4 Countries, the English Channel, 1800kms - just for a Stanceworks meet.

[Dr.AK]

Yeah. I finally went through with what I've threatened for the last few months and came over to the UK, just for a Stanceworks Meet. Starting in Germany, crossing through the Netherlands, Belgium, France and finally arriving in Great Britain after crossing the English Channel via Ferry from Dunkirk to Dover.

I'll start at the beginning - earlier this year I was planning to come over for DC12. Stuff happened and I couldn't make the trip. I noticed the upcoming Stanceworks meet in Gaydon and decided, 'Fuck it, last time didn't work out, I'll make it work this time for sure, no matter what!" and promptly booked a ferry. Spent some time investigating places to stay and ended up being offered a place to stay by Hayden (Anonymoose on here). That out of the way, I just had to wait for the date to arrive.

I left home at around 00:45 in the morning on Friday, the 3rd August. About 380kms to the ferry, so I was expecting to have just a bit less than half the tank left once I arrived there - imagine my surprise when I managed to get the fuel consumption down to great levels and only spent a quarter tank until I filled up again in Belgium 50 kms before the ferry.


Filling up about 50km before the Ferry von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Gas Mileage von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Gas mileage von bochmann.photo auf Flickr

Around 5 I arrived at the ferry in Dunkirk. Proceeded through check in and then met the first speed bumps in the harbour... annoying little things, about 5cm wide, 7cm high and go over the whole road so no way around them. Didn't see the speedbump next to the passport control booth and so ran into it without braking... the clerk in the booth was so surprised by the loud 'THUMP' of my undercarriage hitting the speedbump that he nearly fell of his chair

Made it down to the boarding area without further hassle and waited for boarding to begin...


Waiting to board the ferry in Dunkirk von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Once boarding commenced, the ferry crewman directing the cars was going to direct me to the upper deck (even though I had specifically asked to be put onto the lower deck because of how low the car is), but starting waving his arms around like mad and pointing to the lower deck once he saw me slightly scrape over the slight ramp into the ferry.


Parked inside the ferry von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Once arrived in Dover, I stopped at the parking lot to place the headlight stickers onto my headlights, so I wouldn't blend other drivers in the UK because of their left side driving. The cliffs in the background made for a nice picture so I snapped a few...


Just arrived in Dover von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Just arrived in Dover von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Hayden was still at work, so I took the scenic route and went along the coast and did a small stop in Brighton to look around...



Parked in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Cool looking house in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Brighton Speed Camera von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


E92 M3 spotted in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Life Guard in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Parked in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Parked in Brighton von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Then I slowly made my way up to Hayden's place in Horsham. Once arrived, I rested a bit and then Hayden introduced me to his neighbour John who drives an E36 as well and we did car talk for a while, drinking beers all the while... sometime later we went to the pubs and more drinking ensued. Ended up being quite a fun and adventurous night with Hayden having lost his phone's battery, me having lost my whole phone and me falling over a curb and spraining my ankle on the way home. Wasn't so bad tho and I could walk on it easily by the next day with a slight limp.

For saturday we actually planned to go to London the check out BMW's Art cars presented there but we ended up spending so much time looking for my missing phone and then just buying a new one (so I could phone someone in the way home, should something break on the car because I was a bit concerned about my transmission as it is making noises) that we didn't have time anymore to do this... no matter though. We ended up picking up a spoiler for Hayden's S12 down in Gillingham after which it was time for a first fuel stop in Britain:


Filling up near Horsham von bochmann.photo auf Flickr

After, we decided to try out light painting and for a first few tries, I think these came out great... still could use a bit more work here and there, but I think I'll use this technique more often now!



Lightpainting Experiments von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Lightpainting Experiments von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


In Horsham at Night von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


In Horsham at Night von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


In Horsham at night von bochmann.photo auf Flickr


Sunday was finally the day of the Stanceworks meet.

First, we went up to Leatherhead and met up with another friend there and from there on drove to Beaconsfield services to meet up with a whole host of other going there. Shortly before the Beaconsfield exit, we met George and his bagged, black E24 6 series on BBS RS on the motorway and travelled together for the last few miles to the service station. Car looks gorgeous in person!

On the way to the meet in Gaydon at the Heritage Motor Centre, Hayden took these pics as my passenger:





And this one was taken by Dan Fegent... absolutely love it!


StanceWorks Uk - Meet 5.8.12 von Dan Fegent auf Flickr


Here's a teaser of my pics from the SW meet, more will follow later once I get around to editing them.




After the meet, I dropped Hayden and his little son off at home and started my way home around 22:30. The ride back was pretty uneventful, going this direction there weren't even any speedbumps at the port, although the ramp going into the ferry is pretty bad in Dover, compared to the one in Dunkirk.

A quick stop at a rest area in Belgium:


Reststop in Belgium von bochmann.photo auf Flickr

Not too long, though as it was still 3 more hours until I was home...


Driver's Perspective von bochmann.photo auf Flickr

And finally, I crossed back into Germany:


Crossing into Germany von bochmann.photo auf Flickr



This was the route I ended up driving:




My thoughts about this weekend... it was amazing. The UK is a beautiful country from what I've seen so far and the people I met were really great. The Stanceworks crowd was really great and welcoming and it was great to finally put faces to the names and see the cars in the flesh. I'll definitely come back soon! Already starting some planning about getting a few more Germans together and hit up one of the bigger events in 2013, like DC13 or Players show or maybe Edition38...

[Alexridesabike]

I love your car, photo's look awesome too!

[stinkinrich]

I had no idea you had all the camera gear and really good at using it haha.

Excellent write up and photos, was really good meeting you Bas.

[KarlSpackler]

Car looks amazing

[FRANK_NL]

Car looks Great!! Nice pics and story..

[Ubergewicht]

classy roadtrip! cant wait to see the pictures!!!! and i love this wagon more everytime i see it.

[scaredofstance]

That mustve bene one awesome trip, ive driven from south to north in Germany but never out of Germany...

thet E92 M3 doesnt look right BTW, something is off, i think its a fake.

[WhiteLove]

very nice do you had any problems ? my car would have been damaged 4 times or more

and your touring looks so damn nice ! perfect Fitment <3

[andybob]

Nice write up and pics dude. Looks like it was a good time.

[Byron]

Nice trip, how far was that roughly in miles?

Next you need to come over here for h2o.

[FABEL]

awesome story doc. thanks for sharing.

it's a shame that I wasn't able to meet Hayden. he had text me last year while I was still scraping home from H20i, as he was going to be in the states &close by Chicago. I tried avoiding cracks in the road all the quicker, but ultimately it just did not happen.

I still think about the missed opportunity, just like I do about your touring.

[electricalbox]

Awesome roadtrip... thanks for sharing.

[Anonymoose]

Bastien, Jon showed me a couple of pictures yesterday of the friday night carnage. I'll get them up here coz that shit is fuuunny

awesome story doc. thanks for sharing.

it's a shame that I wasn't able to meet Hayden. he had text me last year while I was still scraping home from H20i, as he was going to be in the states &close by Chicago. I tried avoiding cracks in the road all the quicker, but ultimately it just did not happen.

I still think about the missed opportunity, just like I do about your touring.

<3

[Mexican]

Bas, great write up man. Euro trips r the ones.

[Lukey]

thanks for the awesome read and pics to look at mang!