Big thank you to Nigel Ash

[peterg]

Just wanted to say a big public thank you to Nigel Ash, our esteemed club photographer for taking us, all our bags/tools/stuff AND the trailer and racecar out of Goodwood and back to my stricken towcar which had managed to blow its auto gearbox     the previous evening so we could be recovered back to Glos.

THANKS NIGEL  

We finally got home at 10:30pm and the 330d will be recovered from home to the local BMW specialist on Monday morning to find out how much this is going to cost me      

All that on top of the fact that I couldn't get the car's exhaust noise down to 105db at 3/4 revs so I wasn't allowed to even compete so the entire weekend was wasted and it's all going to end up costing me an arm and a leg        

[Martin Keene]

Bad luck dude...

And big to Nigel...

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Nigel Ash - what a top bloke  

You seem to be having a run of bad luck with cars at the moment Peter after your experiences at Pembrey as well.

Did you by any chance have an "extra" passenger for part of the journey in Nigel's car?    

[peterg]

No, sorry John, there was only me and the missus    

Oh and thanks to Del Hodder too for the loan of his drill while we tried things to try to make it quieter....

I'd recently repacked the silencer with a kit from Car Builder Solutions in the hope it'd be quiet enough but it seemed that anything we did just made the car louder    first try was 107db but after trying a restricter tube, loosening the packing and then finally repacking it with loft insulation rather than the glassfibre padding we got it 'down' to 110db       on one run we got it off the soundmeters scale      

Problem was my engine comes 'on cam' at just over 7k and they wanted 3/4 revs which was 7.5k - I lied and said it revved to 10k, it actually revs to 11.5k  

[Mark Stanton]

Bad luck Peter      

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

BTW - commiserations should also go to our old friend George Newrick. He holed a piston on practice at around 100am and was still waiting for the AA to collect him at the gates at 4:30pm when we left.

Thinking about it, he lives near Cambridge which cant be too far off track for those going straight to Hethel from Goodwood. I bet some nice person could have trailered his car for him and drove their road going Westie in convoy   If only it had been thought of sooner  

John

[nlash]

Pete... your welcome, i'm glad I was able to give some assistance. Happy to hear got got home safely albeit rather late. I hope the gearbox repair doesn't sting your wallet too much.

Also sorry to hear of George's problems too. Hope you get it sorted soon.

It was good to visit Goodwood for the first time but from a photography point of view, not the easiest circuits to work, together with the problems of strong glare from the overhead sun. The chicane is really the only part of the circuit that lends itself to good close-ups.

Photos up shortly.

[peterg]

John, tell George he should use Britannia Rescue - each time we rang (Friday evening @ 10:15pm followed by 5:30pm on a busy Saturday afternoon) we were answered promptly, kept informed and had a recovery truck with us in just over the hour. The guy who took us home on Saturday said Britannia were one of the best to deal with whereas the AA and RAC were the most difficult, the AA being the worst  

[Mark Stanton]

Poor Old George        He's been competing in the SS since 1998/99 and that's the first time I can remember him having engine failure       and he's never once used a trailer ................. always driven to and from events    

[MartinH]

Thinking about it, he lives near Cambridge which cant be too far off track for those going straight to Hethel from Goodwood. I bet some nice person could have trailered his car for him and drove their road going Westie in convoy   If only it had been thought of sooner  

John

John

George lives about 5 miles from my place we offered to bring him home and lend him my tow car and trailer during the week to pick up his car from Goodwood.  He said he was very busy during the week and would rather try the AA.

Just got an e-mail from him thanking me for the offer and saying that he was picked up at 5pm and was home in Cambridgeshire by 8 o'clock, about 15 minutes after me.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

to Martin. George is a nice bloke and it pains me to see guys like that having traumas.

John

[MartinH]

to Martin. George is a nice bloke and it pains me to see guys like that having traumas.

Absolutely John, that's why we made our offer as soon as we heard of his problem.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I offered him a drive of my car but he was more concerned about getting home. As it happened he could have had the drive and still been on time for collection.

John

[peterg]

Just had my 330d recovered to a local BMW specialist (BMW weren't interested about 'goodwill' for a complete gearbox failure at 81000 miles   ) -

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he reckons....

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depending on which model box I have......

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it'll be either £1600+vat

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or

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. £2200+vat          

For all you 330d automatic owners out there, please change your transmission oil at 30-40k miles because as far as BMW are concerned it isn't a service item and therefore according to their service schedule, it is never changed      

[MartinH]

Whilst on the subject of of saying thank you, my thanks to Martin Parkes who magically produced a  bottle of Radweld that saved the day for me at Hethel.