking up our route at the intersection between the Jauffenpass (2094mtr) and the Penserjoch (2215mtr). This time, the weather was the complete opposite and all the cars were performing flawlessly. The trip up until Solden was uneventful other then the many overtaking maneuvers to pass slower cars, but Solden was reached without much problems where we regrouped at the petrol station as planned. After leaving Solden, the B186 ascends rapidly towards Obergurgl and Hochgurgl. This is a nice section that offers the discerning driving enthusiast a nice challenge, at least when there isn’t much traffic. During holiday season, one can expect lots and lots of tourists who in their effort to see as much as possible hardly reach halve the allowed speed. Not that it caused us many problems though; the vast majority could be passed in a fluent maneuver. Only one German driving a W203 C-Class estate didn’t like the idea of being passed by some old BMW’s and caused some trouble, but to no avail and thus had to accept that nine E34S cars passed him before reaching the Hochgurgl tollgate were we paid the required thirteen Euro for a single passage into Italy.
One by one, all nine E34S accelerated quickly out of the tollgates causing a very nice concert of fully warmed up S38’s. This attracted quite some attention from the many people in the direct vicinity of the tollgate. On the majority of the passes, the nimbler E34S would be able to outperform for instance the much more powerful E39S, but not so on the Austrian side of the Timmelsjoch. Not that we encountered one, but due to its ideal layout in an open high Alpine terrain there are no black spots, hence one can see what is coming from the other direction all the way up to the pass height. This allowed us to maintain a sustained speed of more then 120km/h. Within ten minutes, we arrived at the abandoned customs offices at the pass height where we stopped for about fifteen minutes to enjoy the breathtaking scenery.
The Timmelsjoch the Stubaier Alps from the Oetztaler Alps and dates back to 1241 a.d. Due too it’s geographic location, it is the only mountain passage between Reschen and Brenner that is not covered by glaciers. Only in 1959, the north side of the pass was constructed to the road that we know today but it took until 1968 before it was opened in both directions. The south side in its current form dates back to the pre WWII era. Due to the many steep sections, only light traffic is allowed and thus one doesn’t need to worry about trucks or any other heavyweights. After roughly fifteen minutes, we entered south Tirol and descended into the lovely Passeier valley.
I left the pass height a few minutes before the rest to find a nice location for making some pictures. Although the entire road was lovely, finding a suitable spot proved to be a bit difficult in the high Alpine terrain so I found myself standing on a 600ft cliff just a few meters from the road.
After everyone had passed, we resumed driving, but had to accept that a few cars came in between. It wasn’t before the last section that we could catch up, but only because we all had to deal with slow traffic. Eventually we reached St Leonhard in the Passeier valley were we immediately turned left towards the 2094mtr high Jauffenpass. Though not as high as the Timmelsjoch, the Jauffenpass is just as nice to drive with countless of hairpins and a relatively wide road. Off course we had to deal with the usual slow traffic, this time caused by a mobile home driving up the pass in ‘escargot’ pace. By the time we passed the long line of slow driving cars in front of us, we already found ourselves driving in the higher part of the Jauffenpass where we approached a Z4 3.0i from behind. He must have spotted those old E34’s as he suddenly accelerated in an effort to keep the lead. Though these cars have handling potential and a power to weight ratio that matches an E34S ///M5 3.8, the driver in the Z4 was not capable enough to fully exploit the capabilities of his car. One by one, he had to accept that these old E34’s passed him once he had to shift to third gear. We stopped briefly at the pass-height where we intended to stop for lunch, but a brief assessment of the crowded parking area forced us to continue driving until the next opportunity that we found in a restaurant a few kilometers further towards Vipiteno.
The Jauffepass is located in the province of South Tirol that originally was part of Austria, but after WWI became part of Italy. Despite the efforts by the Italian government to fully integrate South Tirol into Italy, a large part of the native population returned after many years living in exile. Today, South Tirol is an autonomous province proof of which is that the German language survived as the native language. This means that unlike in many other Italian provinces, there is no significant communication barrier.
