This kind of sums up our weekend really. Punctures, Fires, Clutches, Seals, Anti-roll bars…. not so good. So where did it all go wrong for Driftworks on the BDC weekend? Well it starts at 4:46 on the M40 heading to Lydden Hill for the BDC.
The first thing to happen was the van to pick up a dirty great puncture on the front offside wheel. We tried to see if it would hold enough air to get us to thte next services which was a good 15 miles down the road as we’d only just passed the last services.
So it was a tyre swap. But the spare wasn’t holding air too!! Argh!! So we swapped on one from the double rear axle and put that on the front.
Pazworth was hoping for an easy weekend. Rolling on the floor laughing.
9:30, tired, and after a monumental traffic jam, we arrived having NomNommed our way through a huge box of Krispy Kreams. Bon in the R32 arrived about an hour later, equally shattered.
So it was supposed to be a simple trip the next morning at 8am to Lydden Hill. How wrong we were.
About 10 miles from the track, Bons car for some reason stalled at the traffic lights. Then all of a sudden, smoke billowed out from diff.
Took 4 minutes for these guys to arrive. Seriously impressive, plus Fire Engines are cool.
Fortunately, we had it largely under control at this point.
Phil sighs a huge sigh of relief. Bon’s quick actions, plus 2 bottles of Evian water saved the R32 as it had a full tank 99 Octane, and the fire had melted the fuel lines…
We abandoned the car in the middle of a village in Kent, and pressed on. Bon headed off to Garage-D to pick up a new differential, and myself and Dan Chapman came back to collect it. Hilariously, when we came back, the gas board had been called and 3 emergancy gas vans had arrived as the neighbours thought they could smell gas – when it was actually the R32’s diff and melted plastics. Woops.
On the track, the action was hotting up. Buff was driving on his usual safe, consistent and good form and provided a nice smoke spectacle up against Phil. But the S15 wasn’t behaving, serious clutch slip was causing massive issues, and it got worse very quickly. Phil was pulling genuine well past 90 degrees backwards entries, but couldn’t pull out of them properly as he couldn’t get any power down, and it was an early retirement for the S15. Tarnation!!
Driftworks team mate Greg Gush in the ProTuner / Driftworks PS13 were having electrical issues, but master mapper Greg got it sorted fairly quickly and went on to qualify really well with an 86 point run.
Hmmm… are Maxxis tyres not upto the job? 😀 Federals FTW, every time!
Mark was still out on track dealing fury all over the qualifying session:
But after an absolutely heroic effort to refit a new differential, the Bonatron4000 was out on track absolutely smashing it. The car was an utter mess, it didn’t have a rear anti-roll bar, and the diff was a standard GTR diff – and Bon didn’t know the layout, but out he went and completely smoke screened the place, qualifying 10th after 1 practice run in a ruined car. We <3 the Bon.
Even on his 3rd and final run, he did a massive dirt drop in the gravel, but that didn’t stop him!
Clipping the rear quarter of the R32 on the armco before turn 3 was just sick.
Sadly – Bon lost out against Danny in the top 6, Bon went with too much grip behind Danny’s S14 and had to back off causing a spin to avoid a collision. Never mind – it was quite a spectacle up to then!
So it was the end of a long day, we packed our things and rocked off to Pizza Hut in Canterbury – where we found ourselves literally navigating the Driftworks rig through tiny back streets that were it turns out, pedestrianised!? THANKS GARMIN.
But, our adventures were not over.
The R32 was billowing smoke out again on the motorway. A bolt had come loose and fallen out – and the rear arms had slammed into the arch causing the tyres to melt onto the bodywork.
There was nothing left to do but laugh.
“BLOODY CAR”
We had to steal the bolt off the S15.
We finally rolled back into Brum at 1:15am.
Hopefully, we will never have another weekend like this!!
Thanks to everyone who helped us out, including Mint Tyres, Garage-D, The Jay, The Pazworth and of course BDC for putting a great days drifting on. 😀
-Al
wow guys, epic trip and amazing work to get back on track! (I <3 the Maxxis photo hehhehee)
Christ lads, what a weekend you had! Goes to show how bloody good you are at what you do, trooping on after so much stuff was thrown at you! Just awesome effort throughout! Cheers, Jonny.
you boys love it
time to get another van and trailor
well done boys
hope all ya bad luck come out in one heap guys
how the hell do you set a diff on fire? Only bon.
THAT’S dedication for you!! 😀
great work getting the 32(bonotron4000)on track.
i must admit i’m enjoying this new blog section!
OMG now thats what i call bad luck!!!! Shocking!
Reminds me of my Classic Ford@ Santa Pod weekend, dont think i could of repaired a capri 2.8i head gasket at the road side tho lol. hard luck guys, but you soldier’ed on!
So who did i see in KFC @ Ashford J9 of the M20 then…. ?
wow..thats a trip worth of top gear!!
well done for actually being able to compete though!inginuity at its best! 🙂
Suggestion:
MAKE BON BUY A TRAILER +TOW VEHICLE
I live literally 20 seconds round the corner from where your car caught fire. Someone mentioned there had been a car on fire around the corner and turns out it was obv you guys.
I had to go into work so missed the whole weekend at Lydden. Sounds like i missed a good one:o(
Love the fact that it still has the “tits yo” sticker from a cut up toyo tires sticker 😀
Thats a goo dwriteup. Glad you sorted the R32 out. I would have given up on that journey ages ago