Oh bugger that Ben , just read this and cant believe that luck 
Properly gutted for Ben… it’s horrible when you have issues with your car even at a ‘local’ circuit, but to have gone all the way to Spa and for it to happen it’s another level of disappointment. 
Not helped by the AA, who were total ***** (inset Jim Jeffries favourite word here). As everyone knows, a lot of time and expense and energy is spent on these trips, and everyone shared the disappointment… because we all know how it feels and we are all part of this crazy little community brought together by little cars we love.
Hopefully things will get sorted and I know we will share many more enjoyable trips in the not too distant future… 
It’s been a long time since I was at Spa, in fact, my Lotus journey really began at Spa - I managed to get a passenger ride at Spa with Neil McCann in his yellow Honda Elise ‘shed’ years ago… it was that passenger ride that made me realise that I wasn’t going to improve my driving by taking my ‘pride and joy’ M3 CSL around the circuit… I just wasn’t comfortable enough pushing it hard enough to get to the next level. Neils’ Elise felt like a go-kart in comparison, and it was massive fun compared to my CSL - where ‘fear of bending it’ was the primary concern, rather than enjoyment.
Fast forward many years, and I have to say I had two days of unbelievable fun in my R300… a day and a half of glorious weather, and then the rain came… but in a Caterham, rain just brings a different type of fun !!!
Sums it up nicely Dave.
For fun you could have just written sideways.
Got back late, so will try for pics/vid later.
Glad you guys made the best of it despite Ben’s disappointment, again Ben I’m really sorry buddy. Hopefully you had a few cold beers like John suggested, I’d forgotten just how much I love those beers and theatview at the end of the day.
Look forward to pics and vids.
Ben, it is really sad to hear of your woes, at least when my gearbox went it was in the morning of my second day, after much deliberation I decided to risk driving my car home as the thought of leaving the car with the AA to get back filled me with dread. I managed to make it home ok and I’m sure your car will make it home ok as well.
Quick play around with some vid - Eau Rouge slow mo - YouTube
Nice vid Ian,…very tidy 
So I started to process some pics before I fell asleep,…boy I was like the walking dead yesterday. Although I took my camera I did not use it too much since I was on the phone to the AA a lot or feeling too sorry for myself
So on the outbound leg it was rather wet, so wet that Ian started to get a bit of a rooster tail!!
We met Dave at the terminal and loaded up the cars for the crossing :
Yvonne had been sending me cryptic pm’s about who we’d be sharing the garage with. Apparently by saying we ‘had to give out stable mate a wide berth’ I was supposed to work out that it was a Ferrari etc,…she tried to explain it 
nothing could have prepared me for their friend Syd’s truly glorious F40. So clean and straight like it had just driven off the poster on my wall as a kid
Here’s Syd’s and Tim’s mighty machines sitting together looking generally awesome
Dave was like a dog with two dicks in his r300, and rightly so 
The 30mins I had in it were enormous fun. I would have thought an R300 would not be the weapon f choice for a ‘big’ circuit like Spa,…wrong, did not feel underpowered and it’s just so alive moving around the whole time. Here’s Ian,…strapping in for his dose :
So my car. I detected a drivetrain vibration under load about 30mins before the hotel. CV grease everywhere confirmed what I already knew I’ll write more about the AA when it’s resolved, suffice to say they did not live up to my expectations. Thankfully Jonny did and managed to secure a place for the car on the wagon for the trip home via Zolder (which is where the car is today).
Few more pics to post later…
That F40 
Nice pics (as ever)! My thoughts…
DOWNFORCE!
Looks like we weren’t talking to each other, nothing could be further from the truth. Although I may have to apologise for driving an Exige in shorts and sandals.
Nice line
I don’t think you were using a flash, so was it angels lighting the Fezza’s number plate. 
Doing my Jenson Button eyes.
So fast in the dry (only needed a lift for Eau Rouge) and soooo sideways in the wet. Respect the standing water though, hey Dave!? (and look at your swagger in the background, tsch)
Wish somebody hadn’t knocked the far side mirror in. It was hard enough seeing the approaching Radicals as it was, without being in somebody else’s pride&joy.
