RowenS
///Member
After a week in DBN and arriving back in JHB today, I now have an opportunity to reflect on the trip and provide the Fanatics community some details of my stay in DBN.
The holiday started with a relaxing drive to DBN last Tuesday, I did the trip of just over 600 km in about 6 hours, with increased traffic and rain for most of the trip, there was no need to rush. This included two 30 odd min stops along the way. The car performed brilliantly on route to DBN, I averaged 9.7 l/100km. Due to heavy rain rainfall, there wasn’t much opportunity to hoon but the car certainly felt very responsive as I got closer to DBN. A few pulls in 6th gear convinced me of that, the climb from 120kph in 6th to 200kph brought a smile from end to end, as I waited to get a SAFE opportunity to WOT from the lower gears.
After navigating through some afternoon DBN traffic (no more than 15 cars J) I entered the last 15km of my trip and with the rain subsiding for a little while I decided to give the car some stick. Oh the drama, the exhaust happily let out some aggression that seemed to have been bottled up for the last 6 hours, while the rear end end decided to wave to the cars behind by moving from left to right. All this till 4500rpm L and until the car goes into limp. A quick restart while I wait for the traffic to clear until I flatten the throttle again. A quick scratch of the head. Wait another 30 sec...and bang! Back into limp, didn’t realize upon the restart that the P3 gauge was in fact throwing a code.
Frustrated, I notice that the car would rev to 4500rpm and go into limp thereafter. After a couple of calls to Sherwin back in JHB, he got the car booked into a dealer to have a closer look the next day.
Arrived at the dealer, I was greeted with a coffee and smile. After a quick chat to a few of the folks at the dealer, I was on my way. The car was actually been attended to while I was still there.
Long story short, the issue could not be fixed immediately and required me to leave the car there, but due to logistical reasons I couldn’t. I will provide more detail around the issue in the coming days. That was a soul destroying moment, but hey least the car was drivable, that was the only consoling thought I had J
Knowing that there was a Meet and Greet planned in the coming days, I preferred to leave the car as is, although I had a number of recommendations to have some people look at the car. Thanks for the recommendations guys!
I got a call from Trevor, and although we have spoken a number of times on the phone, we actually met up to that point. He mentioned that some of the guys would like to meet on the Thursday prior to the Meet and Greet. So I meet Trevor and his brother at Petro Port and immediately knew these boys are serious Fanatics as they drove in with a M135i and a 135. After a chat we headed off to Gateway to meet more guys, WOW, within 20mins upon agree, there must have been at least 12-15 cars that arrived. Some really potential 135i / 335i, all seemed to be boosted in one way or another, this was very clear on the drive back to get some coffee. Thanks Trevor for staying back and having me follow, that must have been difficult to do as they guys blew pass us at the rate of Knots!
After some coffee and Chai Tea J (thanks Chris), we made our way to various locations and parted ways around 01:00am. Thanks for the various guys that stuck around so that I could follow.
Fast forward to Saturday ,Meet and Greet day. The weather held up, it was overcast, warm but pleasant effort to be out. The previous day felt at times I could reach out at touch the sun.
About 20 odd cars made the meet, it was great to meet the DBN folks and chat!, the evening lasted till 04:00 the next morning.
Chris / Trevor / Afzil / Koogan / Ashman / Denver and the rest of the guys! Thank for a great time. See you on the 16th June. Colin, thanks for taking the time out to join the event.
A couple pictures from Sunday.
The holiday started with a relaxing drive to DBN last Tuesday, I did the trip of just over 600 km in about 6 hours, with increased traffic and rain for most of the trip, there was no need to rush. This included two 30 odd min stops along the way. The car performed brilliantly on route to DBN, I averaged 9.7 l/100km. Due to heavy rain rainfall, there wasn’t much opportunity to hoon but the car certainly felt very responsive as I got closer to DBN. A few pulls in 6th gear convinced me of that, the climb from 120kph in 6th to 200kph brought a smile from end to end, as I waited to get a SAFE opportunity to WOT from the lower gears.
After navigating through some afternoon DBN traffic (no more than 15 cars J) I entered the last 15km of my trip and with the rain subsiding for a little while I decided to give the car some stick. Oh the drama, the exhaust happily let out some aggression that seemed to have been bottled up for the last 6 hours, while the rear end end decided to wave to the cars behind by moving from left to right. All this till 4500rpm L and until the car goes into limp. A quick restart while I wait for the traffic to clear until I flatten the throttle again. A quick scratch of the head. Wait another 30 sec...and bang! Back into limp, didn’t realize upon the restart that the P3 gauge was in fact throwing a code.
Frustrated, I notice that the car would rev to 4500rpm and go into limp thereafter. After a couple of calls to Sherwin back in JHB, he got the car booked into a dealer to have a closer look the next day.
Arrived at the dealer, I was greeted with a coffee and smile. After a quick chat to a few of the folks at the dealer, I was on my way. The car was actually been attended to while I was still there.
Long story short, the issue could not be fixed immediately and required me to leave the car there, but due to logistical reasons I couldn’t. I will provide more detail around the issue in the coming days. That was a soul destroying moment, but hey least the car was drivable, that was the only consoling thought I had J
Knowing that there was a Meet and Greet planned in the coming days, I preferred to leave the car as is, although I had a number of recommendations to have some people look at the car. Thanks for the recommendations guys!
I got a call from Trevor, and although we have spoken a number of times on the phone, we actually met up to that point. He mentioned that some of the guys would like to meet on the Thursday prior to the Meet and Greet. So I meet Trevor and his brother at Petro Port and immediately knew these boys are serious Fanatics as they drove in with a M135i and a 135. After a chat we headed off to Gateway to meet more guys, WOW, within 20mins upon agree, there must have been at least 12-15 cars that arrived. Some really potential 135i / 335i, all seemed to be boosted in one way or another, this was very clear on the drive back to get some coffee. Thanks Trevor for staying back and having me follow, that must have been difficult to do as they guys blew pass us at the rate of Knots!
After some coffee and Chai Tea J (thanks Chris), we made our way to various locations and parted ways around 01:00am. Thanks for the various guys that stuck around so that I could follow.
Fast forward to Saturday ,Meet and Greet day. The weather held up, it was overcast, warm but pleasant effort to be out. The previous day felt at times I could reach out at touch the sun.
About 20 odd cars made the meet, it was great to meet the DBN folks and chat!, the evening lasted till 04:00 the next morning.
Chris / Trevor / Afzil / Koogan / Ashman / Denver and the rest of the guys! Thank for a great time. See you on the 16th June. Colin, thanks for taking the time out to join the event.
A couple pictures from Sunday.
raise:lovely pics 