After lunch, we left in two groups in the direction of Vipiteno, also known as Sterzing. Actually, the Jauffenpass and the Timmelsjoch are not that difficult to drive. Granted, the Timmelsjoch south side is steep has an ample amount of hairpins, but the quality of the pavement is excellent so one can rely on the cars handling almost anywhere. Both passes can be combined in a single round tour that include the old Brenner-pass (1500mtr) and the Kuhtai sattel (2000mtr) as well. Since this was not our goal, we turned south towards the Penserjoch shortly before reaching Sterzing.
Due to its parallel position westerly of the Brenner autobahn between Sterzing and Bozen, the Penserjoch usually is low on traffic. We drove this pass once before in September 2005 when the weather was determined by two cold weather fronts colliding above the Alps causing snowfall over 1500mtr. This time, the weather situation was completely the opposite with clear skies and pleasant ambient temperatures well above the twenty degrees mark. The north side of the Penserjoch begins just outside Sterzing at a large T-section directly in front of a large bridge of the Brenner autobahn. This must have been the reason that the group with Martijn and Werner who were driving a few hundred meters in front of me missed the directions towards the Penserjoch. I had the advantage of on-site knowledge and thus called Martijn to inform him about their navigation error, but they already discovered that and were about to return.
Like the vast majority of the other passes in the South Tyrolean region, the 2215mtr high Penserjoch is not that difficult to drive. The relatively short north side is rather steep and twisty, but overall, the Penserjoch has one lane for each direction allowing quick passing maneuvers without the need of precise positioning ones car with centimeter precision. Despite being low on traffic we were delayed by temporary stoplights that secured two construction sites. At one of these, I wanted to pass a small underpowered Italian green frog car at the exit of the construction site and already had positioned myself next to the ‘Pinda’ when I suddenly spotted a fast approaching motorcycle coming from the opposite direction. It’s speed forced me to abandon my overtaking maneuver, as the available power reserve probably was not enough to compensate for the 10% incline of the road. For the rest, the ascent went uneventful and we reached the Penserjoch within twenty minutes. Although visibility was excellent, I decided against a small sightseeing stop at the pass-height in order to quickly reach Bolzano, roughly forty-two kilometers to the south. The first twenty-seven kilometers through the Sarntal is a most challenging drive up, at least up until reaching the village of Sarntheim after which ‘driving fun’ is limited by the many smaller and larger villages that are separated by a series of small tunnels between which passing other cars can be a hazardous exercise. After exiting the last tunnel, the Penserjoch silently ends in the outskirts of Bolzano, South Tirol’s second largest city. We followed the directions towards the Brenner autobahn that took us straight through the city center of Bolzano. Normally, traffic in Bolzano can be quite hectic, but not this time.
Our next goal, Blumau hardly is six kilometers from Bolzano directly near the SS12, the main road to Strerzing and Brenner. Even though the Brenner highway runs parallel to the SS12, local traffic avoids the toll-obliged highway due to which traffic on the old provincial road is high. Combine that with the diversity of traffic ranging from fast cars, motorcycles, and trucks and slow driving tractors, hence we got stock into slow driving traffic. The other direction was just as crowded as well so overtaking the hundreds of vehicles in front of us didn’t make sense. After all, Blumau was no more then three kilometers more north so why not take it easy and concentrate on finding the exit towards the Nigerpass.
The Nigerpass (1688mtr) is redundant next to the Karerpass (1758mtr) as both passes merge just a few hundred meters west of the highest point of the Karerpass. However, the Italians constructed a new Nigerpass sometime ago to replace the old road that with an incline of 24% is one of the steepest passes in the entire Alps. However, coming from the south the Nigerpass is not indicated on the road directions when entering Blumau and to avoid missing it, I decided to take the next best exit into Blumau as I knew that once past Blumau, we had no other option to reach Canazei over the shortest possible road anymore other then turning around which would have delayed us with thirty minutes at least. In Blumau, we followed the ongoing road into eastern direction that took us outside the village straight into a lovely twisty mountain road. I assumed this to be the right road, but my satellite navigation reported otherwise so it was time to look onto the maps but it wasn’t until a few kilometers higher up into the mountains that I saw a small open area in which six cars could safely stop.
