Le Mans 2011 - Bit of a nightmare
Discussion
I've finally got my bruised and battered car back from Le Mans a fortnight later. I've held off writing this up as Aston were looking into how they would settle my claim so wanted to stay away from the forums.
Got down there fine, all stickered up in true Le Mans spirit:
First issue, heading down the French motorway, road sign comes up from beneath my mates car flies in the air and smashes into us doing 90-95, a big bang. God knows where it came from and god knows how it didn't come thru the Vantage windscreen, could have killed my wingman riding shotgun. Damage not great, needed new windscreen due to numerous deep scratches and bonnet grazed up, see pics(not the best):
Difficult to see below but 7 grazes where the sign hit, look carefully you can make out the outline but lot worse in real life.
Wounded but we continue on...
Get Le Mans Thursday night, straight on the beers slightly gutted about the damage but trying to put a brave face on it for the sake of my fellow travellers.
Was out on the Friday heading to a supermarket and my gear change didn't feel right, slowed up went 3rd to 4th to 3rd to 4th to 5th and felt fine - ok not to worry... Little bit of enthusiastic driving but not giving the car a thrash, just taking it through the rev range with some fast changes - exactly what this car was built for in my opinion. Few more times that day the change didn;t feel right, secretly I knew I was screwed, it was becoming a matter of time but I kept that to myself.
Into the night on Friday and we were heading over to another campsite to meet some mates, I'm over the limit by this point by my co-pilot who I'd insured had been relishing a drive so he took the wheel. We were at Porsche Curves so and the route we took meant we headed out onto the Arnage/Indianapolis section which is open to the traffic inbetween the race. Driving down the straight bit and bang, no drive, rolled to a stop in the dark at the side of the track with the race starting in 11 hours...
All I can say is thank god for Aston Assistance, they were with me in 45 mins, recovered the very broken car and took me back to campsite to unpack all my world goods. Next morning, trying to explain to a french man who refuses to speak English that I need to be picked up from Porsche Curves was interesting, my French is poor at the best of times but we got there. They had organised a taxi to pick me up 10am to take me to get a Europcar, a dodgy Renault Laguna - is was black - which was as close to my AM as they could get.
Going back to the car for a minute, engine was fine, revving nicely just no drive in the gear. Once into neutral we tried putting it into gear and nothing, wouldn't go in. Slight panic, is it my gearbox, is it clutch, is it f**k knows I'm no mechanic but I'm getting stressed at the side of Le Sarthe with a French Gendarmie riot van pulling up, luckily they saw the funny side and wished me luck. Why did I decide to do my third year at Le Mans!!!
At this point I'd fell out of love, all those niggles over the past 9 months came back and I wondered why I'd ever left 911 ownership.
I have to go out for dinner now with the OH, in the Aston I hasten to add, but I will complete part 2 of this story later.
In the mean time, answers on a postcard as to what you reckon had blown...?
Got down there fine, all stickered up in true Le Mans spirit:
First issue, heading down the French motorway, road sign comes up from beneath my mates car flies in the air and smashes into us doing 90-95, a big bang. God knows where it came from and god knows how it didn't come thru the Vantage windscreen, could have killed my wingman riding shotgun. Damage not great, needed new windscreen due to numerous deep scratches and bonnet grazed up, see pics(not the best):
Difficult to see below but 7 grazes where the sign hit, look carefully you can make out the outline but lot worse in real life.
Wounded but we continue on...
Get Le Mans Thursday night, straight on the beers slightly gutted about the damage but trying to put a brave face on it for the sake of my fellow travellers.
Was out on the Friday heading to a supermarket and my gear change didn't feel right, slowed up went 3rd to 4th to 3rd to 4th to 5th and felt fine - ok not to worry... Little bit of enthusiastic driving but not giving the car a thrash, just taking it through the rev range with some fast changes - exactly what this car was built for in my opinion. Few more times that day the change didn;t feel right, secretly I knew I was screwed, it was becoming a matter of time but I kept that to myself.
