Isle Of Man Mega Meet 6 2010
The weekend started on Thursday evening about 7:30pm when I went to collect the chocolate biscuit cake that was meant to be shaped like a Honda S2000. When we arrived I instantly recognized its as a Limo, an exact replica of a Lincoln Towncar. It was a disaster and the only thing I could do was set about repairing it. So then I had to figure out what I needed and where to get it. By 9:30pm I was at home and started to remove the wheels and the icing from the cake and reshape it into its correct profile before re-icing it. It took till 5:10am to get it all sorted and then I passed out on the couch. Jonner my Navigator for the weekend rang me at 6am to tell me he was outside my house and ready to go. So we quickly packed bags loaded the car and set off to meet the rest of the Irish lads heading to the Isle Of Man.
As usual they were late and we had a decent head start, making it to Belfast in little less than 2 hours. Once loaded aboard our ferry to Douglas the Captain decided to tell us that we only had 3 out of 4 engines running and this would cause our 2 hour sailing to become 4 hours. Couple that with the boat leaving at 11am and it was well after 3pm when we arrived. After about 20 minutes of lapping the town trying to get the SatNav to find the Mount Murray hotel, we got our bearings and headed out into the country side.
We arrived at the Hotel to find that we were the first to arrive and the rest of the groups were delayed in Liverpool due to bad weather.So Jonner,Paul and myself went to the driving range for a couple of hours and almost smashed every light and fence in the place. By the time we got back to the hotel reception, the place was filling up nicely. We spent most of Friday night in the bar after dinner catching up with all the people I had met at Euromeet and in Japan. By the time we left the bar it was about 2am.
Saturday morning had a 9am start. We met in a large group outside the hotel and had a drivers briefing. The 50 cars were to be divided into 4 groups
1) The fastest Group Led by Brian from the IOM.
2) The Fast Group led by Carl From IOM.
3) The touring group Led by Mark from IOM.
4) The slow group Led by S2KUK Chairman Ian.
Brian and Phil are a father and son from the IOM that Adam and myself went from Euromeet to the Ring with. Carl and Alison are a couple that are also from IOM and who were at Euromeet too. Ian the president of S2KUK I met at Euromeet and in Japan and there were one or two others I met along the way.
I knew that the rest of the Irish lads would stay in the same group I went for. Having driven with both Brian and Carl at Euro meet, I knew that Carl would be a slightly safer option for lads who are not used to fast driving convoys.We settled into our groups that left at 10-minute intervals. So with the fastest group gone 10 minutes ahead we set off, 15 minutes later we caught the fastest group. That meant we had been pushing along quite nicely. This happened 3 times through out the day meaning the fastest group weren't actually so fast. Although when this was mentioned the list of excuses from poor directions to weather conditions were in abundance.
We had a pit stop once every hour or so to allow people to change groups and let the cars cool. We stayed in the same group that whole day as the pace was brisk and this meant the roads were a decent challenge. There are no potholes on the IOM and other than some bumps the roads were excellent. The Speedo in my car stops at 112 mph/180Kmph but I was told that we were over 120mph on several occasions. I was third in the group, Carl leading and Dominic in front of me, behind me was one of Belgian group and then the Irish guys behind him. Needless to say all had a reasonable grip of how to drive in convoy so it didn't take long to build up trust in each other.
Having stopped for the last regroup session on Ramsey sea front, we took off across the mountains for our final leg back to the hotel. This is when the clutch decided to exit stage left. Approaching a 90-degree right at just over 100mph and heavy on the brakes, I tried to down shift to 3rd. There was nothing, just lots of grinding noises and I had to hope we made it around the corner without power. After the corner I had several forceful attempts at changing into 3rd and finally made it. About 2 miles later and still in 3rd we arrived at a T-junction and that’s when the "GAME OVER" sign appeared. We were stuck in neutral. We pulled out of the convoy and I checked for oil leaks and everything was all right. So after finding the shortest route back to the hotel on the satnav which was about 10 miles, I got the car jammed into 2nd and we spent the next 20 minutes crawling back to the hotel. Within 10 minutes of our arrival back to the hotel the 1st group arrived.
Once the local lads had arrived I had 2 options
1) Change the clutch and gearbox in the hotel car park. This sounds crazy, but I had all the required parts offered to me and tonnes of offers of manpower.
2) Call the AA and see what they could do.
