You CAN road trip an SE SR

[Rolfe]

I've just done Essex to Snowdon and back in a SE SR and had no issues. One stop on the way up as I wasn't going to need the car while in Wales. And two on the way back cos I was going back to work the following day and wouldn't have enough with just using my granny charger. Used Gridserve chargers with no problems on the M6 and M 25. In fact the only issues I had was with ICE cars parking in the EV charging bays. I even had a "discussion" with a guy in a Merc AMG who tried to convince me that his was specially modified to an ev despite having four of the biggest diameter exhaust pipes I've ever seen!

The first time I had a go at someone doing that in Halifax, I got "If I didn't park here, someone else would." The second time I got "We pays us council tax too," or something like that, I don't actually speak Yorkshire. The third time, when all four bays were ICEd, I stopped right in front of the line of them, expecting some fun. However, within about 30 seconds someone had returned to the car at the end, the one I wasn't blocking in, and driven off without me having the chance to say anything. Foiled again!

I’ve done plenty of longer journeys and never had this problem, it’s December 22 model. Maybe it’s a change in the later V2 variant.

Mine is phase 1 too. But when I got it the dealer did say something about driver alertness monitoring. I remember wagging my finger at the car and saying, "are you going to get judgmental on me?" but nothing has ever happened.

 

[siteguru]

In your case the dealer was probably confusing himself vs the Trophy model, where the driver alertness sensor was only fitted to the early batches of cars.

 

[Martinonline]

@Rolfe, if you can manage it next time I recommend the Gridserve chargers at Watford Gap Services. I have used the MK Ionity chargers but the last time I tried the 3 bays were full so had to use the slower BP pulse chargers. Since then travelled the extra miles to Watford Gap, plenty of chargers, better selection of food and you do not have to pay for the loos.

 

[SueH]

Although there is no photography allowed during the performance, here is a shot of a curtain call.

View attachment 27097

By the end of the evening Caliban was at 100% with his battery pack nicely balanced, mission accomplished.

I'm guessing Die Zauberflote from the masonic eye on the set?

I was reading earlier in the thread that fully charged your car showed 17? miles, which as I've just balanced mine and got 240 (SE) I was wondering about.

But then I saw some more of your accounts and can see you have been enjoying enthusiastic speeds! My recent stuff has been pootling. Interesting though as I've a trip to France planned soon but wasn't envisaging too much 130 kph stuff due to the hit to range and we've got a long way to go. Some is direct across country on a shorter route so that will partly help.

 

[SueH]

Having read a bit further into the thread, I've a question about the driver alertness system. Does it reset even with a very brief stop as on long distances with my friend we share driving and the other goes to sleep.

The passenger seat reclines very nicely but you do need a pillow for a hollow: we've tested that part at least..

 

[Rolfe]

@Rolfe, if you can manage it next time I recommend the Gridserve chargers at Watford Gap Services. I have used the MK Ionity chargers but the last time I tried the 3 bays were full so had to use the slower BP pulse chargers. Since then travelled the extra miles to Watford Gap, plenty of chargers, better selection of food and you do not have to pay for the loos.

I did think about going on, and would probably have made Watford Gap, but I was hungry and fortunately the Ionity chargers weren't busy. I did see a van using the BP Pulse ones. But that's worth remembering if I'm doing that trip again, because if I do remember to take advantage of the free solar where I'm staying that's probably the optimum distance to aim for.

I was going to say, I don't remember paying for the loo, but now I think of it, there was a turnstile everyone was just sliding past! The food was a bit dire though. "Steak slice" my eye.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm guessing Die Zauberflote from the masonic eye on the set?

I was reading earlier in the thread that fully charged your car showed 17? miles, which as I've just balanced mine and got 240 (SE) I was wondering about.

But then I saw some more of your accounts and can see you have been enjoying enthusiastic speeds! My recent stuff has been pootling. Interesting though as I've a trip to France planned soon but wasn't envisaging too much 130 kph stuff due to the hit to range and we've got a long way to go. Some is direct across country on a shorter route so that will partly help.

Die Zauberflöte with a director who really could have done a better job. Basically Tamino was a guest in a 1920s posh hotel and he was sleepwalking and the whole thing was his dream. Cop-out city. It means there's no necessity for anything to make sense, anything can happen, because anything can happen in dreams and you don't need to explain it. All the protagonists were staff or guests in the hotel. A couple of the scenes were fairly offensive in my opinion.

However, musically it was really great. The big thing about Glyndebourne, quite unusually these days, is that nothing on the stage or in the orchestra pit is amplified. There are electronic sound effects, but nothing changes the sound the performers make before it gets to your ears.

I should ever see 240 miles range in my SR! Yes I was enjoying rather enthusiastic speeds, the sort of speeds where 140-150 miles is all you're realistically going to see before you need to charge. Fun though. Maybe if I went a leisurely scenic drive on B roads somewhere things might be different.

 

[Rolfe]

Well here I am again. I was intending the same itinerary but temperatures were only 14-15C and there were intermittent torrential rain storms over the Southern Uplands. My initial 30 mile cushion to get to Forton was gone by Carlisle. So I decided to stop at Tebay which has better food anyway.

There are only four non Tesla chargers and all were occupied, but nobody else was queueing. The first guy back, in an Ioniq, was already at 97% and then couldn't figure out how to stop the charge, but eventually he managed it and I got on.

I recalculated and this doesn't involve any additional stops so I'm not really behind.

I've just realised I've got to 94% myself without realising while having lunch so I'd better make tracks.

The pic isn't at the charger as there was someone waiting and someone else just arriving so I moved to do my pre flight check. But someone else moved at the same time so all was well.

