Just back from Isle of Man

[twopointnine]

My wife and I have just returned from a week away on the Isle of Man. We covered 871.3 miles with an average fuel consumption of 30.4 mpg, quite acceptable for a 2.9 but nowhere near as good as the consumption figures reported by some 981 2.7 owners.

 

Our trip started on Friday with a tour of the Morgan factory in Malvern, the next day we spent at the Chateau Impney hillclimb. Sunday saw us at the Albert Dock, Liverpool for a tour of 'The Beatles Experience' then on to Heysham to board our ferry at 02:15 (yes, a.m.!). We spent four days on the Isle of Man, drove the TT course, experienced the opportunity to drive unfettered by speed limits, watched some of the Southern 100 motorcycle races, and visited the new'ish motor museum.

 

We enjoyed our time on the island and would go again. Our hotel was in Ramsey which had a nicer small town atmosphere than Douglas. Although some roads do not have a speed limit I found little opportunity to make the most of them due to other traffic or mist/rain. I've been to quite a few motor museums but was very impressed by this one, I liked the write-ups detailing how many of the cars came to be in the museum.

 

I had intended to use my recently purchased Panasonic Lumix G7 compact digital system camera to take lots of pictures of my car posing in scenic locations but failed. The camera is just not as user friendly as I'd hoped with far to many buttons with functions I have failed to memorize. To cap it all, most of my pictures were over-exposed, it turns out that this is because when you use the exposure compensation adjustment the camera remembers the settings even if you switch it off and on again - that seems totally dumb to me.

 

Anyway, if you're considering a visit to the Isle of Man then go for it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

 

[twopointnine]

I forgot to mention that I ended up leading a Cayman convoy to the Chateau Impney hillclimb - I stopped for fuel at Droitwich where there was another Cayman also getting fuel, the driver approached and asked if I knew where the hillclimb was and could he follow me! I mentioned the Cayman owners Club but it would have been useful if I had a flier to give him.

 

Also, I can see why eponymoose likes his 17" wheels, the Isle of Man roads are generally lacking in smoothness which resulted in a bone jarring filling loosening ride on my 19" rims!

 

[Tom]

14 hours ago, twopointnine said:

I mentioned the Cayman owners Club but it would have been useful if I had a flier to give him.

 

I believe @Uncle Dave was arranging this actually, he's a bit slow though bless him 

[DKR_77]

This is on my bucket list...probably not in the Cayman mind you  

 

How was the crossing over? 

[twopointnine]

7 hours ago, DKR_77 said:

This is on my bucket list...probably not in the Cayman mind you  

 

How was the crossing over? 

 

We travelled on the Ben-my-Chree ferry between Heysham and Douglas. I'm not a good sailor and chose the ferry over the fast-craft which I've heard can suffer more in rough seas. The crossings were far from smooth but not rough enough to make me ill, during the rougher bits I just tried to sleep. I'd recommended upgrading to the premium lounge, as we did for the return journey, where you get an allocated comfortable seat with free coffees etc, biscuits, newspapers etc.

 

As much as I enjoy driving my Cayman I can't say that it was much fun driving it on the island as I mentioned in my original post, it would have been more relaxed and comfortable if I'd taken my Q3. If we go again we'll compare the costs of flying from Gloucester to Castletown and then getting a hire car.