LG John

The alarm goes off at 7:30am and I look out to glorious sunshine - game on for Crail I think My mates turn up and we arrive in Fife nice and early.

After some faffing around with the timing gear they get the track up and running and the drivers excitedly jump into their machines myself included. On my first run I'm next to an AC Schnitzer modifed Z3 M Roadster the owner of which I'd been chatting away to. The lights turn green and we're off...........

A bit of wheelspin but otherwise an ok start and I'm into 2nd and keeping up bloody well (only 2 car lengths behind)! Into 3rd and I hold my ground (he hit 5th at this point - lol). I'm closing in on the BMW, the line and also the limiter of 3rd! Dang in the red I need four.......10m from the line I select 4th. BANG, RATTLE, CLUNK!!!! Oh god At first I thought I'd hit reverse instead of 4th and done the box but when I got the car started it was clear she was running on 5 cylinders and all the warning lights were on So there goes the engine then

I limped back to the pits and decided that we might as well stay a while and try and enjoy the rest of the day. The BMW guy was nice enough to offer me a pax run in his roadster so I jumped in thinking, 'this will cheer me up'

Sure enough the ZM was fast as **** and highly enjoyable. However, on the return corner at the end of the track he floored it and lost the back end big style! He then over-corrected and smacked side on at 30-odd mph into a civic that had parked up!!! We just missed the owner and passenger of that car who were adjusting their tyre pressure! The civic was proper totalled and its owner proper p!ssed off (understandable) and so concluded my 2nd crail run

I decided against a 3rd after that

Interestingly though the pug ran 15.105 @ 88.6mph and that was with the last 10m being under heavy engine braking (i.e. stalled engine) which harmed the terminal speed. Its a real shame as I believe I'd have got her into the 14s by a bawhair and she'd have been spanking a lot of the hot-hatches that were there.

imlach

Sorry to hear about your 406. Long trips to work on public transport for a while then....

Love to see the insurance claims on the Z3 and Civic Hope they both had track insurance.....

LG John

Nope, they didn't! The BMW guy is going to have a very interesting conversation with his insurance company!

imlach

Oops.....ah well, there'll be a lot of "I told you so" type conversations going on in the pubs tonight!

I've seen it happen at KH before to a Scoob, but thankfully he had track insurance (£1k excess, but a small price to pay).

imlach

I don't think it'll be too long.

Insurance company : "Err...you're not covered. Bye".

LG John

In that case his wallet is £10k lighter tonight

imlach

PS Did your mother never teach you never to accept lifts from strangers

kammy

Wont they be better off by both "cough-cough" saying it happened on the road.
Disclaimer:I in no way suggest one should act/perform acts of this nature.
Kam

imlach

I suspect given that SB said the Civic owner was angry (and rightly so if he came close to being injured himself), then said Civic owner won't be interested in any kind of deceit which could render his share of the insurance payout void.

ie, would you go along with deceit when you are risking repairs/replacement to your own car when it was no fault of your own?

He'd be a fool if he did so.

kammy

Sorry, i ment they both said it was on the road, but still making a full claim on the Z3 owners policy. The civic guy may end up getting nothing, or less then he would via insurance. The guy with the Z3 (if fully comp) could get his car sorted to. Just a thought
Kam

milo

should have hit the gym instead

sorry to hear of your car troubles tho

imlach

Still dodgy for the Civic driver. He'd be aiding & abetting a fraudulent claim. Against the law, and as I said before, why would you risk a criminal case against you when NONE of it is your own fault?

ProperCharlie

perhaps because as neither party were insured, he stands to get precisely f*** all for his wrecked car, despite being the innocent party?

ok, he could try taking the other guy to court, but that's long and costly route with no guarantee of a pay out at the end.

SiPie

Not good mate

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

SB, whats the plan now then ?

Dream Weaver

Precisely, neither of them are insured, so legally he cant do anything.

Sorry to hear of your day SB.

mrklaw

surely the insurance is irrelevant? If someone smashes up your car, they are liable? Insurance is just there to shoulder the cost for you. No insurance just means the owner is liable (Assuming they have funds, but if he can afford a car like that he should be OK)

Unless of course they've all signed waivers?

LG John

This is what I get for sniggering when you showed me No.3 piston from your scooby

Whats the plan you ask Jacko?

