Holiday disaster

[p7rider]

It's been a few years since I've driven the Spitfire on a French holiday, but it was off to Biarritz this year. I won't go in to the driving or holiday , but i will say what happened after breaking down .1st point to know on a motorway you have to use the French contracted breakdown as the motorways are privately owned. I did change all electrics 1st but no luck. 

At the garage a nice man said "for you your holiday is over" , and pointed at cylinders 3 and 4 . I had been thinking maybe a burnt valve. 

An afternoon spent at the garage phoning my breakdown cover eventually agreeing to transport the car home and us in a rental car. 1st thing I haven't read in my policy is the repatriation mustn't be more than the cars value. After about 3 hours they confirmed all was good . The hire car was a saga on its own.

I changed the date of my return Eurotunnel crossing and covered  from Bordeaux to Eurotunnel in 2 days . I was not allowed to complete the holiday but had 2 days to get home . The most upsetting thing was we had booked the Hotel De France, where the Le Man's spitfires stayed and my wife was very upset when we arrived in a hire car. It really is worth a stay.

I tried to change my dart crossing online for the new car but it wasn't possible.

So we returned home dropped the car off and went home worrying when I would see my car again.

The next thing I forgot to inform dart of change of car until 12 hours after the dead line to pay. Looks like a hefty fine.

End of the week and a call from breakdown truck driver with the news that my car will be back tomorrow. About a week earlier then 1st thought.

Good news , but then at a French Police drugs check a sniffer dog jumped on my bonnet and has put several nice scratches across the bonnet. Fantastic but not to worry he has a stamped piece of paper from the police admitting fault.

I phone breakdown company, haulage company non of them will claim responsibility. My insurance says it will be hard if not impossible to chase authorities for damage and then I will be left with excess to pay and a claim on my insurance for an incident totally out of my hands. 

So if anyone has any ideas how I can proceed would be welcome.

Oh and the breakdown after checking timing , rockers and compression I started the car ,it ran rough pulled out the choke and it ran better. I now think it was a fuel blockage.

So an easy fix