Italian Frolic 2024

[Julien]

09 September => 23 September 2024


Day 1 : home => La Clusaz
A horrible day with heavy rain and cold weather at la Clusaz.
Hopefully, the Hotel "La Ferme" is very nice.

Nice view from the room :


Typical food of the French mountains : "Tartiflette" for me and "fondue" for my wife


Day 2 : La Clusaz => Aosta

La Clusaz => Beaufort => Bourg St Maurice => "Petit St Bernard" pass => Aosta

Better weather for this day, but very cold at the mountain pass (2200 m)


Italian food for the diner


A short briefing about driving in Italy :
All along this road trip we find Italian roads in very bad shape : Potholes, cracks, sinking, …
and it's worse in town, but speed bumps are very rare.
Highway are in good condition, but there is a lot under work.

For the highway code, according to our first hotel operator :
Stop sign => use as a give way
Continuous white line => No overtaking, but you can overtake
Continuous double white line => No overtaking, but you can overtake
Never use indicator light, it's gay

There s a lot of Speed camera in town or small village, it's orange box :


But there is no camera inside, only sometimes for random operation but always with the police beside the box.

Speed camera on highway are automatic like in France.

To be continued…

[campbell]

Thanks for Part 1, Julien - keep going

[C7Steve]

Thanks for posting and I remember being at La Cluzaz during Frolic 15 and nearly everyone at breakfast trying to help Stu source rear tyres for his car after a puncture the previous day.


Steve.

[hendeg]

Thanks for the diary Julien.

We also stayed at La Ferme on French Frolic 2015 - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40857. I wonderful place to stop.

[Dark]

Looking forward to the full report! Have you got YT videos too?
Myself and AliC stayed at Le Ferme on Frolic'22, I also had the Tartiflette!
I've skied in La Clusaz many times but that was my first summer visit. I hope you tried the luge?

[Julien]

Hello Dark,
Unfortunately, no time for testing the Luge, but already test the summer luge in "Le Mont Dore" in Auvergne
"Raclette" is also one of my preferred meal in winter

[Julien]

Day 3 : Aosta => Arese (AlfaRomeo Museum)
I'am a great fan of AlfaRomeo, I had 2 of them :
A GTV 2L of 1980 with metallic bumper when I was student (bought 2000 Francs in 1991 with a second for spare parts...)
And after a beautiful GTV6 2.5 bought with my first paycheck as a young engineer.
In 2001 my wife blowed up the engine, and because of a second child, a station wagon was most suitable than a coupé.
Even after two 911 and now the Elise, I still regret my GTV6.

So the visite of the museum is like a pilgrimage











































































To be continued with competition vehicles...

[Julien]

A lot of old racing car before WW2 :


Not enough power ? Add an other 6 cylinders in line


An other bi-motor : One in the front, the other in back :










Nice within sight of an old car with a Flat 12 and double stage compressor :






Post WW2 racing cars :




















Formula 1 :




And the Beast, 155 DTM :


To be continued with a lot of engines...

[Julien]

A couples of plane engine between WW1 and WW2 :

















Since 30's, engine have 4 valves per cylinders, usually exhaust valves in front, and intake at the back to have a more homogeneous temperature in the head :




A tremendous 18 cylinders of 1937 (2 banks of 9 cylinders) 49.7 liters and 1350 HP @ 2400 RPM




AlfaRomeo made also engine for boats :




And a V12 for bigger boats :


On of the first batch of the famous twin cams


The V8 engine of the Montreal :




Flat 4 of the AlfaSud :




My favourite V6, the famous "Busso"







An evolution of the Twin spark, with iron cast block, dry sump, probably for a F3 formula :


The engine of the 8C 2900 B Lungo (1938)



I love this old style of engine with cooling fins on intake manifold.

A huge 4 cylinder of 1914, 4.49 Liters and 88 HP @ 2950 RPM


Another masterpiece of 8 cylinder (30')


Flat 12 1952 (2.5 Liters, 285 HP @ 10000 RPM




Another Flat 12 for endurance race (Tipo33 3 Liters 500 HP @ 11500 RMP) :









V6 2.5 Liters of the 155 DTM (400 HP @ 11500 RMP) :










To be continued...

[rossybee]

The Alfa Romeo Museum is on my to do list

[Julien]

The Alfa Romeo Museum is on my to do list

And Chery on the cake, there is a restaurant inside the museum

[Julien]

Day 4 : Frolic around COMO (and the lake) => Bellagio
Nothing special, again roads are in bad condition and very narrow along the shore of the lake.



BELLAGIO is a beautiful small town to visit
Take the boat and visit VERENNA a nice village :


Day 5 : COMO => Stelvio Pass

I planned to climb the Stelvio pass a road on my to do list in Italia.


Unfortunately, in september the weather is cold and the forecast is not good :


As the Elise is not the perfect car to drive on snow, we modified our plan and reach BOLZANO with an other road with a mountain pass with less altitude :


Probably the best road of the frolic in Italia, smooth and beautiful countryside :


Nice view from the restaurant :




Downhill in direction of Bolzano :


To be continued...

[campbell]

Think we drove a bit of that, Julian, on the “Stelvio 99” tour. Bolzano and Merano def familiar!

Great pictures and stories. Thank you

[C7Steve]

Thanks for posting.


Steve

[Julien]

Day 6 : Bolzano => Venice
Nothing special, two days to visite Venice and especially Murano and Burano two smaller island but much more lovely.
We took an hotel outside Venice at "Mestre" and it's easy to reach Venice with a bus.
The bus driver was likely a race pilot, full throttle, hard break and turns taken at the limit.

Day 8 : Venice => Maranello
Surprisingly, Maranello is the first town in our frolic with speed bumps.

We visit the Ferrari museum, but it was a bit disappointing, very few old cars, modern car, but i'am not a fan.

288 GTO


F40 of course






Of course a dozen of F1 Cars




A collection of old F1 engine (V10 and V8)




A connecting rod with an impressive work of lightening


To be continued...