Well, that rather depends on the damage I suppose! If the affected cylinder is all scored and the piston wrecked then its probably going to cost a couple of £K to fix. The problem is you can get 85k mile 3.0 406s for £2k which would probably be the better option and then I could sell mines for spares or something. However, I could spend a few £k getting mines better again but rather than just fix it, I'd monster it. Bored, ported, polished, etc, etc, etc. That way I'd actually get something for my money. The engine is good for 200bhp as it is so as a 3.2 with appropriate modifications it could be a fair whack more powerful. That would be the ultimate sleeper

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

SB, I wouldnt spend a vast ammount on the engine as whatever you do to it, its never going to be worth much (except to you), best option is to source a second hand and guaranteed unit to replace the knackered one. I had a Rover 800 Vitesse that had knackered big end bearings but the car was mint, sourced an engine for 400 quid and fitted it, it also needed a new rad which is why it failed in the first place but once in the car was back to normal, had a few probs getting it to start as I used the flywheel of the new engine which looked identical and had a better clutch (hence why I used it) but it turned out that even though the units were the same age they had changed the information on the back of the flywheel (little notches) to communicate with updated ecu software when my ecu had the old version hence why it wouldnt start, after a month of trying allsorts and coming to this conclusion we swapped them out and it fired up first time and my wife began speaking to me again !


Basically be careful if you do go down that route as that saga cost me a fair few quid (diagnostic guy told me to replace the fuel pump etc) but could have been a cheap way to sorting the car, the actual engine swap was easy, all you need is a hoist and a socket set.

And then I think you should stop using your daily driver as a dragster, its a French mini cab with a big v6 in, they arent tough enough, theres no way I would inflict that on my Fiat Coupe, way too fragile. Pretty impressive time though, would be more impressive if it would do it more than once but stil 15.1 is pretty quick for such a heavy car.

ProperCharlie

not wanting to laugh at the misfortune of others, but that little remark has made my morning.

Bubba po

Well, that's mine.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

PMSL

Dream Weaver

SB its French motors that's the problem.

I bought a 405 Mi16 on Saturday but it has no V5 (stupid I know but i'm crap at buying cars).

I bought it to use whilst fixing my 205, but now I cant tax it til the V5 comes through in 4-6 weeks.

So outside I have a 205 Mi16 and a 405 Mi16 costing £4500 in total and cant use either of them

Time to sell up I think and buy a Jap motor, that is once I have put a new engine in the 205 andgot title tothe 405

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, just to claify, my earlier remark wasnt a dig, glad PC enjoyed it but I wouldt like to offend Saxo Boy, I know what its like when somebody says some smart **** comment when you are dealing with stuff like this.

Guy at work bought a Laguna (new shape), gearbox went so we were commiserating with him in the brew room and a colleague who is a renown **** devoid of all tact came in and started taking the p1ss and got old to f*ck off and nearly got a slap !

So SB I feel for you mate, I had to explain to the missus that my Fiat Coupes thirst for oil may be down to a cracked piston ring, that went down well, not !

LG John

LOL I don't blame the 1/4m even at all to be honest because the car got a far harder shafting on the road at the weekend when I was driving down to my mates. I've always been a believer that 1/4m is no more hard on a car than a good blast from a roundabout with the exception of 4wd launches of course.

I don't know what the cause is but there was a change to its normal routine. On the morning of Crail I had left the battery off all night to reset the ecu (cures a little flat spot the creeps in from time to time) and then I filled her with optimax for the 2nd time ever. The first time I filled it with optimax is the first time I noticed the flatspot and hesitation (ever get the feeling the car was trying to tell me something ). The 2nd time she blew up!!! Might be coincidence or it might be that something just didn't sit well with the different fuel despite the fact its a superior petrol

I've still not been told what the cause was but its clear that its RIP for the engine I'll probably go down the engine sourcing route and try for the MKII 3.0 with the 210bhp (15bhp more) as it has more top end and better fuel economy Anyone care to guestimate how much it'll costs to source and engine, buy it and get it fitted?

In the meantime I'm going to search for a £400 rwd banger to keep me mobile and then to be my rainy day powerslide machine when I get the 406 back. <ebay search = capri>

imlach

You should go down the car auction at Longstone - Mon & Thu evenings - from 6pm (you might still catch some tonight as it goes on until after 9pm).

You'll find loads of RWD bangers - prob for £50 - always go there if I need something to "tide me over". I usually get one with 3 months MoT - usually not too hard. Last one I got was £45 incl 1 months tax and 3 months MoT - so tax was worth about £15 of the £45.

carl

LOL! The irony is that PC also has a French taxi.

ProperCharlie

yeah but i'm not filling mine up with methanol and charging down santa pod!






maybe next year...

carl

LG John

194bhp from a 3.0 V6 - she could cope..........in theory The reality was rather different