The Ring This Weekend
Discussion
smilerbaker said:
JMGS4 said:
Mine's being revived after a ring scored the cylinder, so won't be able to come.... might be available in a few weeks for another BFH (Black Forest Hoon)....
you need a nice reliable british car
Enjoy the Norschleife and keep it sunny side up!
JMGS4 said:
smilerbaker said:
JMGS4 said:
Mine's being revived after a ring scored the cylinder, so won't be able to come.... might be available in a few weeks for another BFH (Black Forest Hoon)....
you need a nice reliable british carEnjoy the Norschleife and keep it sunny side up!
I'll try
lucky it didn't do it on the ringhere is the review I wrote for the 180 owners club
For the ring trip I had new Toyo proxes fitted along with aldon's decat, we set off midday fri to meet up with bigfella at about 4:30 in Germany, our first problem was in France a couple of hours into the journey, at a service station I noticed the front bumper was sticking out on the passenger side, one of the screws had falled out, this was my fault, I damaged it fitting the induction kit, no problem I though, just get some cable ties from this service station, no such luck, the french serivce station dont carry anything usefull (the reasons became clear later!!) so a botch fit with some wire.
The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful until we got within 5 miles of the campsite where mat was, the road was closed and diversion signs where not a lot of help so 5 miles took us nearly an hour.
Finally met up with mat and his mrs, had food, plenty of beer, and bored the other half's silly with 180 talk.
Sat - Ring day!
Got up early (first time I have slept, or not, in a tent!) grabbed some breakfast, and eventually we set off for the ring it was only 30 miles away but it was all country roads so took about an hour, as we set off my blooming exhaust blew!! Sounded great but was whaaay down on power now, anyway there was no way this was going to stop me.
We got to the ring and it was packed, the main track had a DTM race going on, and the ring carpark was packed with just about every car you can imagine (mostly brits), the ring taxis where busily speeding in, reloading, sabine having lots of pics taken (she is pretty hot in the flesh), then shooting out again, I was a bit worried the marshals wouldn't let me on due to the exhaust but as it turned out it was pretty quiet compared to other cars there
Then a marshal spied my camera mount, and went ballistic, shouting in German and banging on the car, and still going mental while I was taking it all off so the top tip, hide your cameras!
Got the tickets (21 euro's a lap) and set off for my first lap with mat in the passenger seat, what a track! Not really knowing it I had to take it easy, braking early especially for the hills, not knowing if there was a hairpin at the top of the blind crest! And not really knowing the limits of the tyres, after a few corners my confidence was starting to grow I have to say those Toyo tyres are the best tyres I have ever used on a road car, they stuck to the track, the 180's handling was impeccable, no under steer, a little oversteer when really pushing it, only 1 slight sideways moment. The standard of driving was really high too, no nutters, except the ring taxis , everyone getting out the way etc
Some of the other cars went passed like I was going backwards, and the bikers need there heads examining.
21km later it was all over, no damage, no problems.
Next out was Matt, with me as a passenger, I'll let him tell you about his lap.
Then I went out again with my mrs, although she doesn't believe me I was taking it easy, much slower then the first lap, she still though we where about to crash and die though, half way round there where waved yellows as the police where on the track, I guess investigating a fatal crash . Again the car was well behaved, no scary moments (not for me anyway)
A quick drink tee-shirts and stickers, then back off to the campsite. Found a nice restaurant then back to the bar
Left mat and his mrs to get on with there holiday on Sunday quite early, all was fine for a couple of hundred miles, the mrs was driving and decided it was my turn, as we pulled into services in France she said she couldn't get it into gear, we swapped places I put my foot on the clutch and the pedal hit the floor had a look under the bonnet, and yep, the clutch slave cylinder had broken, the service station was the same as the first one on Friday, no cable ties, jubilee clips, or anything useful, spent a couple of hours trying to botch it back together, gave up and phoned our rescue company "oh we can't pick you up from a French motorway, only the police can do that" then the penny dropped as to why the services have no spares at all (but they do sell tv's, phone charges, camping gas attachments etc) a local traffic copper came upto us and called the breakdown truck. This was going to cost, big time.