My detailed Dolomites map gave me a quick answer. For the Nigerpass, we had to leave the SS12 at the most northern exit in Blumau. With other words, we didn’t drive the intended route, but to turn around and find our way through Blumau? Fortunately that wasn’t necessary as we weren’t on a dead end, but on the road towards Welschhofen on the west side of the Karerpass. Not bad, and with five other passes in the Dolomites still on the program, it didn’t make sense to return to the Nigerpass. After briefing the others about this minor route-adjustment, we resumed driving into the Dolomites towards Welschhofen, a small village that we reached in about a quarter of an hour. Here, we turned east towards the Karerpass and the hart of the Dolomite region. On itself, the Karerpass is a nice road; especially the twisty eastern side. However, being a main route, it usually is crowded with traffic and opportunities to pass the slow driving Italians are rare, very rare, hence we stayed in convoy up until reaching Vigo di Fassa where we turned north towards Canazei, a village that lies amid a dozen of excellent passes and just a bit west of the impressive glacier covered Marmolada massive that rises 3352mtr above sea level. Since I had gained a small lead just before reaching Canazei, I was able to stay in front of a large camper before entering the road towards the Pordoijoch and the Sellajoch. The others had to stay behind, allowing me to increase the gap in order to find a nice location for making some pictures. The lovely Avus Blue touring in front belongs to Werner and Marion, the Mauritius Blue 3,6 sedan belongs to Oliver and last but not least, the illustrious ‘Kaiser Wilhelm’ from Martijn, one of only four originally Dutch registered E34S M5 Tourings
Despite that the shortest route towards our destination in San Vito di Cadore would be the Pordoijoch (2242mtr), we turned north towards the Sellajoch (2240mtr) since this allowed us to include the Grödnerjoch (2137mtr) and the Passo di Valparolla (2192mtr) as well. In the end, it doesn’t make much difference since both variants end at the 2117mtr high Passo di Falzarego towards Cortina d’Ampezzo. After my small photography stop, we quickly drove away to catch up with Adrian, Werner & Marion and the rest. They still were stuck behind the slow ascending camper and were nearing the crossing between the Sellajoch and Pordoijoch when I approach fast. Martijn must have seen my intention to turn left, but Werner and Marion probably couldn’t have seen this or relied on their navigation system for the fastest route towards San Vito di Cadore and followed Adrian. At first, Oliver who was driving in front of Martijn, also drove towards the Pordoijoch, but quickly turned around after he saw Martijn and myself taking another direction.
The Sellajoch is a lovely pass with numerous hairpins with a layout is very much suited for an E34S. What followed was a lovely full throttle hill climb with three M5’s in consecutive order in which two strong HD91 models were in hot pursuit of the single HJ91 model. Whilst accelerating out from the many hairpins, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm’s’ S38B38 engine proved to be very strong and I had difficulty keeping up when accelerating from low revs. I could slightly reduce distance upon braking before the next hairpin and during turning in, but that is about it. The traffic situation was rather light and only a few kilometers before reaching the Sellajoch’s highest point, we had to pass a few cars, some of which didn’t like that very much, but lost against the S38’s midrange acceleration power. Nevertheless Martijn created a one-car gap and took a lead of a few hundred meters due to which he missed our sightseeing stop.
Strictly speaking, the Dolomites are not part of the Alps as it is a separate mountain range that once was a seabed floor due to which the structure of the Dolimites is completely different then the Alps that mostly consists of solid granite. Made of a particularly rough grey limestone, the Dolomite summits typically soar up from the surrounding forests and pastures in blocks, towers and pinnacles, which are famous for going pink or bronze at sunset. The following picture shows Dolomites highest summit, the impressive 3342mtr high glacier covered Marmolada massive.
