So Wednesday night I got a text from my brother asking if I fancied a trip to France to my dads holiday home on the weekend. We were going to hire a car, but decided that it would be a great excuse to take the e30 away! Queue the most disastrous chain of events possible.
It started off on Thursday night. I had barely driven the car as the fan was broken following a failed engine mount when my friend owned it. He replaced the mount, but the fan needed attention. According to him, it was just the fan. That was a lie.
Luckily, the PO had upgraded the rad to an e36 item, the exact same one I used for my m50 conversion, so the Sports part pile was quicky pilfered, the fan attached to the back of the rad as this car has aircon and the radiator fitted, filled and bled.
After a test drive and half an hour idling:
Now I mentioned the rack was knocking and was told it was worn by the PO. I hadn't had a proper look underneath the turd yet as I couldn't get my normal jack underneath it. Well when I jacked it up, I figured I would have a look. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 2 of the 4 bolts holding it in where missing and there were witness marks where it had slid back and forth! Impreza racks are held in with 2 C clamps with 2 bolts each, one has notches in the rack where it sits in. The knocking was it smacking back and forth into these notches
A quick rummage through my bolt collection, and all 4 bolts nipped up cured this and made the steering feel amazing. I might explore this rack option further now.
So by this time, it's 12.45, I pack the car up ready for the trip the next day and go to bed.
The next day I left work early, grabbed my backpack and jumped into the car. It was a bit reluctant to start but eventually wheezed into life. No time to investigate, I started to reverse out the garage when it started pouring smoke out the bonnet. Opened the bonnet to see flames coming out and shat myself. Grabbed a bucket of water and chucked it over the lump. Turns out the O - ring on the dodgy aftermarket FPR had split, sprayed fuel everywhere and it had gone up. Luckily pretty much only the fuel burnt, along with the bonnet so I pilfered a spare O -ring and fitted it. The fire had also taken out the wires to the fan controller so I unplugged it and as an emergency fix I hardwired the fan to the switchable live on the ignition coil and picked up my brother. No pics of the damage bar this:
Now any normal person would have given up on the idea of taking the car away by now, but I was determined. The car made it to the ferry (just) and was loaded up:
Goodbye Jersey!
Hello 80's Liverpudlian!
And hello St Malo!
While getting off the boat, I noticed this stunning drop top Bentley with red leather interior. Lovely car:
Cruising round town looking for the hotel I spotted some local French talent. The inner Pony came out in me and I dumped the clutch and slid out the junction. To my surprise they loved it and all started cheering! Must have been the yellow headlights
Found the hotel and opposite it was a really cool museum. I managed to sneak the e30 through a barrier and park it up for my favourite photo of the whole trip:
A few beers, some awful steak and bed ready for the drive the next day. We woke up to perfect weather:
I checked all the levels and tyre pressures ready for the 130 mile drive and we set off down the motorway. Car was really well behaved, pulled well and we sat at a comfortable 90 most of the way down. Highlight was spotting a french e30! Beautiful 325i, lowered on some nice rims. We were in convoy for about 50 miles, giving it a bit of stick and overtaking each other. Good times
We arrived at my dads place in a town called Huelgoat at about 12 and parked up next to his new Kia, sorry BMW 2 series active tourer
What happened to BMW? One of the dogs took a liking to the e30 and wouldn't get out for a while!
If you like walking I really recommend Huelgoat. It's got these stunning house sized boulders scattered around and has some incredible scenery. I let my brother take the pictures with his proper camera as my phone wasn't doing it justice. I did spot Stefan's Grotto though (sounds seedy doesn't it?)
And I spent the rest of the day hacking around the valleys in the e30. I wish I had got some photo's/footage as the roads were incredible. No cars on them, really fast, undulating and flowing through amazing views. Burnt a tank in the afternoon ragging it around. BBQ and beers finished off the day nicely.
The next day, the dogs took me for a walk
And we had a spot of lunch with the old man before heading off. We decided to take the back roads this time instead of the motorways and saw some amazing scenery, along with the best driving roads imaginable. No pictures of the good bits unfortunately, my brother was holding on for dear life.
And against my best predictions, the car made it back without missing a beat! It was running a touch on the warm side mind, but it was 30 degrees and I was pretty flat out.
And finally home!
Despite a disastrous start, it turned out to be a cracking trip and I am really glad I took the e30 in the end. If anything it has highlighted all the weaknesses and my list of things to do is getting a lot longer, but no better way to figure out what was wrong than this.
Hoping to go again in a couple weeks
