For a number of reasons we haven’t had a ‘proper’ holiday for a while and so we decided (rather last minute) to relive our childhoods and have a week in Looe in South East Cornwall where we had both spent fun holidays in the distant past. Of course, classic holidays require Classic transport and so set off at the end of August in ‘Regie’ the 1958 Renault 4cv convertible.
Regie is pretty good at holidays and previously we have taken him all over Europe, for a small car he’s pretty spacious and with only two of us there is the back seat as well as under the bonnet so carrying luggage isn’t an issue. The car has been upgraded to a Dauphine Gordini engine and ‘box giving us 4 forward gears and 850cc (50hp at the wheels) in a very light vehicle so we can cruise at a sensible speed and keep up with modern traffic. Of course the important thing for holidays is that Regie is a ‘decoverable’ as the French would say – it has side windows but the whole roof is soft top and folds right back giving all the benefits of a convertible but also a lot of protection from the wind. You also get a good view.
It’s around 210 miles from our home in Surrey to Looe and we set off on a Saturday lunchtime and took the more ‘country’ A30 route – Winchester, Salisbury, Shaftsbury, Sherbourne, Crewkerne, Exeter and then the A38 via Plymouth to Looe. With a couple of stops and a good run we arrived by teatime.
We had booked an apartment high on the cliff at Hannofore point which had a fantastic view but the choice of location was down to the property having parking, Regie ended up with an even better lookout with the parking space being 57 steps up behind the property.
Regie behaved perfectly all week, going up and down the steep winding Cornish Hills and his small size made him perfect for the tiny high banked lanes and the even smaller roads through Cornish towns and villages. We attracted attention wherever we went with lots of scratching of heads and questioning ‘what is it’. Being small and cute we could park in places others couldn’t and Regie was left in prime spots on the Quay on several occasions.
We went on adventures everyday and visited loads of places – Polperro, Fowey, Padstow, St Michaels Mount, St Ives, Plymouth often travelling across country on the the very tiny rural roads, you get a chance to see unusual things and the time difference isn’t that different from the main route. We came across this really low bridge…
Went for a ride on a steam train, which scarily was rather like the carriages we used to commute to London in…
We only had one damp day but did go up onto Dartmoor (to see the Prison Museum) where it was rather murky, it was the only time we had the roof up all week.
Went on the ferry across to Fowey, which had a much better view than the Torpoint Ferry to Plymouth where we were very hemmed in by large vehicles… 
Over to St Michaels Mount, Regie was left on dry land and we walked over the causeway at low tide, we saw this great amphibious vehicle but you certainly wouldn’t want to buy a second hand vehicle which had been used on the island, we saw a 5 year old land rover which was really rusty!
We had a fantastic week which proves it’s not always a bad thing to go back to somewhere you have good childhood memories off. The great weather certainly helped and going just after the summer rush meant that places were relatively quiet. Unfortunately we didn’t see very many classic cars and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of motor museum in Cornwall. We came back along the A303 past Stonehenge which is a much faster road although it can get very busy and Regie just purred along happily, he really is a perfect holiday car.
So we got back safe and sound and although sad to leave our glorious view and end our holiday we have the Goodwood Revival to look forward to this coming weekend where Regie and Mario will be in their normal role as part of the period taxi fleet driving ViP’s and drivers around the estate. We will hopefully be blogging as we go, so keep checking back. Now I must dash and finish off this years special ‘Mario’ dress, here’s a sneak peak at the material…
Mario the Multipla 
