Almost lost my windscreen
Discussion
Post-New Year, decided to take my 2017 V8VS manual on another long summer road trip around the South Island of New Zealand.
As ever the dreary run Auckland to Wellington an absolute chore - generally poor roads, congested traffic. I'm resolved I should trailer the Aston to Picton (fun starts at Picton) in the Marlborough Sounds - my new(ish) (Bentley-engined) turbo-diesel V8 Touareg will pull the trailer and car no problem at all, and all in some comfort... Park it up, unleash the beastie, and away we go... Alternatively, base the Aston in Christchurch and fly in for fun. I simply loathe adding kms for no benefit. A first world problem ...
A couple of issues surfaced in what proved to be an epic blast - firstly, the roads in the south are heavily into maintenance currently post-pandemic. Saturday morning saw a very large stone chip in the passenger side of the windscreen, with three cracks radiating out from the chip. That could have meant trucking a stricken Aston 1,200 kms back to Auckland and my finding a flight home. Trundled ever so gently into Alexandra and started calling repairers I suspect the Aston body is so stiff it would surely crack the entire screen with any body shock if I had continued the journey. I found a repairer who did specialist cars in Queenstown and crawled to meet him there through the Kawarau Gorge. Streams of cars passed me - "look at the old sod, owns an Aston and can only crawl along at 40 kms/hr (does sounds good, though!)".
The repair was superb - as we fixed it within a couple of hours, no water or dust was able to get into the damaged glass, and most importantly he took his time. It helped Chris of AstroFix proved to be a car nut, and loved the Aston. His fix is all but invisible, and so problem solved. Call it patina.
I contacted Aston Martin Auckland to ask if there were OEM windscreens in-country, and at what cost. I was advised none in-country, order ex-UK at minimum 6 weeks supply, and NZ$9,000 (STG4,500). Bless them, they felt the lack of supply wasn't right either, so will bring in stock windscreen and have supply on-site from now on.
Second issue was running up through the Lewis Pass heading for the Wairau Valley - a forest fire closed the highway at the most isolated spot, requiring a major 250 km detour back through Springs Junction, Refton, Buller, Murchison - all very secondary (but sealed) roads. Another stone flicked up underneath and I think dinged my gear selection mechanism, as the manual box has become progressively stiffer in 3rd and 4th gears. Something to sort.
At Blenheim I spent a fabulous morning at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. Peter Jackson - he of Lord of the Rings fame - has a thing for WWI fighter aircraft, and has (remarkably) funded an entire start-up industry of building factory-standard replica Brit, German, French, and Italian WWI fighters, including replicating the original engines in every respect, off original factory engineering drawings. Built to the most exacting standards, and 100% accurate in execution. Just beautiful. Sells them around the world - several now in the UK - with a fleet of them at Hood Aerodrome near Masterton in the Wairarapa wine country. When last there, I saw a fleet of 3 (count 'em - 3!) perfect Bristol SE5 fighters all lined up on the field. I spoke to an RNZAF pilot there - flies the high tech NH90 helicopter as a day-job - and he was there to do his weekend SE5 pilot conversion - as you do. So, at Omaka, Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop have built the most amazing dioramas capturing key moments in the history of particular WWI fighter types. His team has painstakingly produced the actual aircraft, and then Weta has distressed the aircraft and produced the aesthetic to meet the imagery required - and this at an entirely out-of-the-way airfield behind Blenheim, of all places. What a contribution to the historical aviation community - unbelievably generous.
So, a great road trip once more - back in time for the Auckland floods, with Aston safely tucked away, an expert fettle scheduled in the next week or so.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/t/HHZnf8ku.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/MiZRozcu" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/t/MiZRozcu.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/MiZRozcu" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/MiZRozcu.jpg)
As ever the dreary run Auckland to Wellington an absolute chore - generally poor roads, congested traffic. I'm resolved I should trailer the Aston to Picton (fun starts at Picton) in the Marlborough Sounds - my new(ish) (Bentley-engined) turbo-diesel V8 Touareg will pull the trailer and car no problem at all, and all in some comfort... Park it up, unleash the beastie, and away we go... Alternatively, base the Aston in Christchurch and fly in for fun. I simply loathe adding kms for no benefit. A first world problem ...
