Today was one of the regular coffee/cake mornings at Great British Sportscars (GBS). The weather looked a bit dodgy, but the radar picture showed I should be OK, so I decided to go.
First problem was that she wouldn't start. She cranked at full speed but didn't start. I tried 3 times but with no success. I was going to give up, but on the 4th attempt she coughed a bit so I tried one last time. This time, after about 5 seconds of cranking she started, coughed twice and settled down to a nice idle. (Postscript: I haven't managed to reproduce this at all, she continues to start with no problem)
So for the first 50 minutes all was fine, but then, with about 8 miles to run I ran into a terrible rain storm. Luckily I was doing 65mph on the A1 so was totally protected, but visibility was awful and the rain terrential. Came out of that just as I turned off the motorway. As I went through a village the temperature started to climb so I switched on the fan. Nothing, dead as a door nail. At the same time I noticed the alternator voltage was down to 13.2V from it's normal 13.8V. I only had about 5 miles to run so I decided to keep going, assuming that I might have to call AutoAid to get back home.
Soon after I arrived (with the engine temperature in the red) it started raining again so I quickly put the top up. After an hour or so I decided I would have to make a move. First step was to fill up the coolant so I put the umbrella up and took the bonnet off. To my surprise the coolant level was OK, so didn't need topping up. Next (nice) surprise was when she started instantly.
So drove home down the A1 so rain didn't affect me, trying to keep the engine temperature down. Apart from a couple of scares when I saw queues building up I managed to make it.
The fan was fixed in under a minute as it was a broken earth.
So panic over but not a journey I enjoyed.
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