BiTurbo's Field Trip to Wales: Day 4

"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228) 08/17/2018 at 13:05 • Filed to: Europpomeet, oppomeet 2018, BiTurbo's Field Trip, Fix It Again Tony

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We left !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in a rather sorry state. Fiat put through a hedge and significantly dinged up. Suspension bent. Tyres scrubbed from dragging them along for 50 miles. Still, the Citroen was fixed, and yet again we had a plan ;)

Up bright and early for when the parts arrived (thanks again to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !) . Sadly, I didn’t make many friends with this given that apparently I’m a heavy sleeper with a loud alarm (sorry guys!).

New tie rod next to the old and busted one.

While we were mucking about with that, Schaefft decided to give us a perfect example of stereotypical BMW parking ;)

Took us a little while to get the tie rod on, but luckily there was a little local garage just outside where we were staying (whoever chose the locations for our accommodation, stellar job!).

Out but with a W’s MR2, Schaefft’s E39, and Klaus Schmoll’s E60

We hung back for a little while to have the Fiat tracked, the battery charged (a terminal on the alternator had worked itself loose so it wasn’t charging properly on the way back, easy fix ), and inspect the diff seals on my sister’s 5 which were leaking (not enough to impede progress).

The rest of the gang set off earlier for the route while we went straight to the karting which we’d booked for 2pm (as Duurtlang said, many great roads weren’t driven by our group).

Still, we can hardly call the direct route uninteresting...

Looks like we weren’t the only ones to think so ;)

All managed to meet up at karting fine :) pretty short track, but still buckets of fun. I always thought I was a bit of a hot-shoe at karting, but to save my ego I’m going to say that we have some very quick members of our group ;)

4muddyfeet almost didn’t make it to karting. In a refreshing change, it wasn’t actually one of our cars that managed to wound itself! In the next picture you can kind of see the issue the MGB faces with Welsh roads...

That’s...not a lot of ground clearance...

Some finest bodgery to get it going again (it was deafeningly loud with a hole in the exhaust), and he just managed to scrape through ;)

Don’t let the exhaust fool you, everything else on this car was absolutely mint...

After a very pleasant meandering drive back (where nothing bad happened!), we arrived back at our cottage for a well deserved rest (and some well deserved beers) . Honestly, it felt a little odd not to be fixing something, but definitely welcome!

4muddyfeet’s MGB, the X1/9, Twingotamer’s Twingo, my sister’s purple 5, my mate’s turbo 5, Out with a W’s MR2, my MGB driven by my other mate, and Klaus Schmoll’s E60 :) many missing from the pic, but it was difficult to get everyone in!

Next up, day 5. Will we get through a day without breaking anything? Who knows?!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 08/17/2018 at 13:22

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That’s some quality paste and hose clamp work on Alex’s exhaust.

(insert crack about Land Rover service procedure- approved)

duurtlang > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 08/17/2018 at 14:33

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I do wonder if the bubbly they won was any good. I was almost happy losing the finales and ending in 4th place.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 08/17/2018 at 18:05

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Yeah I was impressed by the thoroughness more than anything ;) a bodge is a bodge, but I can appreciate one that’s had that much effort put into it ;)

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > duurtlang 08/17/2018 at 18:09

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4th is very respectable! No wonder you were so quick in the Citroen ;)

davedave1111 > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 08/21/2018 at 04:48

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That’s not even a bodge. Exhaust paste and jubilee clips will last until long after the rest of the exhaust has rusted away.

No joke, the Camry’s silencer had a massive hole in it when I bought it 3.5 years ago . Fixed it with some steel sheet (an old baking tray) , exhaust paste and j-clips. Took it off recently because it was getting loud again and I thought it would be my patch failing; patch was fine, it had rusted through elsewhere. Put a new patch on. I was quite proud, it was 90% patches at that point.

Then some scrote nicked it off the driveway, presumably because they don’t know the difference between a cat and a silencer and thought it was worth something as scrap rather than being a few kilos of rusty iron .

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > davedave1111 08/25/2018 at 05:07

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On the one hand, shitty that someone stole it. On the other, a little bit of justice as he goes to have it weighed in and get 2 5p for it ;)