Disaster strikes

 It was all going so well last week - went on a nice evening drive in the sunset:

But it's all gone to pot...the cause? My son (kids, hey, who'd have 'em?). On a late night drive, he crashed his beloved BMW M4 😞

Thankfully, he is fine but the car is most likely to be a write-off and he will never get back the many £1000s he has spent on upgrades and mods. He had just bought some new, cheap rear tyres (he wears through them so quickly, he doesn't buy decent ones) and they certainly contributed to him losing control on a fast corner and spinning into a hedgerow. However, he does drive like a nutcase and there is no question that is really the main cause (which he admits).

The car actually doesn't look too bad; lots of front body panels damaged, a couple of very mangled wheels and missing trim. However, there will almost certainly be some suspension damage, a definite radiator leak and the side airbags all deployed (but not the steering wheel/dashboard, weirdly). Very unlikely that is economically repairable...

Selfishly, this probably means my euro trip in late June will be off; I need to confirm and pay for hotels in May and it is unlikely that the insurance will be resolved by then or even if my son would like to go on a trip in whatever he gets next. He won't be able to afford anything decent and he may not want to take a lesser car on a road trip. I'll consider going alone but it would save money and work holiday days if I just cancel.

Depressing times...

Hotting up

 The weather is starting to warm up and I've had a few daytime runs at lunchtime with the roof down - nothing too exciting but fun nonetheless. 

Today was a longer run out to the wilds of Kent. I normally go south of home but today was east and it was very good; traffic seems a bit quieter and some really good roads out that way. I ended up at Hawkhurst fisheries which has a nice cafe and great lake views:

All by my lonesome as my son went to Wimbledon for the Southside Hustle we went to a few weeks ago (I didn't fancy going again so soon) and I didn't even bother asking the Porkers group.

My son has just had both turbos replaced (and upgraded) on his M4 under warranty and spent another £x000 on various other bits for his car; it's now up to 650 bhp!

Dance with the Devil

I've had a nice week with Barry; an evening run to a gig which meant an 11pm return ie. zero traffic and hooliganism ensued. Then a nice, slow Saturday run in the sun with the wife - more enjoyable than I expected as we do live in a pretty part of the world when I go slow enough to look at it.

Finally, today, a run with Tribal Gruppe round Surrey/Sussex. I went on a few runs with them last year, which were pretty good but they started to get expensive (originally about £3 but started going up to well over a tenner), so I stopped going. However, the organiser has had a LOT of bad press recently after he took a group to France and just dumped them halfway through the trip! Now, reading between the lines, it sounds like he wanted, like me, to just drive and drive fast but others on the trip were expecting slower speeds and more sight-seeing. They complained and he threw his toys out the pram and left them. I've spoken to him a few times on the previous runs and he was OK but not really my type of guy; a bit of a name-dropper and he does have a little clique of regulars he concentrates on.

However, he drives like me and chooses good routes, so it works well for me (and this run was back to £4), so off I went. We met up at Maddings, itself a great location because just the run there is one of my favourites. About 20 Porsches turned up, so pretty good turn out:

From there, we had a short run to Petworth:

...and another short run to the Maltings pub (once owned by Chris Evans):

The run was a good speed and nice roads and I had some fun chats with a lot of very rich 911 owners - except for an old Cayenne someone turned up in with their whole family ( 😀 ), Barry was the cheapest car by a long way. But everyone was very friendly, so an enjoyable morning out.

The run back was just as good and traffic was quite light, probably because of the huge price of petrol at the moment.

Springy Sprungy

 It's still cold but the sun has FINALLY made an appearance this year and today was lovely - roof down for the first time on a short run out to Torque Moto cafe, which was heaving with some nice stuff:

A 45 year old DeLorean - crazy how good looking it is for that age:

...and some great quotes on the steps (you'll have to zoom in):

With the sun shining, the roof down, the exhaust howling - reminds me why I have Barry.

What a Dicker

 Fancied a bit of a longer drive today and I saw a meet advertised on FB at the intriguingly named Little Dicker, near Eastbourne. It was described as a 'modern classics' meet but, sadly, the rain kept anything decent at home. I know I always say Barry was the best car there but in this case, it was true:

Well, not counting my sons M4...

However, the drive there and back wasn't too bad; lots of rain, traffic and potholes but a few glimpses of lovely, twisty roads that reminded me why I love driving and Barry in particular. Just the right amount of power for our roads, a glorious soundtrack - special.

Sadly, Chris has pulled out of my Euro tour as his daughter has an event he needs to take her too on both weekends, so down to 4 of us, me and 3 yoofs - ah well...

Bored?

 Well, not much happened recently - the British weather has really played a blinder and it has rained almost non-stop for the last 3 weeks. I had a brief flash of sun on Saturday and put the roof down for a blast but it was 6 degC, so darn cold. Otherwise, my last few drives have all been roof up, which is unusual.

Since my wheel alignment, Barry feels a bit better but still a lot of tramlining - am I just noticing this more? I don't know...

I also had a slight leak of water into the frunk, which is a concern. I've managed to avoid any water ingress issues which are common in Boxster world and a little bit in the frunk isn't serious as there is nothing in there that could get damaged but still...

More of a worry is my general interest in cars/driving/Barry; it's a bad time of year, obviously, but the Surrey Boxster group is pretty much dead and I'm so familiar with all my local roads that they just aren't as much fun as they used to be. The thought of car meets starting back up soon doesn't leave me feeling that excited - am I just getting bored? I'm beginning to understand why people change cars so frequently in our car world.

I've got my main Euro trip in June booked and ready to go and that I am looking forward to but it does worry me how lethargic I feel. I'm more excited by getting out on my bike when this rain finally stops.

Hopefully, things will improve and I'm just being a hypocariac (see what I did there?)...

Less of a Hustle

 I have been complaining about Barry feeling a bit loose recently, wondering if it was the new rear tyres or dodgy brakes - and it then got suggested that wheel alignment was the problem. I had the alignment done 2 years ago and I thought that should last years but no, it seems some people do it every year!

So I went to Kwik-Fit, who offer a free alignment check and then just £130 to do the adjustment. The guy did the check and said it was out BUT he couldn't do the alignment because some of the bolts were seized. I called 911Excellence and they said new toe-arms (the most likely seized bit) and an alignment would cost me £750 - ouch! I considered asking Cearth to use his garage and do it myself but reading up, it's a real PITA job - I decided to bite the bullet and pay the man.

Car booked in and 1 hour after dropping it off, they called to say they had managed to get the bolts off, so no need for new toe-arms - brilliant! So the geo just cost me £300 (including new bolts). Expensive but less than I was expecting, so a result.

Today, I went up to Wimbledon for the monthly Southside Hustle, a car meet on the residential roads of Wimbledon Village. It was very busy with some interesting stuff:

The Corvette was refusing to start, hence the bonnet up  - typical classic car behaviour 😀

I went for a blat to see if the alignment had made any improvement - difficult to tell with the torrential rain and huge puddles everywhere but it's definitely better, although not sure if it's as good as I remember it. I'll have to check another time...