the day started at 06:00 am with me loading the car on the trailer for my first ever track day!
last night i ran the car for 20 mins or so to make sure all was good,and it was. put a couple of hours of charge on the battery and fitted all bodywork.
this morning i fit the battery,started the car,loaded onto trailer,and set off for mallory.
got stuck in traffic as west bromwich due to a crash and arrived at mallory with minutes to spare! did the briefing,had a coffee and un loaded car ready for sound testing.
tried to start the car and it would not fire.couldnt hear fuel pump prime so disconnected fuel hose to find it was ok. tried and tried to get it going but nothing.got a few guys (and a girl) to give me a few shoves around the paddock to try to bump start it but again nothing. by this time over an hour of the 3 1/2 had gone so removed the battery and plugged it in to charge in the canteen for an hour and a bit, but with only 45 mins of the session left i had no option but to try the battery again and hope i could sneak the last 45mins of track time but as you may have guessed.nothing
so a day off work,£99 track day,£144 on fuel and never got a single lap! the only p-ositive is nothing broke and £70 of the fuel is still in jerry cans
all in all a disaster! and one of my ratchet straps shat itself about 2 mins into the journey home meaing i got soaked trying to sort it in the rain

quote:

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Originally posted by daniel mason
the day started at 06:00 am with me loading the car on the trailer for my first ever track day!
last night i ran the car for 20 mins or so to make sure all was good,and it was. put a couple of hours of charge on the battery and fitted all bodywork.
this morning i fit the battery,started the car,loaded onto trailer,and set off for mallory.
got stuck in traffic as west bromwich due to a crash and arrived at mallory with minutes to spare! did the briefing,had a coffee and un loaded car ready for sound testing.
tried to start the car and it would not fire.couldnt hear fuel pump prime so disconnected fuel hose to find it was ok. tried and tried to get it going but nothing.got a few guys (and a girl) to give me a few shoves around the paddock to try to bump start it but again nothing. by this time over an hour of the 3 1/2 had gone so removed the battery and plugged it in to charge in the canteen for an hour and a bit, but with only 45 mins of the session left i had no option but to try the battery again and hope i could sneak the last 45mins of track time but as you may have guessed.nothing
so a day off work,£99 track day,£144 on fuel and never got a single lap! the only p-ositive is nothing broke and £70 of the fuel is still in jerry cans
all in all a disaster! and one of my ratchet straps shat itself about 2 mins into the journey home meaing i got soaked trying to sort it in the rain

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For a horrible moment I thought you had stuffed it into the armco....

probable would have ivan given the chance!

Daniel,

My friend, if that is the worst day of your life or even your worst trackday experience, you're having a ball.

Suck it up Son. It good be a lot f***ing worse!

id have rather had a good 4 hours and blown an engine than what happened today! fu**ing disaster

Try again next Saturday? £20/15min session at Mallory.....

Probably little consolaltion we've probably all been there at some point, Castle Combe September 2012 for me. £200 on diesel for towcar, £70 fuel for track car, £110 track time, trailer hire for weekend £150.

Managed to get on track and nearly kill myself at the very first corner, with suspension/steering problems. hey ho...sh!t happens. You'll get over it, I did eventually...

Doesnt matter which way you look at what we have in our garages, they are all money pits.....


Spent £96 today, £60 at Stoneleigh and £50 last week....and its still looks hardly any different from when I put it there in 2011.


The positives with yours are, it drives, mostly runs and isnt just a pile of parts on shelving. Your winning....

A bummer for sure, but...

Assuming you started the car with the battery the night before and ran it for 20 mins, why did you need to charge the battery for 2hrs?

Were you already having problems starting the car and/or did you suspect the battery was a duffer?

Sounds like you were aware there was/may have been an issue beforehand.

All-in, not the worst day ever, frustrating and a few quid lost, but no damage an no one got hurt

quote:

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Originally posted by TimC
Daniel,

My friend, if that is the worst day of your life .........

