Faith in human nature restored...
Discussion
Just off the M23 last Friday morning, en route to Gatwick, water pump gasket let go most spectacularly ... all of the coolant, every last drop poured out in a huge cloud of steam as I entered the roundabouts 1km short of the airport. I coasted out of the roundabout and onto the hard shoulder.
Two cars immediately pulled up to see if they could help, one of them a mobile tyre repair service geezer. He spent a while rooting around under the bonnet trying to help, but as soon as we tried refilling the system it was obvious the gasket had gone rather than anything we could bodge. He left refusing to accept any beer tokens from me.
5 mins later a third car pulled up to see if they could help (driver was a Belgian chap who had a mate with a TVR).
5 mins after that a bloke pulls up who had been on the other side of the dual carriageway when he spotted me. He looped back to offer to ship us to the airport (i.e several miles out of his way in ye wrong direction). By then the AA were already on the way, but it was a very, very kind offer on his part. Turns out he has a '98 4.5 Chim, which just goes to show what good blokes Chim owners are.
About 5 mins after that, a red Griff came blatting out of the roundabout and hurtled past. I'm sure he too would have stopped if (a) the lift-off wouldn't have sent him into the armco and (b) he hadn't been blinded by the sun reflecting off his medallion.
Anyway, the AA showed up and carted us to the airport and arranged for the car to be trailered straight off to Mr Batty who had very kindly agreed to take the car at such short notice and has managed to work on it today, for which I am very grateful as I am out of the country for a few months as of the end of this week. Hats off to the AA too who were on the scene within 1/2 hour of my first call to them and got us to the airport in time for the flight.
Two cars immediately pulled up to see if they could help, one of them a mobile tyre repair service geezer. He spent a while rooting around under the bonnet trying to help, but as soon as we tried refilling the system it was obvious the gasket had gone rather than anything we could bodge. He left refusing to accept any beer tokens from me.
5 mins later a third car pulled up to see if they could help (driver was a Belgian chap who had a mate with a TVR).
5 mins after that a bloke pulls up who had been on the other side of the dual carriageway when he spotted me. He looped back to offer to ship us to the airport (i.e several miles out of his way in ye wrong direction). By then the AA were already on the way, but it was a very, very kind offer on his part. Turns out he has a '98 4.5 Chim, which just goes to show what good blokes Chim owners are.
About 5 mins after that, a red Griff came blatting out of the roundabout and hurtled past. I'm sure he too would have stopped if (a) the lift-off wouldn't have sent him into the armco and (b) he hadn't been blinded by the sun reflecting off his medallion.
Anyway, the AA showed up and carted us to the airport and arranged for the car to be trailered straight off to Mr Batty who had very kindly agreed to take the car at such short notice and has managed to work on it today, for which I am very grateful as I am out of the country for a few months as of the end of this week. Hats off to the AA too who were on the scene within 1/2 hour of my first call to them and got us to the airport in time for the flight.
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