We resumed driving after about ten minutes into the direction of Wolkenstein. After a relatively short decent, we reached the junction between between roads S242 and S243 where we turned east towards the Grödnerjoch (2137mtr). Like the Sellajoch, the Grödnerjoch doesn’t require much driving skills as all the Dolomite passes in the area have been extended into two lane roads to cope with the increasing traffic. Most of the Grödnerjoch allows full throttle, even in the hairpins, but the many slow driving Italians must be taken into consideration as they can drastically spoil the fun. Although they can be passed quite easily as they don’t cause much trouble, many Italian have a habit of using the ideal line and not looking into their rear view mirrors. This was not the case with a German registered A6 3.0TDI and a Swiss registered Lexus RX model though as on the descent of the eastern side towards the Grödnerjoch they tried to block me on several occasions. Every time, I positioned myself into the hairpin for the inevitable overtaking maneuver, the driver of the A6 streered to the other side of the road using his low rev torque to prevent me from passing him. Due too the many consecutive hairpins, he could keep me behind for a few occasions until I could safely use the inside of the upcoming hairpin. He clearly didn’t expect that, but desperately tried to close the gap to the Lexus RX in front of him, but I was already driving next to him so he couldn’t use his torque without the risk of excessive under steer. This gave me the leading edge that I needed to fully use the advantage of my old but still strong high revving racing heritage engine.
The diver in the Swiss registered Lexus RX must have seen that small battle and didn’t like the idea to be passed either and made him self as wide as possible in order to keep me and Oliver behind. At first, he succeeded but after a small analysis of his tactics, I decided he could be passed in a small left-right curve that came soon after where I benefited from a lower center of gravity and the nimble and neutral handling characteristics of my E34S. We reached Corvara soon after Oliver also managed to pass both cars, where we turned left towards Passo di Valparola.
With 2192mtr above sea level, the Passo di Valparolla is the most northern member of the Dolomites pass-triangle east of Cortina d’Ampezzo that can be included in a loop or used as entrance or exit road towards of from the Passo di Falzarego which is part of the main East-west connection between Cortina d’Ampezzo, Canazei and Bolzano. Due too its isolated position in the pass-triangle, one doesn’t have to deal with that much traffic so it is a nice driving road, but like the other passes in the region, the best time to drive them is early in the morning or late in the afternoon. During World War I (WWI), this area has been a huge battlefield between the Italian army and the Austrian/ Hungary army taking positions high up in the mountains. Ruins and artifacts can still visible be seen and some of the corridors, bunkers and gun-positions can be visited today as part of a large open-air museum such as can be found on the junction between the Passo di Falzarego and the Passo di Valparola.
After a short sightseeing stop at the lift installations near the junction with Passo di Falzarego (2117mtr), we descended this pass eastwards into the direction of Cortina d’Ampezzo, just outside the province of ‘Alto Adige’, the Italian designation for South Tirol. During the descent, we quickly entered our destination for the day in the navigation system, which whilst driving spiritedly through all those hairpins is a challenge on its own. After arriving in Cortina, we turned south one more time for the last ten kilometers towards San Vito di Cadore where we arrived roughly twenty-five minutes later as last of the group. The navigation system directed me straight towards hotel Roma where we spotted a few of the others on the terrace for a well-deserved drink.
Though not high summer, we had an excellent day with pleasant ambient temperatures in dry weather. We drove a little more then 350km over some very challenging roads and through spectacular scenery. After arriving, Dominik kindly collected and handed over the keys to our hotel rooms. After a quick refreshing, we all gathered in the dining room for well-deserved dinner. Our hosts at the hotel also arranged an excellent buffet with salads and cooked vegetables so we had nothing to complain. After dinner, some of us retreated into their hotel rooms. The rest walked to the café near the hotel lobby for some last drinks and viewing the many pictures that were taken that day.
After a last round shortly after midnight, the hotel owner had to close the café, which was convenient for us as well since we had to wake up early for the long day that was lying ahead of us. With a total distance of roughly 550km, the trip towards Acqarossa in Switzerland may not seem that long, but most of it will be driven through narrow mountain passes such as the notorious 2621mtr high Passo di Gavia in Lombardy. With no highway sections to increase the average speed, Sunday already proved to be a real challenge in the planning stage. With other words, a calculated risk. Stay tuned for the next part.