Af Northloop wrote:Thought I might as well get a topic started on the CSL, un-fortunately it’s not one with a happy ending.
After selling the Exige S, I had a few cars in mind, basically a list of car’s I’m determined to own throughout my life time and that list is; Noble M12, M3 CSL, Gallardo, F355 & GT3. Having already done the Lotus, and enjoying ownership of it I set out hunting for a Noble as a bit of a stop gap, but never succeeded in finding one that was to my standards, and the ones that were had sold before I got to them.
Then out of the blue I spotted this little beauty on Pistonheads;
Now I didn’t set out for a CSL, but wasn’t having much luck finding a Noble so decided to take a look at it. Pulled up at the owner’s house, and my god it was stunning... I’m very, very fussy when it comes to perfection and this car was it, I had never seen a CSL like it in the years that I’d been looking at them.
Only fault I found was the rear diff seal was a bit weepy, but just as I mentioned it to the current owner he informed me of a warranty the car had. Few days later the problem had been rectified and all the diff seals had been replaced for good measure so I set about making an offer and paying for the car.
First day it was a little foggy, but that still didn’t stop me doing over 200 miles around the Lake District trying to learn the car!! Next stop for the car was a miniature European tour, the final destination been a well known German public road which attracts petrol heads from around the globe.
The trip didn’t get off to the best of starts; first off before boarding the ferry I was fined for parking across the lines in a supermarket shopping centre at 18:45 at night... forgive me for not wanting to get my pride and joy dented. What rattled me the most, was when I contested the fine in the shop, I was told ‘it’s only a BMW’ and that the reason for the fine was I was causing an obstruction and they might need the extra space if they become busy!!
I’m sorry but whether it’s my pride and joy, or my daily hack I still don’t want the body dented by some muppet and there delusional thinking it’s going to get that busy at near seven at night!!!
After getting off the ferry at 07:00 our trek through the Netherlands, across the Belgium borders and into Germany began, but of course not without another miss hap the god damn Elise decided it no longer wanted to run and had to be recovered. Second day in Germany and it was time for another thing to go wrong, this time it was one of my best mates VX200 Turbo, the dump valve diaphragm decided to split and nowhere was open to get a replacement.
However weekend for me was picking up, good weather, nice atmosphere and some driving was to be had on the nice quiet road. Car was feeling good, I was beginning to love the characteristics of the M3 and really getting a feel for the car.
All was good until Monday evening when disaster struck, we’d had heavy rain and the car in front of me lost control and covered the road in thick chunks of mud. I hit the mud and lost control, managed to correct the slide however by the time I was straight I was on grass, and with it been wet I practically lost all braking.
Unfortunately I was unable to stop, and at that point in time had no control over what the vehicle was going to do or where it was going to go, this resulted me in hitting the road barriers and careering into the path of a previously crashed vehicle.
Now my CSL looked pretty sorry for itself, the below pictures are of the car just after it had been recovered from the accident scene.
Once the car had been recovered home it was time to assess the damage, and it wasn’t looking good. Popped the bonnet up to find that the strut tower has pulled itself away from the bodywork, fortunately though the engine and all parts around it are intact.
So, now I’m at the stage of deciding whether to break or re-build the car, there is extensive damage as you can see. And I’m still not convinced that the strut tower can be repaired as we don’t know if the rest of the chassis is bent but from the pictures it looks like the car is ‘sitting’ at an odd angle.
I’d normally say a car like that is goosed, and to break for bits but if there’s hope and the costs aren’t astronomical it might just get re-built. I’ll be updating this topic of what decisions have been made, and any photos of the re-build or strip down.
Gat hann ekki lagt í eitt stæði 