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quote:

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Originally posted by daniel mason
the day started at 06:00 am with me loading the car on the trailer for my first ever track day!
last night i ran the car for 20 mins or so to make sure all was good,and it was. put a couple of hours of charge on the battery and fitted all bodywork.
this morning i fit the battery,started the car,loaded onto trailer,and set off for mallory.
got stuck in traffic as west bromwich due to a crash and arrived at mallory with minutes to spare! did the briefing,had a coffee and un loaded car ready for sound testing.
tried to start the car and it would not fire.couldnt hear fuel pump prime so disconnected fuel hose to find it was ok. tried and tried to get it going but nothing.got a few guys (and a girl) to give me a few shoves around the paddock to try to bump start it but again nothing. by this time over an hour of the 3 1/2 had gone so removed the battery and plugged it in to charge in the canteen for an hour and a bit, but with only 45 mins of the session left i had no option but to try the battery again and hope i could sneak the last 45mins of track time but as you may have guessed.nothing
so a day off work,£99 track day,£144 on fuel and never got a single lap! the only p-ositive is nothing broke and £70 of the fuel is still in jerry cans
all in all a disaster! and one of my ratchet straps shat itself about 2 mins into the journey home meaing i got soaked trying to sort it in the rain

---

quote:

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Originally posted by emwmarine

quote:

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Originally posted by TimC
Daniel,

My friend, if that is the worst day of your life .........

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I was just about to post this.

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Hard luck Dan,
On a positive note you brought the car home un damaged. You can try again, why didn’t you send the Volvo round the track instead or is that not allowed. Barbon tomorrow, I’ve got work in morning then a box party to go to at 12.00 so gonna be late. I hope to get there before last runs.

I can’t book anything before I get it on the road sorry. Chin up mate.

[Edited on 10/5/13 by unijacko67]

What has happened to the Caterham you bought?

Sorry... Just seemed you needed a bit of perspective

I was expecting to get to the "disconnected the fuel hose" to be followed by "and it spayed all over the car and ignited, the cars in ashes... and when I got home the wife had run off with the milkman". That still wouldn't even come close to the worst day of my life but would get some sympathy.

1;id like to do mallory (again) but its 3 1/2 hours away when towing.
2;the caterham is now hillclimbing in austria
3;suppose its not the end of the world. just annoying
4;thanks all!

Sorry to hear of your woes,
I hope you can sort the problem quickly and get another day booked sharpish!

Hope my last one makes you feel better
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=171692

[Edited on 11/5/13 by ReMan]

quote:

---

Originally posted by daniel mason
the day started at 06:00 am with me loading the car on the trailer for my first ever track day!
last night i ran the car for 20 mins or so to make sure all was good,and it was. put a couple of hours of charge on the battery and fitted all bodywork.
this morning i fit the battery,started the car,loaded onto trailer,and set off for mallory.
got stuck in traffic as west bromwich due to a crash and arrived at mallory with minutes to spare! did the briefing,had a coffee and un loaded car ready for sound testing.
tried to start the car and it would not fire.couldnt hear fuel pump prime so disconnected fuel hose to find it was ok. tried and tried to get it going but nothing.got a few guys (and a girl) to give me a few shoves around the paddock to try to bump start it but again nothing. by this time over an hour of the 3 1/2 had gone so removed the battery and plugged it in to charge in the canteen for an hour and a bit, but with only 45 mins of the session left i had no option but to try the battery again and hope i could sneak the last 45mins of track time but as you may have guessed.nothing
so a day off work,£99 track day,£144 on fuel and never got a single lap! the only p-ositive is nothing broke and £70 of the fuel is still in jerry cans
all in all a disaster! and one of my ratchet straps shat itself about 2 mins into the journey home meaing i got soaked trying to sort it in the rain

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sounds like quite a 'reasonable' day to me
not good, but certainly no where near the worst i've ever had...

Could have been much worse!