Absolutely gutted.
I'm having a terrible month, mother dying, work issues and much more, so was very much looking forward to my holiday in Cornwall for ages, for me to relax and enjoy the 996 and for my 16 year old daughter who had just finished her GCSEs just a week Saturday to Saturday.
Planned everything, got a major service done at William Francis last week to make sure the car is tip top (£900 odd), cat in cattery (nightmare).
Left Saturday morning at 5 o'clock to ensure a relaxing drive from suffolk to St Ives, all was going well until we hit the A303, got past Stonehenge (207 miles into the journey) at about 9, suddenly the car loses all power, I coast to a stop and managed with my 16 year old daughter to push the car into an off ramp for Yoevil A37 (middle of nowhere). Tried starting but not so much as a click and the spoiler had not retracted. Called GEM the breakdown service I pay for (premium car to garage, occupants to destination).
Initially superb, a mechanic turns up from a company called Rivermead, he was truly excellent, the OBD didn't read (in any mode) so he went through all he could, eventually he went to the fuse box and found C1 (fuse 1 block C) was blown, tried replacing that and the car started perfectly on all 6, then we noticed smoke coming out from the right hand side of the engine and the fuse blew again so obviously there was a deeper issue than fuses, after that replacing the fuse did nothing because just turning the key to the start position blew the fuse with no attemt for the motor to start. He narrowed it down to the ignition circuit and tried coils which he could reach by removing the coil protection plates but after that didn't work he was scuppered without better access.
So .. it goes back to GEM for recovery to a garage, now approaching 12 pm I make calls to garages and eventually find William Crawford which appear to be the only option in cornwall by now it's gone 12:30 so we wouldn't get to william Crawford before they close at 4 anyway. GEM contacted me about this time to state that the ONLY option available was a company who would pick the car up (albeit quickly within an hour) BUT they would only agree to deliver the car to William Crawford on SOME day between Monday and Friday. A ridiculous situation with my needing to leave Cornwall on the Saturday but my only option so I agreed.
The company that turned up within the hour was AGAIN Rivermead and they were AGAIN truly excellent, the guy loaded the car with extreme care (even though the tow ring had been lost), the driver took as to a train station and gave us some great advice, Rivermead were a ray of sunshine on a terrible day.
Anyway, car gone, touring holiday gone my daughter and I spent the next 5 odd hours on the train getting to our holiday home in St Ives.
How the hell I get the car to William Crawford, get the car fixed and have a holiday then get the car back to Suffolk is yet to be decided.
I'm having a terrible month, mother dying, work issues and much more, so was very much looking forward to my holiday in Cornwall for ages, for me to relax and enjoy the 996 and for my 16 year old daughter who had just finished her GCSEs just a week Saturday to Saturday.
Planned everything, got a major service done at William Francis last week to make sure the car is tip top (£900 odd), cat in cattery (nightmare).
Left Saturday morning at 5 o'clock to ensure a relaxing drive from suffolk to St Ives, all was going well until we hit the A303, got past Stonehenge (207 miles into the journey) at about 9, suddenly the car loses all power, I coast to a stop and managed with my 16 year old daughter to push the car into an off ramp for Yoevil A37 (middle of nowhere). Tried starting but not so much as a click and the spoiler had not retracted. Called GEM the breakdown service I pay for (premium car to garage, occupants to destination).
Initially superb, a mechanic turns up from a company called Rivermead, he was truly excellent, the OBD didn't read (in any mode) so he went through all he could, eventually he went to the fuse box and found C1 (fuse 1 block C) was blown, tried replacing that and the car started perfectly on all 6, then we noticed smoke coming out from the right hand side of the engine and the fuse blew again so obviously there was a deeper issue than fuses, after that replacing the fuse did nothing because just turning the key to the start position blew the fuse with no attemt for the motor to start. He narrowed it down to the ignition circuit and tried coils which he could reach by removing the coil protection plates but after that didn't work he was scuppered without better access.
So .. it goes back to GEM for recovery to a garage, now approaching 12 pm I make calls to garages and eventually find William Crawford which appear to be the only option in cornwall by now it's gone 12:30 so we wouldn't get to william Crawford before they close at 4 anyway. GEM contacted me about this time to state that the ONLY option available was a company who would pick the car up (albeit quickly within an hour) BUT they would only agree to deliver the car to William Crawford on SOME day between Monday and Friday. A ridiculous situation with my needing to leave Cornwall on the Saturday but my only option so I agreed.
The company that turned up within the hour was AGAIN Rivermead and they were AGAIN truly excellent, the guy loaded the car with extreme care (even though the tow ring had been lost), the driver took as to a train station and gave us some great advice, Rivermead were a ray of sunshine on a terrible day.
Anyway, car gone, touring holiday gone my daughter and I spent the next 5 odd hours on the train getting to our holiday home in St Ives.
How the hell I get the car to William Crawford, get the car fixed and have a holiday then get the car back to Suffolk is yet to be decided.