As Saturday night was the night of the Charity auction and dinner, I decided against ruining everyone’s weekend and called the AA.Within an hour the AA mechanic arrived and agreed the clutch was gone, as the pedal could not be fully pressed to the floor. So then it was time for a shower and head for dinner. Dinner was good, but the charity auction was a real laugh. I ended up winning a book about the NXS and $150 voucher for a company in the states that does S2000 accessories. Other than one of the Irish guys getting extremely drunk the rest of the night was good fun with Karaoke being the focus point. Sunday morning found us awoken by the AA who decided that we were in trouble and we would have to go home through the England. Once up showered and fed, we went down to the car park and found ourselves some passenger seats for the day. The plan for Sunday was go karting followed by a bbq at Brian’s house.
Jonner sat in with Carl and I robbed a seat with one of the other Irish guys John. Our route up to the go-kart track was along the Isle of Man TT track. The Kart track itself was small and extremely wet when we arrived. The plan was every one signed on and then they marshals divided us up into teams. There was a total of 18 signed up and with only 6 karts available it was 6 teams of 3 with each driver having 20 minutes seat time and the team with the most laps won. By chance I ended up with Carl and an older English gent David as teammates.
The marshals decided that the fairest way to do things was everyone got pulled in after 10 minutes for a driver change. With Carl being a local and knowing the track I pushed for him to go first. This worked out nicely as it was starting to form a dry line and lap times were dropping. The track had an excellent lap timing set up, so we had up to the second info at all times. By the end of Carls 10 minutes we had a decent lead and I was next into the drivers seat. Carls best lap time was 37 seconds but the track was soaking. I had studied his lines and set about pushing hard from the start. The first 5 laps were a disaster the track was like glass and not spinning was nearly impossible.
I finally got the hang of it and set the fastest lap in the 33 second range. When it was my time to pit I had stretched the lead and we were still leading nicely. David’s laps were quick and consistent, both of which are vital for keeping a decent lead. At this stage the track was almost dry and finding a wet line was getting hard. Carl was playing a stormer and was maintaining a decent lead. His fastest lap was down to 31 seconds and he had the foot welded in. While discussing lines with Carl when I finished my first run, I figured I could knock 4 seconds off my best lap time and when the track dried out I was right. On my 3rd lap in my second stint I was running 29 second laps and kept it that way. I managed to bag the fastest lap of the day at 29:68 and extended our lead to 24 seconds from second place.
The team in second place was featuring a guest appearance by Jonner. Whose understanding of racing lines and physics seem to pale into the shadows of his focus and determination. He was pushing like his life depended on it and anyone who tried swapping paint came off second best. By the end Jonner had managed to get the gap down to just 12 seconds, but it wasn't enough. Just as the chequered flag dropped so did the rain and the next few minutes resulted in what could be compared to the start of a classic Le Mans race. People were running towards cars that had alarms beeping in chorus as the owners dived inside for shelter. Engines fired up and windscreens completely covered in fog as the occupants started drying out, the group slowly made its way back to the main road. Our route continued along the rest of the TT track and although it was raining the road conditions were good and the pace was entertaining. As we started to climb up the mountain the dense fog set in and visibility was down to 15 metres in places.
Our trip along the TT track ended at the grandstand on the start/finish straight. It was a great sight to see almost 50 S2000s lined up along the pit lane for photos. Meanwhile some of our Belgian friends were driving back and forth on the main straight getting pictures taken of them top down in the lashing rain. These antics kept us all amused until the rain passed, then it was back to the hotel. A quick change into dry clothes and it was time for the bar; this was a stopgap until the bus arrived to bring us to Brian’s house for a Barbeque. The bus was organized by Brian and driven by his daughter, she had the patience of a saint and had to endure several trips back and forth with drunk petrol heads on board. At the house food and drink was a plenty and so was the entertainment as Phil played guitar and we all stared in amazement at Brian’s personal cinema. This room about the size of a double garage was set out with couches, a bar and the most incredible projector and sound system I've ever seen, I'll never be able to watch a 14" black and white portable TV again.
As the evening drew to a close we said our goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for a great weekend. We returned to the hotel and parked ourselves back in the bar. As usual with hotel bars there is no predicting whom you'll meet there. In this case it happened to be the crew of Australian Top Gear, who along with their helicopter pilot were praying for the low cloud and bad weather to lift. They were doing a feature on British track focused sports cars and were intending on using the TT track as a testing ground. After chatting with the helicopter pilot we found out that they were not too confident in the coming days weather. Monday morning began with several calls from the AA to organise getting the car onto a ferry to Ireland. It turned out that a standard recovery truck plus the weight of an S2000 was enough to bend the floor of the ferry to Belfast and they were considering sending us home via Liverpool and Holyhead. But like most things at 7:30 am on a wet Monday morning nothing was going to happen until my stomach was full.
