2026 - Curves & Coastlines / HGT '26: 13 days, 10 cars and a few thousand miles of driving
Introduction
Hello and welcome to my 2026 road trip through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and a little bit of Belgium with the BMW Performance Car Club!
After 15 years of road trips, i had driven most of the well known roads in europe, so this was a chance to explore some of the lesser known roads and with a group of like minded individuals.
As usual, on Saturday, the car was cleaned, prepped and packed ready for an early start on the Sunday morning.
161k miles on the car now.
Reset of the journey computer.
En route to the EuroTunnel.
Nice clear roads.
It was at this point i discovered the door window and mirror controls no longer worked! Individual windows still worked from their switches, so it was just the driver's panel that had died.
Which meant everything had to be done at the passenger side.
This year, it was just me departing the UK on Sunday morning. Other UK cars had travelled the day before, or were travelling later in the week.
All aboard. Last car on the train.
After an uneventful drive to Frankfort, it was time for the first hotel of the trip. The B'Mine hotel in Frankfort. This hotel allows you to park your car outside your room, no matter what floor you're on. Everyone else got floors 8-10 and had a great view, but i got floor 1! There is a bit of a story behind this, but it was to be expected after leaving my booking to the week before we departed. Still a cool thing though.
It was time to catch up with everyone on the trip. Some returning faces, some new faces.
Firstly, Jean and Kelly, in the G82 M4 Competition and Joao and Nancy in the F87 M2.
Mads and Line in another F87 M2.
Jennifer and Magda in the E92 M3.
Marco and his M235i.
Dan and Beth in another E92 M3.
Michael in the E46 M3 and Ingvald and Torun in the M6.
Marek and Wojtek in yet another F87 M2.
After hellos, it was time for the first beer of the trip.
More beer.
Finally, first proper meal of the day, Thai Green Chicken curry.
Back to the hotel to check out other people's views from their rooms.
Decided to leave the curtains open!
Total mileage for the day.
