Well, I made it back from Liverpool in 5 hours and 20 minutes. That’s 272 miles, and average of 51mph and 43 mpg. It didn’t get any special running in treatment, but it’s a 7 speed DSG auto, so I’m not sure it was needed.
I reckon that’s quicker than on an ordinary Friday; all the scaremongering meant that the roads were pretty quiet. No snow on the roads until the M1. There was then snow on the M1 much of the whole way, but enough traffic and salt to keep it as a slush, and speeds varied from 30 to 70mph. Didn’t grind to a halt once, though the Sat Nav took me out of Liverpool under the Mersey and on to the M54 (?) and then the M6/M1/M25/A3/A283. The M25 and A3 were almost deserted at 6pm, again for a Friday bizarre. They were clear and wet, though it was minus 2. That was what convinced me to go cross country on the A283 rather than the ‘safer’ A3/A27 route.
Turned out the M25/A3 had lulled me into a false sense of security - it was pretty slushy and slippy. The A29 up Bury Hill was particularly icy, but it’s long and relatively steep, with a couple of sweeping bends, the one at the top tightening just at the steepest point. Maintaining momentum without slipping is a fine balance; I erred on the side of more speed, so as not to get stuck. I can confirm that the ESP works ;) I can also confirm that, while the adaptive cruise/DSG combo is brilliant, and will brake the car to a standstill then accelerate when the road is clear, a build out of snow and ice on the front of the car will stop it working.
All in all a pretty uneventful journey, despite the doom and gloom from (almost) everyone I spoke to. Thanks to Pat for confirming what I thought, which was that my route took me pretty much between the two bands of snow and so would be a relatively low risk journey. It was :)
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will i make it? new
will i make it? new
