French petrol

[Tom Brearley]

Hello all,

I'm planning a trip to France shortly and was wondering whether high octane fuel is available there. And if so, what it's called at the pump!

Any other tips for 'B-ing' in France would be appreciated.

Many thanks

[Peter Cresswell]

Hi Tom,
I took my MGB Roadster to France about 5 years ago, and super unleaded was widely available then, even in supermarkets. Petrol is labelled Sans Plomb (or SP) and (diesel is Gazole). Everything was E5 labelled Sans Plomb (or SP) 95, or Sans Plomb 98. I would assume these days they have Sans Plomb 95 E10 as the standard grade and Sans Plomb 98 E5 as premium grade. Pumps are clearly labelled and you get used to the French quirkiness of filling up! Most of the larger fuel stations have lanes for pay at the pump and for fill up then move forward to pay at a kiosk. Remember all of France closes down for lunch including fuel stations, but larger ones and supermarkets usually have a pay at the pump which remains open. It might be worth taking some octane booster just in case you can't find E5 and you become desperately short of fuel.

As France is much hotter than the UK I fitted a new radiator and a Moss fan duct which helped enormously to keep temperatures sensible, but we did have to sit in a couple of jams with heater going full blast as well. An electric fan could possible be useful.

You don't say how far you are contemplating going (we went down to the east of Toulouse), and although you can avoid the Autoroutes it takes so much longer the Autoroute is sensible to use. It becomes the passengers responsibility to collect the toll tickets and pay the toll! 80mph (130kph) is the limit on Autoroutes and it (along with other speed limits) is heavily enforced with cameras and radar guns (with quite hefty on the spot fines by the Gendarmes). I did have an engine problem caused I think by the constant speed on the Autoroutes causing valve recession, despite using a lead substitute additive as I didn't have hardened valve seats at that time. It did get home (after 2000 miles) under its own steam though.

The French have ruined the idea of gently meandering through the countryside as away from the main roads all the villages had very low speed limits (20kph), and severe speed bumps, which of course don't affect 2CVs but ere a nightmare in an MGB. Best is to drive over them with the righthand wheels and the exhaust won't keep getting bashed. The 2CV s will overtake going over speed humps!!

I have found the best crossing route to be Brittany Ferries Portsmouth to Caen overnight which saves on a hotel stop, and unless you are going to eastern France, it also cuts down on the driving time to get anywhere useful!

Best of all though, is wherever you go in your MGB you will find people are interested to look at the car, and generally the roads are much quieter than in the UK - something you notice more when you get back to the UK. Oh, yes and remember you cant have a 'GB' sticker now It has to be a 'UK' one!
Best of luck for your trip,
Pete

[Tom Brearley]

Hi Pete

Thanks very much for the tips. That's really useful.

We're only going as far as Brittany, at Easter, so I don't expect ambient temperatures to be a problem. For future trips further south, the fan shroud you mention looks a good investment but Moss say it's only suitable for models before 1968. However, I've already bagged myself a 7-blade plastic fan, to temporarily switch in for the 3-blader.

I've also found an original pair of Lucas headlamp converters, which I think will look rather r

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é

tro. A pair of modern deflector stickers will also be in the boot in case they fall off!

Tom

[Peter Cresswell]

Hi Tom,
Brittany could be a good choice at Easter - but similar weather to Cornwall and the Channel Islands.
You don't see many cars using yellow headlights in France these days! I would also caution against using the modern stick on beam deflectors as the glue is incredibly difficult to get of afterwards. I just use some black electrical tape. The Headlight lens has a triangular area to the left and below centre. This is the area that gives the dipped beam the kick up on the left which when driving on the right dazzles oncoming traffic. To help you here is my B during the holiday mentioned above.

I know a lot of people who don't bother with deflecting the dip beam these days. Have you ever seen a French car in the UK with deflectors the other way? On the way back from the holiday we joined the back of a queue of French registered classic cars at Caen waiting to board the ferry. Not one of them had beam deflectors!

.
Pete

[Tom Brearley]

Thanks for the further tip, Pete. A good point about reciprocity! I've never noticed a foreign car with deflectors in the UK.

[David Witham]

I have taken my MGB to the continent on 4 occasions and I have just bought my tickets for this year's Lemans Classic.

From time to time I do long trips in the B in the UK, 210 mile day trips to see my elderly parents. So it gets a good workout. I would worry about taking a car that only goes to the pub and back.

In 2010 and 2011 my late son and I went to Angouleme for the Ramparts weekend. I can highly recommend Angouleme. Like Peter, we favour the Portsmouth - Caen overnight ferry, if available.

The first run down to Angouleme was done using autoroutes and was a bit of a slog. After that we used a mixture. A combination of satnav, maps and following our noses. The autoroutes tend not to have tolls around major cities. So rather than set the satnav to "no motorways" we set it to "no tolls". That way you use the autoroute where it makes a big difference only.

Autoroute toll tickets record the time enabling your average speed to be calculated. I have heard of people being caught that way.

In 2012 we went to the Lemans Classic. That is much nearer the north coast, 2.5 hours from Caen. So we took the morning sea cat from Poole to Cherbourg and came back from Caen on a day time crossing. These crossings were mainly driven by us being late booking.

In August 2019, I took my nephew to the Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. We used the tunnel for that. Mid day shuttle and camped overnight at Ghent in Belgium. That was a long motorway slog. Not ideal in a B.

I have taken plenty of spares with me but only needed the spare wheel. To improve boot space I mount the spare wheel on a boot rack. As I have converted to a single 12v battery the other side is panelled in and used as a spares locker.

I leave the heater on all the time set to screen unless I actually need the warmth. This is to stop the heater valve gumming up. In 2010 we came off the night ferry in Caen at about 7am on a clear mid September morning. It was cold and the heater didn't work! It took a couple of coffee stops before we had thawed out.

[Tom Brearley]

It's good to hear you've had successful B outings to the continent David.

I hope to follow in your footsteps. But at the moment the car is not being particularly helpful, having developed a stutter on acceleration which meant I had to abort a trip out with my girlfriend last weekend. This may not be building confidence on her part. I've also been regaled with stories of breakdowns en France by my parents: a defective gear lever on their Austin 1100 in 1971; and Maxi suspension spheres in 1982. The first incident was in Brittany where the AA arranged a local garage to recover the car. After a couple of hours, two French mechanics arrived in a truck, got out and wee'd furiously into the roadside ditch before turning to see how they could help. It was just after lunch.

I've done a rather-overdue tune up of the engine to see if that will help (the mixture was noted to be too rich at the last MOT and the ignition advance was miles out). But for my troubles the car rewarded me by barely running at all. The problem was traced to the front carb which was merrily overflowing down it's vent tube. There was a notable amount of fine black particles in the float bowl so possibly they were stopping the float needle from seating properly. It seems HIFs are very intolerant of contamination.

Oh, and I've managed to buy the world's worst fuel filter on Ebay. It's starting to come apart after just a week.

[Tom Brearley]

One other quick question, is it necessary to have headlights on at all times in France (i.e. daytime running lights)?

Thanks

[Bumpa]

It wasn't necessary to have the lights on in daytime when I took my BGT over about 5 years ago.

[Tom Brearley]

Thanks Bumpa. Yes, it looks like the French government recommend using dipped beam or DRLs - but it's not compulsory.

A beautiful spring day here in the Westcountry today, so I headed up to Exmoor for a long drive to check the mixture and timing. About 130 miles covered with several stops to inspect the plugs and tweak things. The car seems generally to be running well now, although the idle is a bit lumpy so I suspect the mixture is not quite spot on yet. Glorious countryside to be playing about in with a B.