brackie
31-10-2006, 06:32 AM
Didn't know whether to post this in this forum or in "General Chat".
Last Friday my mrs, myself and our dairy engineer had to do a business trip to Bothwell....in Tassie's Southern Midlands. There was no question that we would do it in the TDI, however the choice of route had to be made. Weather forecasts were for worsening conditions with snow down to 300m and gale force winds so the route decision was this:
Play it safe and use Bass Hwy to Launceston and then the Midlands Hwy to Melton Mowbray turning left and travelling to Bothwell (a circuitous route, about an hour and 100km longer) or head straight over the Central Plateau with elevations of >1000m, past Great Lake with ~35km of dirt roads, hairpin bends and log trucks. The decision was left to me and I took the Great Lake route.
On the ascent to the Plateau the road climbs through thick forest that closes in tight on both sides and there are plenty of hairpin bends. The TDI handled all of this with aplomb and had so much torque that it literally flew up the hills. Then it flew into a wallaby......The little bastard was a Rufous Wallaby about 70cm tall and it bounced out in front of me when I was doing ~100kph. Nowhere to go, (of course) but instincts took over from memory so I braked and decided that I would run over it with the LF wheel. This I did but not after it smashed into the area below the LF headlight with a terrific bang. Only afterwards did I remember I have ABS (this is the first car that I have owned with it). If I had braked harder and steered around the wallaby I could have missed it :mad: . So I got out and prepared myself for major damage. NOTHING :) . Not a mark! I reckon that if I had hit this animal at that speed in anything else it would at least have torn off the front plastics. Bloody strong car!
So we completed the trip to Bothwell, did our business and reckoning that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place headed back the same way. As we were climbing back toward the plateau the snow clouds were gathering and it was looking bleak. To cut a long story short, we drove through a blizzard for about 50km and not one flake of snow landed on the car! Believe it or not, but the wipers didn't even turn on! This car has fantastic aerodynamics...we were watching the snow just flowing over the bonnet and past the sides of the car with not one flake settling. It was surreal....just like watching smoke passing over a car in a wind tunnel.
When we got into sticky stuff (gravel road, snow and slush on it) the traction control came in very hand. It felt safe as houses.
Well, that's my story. :)
Last Friday my mrs, myself and our dairy engineer had to do a business trip to Bothwell....in Tassie's Southern Midlands. There was no question that we would do it in the TDI, however the choice of route had to be made. Weather forecasts were for worsening conditions with snow down to 300m and gale force winds so the route decision was this:
Play it safe and use Bass Hwy to Launceston and then the Midlands Hwy to Melton Mowbray turning left and travelling to Bothwell (a circuitous route, about an hour and 100km longer) or head straight over the Central Plateau with elevations of >1000m, past Great Lake with ~35km of dirt roads, hairpin bends and log trucks. The decision was left to me and I took the Great Lake route.
On the ascent to the Plateau the road climbs through thick forest that closes in tight on both sides and there are plenty of hairpin bends. The TDI handled all of this with aplomb and had so much torque that it literally flew up the hills. Then it flew into a wallaby......The little bastard was a Rufous Wallaby about 70cm tall and it bounced out in front of me when I was doing ~100kph. Nowhere to go, (of course) but instincts took over from memory so I braked and decided that I would run over it with the LF wheel. This I did but not after it smashed into the area below the LF headlight with a terrific bang. Only afterwards did I remember I have ABS (this is the first car that I have owned with it). If I had braked harder and steered around the wallaby I could have missed it :mad: . So I got out and prepared myself for major damage. NOTHING :) . Not a mark! I reckon that if I had hit this animal at that speed in anything else it would at least have torn off the front plastics. Bloody strong car!
So we completed the trip to Bothwell, did our business and reckoning that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place headed back the same way. As we were climbing back toward the plateau the snow clouds were gathering and it was looking bleak. To cut a long story short, we drove through a blizzard for about 50km and not one flake of snow landed on the car! Believe it or not, but the wipers didn't even turn on! This car has fantastic aerodynamics...we were watching the snow just flowing over the bonnet and past the sides of the car with not one flake settling. It was surreal....just like watching smoke passing over a car in a wind tunnel.
When we got into sticky stuff (gravel road, snow and slush on it) the traction control came in very hand. It felt safe as houses.
Well, that's my story. :)