Spain pre-research tips

[Madel]

Map with the exact locations of the Osborne Bulls
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ie ... 786316&z=6

[Madel]

C-25

The C-25 is a toll-free highway that many trucks use to go to Madrid/Portugal if they come from France, so they avoid going through Barcelona and have to pay tolls (AP-7). Like Some newbie driver has said, this highway is plenty of tunnels and slopes. When the C-25 reach Cervera, it becomes part of the A-2.

[ external image ]

West to East:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Bonus info/Landmarks:
Viaducte d'Osormort the longest Viaduct of the C-25 (500m) and well known for WRC fans.

Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Viadu ... d2.3736873
[ external image ]
[ external image ]

Gurb gas station. I always see a lot of trucks parked here to rest or sleep. Second video (min 4:14).

Location: https://www.google.es/maps/place/Cepsa+ ... 3306?hl=en
[ external image ]

Montserrat can be seen from C-25.

Screenshot location: https://www.google.es/maps/@41.7563239, ... 8192?hl=en
[ external image ]

------------------------------------------------

Nothing to see with the C-25

There is this railway bridge near Girona airport and the C-25, it is part of the AP-7.

Location: https://www.google.es/maps/@41.8992243, ... 8192?hl=en
[ external image ]

[Some newbie driver]

One detail about C-25 is that road was first a "regular" road with 1 lane for each driving direction and years later was converted to a highway. In order to do so, they had to double all the tunnels and bridges all along the road. To reduce the visual impact, all the bridges are visually identical even they could have internal structure differences. The only visual difference on some of the bridges are the protection fences. Some newer bridges have different models more secure to prevent vehicles to fall down the bridges in case of accident.

The photo that Madel has posted about Osormort viaduct from above is the new double one; but the image with the rally car is from the times of the old road. On those times, one of the races of the WRC was done on the zone and the road under the Osormort bridge was part of one of the more important sectors. The "estelada" (flag) painted on the base of the bridge was there for years and become an iconic point of the competition. If I'm not wrong, it appeared depicted on several WRC video-games on those times.

It's said that the road was doubled and converted to highway due the high amount of traffic it has. Really, it was doubled because people on nort-east Catalonia are a bunch of crazy-drivers (there's the place with highest base-price for car insurances on all Spain) that can't stand behind a truck for so many time. They want to drive like the rally car and ended doing authentic suicidal maneuvers to overtake trucks (I witnessed several of those). That behavior caused this road to have one accident with deaths almost every month, for years, almost always due speeds far over the limits. They spent hundreds of millions with the road improvement and they achieved the astonishing reduction of 10min on the complete 150km traject and people is still having deathly accidents (now they don't need to illegally overtake trucks, but now they like to drive there at 160km/h or more ) although not so many, that's true.

You can notice that "civilized" behavior on the third video Madel linked; the author jokes about the presence of the police radar vehicle the first day the road was opened as highway; and you can notice how much the car of him brakes before reach the radar. Or how he says he changed the battery of the camera in the middle of a tunnel while keep driving the motorcycle. BTW, when I said that this road is sloppy as hell, that video could give you a proof. From 4:24 to 7:30 on that video you could see a continuous (with 2 brief sectors as exception) slope between 4% and 6% gradient, near 20km. There are 3 gravel traps only on that sector for vehicles that could lose brakes and the gravel is always full of marks (although I don't know if from vehicles in trouble or vehicles driven by absent-minded people).

Regards

EDITED: to fix the gradient values on that road for more precise ones. They still are high but not so much.

[Some newbie driver]

There are bunch of companies that build trailers on Spain, the ones I knew more are those 4:

Leciñena: http://www.lecinena.com/EN/Home.asp Their trailers are commonly seen everywhere
Guillén: http://www.guillen-group.com/en/guillen-semitrailers/ A common brand too, it's backplate with the company name is very distinctive. They have too an associated company for semi-trailer rental named Next-rent.
Hermanos Montull: http://montull.com/ Little than the other two, I've mostly seen dry bulk tippers from that brand; specially for grain cargoes on agricultural zones.
Rojo Trailer: http://www.rojotrailer.com/en/ I didn't know them very well, but it seems that their construction tipper is a top-selling on Spain.

Regards

[id037]

Do Leciñena and Lecitrailer belong to the same group?
Because Lecitrailer trailers are very popular too and in their website they say they've been the Spanish market leader for the last 18 years.

[Some newbie driver]

I don't know the exact legal relation, but I think that LeciTrailer is the commercial brand created by Leciñena to internationalize the company, included a factory on France.

Although we Spaniards are very proud of our Ñ, it's a problem when you go outside and people try to pronounce or write it and also on Internet. It was the first company to build semitrailers on Spain, more than 50 years ago, when those details weren't a problem at all.

[maxxis]

A-4 (Despeñaperros segment)

Despeñaperros (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despe%C3%B1aperros ) is a natural park and a gorge located in the north of the province of Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalucía.

It’s an important key point of communication for the transit of vehicles, trucks and trains, between the south of Spain (Andalusia) and the center of the Iberian Peninsula (Madrid).

It emphasizes its peculiar orography, the old highway was remodeled by the present one, to which they removed several very dangerous curves to him and improved much their security given the inclination that it had. It has a very high traffic of trucks.
[ external image ]

This segment of the highway has three tunnels, the middle tunnel is the longest of the three (1925m).

The entrance and exit of the first tunnel (direction Madrid) has these rare blue arcs.

Location: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3784388 ... 384!8i8192
[ external image ]

Before entering the long tunnel, you can see a sundial in the middle of the road (direction Madrid).

Location: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3827392 ... 312!8i6656
[ external image ]

From south, before the tunnels, there are some amazing viaduts that can be seen in the first image of this post.

This next image is taken from the tunnels.

[ external image ]

Old highway before the new one.
[ external image ]
[ external image ]

A-4 route.
[ external image ]

Watch on YouTube

[Some newbie driver]

When I talked about the trailer manufacturers on Spain I forget to mention Parcisa

Their tanker semitrailers are found everywhere on Iberian Peninsula

[JMpower85]

My small contribution about the important industries in Spain

Cars and Trucks manufactures location

[ external image ]

[ external image ]

Oil refineries location

[ external image ]

Solar panels throughout the country

[ external image ]

Nuclear Plants

[ external image ]

Jaén is a province where you export Olive oil for human consumption

[ external image ]

[ external image ]

[ external image ]



I will continue updating with more information

[Madel]

Logistic Map

[ external image ]