Heading on a European tour with a, by then, 29 year old car

[rider]

It's fully 24 years since my car last ran the Autobahn, gently pushing M3's aside with ease. Since I bought the car in 1998 its been 100% reliable, never even blown a bulb. It hasn't moved much in the last few years, it's about to go for it's 25th MOT having covered just 86 miles since the last one. This could all be about to change as one of my daughters is a petrol head and is now old enough to afford to add to the insurance (quoted £260 to add her), so we are thinking of running an Alpine and Dolomites tour together which would run to around 3,500 miles all in.

Seeing the car is now 28 years old and will be 29 when the tour is planned, what spares do people recommend to carry? Is it likely to blow a water or inlet hose (these are all original on the car) racing through Germany on the way to Munich as the gateway to the Alps? There will be plenty of miles covered in Europe by dragonballers, is there anything that should be carried on tour for every eventuality?

A lot of recovery companies have maximum age limits on cars covered, which companies do people use for their accident or breakdown recovery?

Edited October 3 by rider (see edit history)

[Mike2JZ]

All i can say from my euro experiences is that whatever spares you take, you will break something you dont have with you. I've always been lucky that I was still manage to limp it wherever I needed to go and fix it afterwards, so hopefully if it does happen its nothing too crazy. 

If I had to focus on anything I'd say the longer motorway journeys bring a lot of sustained heat into all the engine systems. So without a doubt make sure the cooling system and associated pipework are all in good nick otherwise they might have a habbit of splitting open after not being used for so long. Most common contenders for issues are the rear heater pipe at the back of the head, coolant pipes going in/out of the oil/water heat exchanger under the inlet and inlet/outlet plastic ports on the radiator failing. 

[raddys]

Like Mike said, make sure rubbers are good. might be worth spending £1000 on pipes now rather then being stuck up a mountain and having to pay €300 euros just to be recovered to the local garage only for them to charge you an arm and a leg on top! Also future proofs it obviously and gives you massive peace of mind for such a trip.

We took mine down to the top of italy last year passing through the swiss alps and the car was amazing. Just make sure you either get it fully checked over or replace all rubbers.

Enjoy the trip!!!

[Scooter]

x2 thin front turbo pipes, pin holed on me one time, when I took them off they were very crusty/brittle. (gaffer tape and then generic hose would have fixed this on a tour)

Check your front main hose droop (towards the viscous fan)? 

You could take a load of hose that's the appropriate sizes? 

Do a decent length UK road trip / shake down / stress test? 

Do some European Supra research, find the SRD's of the countries you are travelling through? so worse case you can get local recovery (research them too maybe?) to drop you somewhere useful that can get you going again?

It'll be a lovely trip

[Burna]

I agree with Mike and Raddys, change out all your old coolant hoses, and check the condition of your radiator and rad cap.

The only spares I take are fluid top ups. 5 litres of coolant, 2 litres of oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid. I manage to fit all these under the boot plastic and carpet, packed tightly around the spare wheel. Mike said after he had to go into the boot to fit new fuel pumps "Burna your Jenga game is strong!". It's like a jigsaw puzzle under there lol.

I always carry a lithium battery tyre pump, and a lithium battery jump start, so maybe worth investing in those also. The lithium ones are more expensive, but take up less room, and traveling across Europe for days in a Supra with 2 peoples luggage is a tight squeeze!

For breakdown cover there's only one to choose, and that's RAC Comprehensive Plus.

 

[rider]

Thanks all. I've checked over the hoses and the ones on top of the engine (4mm id) are fairly stiff but have no sign of any cracking even when pinched and pushed. All the larger hoses look and feel fine. I bought a spare radiator 7 years ago and some coolant hoses at the same time. It's all still boxed so I need to break it open to find out what I did buy in the end. I'll need to check that out and buy in some 4mm, 5mm and 6mm id reinforced hosing to do some changes before or as required. One of the firewall heater hoses looks a proper pain to get to. I could just end up asking a Supra specialist change the hoses out for new Gates or the like where Toyota is no longer available.

With only 2 people in the car there will be storage available on the back seats or behind the front passenger seat for antifreeze, rudimentary tools, pipe lengths, duct tape and the compulsory triangle. If I decide to get a specialist to replace the hoses who would people recommend reasonably close to Shropshire. I could try CW but I'm not sure that he is into doing Supra work any longer. 

[rider]

Well, it's on. Scheduled for the second week in June since not all the Alpine passes open up before June. I've sorted the RAC European zone 2 cover and booked a flexible ticket on the Shuttle. Hotels are all identified and will be booked during January. It's cut across the Austrian and Italian alps to spend a couple of days on the Italian lakes then into Switzerland for a few days running a few Alpine passes then returning via Lake Constance.

I refurbished an OEM set of road wheels a while back now. They will finally gain some new tyres in the New Year and be put onto the car so we will be set for fast running down the Autobahn on new rubber. It seems that the only manufacturer for same tread pattern premium tyres on staggered OE 17" wheels are manufactured by Michelin so there isn't much choice available. 

Edited Friday at 07:56 PM by rider (see edit history)

[jagman]

I worked in Basel ,for a time and drove my soarer there about 20 times - you need to carry a warning triangle , spare bulb box , dayglo tabard or jacket , on entering the country you need a vignette to use any main roads , around £40 as I remember - they have a lane you pull into as you cross the border to buy one . They also drive with headlights on at all times . The cops there appear to have nothing to do and will pull you over in a heartbeat !!! .most of the shell garages sell 100 octane fuel - bonus . I never had any issues over the 1000s of miles , and the cameras that flashed me in France ,did not result in any tickets !!! 
you seldom see any old cars there ,except Sundays , everyone seems to have a new car !!! Road surfaces are great compared to U.K. Lots of petrol stations have portable tyre chargers - they recharge on their hooks - you just take it to your car . 

[rider]

I've bought one of those really cheap kits for travel around Europe, it also has breathalysers; a requirement these days in France.

I have routed the tour to avoid all toll roads on the Garmin DriveSmart 66 I've just bought, other than the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria. The Garmin basecamp route planner software isn't particularly user friendly but I have mapped out the planned route totalling 3,000 miles on my PC and load it onto the Garmin.  I hadn't read about headlights on being mandatory in Switzerland. Last time I took the car to Germany it was peak Summer so I didn't bother with beam deflectors as I never ran in anything other than daylight. I suppose I should fit those this time if daytime headlight on running is required.

The once I got a big brown bloom flash was in the Netherlands I never received anything from that so hopefully it'll be a fine free tour and that the Supra, that has never missed a beat doesn't miss a beat.