In desperation I cut a ratchet strap up, wrapped it round the cylinder, tied it round everything and prayed, It worked!! It held it in place just enough for me to get some gears, so off we sped, got on the motorway and upto 5th, excellent, except there was a toll booth 50 miles up the road, we joined the queue, put it in first, got to the front of the queue and snap, no clutch again, so it went through with me pushing it, then having to push it across all the lanes to a parking area, all the while the idiot French drivers coming out of the booths like an f1 start.
Now the cylinder was really broken, what little that was left was fast disappearing, tied it all up again, and managed to get going, back into 5th and no more tolls or stops till the Swiss boarder, had a couple of heart stopping moments in roadworks and roundabouts, having to do them all in 5th, fortunately the v6 has loads of torque
Now only 50 miles from home, and the swiss boarder crossing to go, no problems, its never busy, except for today a traffic jam, we had to stop, and yep, it broke again. The car was pushed into Switzerland, gave the boarder crossing police a good laugh, they started cracking jokes about British craftsmanship etc, gits.
Tried to fix it again, but there just wasn't anything left of the bracket, so the boarder police called a tow truck, 15 mins later the driver was telling us he couldn't actually tow us anywhere as they are not allowed to driver HGV's in Switzerland on a Sunday!! (So why did you come out at all????) and we would have to go back into France to the nearest MG dealer !?!?!? This was not going to happen! So off he went (no charge though, which was nice) next is was the swiss AA's turn, out they came, and said the same, we would have to stay in Basel and get it fixed on Monday, again, not an option. We persuaded him to give us a load of heavy duty cable ties and managed to get the cylinder held in place just enough to almost engaged the clutch, we pushed the car back, put it in first, turned it on and off we went, 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th all going well pushed the clutch to change into 5th, and down it went, we had to do 50 miles in 4th with the petrol light on, no idea how it managed it, but somehow it did, some 11 hours after we left mat we where home
Really glad I didn't do more laps of the ring, the clutch breaking there would have been a real nightmare.
Pushed it into a garage just down our road this morning, fingers crossed they can get hold of the part.
So in summary, The ring - Do it!!! Toyo Proxies - the best road tyre I have ever used, French service stations - crap, Swiss HGV rules - weird, MG Clutch - crap
For the ring trip I had new Toyo proxes fitted along with aldon's decat, we set off midday fri to meet up with bigfella at about 4:30 in Germany, our first problem was in France a couple of hours into the journey, at a service station I noticed the front bumper was sticking out on the passenger side, one of the screws had falled out, this was my fault, I damaged it fitting the induction kit, no problem I though, just get some cable ties from this service station, no such luck, the french serivce station dont carry anything usefull (the reasons became clear later!!) so a botch fit with some wire.
The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful until we got within 5 miles of the campsite where mat was, the road was closed and diversion signs where not a lot of help so 5 miles took us nearly an hour.
Finally met up with mat and his mrs, had food, plenty of beer, and bored the other half's silly with 180 talk.
Sat - Ring day!
Got up early (first time I have slept, or not, in a tent!) grabbed some breakfast, and eventually we set off for the ring it was only 30 miles away but it was all country roads so took about an hour, as we set off my blooming exhaust blew!! Sounded great but was whaaay down on power now, anyway there was no way this was going to stop me.
We got to the ring and it was packed, the main track had a DTM race going on, and the ring carpark was packed with just about every car you can imagine (mostly brits), the ring taxis where busily speeding in, reloading, sabine having lots of pics taken (she is pretty hot in the flesh), then shooting out again, I was a bit worried the marshals wouldn't let me on due to the exhaust but as it turned out it was pretty quiet compared to other cars there
Then a marshal spied my camera mount, and went ballistic, shouting in German and banging on the car, and still going mental while I was taking it all off so the top tip, hide your cameras!
