I love my 1986 Ford Escort 1.4 GL Estate in Champagne Gold, but Ernie the Escort surpassed even my expectations this week. As you may know, I have been away for a week, in the French Alpes. This was not through choice, but for research with University. I did find out that I hate skiing though...
Something else I hate, almost as much as skiing, is flying. I'm not scared of it, it just bores me. So instead of paying £100 for the 2 hour flight to Grenoble, I paid alot more to drive there! Honestly, I knew that Ernie would get there and back, but I hadn't counted on just how easily he'd do it. Over 1400 miles of driving, and not so much as a splutter. Okay, after a week of being parked at Grenoble-Isere airport he didn't start straight away, but he did start without assistance. and on the way home, we ripped through France to catch an earlier ferry, at speeds of between 80 and 100 (for legal reasons, those speeds are in kph)! I would never have though it possible for Ernie to keep those sorts of speeds up for 7 hours straight.
As if that didn't beat it all, I also found out that the other car that drove out there wouldn't start to get off of the ferry. When you consider that the other car is 15 years newer than Ernie, that's quite an achievement. Furthermore, driving a route that should take 7h 33m in a little over 7 hours is pretty impressive.
Lastly, in a final rasp to all of those who doubted my car's abilities, after 11.5 hours of driving yesterday, I arrived home at 1.30am, and I didn't have any aches or pains, and I felt that I could have driven another 700 miles (as I'm sure Ernie would have done - he just loves eating up the miles!). I defy anyone to find a better, more reliable, more able car for £300!
To date, Ernie has been an off-road continental cruising ambulance taxi sports cruiser. That's quite a job description!
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