Driving this machine was a delight, whether the thrill of being pushed back into the seat with the pedal floored or cruising with the top down in the lovely English countryside.
BHPian HondaSport recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Hey Petrolheads, this thread is a long time coming but better now than never!
Background – Self and wife had been planning a trip to London just before Covid hit, that put a spanner in the works so to speak. Fast forward to early 2023 and things started falling in place i.e., Budget, Leave approvals from work, Wife also agreeing to shutter her work for a couple of weeks and school holidays.
Trip finalized in March 2023 and we landed in the UK in early June 2023. With a couple of road trips planned, I had looked out for car rentals online and went through the online links from Hertz / Avis / Sixt / Europcar etc. A bit of more research and I found this pretty near equivalent of Airbnb for cars – Turo. Owners can put up their vehicles to rent for a day / multiple days with the price inclusive of the payout to the owner, fee for Turo’s platform and insurance. With the options available from cars to SUVs, it was a petrolhead’s fantasy come true.
Here is a screengrab of the Turo page for reference –
Roadtrip #1 – London to Cotswold and back
Distance covered – Approximately 175 Miles / 280 Kms
Cotswold is a picture perfect town a couple of hours drive from London on the M40 motorway.
My ride of choice – Mercedes Benz C 200 Amg Line Auto, a Cabriolet in grey color. A top speed of 146 Mph / 234 Kph and a 0-60 Mph / 0 – 100 Kph time of 8.5 seconds, this was the fastest motor vehicle I had driven till then.
Some pictures of this sleek piece of german engineering!
Pictures of the cars interior
Pirelli PZero Rubber shod tyres
Lot of nervousness owing to driving in the UK for the first time, an automatic(I had only driven manuals till then) as well as open top vehicle from the famed silver arrows.
Luckily for me, I did not have to navigate London traffic or streets for long, a handful of turns from my hotel and I was on the motorway.
Lane driving takes getting used to especially when one has been used to driving on Indian roads for over 2 decades A lot of patience and self control was needed to not simply swerve left or right, pedal to the metal and away we go! I realized that even slowing down and changing lanes to park on the side of the motorway required some bit of planning and process overcoming the natural instinct to simply jump a couple of lanes and brake to a halt, ditto for driving back onto the motorway! Phew!
Another thing learned that driving with the soft top down is only comfortable at speeds of upto 30 Mph / 50 Kph; beyond that the wind is howling and anything in the car can go flying away including jackets / scarves!
Yours truly at the wheel ! Savouring the 1.5 litre turbo charged petrol motor pushing out 200 Bhp and 300 NM of Torque.
Driving through the english countryside! 9 Speed Auto was smooth and slick!
The Cotswold is a picturesque area full of English countryside charm.
Driving this machine was a delight, whether the thrill of being pushed back into the seat with the pedal floored or cruising with the top down in the lovely english countryside
For now, that’s all and will come back with roadtrip #2 soon. Hope you like this thread.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