Into the night on Friday and we were heading over to another campsite to meet some mates, I'm over the limit by this point by my co-pilot who I'd insured had been relishing a drive so he took the wheel. We were at Porsche Curves so and the route we took meant we headed out onto the Arnage/Indianapolis section which is open to the traffic inbetween the race. Driving down the straight bit and bang, no drive, rolled to a stop in the dark at the side of the track with the race starting in 11 hours...
All I can say is thank god for Aston Assistance, they were with me in 45 mins, recovered the very broken car and took me back to campsite to unpack all my world goods. Next morning, trying to explain to a french man who refuses to speak English that I need to be picked up from Porsche Curves was interesting, my French is poor at the best of times but we got there. They had organised a taxi to pick me up 10am to take me to get a Europcar, a dodgy Renault Laguna - is was black - which was as close to my AM as they could get.
Going back to the car for a minute, engine was fine, revving nicely just no drive in the gear. Once into neutral we tried putting it into gear and nothing, wouldn't go in. Slight panic, is it my gearbox, is it clutch, is it f**k knows I'm no mechanic but I'm getting stressed at the side of Le Sarthe with a French Gendarmie riot van pulling up, luckily they saw the funny side and wished me luck. Why did I decide to do my third year at Le Mans!!!
At this point I'd fell out of love, all those niggles over the past 9 months came back and I wondered why I'd ever left 911 ownership.
I have to go out for dinner now with the OH, in the Aston I hasten to add, but I will complete part 2 of this story later.
In the mean time, answers on a postcard as to what you reckon had blown...?
Edited by jonamv8 on Thursday 23 June 19:20
Edited by jonamv8 on Thursday 23 June 19:22
Edited by jonamv8 on Thursday 23 June 19:23
Edited by jonamv8 on Thursday 23 June 19:25
jonamv8 said:
First issue, heading down the French motorway, road sign comes up from beneath my mates car flies in the air and smashes into us doing 90-95, a big bang. God knows where it came from and god knows how it didn't come thru the Vantage windscreen, could have killed my wingman riding shotgun. Damage not great, needed new windscreen due to numerous deep scratches and bonnet grazed up, see pics(not the best):
That's why we have very raked windscreens. No seriously though this could have happened http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOhgMAOrp0c and that would have been much worse.Good luck getting things sorted.
In the mean time, answers on a postcard as to what you reckon had blown...?
Nothing blown (except maybe in the last instance)
Three options
1. You're both very p
d and trying to to use the window up down switch in place of the gear lever
2. A 2 euro coin stuck in the leather gaiter in front of the gear lever?
3. You've changed the numberplate to FAG60T and that's not the gearstick honey!
Nothing blown (except maybe in the last instance)
Three options
1. You're both very p
d and trying to to use the window up down switch in place of the gear lever2. A 2 euro coin stuck in the leather gaiter in front of the gear lever?
3. You've changed the numberplate to FAG60T and that's not the gearstick honey!
haha no not quite the clutch had gone, apparently it was obliterated, not consistent with wear and tear but of a complete fail.
AM fixed it under warranty and found a rear cluster with water ingress so replaced that FOC at the same time.
Nice E-Class, 250 CDI with the AMG kit on with 11 miles on the clock was delivered to my house for a couple of weeks while the AM was repaired so couldn't moan too much, was a nice car.
Got the car back and the clutch feels quite a bit lighter than before and on other Vantages I'd driven.
All in all, car let me down but AM's customer service was second to none. At no point did I have to moan about anything, they knew what I wanted and delivered.
Happy ending...
AM fixed it under warranty and found a rear cluster with water ingress so replaced that FOC at the same time.
Nice E-Class, 250 CDI with the AMG kit on with 11 miles on the clock was delivered to my house for a couple of weeks while the AM was repaired so couldn't moan too much, was a nice car.
Got the car back and the clutch feels quite a bit lighter than before and on other Vantages I'd driven.
All in all, car let me down but AM's customer service was second to none. At no point did I have to moan about anything, they knew what I wanted and delivered.
Happy ending...
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