 

[Rolfe]

Well, this is the life.

I was actually on 97% by the time I got back to the Tebay charger and unhooked, but the GOM was only showing 135 miles of range. That's how bad the conditions were in southern Scotland and me driving at full motorway speeds. Still, next stop is only about 118 miles. Should be fine, right?

Well. At first the fuel consumption was if anything worse than before. Soon I was down to only about six miles cushion, with heavy intermittent rain and headwinds. And that was with the heating off, because it was getting warmer and there were some sunny intervals. But I had faith, and pressed on. It was getting warmer and the wind was dropping. And thanks to that, plus a long stretch of 50 mph on the M6, I got here on 13% charge, by this time running the aircon.

About five miles before the Tesla superchargers, which are a couple of miles off the motorway, I came to Keele services. I actually went in because I thought, if there's a bank of 350 kW Gridserves then why not? But all I could see was a couple of chargers that looked like the old ones, with some people already on them. (Idiots.) These will get you 25 kW (shared) on a good day. So I didn't even stop, and came on here to Trentham Gardens. Now I see it, I remember the place from a Dave Takes It On video. Caliban is a happy car.

Beautiful restaurant/tea room, comfy armchairs, but I chose to come outside in the fresh air and (at last) sunshine. Cappuccino and lemon Victoria sponge. My first question was about doggy bags.

I can see a Ferris Wheel and I think there's a whole leisure park. Premier Inn, Frankie and Benny's, garden centre, lovely. Caliban isn't the car for a pony express dash across country, but with his 80-odd kW charging speed you get some really nice stops.

Oops, he's on 90% already, I may need that doggy bag. Cherwell Valley here we come.

 

[Joules]

I can vouch for the weather!! Summer!?
Good luck on your onward journey

 

[Rolfe]

And here we are at Cherwell Valley, and another toastie.

Busy, and I thought I'd have to take the accessible bay, which I didn't really want to do because I'll probably be charging longer than many other cars, but just as I was pulling in someone left one of the other 350 kW ones so that was OK. People are using the accessible one, someone was in and out while I was getting my toastie and someone else has just gone in. The 50 kW units are also in use but I want 150 miles if I can get it.

Look who else was here. Really nice ER.

I had a nice chat with the owner who is really pleased with the car and says he's getting 300 miles to a charge. He was just sitting his car, it probably charges too fast for toasties.

I stayed longer than I needed to at Trentham Gardens, with the sponge cake (which still didn't get finished), and could probably have got to the next service station OK. But I didn't know what facilities were there, could have been like Keele, so here I am. And getting some of the discounted Gridserve leccy after all.

 

[siteguru]

Not someone from here I take it?

 

[Archev]

Not someone from here I take it?

Too fast for toasties eh?
That’s another useful anti-ice retort for conversations ?
My next camping trip slowly coming together. Just ordered a wee induction cooker to replace my gas stove.

 

[SueH]

Since I last posted on this thread I've been to Italy and back in my MG4 SE, so yes, you can road trip this car. We did a variety of speeds on the autoroutes and N roads, and as the holiday went on they crept up, as experience showed us the penalty wasn't too great, and certainly better than ABRP predicted.

Channel port to Italy in a day was a little more than in an ICE, but not by much and possibly due to routeing away from Paris as the Olympics were on, and the queue for the Mont Blanc tunnel, which is never an issue in my normal winter travel.

It's always nice to have more range but the human factor turned out to be more important: it's bloomin' tiring driving those distances, even if a lot better than the ICEs I've done it in. The cost penalty for that range is something I'm quite happy not to have paid.

 

[Rolfe]

Not someone from here I take it?

No, apparently not. There was another orange MG4 I noticed on the way out - on a big poster advertising Gridserve's car leasing service.

 

[Rolfe]

Since I last posted on this thread I've been to Italy and back in my MG4 SE, so yes, you can road trip this car. We did a variety of speeds on the autoroutes and N roads, and as the holiday went on they crept up, as experience showed us the penalty wasn't too great, and certainly better than ABRP predicted.

Channel port to Italy in a day was a little more than in an ICE, but not by much and possibly due to routeing away from Paris as the Olympics were on, and the queue for the Mont Blanc tunnel, which is never an issue in my normal winter travel.

It's always nice to have more range but the human factor turned out to be more important: it's bloomin' tiring driving those distances, even if a lot better than the ICEs I've done it in. The cost penalty for that range is something I'm quite happy not to have paid.

I'm afraid the way I drive I often leave ABRP by the wayside. I used to do Sussex to Scotland in 6 or 7 hours in my Peugeot GTi, but this is more fun. I made it in under 11 hours anyway, and it's 20 miles further than my old drive.

I got to my friends' house bang on nine. 14% and 22 miles left, and Glyndebourne is 16 miles away. Should be fine. Yes it's uphill but I won't be hurrying. I just realised this is a great opportunity to do a long charge on the destination PodPoints there. It's Wagner. I'll be there for ages.

It's so hot here compared to home. I grabbed my winter duvet last night. Here, it's a single sheet. I'd forgotten what it's like, I left in 2006.

 

[SueH]

Is that the whole cycle? Should be 100% by the end..

 

[Rolfe]

It's Tristan und Isolde. Four hours of opera (maybe they have trimmed 15 minutes off it though), two and a half hours of intervals. Gardens open two hours before the performance starts, and stay open 90 minutes after it finishes. I think that will be long enough. At least nine hours.

 

[SueH]

Like driving across France, thank goodness for the intervals!

 

[Rolfe]

When it's Tristan, these are the best bits. Why am I here anyway?