Last Thursday's interesting drive.

My son and I took my old Audi A4 Down to Hampton downs twilight trackday session last Wednesday afternoon. The car was driving well and feeling good.

We all got four sessions of about 1/4 of an hour. My son drove his two. and I was set to do our remaining two. I was on about the third lap of my first set when, changing down to second for the S bends I put my foot on the clutch and it went straight to the floor. This was a mechanical failure, not hydraulic, and the clutch was still engaged. I managed to get into second and limp back to the pits.

After a bit of shagging around we realised we had a little bit of use of the clutch , albeit with a dreadful noise and a stink when moving from a standing start.
I was staying in Pt Chev, and was able to get on the expressway and stay in gear from H-D to the Pt Chev interchange. We made it to where we were staying.

Next morning we waited until about 10.30 when we figured that rush hour would be over. We got on the motorway and headed North with my son driving and changing gear without using the clutch, which he became quite adept at.

Things went quite well until we got to Wellsford where somebody pulled out and brought the traffic to a halt. Cursing, my son took the car out of gear and stopped. When he put his foot on the clutch again there was nothing there, so we stopped and pushed the car back into a parking space.

After a couple of minutes muttering and swearing under our breath, we decided to see if we could start the car in gear---- it worked!

We were on our way again , and just before coming over the Brynderwyns passed a truck and couldnt believe our luck when the road was clear and we could get through the windy bits without having to change down to second. (That quattro system can sure hang on!)

We knew that Whangarei was coming up.

. Continued

No bypass around Whangarei was available without going a lot more remote, so we decided to chance it through the five sets lights we would have to face.
I txted my Brother who lives there, to be ready to come and tow us if we got stuck. We had to stop a couple of times and start in gear, and got lucky on a couple where we didnt have to stop. We got through Whangaz and then realised that we would have to stop at Kawakawa for gas to make it home to Kaitaia. After explaining our predicament the nice lady at the gas station let us leave the car at the pump while we grabbed a quick bite at Stumpy's takeaways.

On the road again we got up into top gear and cruised on home.
We got to Kaitaia and were busy congratulating ourselves on having made it when we had to stop for kids on a pedestrian crossing. We had a good laugh at the irony of thinking we were home and hosed and being caught out.

One last start in gear and we rolled around the corner into my driveway which had never looked so good!

Auckland to Kaitaia with an inoperative clutch goes down as one of my epic journeys!

I am having a few days without cars before I make a start on stripping things down and sourcing parts.

Great story.
My dad was proud of a camping trip done in France in a Renault 4, 2 adults 2kids, huge roof rack etc. clutch gave in in France but he got us home to London somehow. Would not like to try that now.
Hope Audi is fixable.

Column gear change fell apart in a XC Coon going into Duner's one Fri. Could get under the bonnet and select what gear I wanted, so it was a case of driving south through the city in second, and then find a down slope to get under the bonnet and select top. Got to Millers Flat where we were visiting some friends who owned the service station there, and pulled it apart to find that a pop rivet or two in the right place just might hold it together for a while. And it did.
Spent a week touring out to different places around Central Otago. Got pissed in the pub across the road from the garage - the girls went home, mate and I stayed & stayed. Then staggered across the road feeling hungry and cooked up some mince on toast.
Nek morning, mates wife said. "Did you bastards have a cook-up last night when ya got home?"

"Sure did"

"Well you ate all the scraps that had been mixed up with dog tucka, and now the dog's got nothing!"

Toured up the West Coast, and I think when I got home to the NI and investigated, the pop rivets had done such a good job it just got some more!
Most annoying part of the trip was getting a flatty at Ohakune when we could smell home.

It will be if I throw enough money at it. I will be looking to upgrade it when I replace it.

Epic story, what a drive, thanks for sharing.
Brought back memories of driving a VW Beetle with a broken clutch cable through the toll gates on the Auckland Harbour bridge, we had to do a few 1st gear 360 deg turns before a lane freed up and we could drive through without stopping!

Drove a Porsche home to the eastern suburbs when the crankshaft snapped in two when driving over the Newmarket viaduct.
Engine vibration was horrific but it smoothed out and kept going so long as the revs didn't drop below 3,000 rpm.
The crank came out in two halves when the case was split.

yea i lost my gears on the automatic in huntly came back again but had to stop in auckland for gas . then i rolled on to the motorway and managed to get gears again no traffic jamms so it never shifted back down in first . in warkworth traffic light was red. and that was the end of it . from there i drove home in first gear , they never shifted again out of first. i might go to town today in first since we are not alowed to go fast it drives ok at 40kph about the max it can do without reving it to hard.

if the cops stop me i tell them SPEED kills!