A quick stroll towards the restaurant revealed what the Top Gear boys had brought to play with. Parked in the shelter of the hotel entrance we found a Ginetta F400, Radical RS3 RS and Ariel Atom V8, which was hiding in a rather unassuming curtain side lorry. The camera crew were mounting the small in car cameras to the Radical and the Atom and the producers and what seemed to be mechanics were scurrying around the Ginetta. It turned out that the Ginettas alarm had caused the battery to go flat and the producers were trying to organise a battery charger. After breakfast we emerged just as the Top Gear crew were loading their equipment into a rental Land Rover Discovery. As the cars started to fire up the crowd of on lookers was starting to grow. This was something that one of the cameramen realised just after he smashed one of the Discoveries taillights with a kit bag. I felt quite sorry for him, as he turned red when he realised the size of his audience. We drooled over the cars for a little while longer as we discussed the logic of bring such track focused machines up a rain soaked mountain road that had less than 20 metres visibility due to heavy fog.
Another call from the AA interrupted my speculating on how good the Top Gear footage could possibly be. It looked like we were bound for Liverpool unless we could get the S2000 onto the boat without the recovery truck. In the end it was decided to bring the car to the port on a truck, then get a small van to tow the car into position on the ferry. We said our final good byes to the remaining S2KUK members and began to load the car. A short while later we were on the road for my S2000s most economical trip to date. When we arrived at the port, security allowed us to bypass check in as it had not opened and drop the car off at the head of lane 1. This meant that we still had to check in when the gates opened. As we were car passenger we couldn't check in with foot passengers, so we ended up standing in the queue of cars and moving 1 space forward at a time. The occupants of cars around us found this highly amusing, as did the lady checking us in. It took a couple of minutes of explaining before she realised that we did not own the abandoned motorcycles by the office door.
Eventually we were checked in and the Ford Transit Connect arrived to tow us onto the ferry, much to the amusement of the rest of the Irish S2000 owners. The return sailing was without a doubt the worst I have ever been on!! Yet again the Captain announced we were only running on 3 engines and that our sailing would be over 4 hours. Being on the water has never been an issue for me, my father brought me sea fishing as a small child and I've taken dozens of ferries as an adult but nothing likes this. Within 30 minutes of leaving Douglas the amount of passengers turning green was frightening. After 90 minutes people were falling over and trays were leaving tables at high speed. Thanks to a spirit level on an Ipod I can confirm that the ferry was rolling over 20 degrees for more than 2 hours. There was cheers of delight when Belfast port came into view, I'm sure the security staff and passengers awaiting the ferry at Belfast thought the cast of 28 days later had just arrived.
Once docked and the doors to the car deck opened and everyone was in a great hurry to exit the ferry from hell. Unfortunately while trying to rush a lady in her late 70s placed one of her crutches on a wet tie down anchor point. She came to the ground with a stomach churning thud and received a very bad head injury. Passengers and deck hands rushed to her aid and within minutes an ambulance was on the scene. The paramedics did an excellent job reassuring her and her family that she would be ok while they stretchered her above the height of the cars to the ambulance. Because we were the first on we were also the last off. I managed to find first gear with the engine off wait for the exit route and ramp to be clear then start the car drive it to the top of the ramp and roll it the rest of the way out from there. At the bottom of the ramp was our next recovery truck to bring us to Newry, were finally one more brought us to my house. The total count was 7 AA trucks by the time I set foot in my driveway as another 2 had been sent to Belfast port at the wrong times. During a conversation with our last driver I enquired about the cost of all of this, his answer was short and sweet he was getting €350 from Newry to my house a distance of about about 75 miles. I can only imagine what the final total cost was!! Since then I really can't recommend the AA highly enough and I have to admit it’s the best €24 a month I've spent.
With the car back in my own garage, it was time to find out what went wrong. So it was out with the gearbox and straightaway the problem was visible. The clutch plate has 4 pairs of springs inside the plate, due to a defect in the metal surrounding one pair of these springs they had come out. They had them lodged themselves between the clutch plate and the fingers of the pressure plate stopping the clutch plate from moving. So with an up rated clutch fitted and the gearbox replaced, and with the fluid and brake pad levels checked she was back on the road and ready for the Ring September.
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