So here we all are, one week after Spa and I'm still knackered from all the late nights leading up to that weekend, then there was the the return journey!
Pull up a chair with a coffee as I need to get this written down.
Firstly it was a fantastic weekend and I'll be back there next year without fail. The car performed perfectly Saturday and Sunday on the track and driving Spa in the rain on 888's is serious fun so all my fears of them being no good disappeared as soon as I realised they were in fact still better then road tyres. The whole weekend was wicked and it was good to finally put some faces to European names, Martin, Per, Jurgen and Kayjay to name a few
Saturdays sessions were lively, a little busy on the parade but the 2nd scuderia soon let me stretch my legs so I could get to know the track better. Sundays 1st scuderia was very wet but the tyres performed really well once you got some heat into them, Mrs CC took the last few laps of the morning and says that next year she'll take her own Coupe as she was worried about denting mine, don't worry I said, just go for it
Anyway things had gone fine all weekend and we'd packed up and said our fair wells to the last of the people and drove off back to the hotel for a quiet evening on our own. Coming out of the garage down in Spa and changing from 1st to 2nd the engine coughed, just for that second there was a drop in power, I wasn't boosting or giving the engine a hard time, all I was doing was taking it easy as we were fully loaded and chilling on our way back to the accommodation, it wasn't right though I could feel it under my foot so I said nothing as I didn't want to spoil the day and we arrived back for a quiet meal, few beers and bed.
Early next morning I was under the bonnet doing some tests and my fears were confirmed after a compression test, number 5 cylinder was down at 50psi
[censored] not good, I couldn't risk driving it back the 500 miles as I'd destroy the engine because of carrying all the extra weight, and I didn't fancy sitting on the side of the E40 broken down in hot weather (Monday was scorching by the way
), so I rang the RAC and made use of their fully comprehensive recovery service which was great, car was collected around midday and taken to a local garage so they could confirm the issue. Apparently this needs to be done so that the RAC can assess repatriation or repair, so we get a phone call saying this can't be done until later that day and they'd like to send a cab to collect us so that we can be driven to collect a Hire car to get us back to the ferry. This is done and we travel back to the UK via Calais, another hire car at Dover to get us home and we're back safe and sound by 1am Tuesday morning.
The next day however things get interested, I ring the RAC in the morning and they inform me the repair costs are going to be £7k becasue it needs a new engine and the Glasses guide valuation for the car is £2.2 so the car will be scrapped and I'll receive a cheque in the post in a week or so
"you [censored] what! have you guys got any [censored] idea of the try valuation of these cars"? They say the case is closed and that's it, no repatriation!
I ring the UK RAC to see if there's anyone over here in the UK who can advise me and possibly liaise with Belgium, "No Sir afraid not, the European RAC is completely separate from the UK and the best I can do is transfer you to the Belgium customer support team, but I've been ringing them and they've been constantly engaged all morning" I say, "sorry Sir there's nothing we can do and you'll have to keep trying" W A N K E R S!!!
So by now I've been on the phone the best part of 5hrs and I'm getting no where, I try something different and ring the breakdown line in Belgium again and talk to the same women from the day before, I explain the situation and she suggests talking to the technician who prices the repair valuations, we chat finally and I explain what I do for a living as well as talk about the issue and repair costs, "The problem here Sir is you shouldn't know how to self diagnose an issue like this, or know what's needed for repair or pricing" so I says that's [censored]! I do know what's wrong and how to repair it and just because a car is 10yrs old doesn't mean it's not been refurbished or it's a shed, thus the book valuation is out the window and it'll need to be seen or personally inspected to view what it's like, so he's now coming round as he asks me if I'd be willing to pay half the repatriation costs, so straight away I agree and he says he'll re-open the case and I'll get a call within the hour, one hour no call, two hours and now I'm wondering wtf? I call them, "yes no problem with bring the car back" and they've agreed to cover all the costs "but it could take 10-14 days before you see it", "what about the personal effects in the car" I was told these would be Ok, " no sorry the RAC doesn't cover any personal items and these have been left at your own risk" great I'm going to loose the [censored] lot by the time she gets back, track tyres, tools, spares, even my mobile phone and Dogcam as these were left in the glove box, they'll be gone for sure, I can feel it in my water!
So what to do
well the only thing really, book another return ferry from Dover for that evening and go get the bloody stuff
4pm Tuesday afternoon, ferry booked for 10pm, grab another shower and drive, drive, drive
Missed the ferry because the traffic was mad
so my brother and I went over on the midnight crossing, we drive through the night, couple of stops and then arrive at the garage around 5am Wednesday morning, early cup of coffee at the local patisserie and a quick drive round the south side of the Spa circuit just to waste some time. Garage opens at 7.30am and we load up everything and head back to Dunkirk, Midday ferry back over to the UK but not before having the car emptied and searched at customs
We finally pull up outside my house at 6.30pm Wednesday, in 5 days I've driven over 2000 miles not including the track time at Spa, I've burnt the best part of 8 tanks of fuel and to top it all off I visited Spa TWICE in 2010!
The car still isn't back, [censored] knows when I'll see it but I'll chase an update on the ETA tomorrow.
So to summarise the lessons learnt here:
1./ Treble check repatriation when you take out European recovery, I stated that the cars value was £10k and this was an insured agreed amount, means nothing to the technician pen pushers who flicks through the glasses guide!
2./ Stay with the car if you can, I feel if I'd done this the situation would of been different, RAC were great for getting us back, too quick if anything.
3./ Keep your ears about yourself at all times, you never know if you might bump into another Coupe owner
Cheers for your assistance Bob
So back to work today as normal, one Coupe still missing in action but I'll update things when they happen. One thing I'll definitely be doing next year is taking a dedicated track car and a trailer
Hope you enjoyed the read, rambled a bit I know but it was good to write more then just one line