Right then, where to f**king start!!!!!!
Well here's the full version of the fun weekend me and
@BIGASH have just had.
I travelled to London, met up with James and loaded the cup on to his trailer. Text message from eurotunnel - 2hr delay on the tunnel. Great.
James' 535D has only recently had an engine rebuild (less than 1200 miles ago), but seeing as it was done by bmw and cost a small fortune, it was going to be done right. Wrong. 40 miles into the journey and it goes bang again on the M20!! The bottom end was knocking it's tits off. We got recovered to Folkestone services and decided what to do. Thankfully one of James' mates (Dan the legend) came to our rescue and recovered the trailer with my car on and James' car was recovered back ready for a trip up to bmw. The cup was removed off the trailer, and that was then recovered back to Essex. This then left me and James with a decision - do we continue on our journey to Germany, or do we call it a day and turn around. There was only one way, and that way was to carry on. Remember the 2hr delay? Yeah well now it's a 4hr delay. We arrived at the tunnel to find out it's a 6hr delay. They very kindly offered us a ferry journey instead, so off we went to Dover to catch a ferry!! Arrived, got on the boat and had a bit of a sleep.
We are still gumballing.
We arrived at the Nurburgring after a 18hr journey and a diversion to Aachen to pick up a German hire car for James, so he can get around whilst I'm out doing laps.
On Friday afternoon it was time to go out and do a sighter in the cup - feels fast, just need to dial in the suspension. That's a job for Saturday. For now, I was confident of a good laptime as I went straight into the 8:40's, so assuming we had good weather and clear laps, a sub 8:10 was on the cards. No doubt in my mind. Myself and James were confident. It was now time for a bit of food!
Saturday morning arrives and it's time to dial the cup in and push on. First lap out and I'm going well, but there's just way to many yellow flags to get a clear lap in, so I decided to give it 30 mins or so. One positive was I was keeping a M4 honest - he may have been in front, but he couldn't leave the cup!
Now it's time for lap 2 on Saturday. This was quite possibly the worst lap I've EVER had in the 12yrs I've been doing TF. So many yellow flags it's untrue - one of these yellow zones almost saw the end of the cup, no thanks to a E36 M3. He was paying absolutely NO attention to the yellow zone we were entering into pflanzgarten. He was just focussed on why this little Clio was out running him, and determined he was getting passed. At this point in time I was running with an E46 M3 (passed him through the Hatzenbach and he only came back past on the back section of the circuit), and the cup was showing impressive pace. E46 hits the brakes hard - I hit the brakes hard - E36 swerves to the left and rubs it down the Armco. Nice work dickhead. Trust me folks, this was way to close for comfort.
At this point I was seriously pissed off, so I finished the lap off and went to meet up with James and grab a spot of lunch. This was hopefully going to give the bell ends a bit of time to get it out their system!
After we'd had lunch, James booked himself into a swift from rent4ring. We went out in this to do a couple of laps as there'd been a bit of rain. By lap 2, the circuit was dry and it was time to play follow the leader - me in the cup and James in the swift. Now obviously there was a substantial power difference between the 2, so I just went slower so James could keep up. Gopros turned on and away we go!! I entered Tiergarten with the back end making the attempt to lead the way. Headed down into the Hatzenbach and hopped a kerb on the way on to Hochiechen (no different to any other lap!!) and popped the o/s driveshaft. b****cks!! The cup was recovered off the nordschliefe and pay my bill of €480. Lol - I'm now an official member of the Bongard club!! We got the car to the hotel (it drove still, just very slowly) and found the driveshaft issue.
Now it's time to form a plan of attack. Only one option - get a flight back home and pick up my spare o/s shaft.
We travelled at warp speed to Frankfurt airport to get a flight - time was really tight here, but thanks to the awesome 'f**k it' attitude of
@BIGASH we arrived with 1hr 20mins to spare. I went to get my ticket and got royally fucked over by a last minute ticket seller - I missed the flight back to collect my driveshaft and threaten to kill the guy who caused me to miss the flight unless he gave me a refund. As you can imagine, I was a tad excitable. Needless to say, I got a refund. Called James to get him to come and pick me up and we returned to hotel and arrange alternative arrangements. Both of us were feeling a tad dejected.
So the thinking caps are on - only one man can come to the rescue now.
@not normal dan receives a call off me asking if he can come to the rescue. He agrees and he is booked on a flight from Birmingham to drop off my spare shaft on Sunday morning. That'll be another trip to Frankfurt airport then!! Ffs!
Up early and back to Frankfurt at warp speed where we met up with Dan. We had some breakfast and the crack, then it's time for Dan to catch his return flight as he's got a bbq to attend in the afternoon. Lol!!
We returned to fit the driveshaft. A nice and simple job - then it's just a road test. Happy days!! Drove down the hotel drive and turned left - knock knock. Who's there? Fucked Quaife diff. Nice work.
So now, we are really in the s**t.
So what do we do now??? Panic and try to find alternative methods of returning home. We had various options available, but no international rescue as the cup was supposed to be trailered - no need for that right? Wrong. Very wrong. This is where
@BIGASH comes into his own. He thinks sensibly and methodically. Various phone calls were made and we have Dan the legend (who recovered the trailer on the M20) saying he was going to get on the eurotunnel and come to the rescue. So now we are not really feeling it as quite clearly myself and James had the luck of the Irish. Yeah my arse we did!! It would've been just our luck that Dan would've broken down and we would've all been stranded in europe. No thanks - we've had enough drama. We decided on the next best option which was to fly back home and have the cup recovered later on in the week. Yep you've guessed it, we are going back to Frankfurt for the 4th time!!
With the Cup left at hotel, we returned to the uk on Monday morning. The cup is being collected by
@LeeP86 FOC on Thursday as a favour for a mate.
Now that's what I call a holiday.
This had left me with a real tough decision for what to do with the cup next, as after this weekends shenanigans I was ready to strip it and f**k the whole lot off. When it gets home on Thursday, it'll be put in the garage until I've got time to remove and strip the box and see what it's done. With the baby due to arrive in October and a room to prepare for the main event, it'll be a while I think.
Needless to say, the cups staying. Despite all the dramas, that little car was punching way above its weight and earned its right to live to fight another day. Mechanical failures are always going to happen, but this one is a very unexpected failure.
I've got to say a massive thanks to
@BIGASH ,
@not normal dan and
@LeeP86. You guys are some of the best mates I could wish to have, and I am eternally grateful for everything you've done and continue doing.
All that's left to say is something that will mean f**k all to most, but those who know me will understand:
3000 miles, 3000 smiles and let's get in on top of that, I've got crazy piles!!
More to come.