A couple of issues surfaced in what proved to be an epic blast - firstly, the roads in the south are heavily into maintenance currently post-pandemic. Saturday morning saw a very large stone chip in the passenger side of the windscreen, with three cracks radiating out from the chip. That could have meant trucking a stricken Aston 1,200 kms back to Auckland and my finding a flight home. Trundled ever so gently into Alexandra and started calling repairers I suspect the Aston body is so stiff it would surely crack the entire screen with any body shock if I had continued the journey. I found a repairer who did specialist cars in Queenstown and crawled to meet him there through the Kawarau Gorge. Streams of cars passed me - "look at the old sod, owns an Aston and can only crawl along at 40 kms/hr (does sounds good, though!)".
The repair was superb - as we fixed it within a couple of hours, no water or dust was able to get into the damaged glass, and most importantly he took his time. It helped Chris of AstroFix proved to be a car nut, and loved the Aston. His fix is all but invisible, and so problem solved. Call it patina.
I contacted Aston Martin Auckland to ask if there were OEM windscreens in-country, and at what cost. I was advised none in-country, order ex-UK at minimum 6 weeks supply, and NZ$9,000 (STG4,500). Bless them, they felt the lack of supply wasn't right either, so will bring in stock windscreen and have supply on-site from now on.
Second issue was running up through the Lewis Pass heading for the Wairau Valley - a forest fire closed the highway at the most isolated spot, requiring a major 250 km detour back through Springs Junction, Refton, Buller, Murchison - all very secondary (but sealed) roads. Another stone flicked up underneath and I think dinged my gear selection mechanism, as the manual box has become progressively stiffer in 3rd and 4th gears. Something to sort.
At Blenheim I spent a fabulous morning at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. Peter Jackson - he of Lord of the Rings fame - has a thing for WWI fighter aircraft, and has (remarkably) funded an entire start-up industry of building factory-standard replica Brit, German, French, and Italian WWI fighters, including replicating the original engines in every respect, off original factory engineering drawings. Built to the most exacting standards, and 100% accurate in execution. Just beautiful. Sells them around the world - several now in the UK - with a fleet of them at Hood Aerodrome near Masterton in the Wairarapa wine country. When last there, I saw a fleet of 3 (count 'em - 3!) perfect Bristol SE5 fighters all lined up on the field. I spoke to an RNZAF pilot there - flies the high tech NH90 helicopter as a day-job - and he was there to do his weekend SE5 pilot conversion - as you do. So, at Omaka, Peter Jackson and his Weta Workshop have built the most amazing dioramas capturing key moments in the history of particular WWI fighter types. His team has painstakingly produced the actual aircraft, and then Weta has distressed the aircraft and produced the aesthetic to meet the imagery required - and this at an entirely out-of-the-way airfield behind Blenheim, of all places. What a contribution to the historical aviation community - unbelievably generous.
So, a great road trip once more - back in time for the Auckland floods, with Aston safely tucked away, an expert fettle scheduled in the next week or so.
Edited by Seakingsam on Sunday 29th January 23:03
Now you are bringing back memories - I spent years oscillating between Auckland and Mesa, outside Phoenix. I would spend my weekends in Sedona, down in Tucson (at the PIMA Museum), with Fort Apache being a highlight. Got to the stage where the Avis manager at Sky Harbor would ask me to run in his new European cars - Jags were my common fare - great fun, all at US$50 a day !
Seakingsam said:
Now you are bringing back memories - I spent years oscillating between Auckland and Mesa, outside Phoenix. I would spend my weekends in Sedona, down in Tucson (at the PIMA Museum), with Fort Apache being a highlight. Got to the stage where the Avis manager at Sky Harbor would ask me to run in his new European cars - Jags were my common fare - great fun, all at US$50 a day !
Good days - Rentals are a lot more expensive now, especially at airports I understand.VW developed the turbo-diesel 4litre V8 for Bentley. The decision was taken not to use the engine in the Bentley SUV, and so the pool of manufactured engines who deployed in Touareg. New Zealand, Australia and South Africa received limited numbers, I don’t know if the UK received the engine. It is a remarkable piece of engineering.
Seakingsam said:
... I don’t know if the UK received the engine. It is a remarkable piece of engineering.
In 2017 .... 392 new Bentayga Diesels were registered for UK road use.
In 2018 .... 225.
In 2019 ........ 9.
None after that.
Their plug in mild (range 31 miles) hybrid model, was probably considered to be the replacement.
Thanks Jon, Bentley's first and last diesel, indeed. Stunning engine - super smooth and powerful, virtually no lag, generating straight line performance very close to V8VS - all in a 2 tonne 4WD brick with rear wheel steer ! Just perfect for this part of the world (and SA and Aus) - towing and long distance serious strengths - possibly not so much trundling around Kensington!
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