a few years back me and a mate chris (digitaldragon) were planning on going to collect a rollcage for his mk2 fiesta turbo, from essex, after a day at castle coombe.

we left castle coombe sometime in the afternoon in the fiesta, got on the motorway, a few miles later, the car began to behave oddly, and we summised that the diff was on its way out, and was locking. it was happening intermitently, and as we were on the motorway going straight, we thought fuck it

around 9pm iirc, we arrive at canvey island in essex, we're trying to workout where this guy lives (this is pre-satnav) and promptly drive past his road. arse. 1/2 way through a 3 point turn, you guessed it, diff locked, with wheels on full lock, its shit itself.

we push the car up a side road and walk back to this guys house (hes fucking determined to get this roll cage ), a while later and the three of us are walking back to the car with this roll cage, 20 mins or so later, its fitted. great! new roll cage fitted! but no drive

a phonecall to the AA later and one of their finest is on his way to our rescue, we wander around to try and find somewhere to get food etc, but being late on a sunday night, no chance. we head back to the car and wait for the AA guy to show up. about an hour later, around 10.30-11pm he shows up. one man in just a transit, after explicit instructions over the phone that the gearbox was broken and the car wasnt going anywhere....

this guy gets on the phone, sorts us a recovery truck, and is on his way. we try and get comfortable and wait for his mate to show up, i push the seat back, recline the back a bit and try to catch a few Zzz's.

me - "can you smell that?"
chris - "yeah....wtf is burning?"
me - "fuck knows....but theres smoke!!"

we dive out the car quick style and realise that when ive sat back in the chair, ive shorted out the battery which is mounted behind the seat!! smoke EVERYWHERE!!! we rip the seat forward and thankfully, there was no perminant damage!

some time later, the truck shows up, winches us on and we're off home, great, its only the middle of the bastard night

one truck change later somewhere down the M4 and we're on the final leg, we finally arrived back at chris's house in bristol at sometime past 7am, then he had to drop me off at the train station and i had to get a train home, as he had picked me up the previous morning. i finally got home about 10am!

fucking nightmare