Spontaneity, resilience and true classic car spirit take centre stage in this latest Pub2Pub adventure. ClassicLine’s resident road tripper, Ben Coombs, swaps meticulous preparation for a last minute online find, tackling the epic Snowstorm Rally in a newly acquired modern classic. Will this unlikely classic conquer a 4,500-mile winter road trip to the Arctic Circle and back?
It wasn’t the outcome I wanted.
After a full day in the workshop, changing the oil pump on the trusty ClassicLine Insurance-sponsored Volvo 240, the low oil pressure light was still flickering as I drove home. It was a situation which went beyond frustrating, and into critical.
I needed a support car to drive to the Arctic with Pub2Pub’s Snowstorm Rally the following day.
So, in short, I had a single day in which to find a car for the 4,500+ mile drive to the northern winter and back.
Cue a trip to the hallowed listings of eBay.
The following day, I found myself viewing a Rover 216 Cabriolet which was newly listed near my home. The modern classic car was in surprisingly good condition, and the prospect of travelling to the Arctic winter in an unknown-to-me soft top appealed to the latent adventurer in me. So, a deal was done, and I promptly set course for the Eurotunnel.
As the rally got underway, I met up with the people I’d be undertaking the adventure with. And their cars; a varied bunch of machinery which included no fewer than three classic Volvos, a trio of Range Rovers, a Jaguar XF, a Fiat Panda and a Renault Twingo which seemed to groan under the weight of stickers and spotlights it had accumulated in preparation for the trip.
In total, twenty customer cars would be making the journey, and the barely-known Rover was present as their support vehicle.
As I started to notch up the miles, I got to know my steed, and found it was a fairly pleasant companion in which to make progress. This wasn’t entirely unexpected as, fancy roof aside, what I’d bought was a fairly standard ‘90s motor, with a smooth and pleasantly revvy 1.6 litre engine, and a surprisingly smart interior.
There are worse companions with which to share the motorways of Europe.
Crossing Denmark into Sweden brought us into the chill of winter proper, and the first task after rolling off the ferry was to find a set of winter tyres for the Rover, as there was no time to fit any in the UK before departure. With a set of appropriate rubber fitted, we carried on north through Sweden, as the temperatures dropped, and snow played more of a role in the landscape – though not as much as you’d imagine initially, given the milder temperatures which coincided with this year’s rally.
But winter was just around the corner.
North of Stockholm, we found ourselves on ice roads across frozen lakes, amid scenery draped in the whites of winter. Ski resorts and snowmobiles breezed past our windows; thicker jackets were donned by the snowstormers. And as we drove, the drama of the landscape increased, mountains rising from the plains more regularly, until we found ourselves in Norway, climbing onto a tundra plateau, where the Arctic Circle is crossed.
A biting wind whipped across the exposed landscape as we pulled over to take photos by the sign, before continuing north. It made for a glorious backdrop to the accomplishment of driving to the Arctic, but even as we dropped down from the plateau, continuing ever more north, the best was still to come. The scenery became more dramatic, the mountains more precipitous, the frozen lakes gripped ever harder by the frigid winter. The drive reached its climax on the jewel-like Lofoten Islands, which reach out into the Arctic Ocean like a chain of mountain perfection.
And on the south side of one of the islands, you’ll find the most picturesque football pitch in the world; the pitch where the Grand Tour’s Scandi Flick began. This pitch represented the objective for most of this year’s Snowstormers, before heading south again.
The southward journey continued the interest, as we rolled on through Norway’s rugged scenery to Trondheim, then Lillehammer, before crossing back into Sweden. Once there, the landscape’s wintery drama began to recede as the journey took on the form of a more conventional northern European road trip. And then, eighteen days after leaving the UK, we were home again, with a trip of a lifetime behind us.
But, I hear you ask, how did the Rover do?
Very well, is the answer. It completed the drive with the minimum of fuss, and no major issues. And it’s still kicking around, performing daily driver issues while we get to the bottom of the Volvo’s problems.
Not bad for something bought off eBay just before departure. I guess the moral of the story is, never underestimate just what you can achieve with an old classic, and some positive thinking…
The 2027 Snowstorm Rally is already open for entries, and you can find out more about the event here: www.planetpub2pub.com/snowstorm
