Well my journey to the Ring, Germany was eventful!!!

On the Monday morning I was packing the car (E36 M3) onto the trailer and thought I don't need the road wheels and tyres. So I put some track wheels on and in the process of doing so I noticed a gap in one of the new brake pads where there should have been material!!!! it had de-laminated and half the pad was missing!!!



So I phoned the supplier who had a spare set - but they were in Solihul......no chance as I had to get on the road. So he put them in the post for me.

A friend came up with a set of EBC Reds - not the best pads but beggars cannot be choosers and I could pick them up on the way to the ferry. Excellent.

With the trailer hooked up the rear of the A8 was much lower than the old black one? Moving the car back on the trailer improved this but caused fishtailing at speed Hmmmm! Will need to look at this

 The journey to Germany was as usual - boring and monotonous. Had a fabulous time while I was there and did more than 25 laps over the two days.

Th journey back was not so good. I got to Ghent in Belguim - having suffered the traffic chaos that is the Brussels Ring Road..............

When there was an almighty bang and bits of metal bounced off the road and under the car! WTF

I pulled to a layby at the side of the E40 - jacked the car up and took the wheel off the offside rear................spring snapped in three places

Called the ADAC recovery services and my nightmare began............

 So after four people separately checked the car, trailer, car on trailer, weights, dimensions etc.............you guessed it they sent the wrong sized truck!! Doh!

So another hour passed and the right truck turned up and took the whole thing to a storage area.

First thought was to rent a van/4X4 but Belgium in the first two weeks of August is closed............. and they have no vehicles with towbars?

Anyway there were also no rental cars in order to get home - I had a trackday/wedding at Goodwood the next day and if you remember I (for the 1st time ever) left the road wheels for the M3 at home - Doh!

So I waited at the storage facility from 430pm............................until it closed at 7pm. Then I waited outside for another hour. Then I got a cab into Ghent to get something to eat - thankfully it had stopped raining.

So at 930pm that evening they called me to say they had found a rental car at Brussels airport - a 105 euro cab ride away!

So I get a cab to the airport - pick up the hire car - Citroen C3 Picasso - weird looking thing - but went well. Got to the ferry port - could not use my return ticket so had to buy another return £155! get home at 3am.

I then got up at 7am and pulled the Lotus out of the garage to use it at Goodwood. My daughter was coming along and she called to say she was leaving - she lives in Newbury. So I said I was just leaving and would be just a few minutes behind her....................

She got there in 46 mins - I took nearly three hours..........traffic on M3 - she missed all of it.

Good trackday and wedding.

First time I have hit both apexes at the chicane :-)
Back to Ghent on Monday - set off at 3am. Meanwhile I had got a message saying car was in garage.

 this is getting boring now................

"if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all..............."

so paraphrasing:-

car not in garage still in storage - no garage identified

I had the spare springs with me to be fitted - no garage would fit them.........

found one that would - so we all moved to there

car fixed by 530pm - booked on 7pm ferry - A8 even lower at the back

terrible weather missed the 7pm - queue meant I could not get on ferry until 10pm

10pm left Dunkirk and there was an immediate medical emergency - no doctors on board back to port - disembark the emergency and back to sea .......2.5 hours lost - got home at 430am..............

Still need to get to Paris on business now.........but that is another story