They say the best pics cause an emotional reaction. A nice but sad image.
It’s not often the insurance provider commits the fraud! They were shocking. My wife contacted the AA on Tuesday pretending to want to take out the same cover we had, laying out the exact situation Ben was in and they confirmed they would help in the situation. LIARS! 
(but useful evidence )
Once the rain came…
[youtube]lKuLqsWUkLc[/youtube]
[youtube]AY1v09tCXJE[/youtube]
Brilliant Dave
Couple more pics :
Here’s Gary and Yvonne about to venture onto circuit. Thanks to both of them for trying to cheer me up, I did appreciate the offer of a drive in the fantastic 211 but for large parts of the trip I was just not in the zone. Its certainly looking stunning here,…I agree though, the GT4 cage would just finish it off
And finally here’s a picture of a really nice little R300, it looks like a lot of fun doesn’t it. It had been hired for the weekend by a guy and his Dad that arrived in a very tasty white Lambo Huracan. They took the Lambo about for a couple of laps and it pulled 170mph+ down the Kemmel Straight Don’t you wanna just jump in this one and drive it like you stole it,…well don’t you 
Loved this little drift vids Dave. Someone said the Italian Radical race team in the garage at the far end by the Bus Stop were on the pitwall clapping as you appeared sideways onto the pit straight every lap
Yes indeed… they were egging me on and I was laughing like a little kid under my helmet ! - you can just about see me waving to them at the start of the pit wall 
If you were a Star Wars fan, that car would have to be red ! - “Red 5 standing by!”
[youtube]RajguJoZ8aA[/youtube]
Well, and I’m sorry if this is salt in the wound Ben, but what a tonic splash over day to day life that was, really needed that.
Still buzzing now, still have mental snapshot of going through Blanchimont thinking ‘there is no more lock to be had and a lift will unsettle the car, f&%k this is a long time to be committed for’; then glide out to the kerb on the exit still foot down in 6th had me hooting out loud like an idiot. Yeah sure Eau Rouge is cool and very satisfying to get the entry right so you get that tip tap from apex to apex, to exit by the secondary pit exit. However for me the corners with the thrill are Blachimont and Pouhon. Did loose the back end exiting Pouhon, too greedy on the power and we’re into power oversteer in 4th that I wasn’t assertive enough to catch.
Overall a very well run day, even the radicals were patient (well most of them, but the one who weren’t were short lived) and really is a credit to Jonny’s management and the kind of clientele that he attracts. Plenty of loverly people, and respected the on track speed of ‘lessor’ cars so I never felt held up and knew I had duty of care to create safe opportunities for the fast guys to pass.
Car was quick, suffered a little intake heat so could feel it backed off the power at high rpm so it was worth short shifting to 6th on the kemmel straight. Sadly has a stutter at around 5k on part throttle, so had to drive around that but wasn’t too much of an issue on track but more so on road. I could see how it could be a car killer there, long lefts starving the engine of oil and fuel (if you didn’t have a swirl pot). Anyway, made it’s way home and is happily tucked away in the garage, might treat it to a wash now.
Its no bother Tim, sure I’m disappointed but there was too many positives about just being there to feel that short-changed and be bitter about it.
Massive credit to you bud for building that car that proved so robust despite considerable punishment for two days. The car is properly mighty
What he said
The one that got my attention was Malmedy (turn 7, the right of the left-right after Les Combe) where the throttle was pinned from entry to exit with 10 foot run off on the left; balls had to be bigger than messages from brain. Similar with Paul Frere (turn 15) but the consequences were less there.
Out of Pouhon was on the limiter in 4th, nuts. May try and work out speeds from the revs I was at.
Me and Phil had a good time in the M3. I’m impressed with it to be fair, it’s not a light weight car but that didn’t seem to slow it down much. We were seeing just over 150mph on the back straight. We spent a lot of time getting fuel though as it was down to 7mpg according to the gauge.
Phil now wants a gt3 though after the bloke in the blue one let him have a passenger lap in it.
Jonny might do you a deal on his black one that he’s trying to shift.