LAGONDA MEET IN LINDAU SOUTHERN GERMANY 2008

On the 28th August 2008 we set off in Julian's Aston V8 Volante on our trip to Lindau for the annual Lagonda meet.

 This was going to be a trip to remember , not particularly for the right reasons!

Unfortunately after 100 miles and on the M25 the Aston suddenly had what we thought was smoke coming out from under the bonnet, Julian upon investigation  found the smoke to be steam,  Julian also thought at this stage the thermostat was stuck & providing we did not have to sit in traffic then the flow of air would cool the water, we managed to limp our way to the tunnel with many rests on the hard shoulder and few service stops for water. All was still going Ok until we came to board our shuttle car and the guy in front had never driven onto a shuttle before, which meant we boarded in yet another cloud of steam , to which the guard was very concerned we would set off the sensitive fire system!,fortunately by the time the train started it had subsided.Arriving 35 minutes later in Calais we stopped at the 1st petrol station where Julian with a little more  investigation  found the problem to be the viscous coupling worn and broken, Now you would expect Puddleduck to have one in stock wouldn't you?? not so.. and also these are on back order from AML, therefore we had no option but to carry on, hoping that as long as we could keep a sensible speed enough to cool the engine all would be well, what we did not reckon with was it happened to be a bank holiday weekend in Germany and everyone wanted to go in the direction of Lindau!!!
After a nights stop we set off again the next day on a journey which was approximately 500miles taking us over 10hours to complete, arriving outside the beautiful hotel in Lindau in another cloud of steam.
Friendly and understanding faces meet us  with Lagonda owners from across Europe present all with their own tales of their journies.
Saturday:- sunny, beautiful surroundings and a show of the Lagondas on the promenade before setting off on an organised tour to a museum, lunch & trip around the wonderful area also bordering into Austria.With such a well organised trip the organisers had accounted for cars with problems and a mechanic [Richard] was to hand, so.... a temporary bracket was designed and made for the Aston which enabled the fan to turn  with the engine,this solved the problem allbeit a little noisy at times!bearing in mind at this point that after we have finished here in Lindau we are going on holiday for 9 days to th South of France so this bracket has got to hold out..