First trackday of the year

[MillRat]

Cheers for the well wishes guys. Thanks for the phone call too Dave, appreciated dude.

Trev, I'm still not sure if it was just boiled fluid. I'm still uncertain though as there was no warning like you normally get with boiled fluids. Only other thing I can think of is a possible M/C failure but I'm not too convinced either way until I can get some time to investigate.

Well, if it can happen to an F1 car, then unexpected brake failure can effect all of us!!

I (like everyone else probably) would be very interested to find out exactly what happen, or what failed, so that I/we don't have to start similar threads later on.

Good luck with your investigations Mr Holmes....

[bss325i]

Sorry to hear about this Chris. Most important thing is that you were ok and may have been a bit worse off if the shell wasnt as good as it was.

Have you tried to start the engine after the impact?

[billgatese30]

No I haven't Barry, the oil cooler was wiped out (although the sump looks ok) and some of the ancillary pulleys are bent (air con pump was completely wiped out) so I'll pull it out and make sure everything looks ok and turn it over by hand first to make sure that nothing is out of the ordinary.

[magpie]

gutted! that was the best 318i lux I've seen.

that lovely steering wheel took a right battering ya bully!

[daimlerman]

Had any investigation time,yet,Chris?

[billgatese30]

Not yet Malc. I have had some destuctive time though, I've managed to remove all the twisted mess that was the front valence and remove alot of the air con pipes and air con rad & oil cooler. Both radiators and the oil cooler are ready for the bin but all the pipe work for the air con and oil cooler look ok though.

Need to get some metal discs for my 9" grinder so I can remove the slam panel in one big chunk so I can release the engine properly (and peel the coolant rad from the pulleys on the front of the block)

Once that's done it will free up some space to start investigating brake lines and systems (Servo, MC, ABS unit etc).

[GeoffBob]

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you Chris if you require a 9" grinder disc . I do hope that it turns out to be all cooler damage only, and that the rest is re-usable. Would be good to hear that you can get her all ship-shape again with minimal outlay/effort.

How is the face feeling? Nose all healed by now I trust.

[billgatese30]

I have one or two leads for shell's. One of which is already partly converted to run the S50.


Face and chest are all ok now, back to just being ugly.

[Dave_M3]

Shame the car is dead but seeing as you left the track at such a pace its good to here you only came out with a few scratches and a battered ego :p

Cabin stayed pretty well intact though other than a rater crumpled roof, will be interesting to see what caused it.