Events and Trips

Rally to London – Day “Minus One” : From Amsterdam to Basel

This Wednesday is the start of Aston Martin’s Centenary Rally to London, in which my wife Sytske and I are of course going to participate. However, the rally starts in Como in Italy and we are located in Amsterdam… so we have to make our way down to Como first 🙂 Today we completed the first stretch of our pre-rally trip (hence “Day Minus One”), from Amsterdam to Basel. 750 kilometers in the pocket and not an inch closer to London yet 🙂

Rally to London – the participants

There will be 100 participants in next week’s Rally to London (that is, 100 cars, about 200 people). Around 50 cars will start in Como, Italy, the rest will join the convoy on its way to London at one of the checkpoints in Europe. Each car has its’s own rally number, displayed on the car using a rally sticker designed by Marek Reichman (Aston’s Design Director). And yes, they gave me #002 as my rally number, how cool is that? Only one problem: where will I put Marek’s sticker?

Next week: Centenary Rally to London!

Next week, we are going to participate in Aston Martin’s Centenary Rally to London! 1,000 miles, 5 days, 7 countries and 100 (one hundred!) Aston Martins. The trip starts on Wednesday in Como, Italy and will take us through Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, to end in London, for a big centenary party on Saturday, then a picnic in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park on Sunday, with 1,000 (one thousand) Aston Martins!!!

Taking Billy Bilstein to Hamburg

I am a member of the Dutch Cars and Business club, which organizes multiple road trips each year, plus a couple of cars and coffee meetings. This weekend, 30 club members went on a 2-day trip to Hamburg, Germany, bringing 30 supercars, including four very nice Aston Martins, one being our blue/yellow V12 Roadster. But I must warn you, this post also includes photos of some Italian and German monsters.

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 7 : Driving back to the ferry in Newcastle

Sadly, our fantastic trip had to end. This is the final day, in which we drove back to Newcastle starting at the hotel in Torridon. Not the most exciting roads, but still… who can complain about driving an Aston all day?

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 6 : Mountain Road take 2, then Loch Maree

For the sixth day of the Scotland Tour, no route was planned. Just a special event late in the afternoon. The rest of the day, everyone was free to go (or not go) where they wanted.

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 5 : Visiting the Isle of Skye

With the Isle of Skye so close to the location of our hotel (not a coincidence of course), we just had to visit the island. So that was the destination of the fifth day of our Scotland tour.

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 4 : Going east around Loch Ness

The plan for day 4 of our Scotland tour: first go west to drive the spectacular Applecross mountain road, then head east to visit Nessie at the lake of Loch Ness.

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 3 : Exploring the north

Day 3 of the Scotland Highlands Tour, but actually the first day we start exploring the beautiful roads of Scotland. This day we ventured north, in the direction of Ullapool, then further north and back to Torridon (I on the map below) via the east. I am afraid I do not have a lot of photos of this day, but I’ve got something better: a video shot from the dash of my V12 Roadster.

PBSM Scotland Highlands Tour – Day 2 : From Newcastle to Torridon

The Dutch Power Beauty Soulmates go Scotland, day 2. This day we arrived in the UK, in Newcastle and then drove from Newcastle to our destination, the Torridon Hotel in Torridon, Scotland. A trip of roughly 550 kilometers (330 miles), but mostly over 2-lane 60 mph roads, so taking nearly 8 hours.