Got the tickets (21 euro's a lap) and set off for my first lap with mat in the passenger seat, what a track! Not really knowing it I had to take it easy, braking early especially for the hills, not knowing if there was a hairpin at the top of the blind crest! And not really knowing the limits of the tyres, after a few corners my confidence was starting to grow I have to say those Toyo tyres are the best tyres I have ever used on a road car, they stuck to the track, the 180's handling was impeccable, no under steer, a little oversteer when really pushing it, only 1 slight sideways moment. The standard of driving was really high too, no nutters, except the ring taxis , everyone getting out the way etc
Some of the other cars went passed like I was going backwards, and the bikers need there heads examining.
21km later it was all over, no damage, no problems.
Next out was Matt, with me as a passenger, I'll let him tell you about his lap.
Then I went out again with my mrs, although she doesn't believe me I was taking it easy, much slower then the first lap, she still though we where about to crash and die though, half way round there where waved yellows as the police where on the track, I guess investigating a fatal crash . Again the car was well behaved, no scary moments (not for me anyway)
A quick drink tee-shirts and stickers, then back off to the campsite. Found a nice restaurant then back to the bar
Left mat and his mrs to get on with there holiday on Sunday quite early, all was fine for a couple of hundred miles, the mrs was driving and decided it was my turn, as we pulled into services in France she said she couldn't get it into gear, we swapped places I put my foot on the clutch and the pedal hit the floor had a look under the bonnet, and yep, the clutch slave cylinder had broken, the service station was the same as the first one on Friday, no cable ties, jubilee clips, or anything useful, spent a couple of hours trying to botch it back together, gave up and phoned our rescue company "oh we can't pick you up from a French motorway, only the police can do that" then the penny dropped as to why the services have no spares at all (but they do sell tv's, phone charges, camping gas attachments etc) a local traffic copper came upto us and called the breakdown truck. This was going to cost, big time.
In desperation I cut a ratchet strap up, wrapped it round the cylinder, tied it round everything and prayed, It worked!! It held it in place just enough for me to get some gears, so off we sped, got on the motorway and upto 5th, excellent, except there was a toll booth 50 miles up the road, we joined the queue, put it in first, got to the front of the queue and snap, no clutch again, so it went through with me pushing it, then having to push it across all the lanes to a parking area, all the while the idiot French drivers coming out of the booths like an f1 start.
Now the cylinder was really broken, what little that was left was fast disappearing, tied it all up again, and managed to get going, back into 5th and no more tolls or stops till the Swiss boarder, had a couple of heart stopping moments in roadworks and roundabouts, having to do them all in 5th, fortunately the v6 has loads of torque
Now only 50 miles from home, and the swiss boarder crossing to go, no problems, its never busy, except for today a traffic jam, we had to stop, and yep, it broke again. The car was pushed into Switzerland, gave the boarder crossing police a good laugh, they started cracking jokes about British craftsmanship etc, gits.
Tried to fix it again, but there just wasn't anything left of the bracket, so the boarder police called a tow truck, 15 mins later the driver was telling us he couldn't actually tow us anywhere as they are not allowed to driver HGV's in Switzerland on a Sunday!! (So why did you come out at all????) and we would have to go back into France to the nearest MG dealer !?!?!? This was not going to happen! So off he went (no charge though, which was nice) next is was the swiss AA's turn, out they came, and said the same, we would have to stay in Basel and get it fixed on Monday, again, not an option. We persuaded him to give us a load of heavy duty cable ties and managed to get the cylinder held in place just enough to almost engaged the clutch, we pushed the car back, put it in first, turned it on and off we went, 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th all going well pushed the clutch to change into 5th, and down it went, we had to do 50 miles in 4th with the petrol light on, no idea how it managed it, but somehow it did, some 11 hours after we left mat we where home
Really glad I didn't do more laps of the ring, the clutch breaking there would have been a real nightmare.
Pushed it into a garage just down our road this morning, fingers crossed they can get hold of the part.
So in summary, The ring - Do it!!! Toyo Proxies - the best road tyre I have ever used, French service stations - crap, Swiss HGV rules - weird, MG Clutch - crap
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