It's great to see how so many people are willing to help on here. Who says that community spirit is dead?

Safe trip home Kayjey and family.

Sloggs, Good to hear from you pal.

Glad KJ & family got home

This thread left me breathless in places, it was like reading a really good thriller, with twists and turns along the way! When's the paperback version coming out?

Glad there's a happy ending, Hope it's not put Kayjey off coming back to the UK for good. I doubt it!

Nice site Fishy Dave, spent 20 min having a good ogle. Only part I didn't enjoy was reading that you chopped in that lovely sprinter for a ruddy Clio

Final Update: They are now home and dry and very very tired

So great that everyone on here pitched in

Fantastic news all round. I went out last night for a walk and conditions round here are shocking and we had another snow fall last night! So prob best they got out last night. I reckon its a good 10 inches on my car...

And the funny thing? I drove from Hemel to Heathrow last night and saw no snow until we were on the plane - a couple of hours late and full of Japanese who looked rather surprised to arrive at Berlin.

Berlin had about three inches when I got here and twelve inches at minus twelve this morning...

Glad Klaas is back in one piece.

Neil, good job you weren't flying from Gatwick - nothing now until 6 tomorrow at the earliest!

Nah, I never fly from Gatwick - it is in a silly place for me. LHR and LTN are the only ones sensible from Hemel.

glad KJ and family got back safe and sound!

F.C.C.U.K = the 5 pot emergency service

(sorry 16v/16vt chaps )

What a heart warming story.

Well done to all involed. I'm glad Klaas and family got home safely.

high 5!

*Beep* <presses 5 on my phone>

Good to know Klaas, Joke and little Lene are now safe back at home, I think the forum really came together on this one so all involved deserve a big pat on the back

I myself was personally concerned as Klaas picked his car up from FCSS and headed straight off for the Eurostar, I had maybe 20 minutes to check all the work that was done and run her up to temperature. Again it shows a well looked after coupé will cope with any conditions that are thrown at it, I'm very relieved that they're OK.

Long Live the Fiat Coupé

Other way round - Lene is the smaller of the two

There's only a few people that you'd trust a coupe to. Major credit to you to Joe.

... and a big headache is how I feel now!!

I'll tell the story on a different thread (with all the twists and turns of being stranded in monster traffic jams, sliding down hills, trying to find ways out, running out of petrol, being unable to make phonecalls,...), but there's a couple of things I want to throw in here before I do that thread tonight (which will be a book).

Petep, pass on the hug to everyone who forwarded information, sent messages to keep our spirits high, helped where they could,... but make sure to take some ibuprofen first because there were a LOT of them - you'll have a couple of sore shoulders in the end. BTW... Petep IS Santa. Lene loved him to bits as well!

Sloggs, thanks for meeting up once more. Missed you!!! And thanks for the practical help trying to find B&B's or hotels. You were amazing and you gave us a lot to hold on to. You've done all you could and more. Now do yourself a favour, I saw the Coupe-love in your eyes when we were talking about the latest developments - go out and find the best Plus or LE money can buy. Then again... I noticed your signature.

Mario and Marco, who arranged a 4x4 if we couldn't get one to stop for us or if the police wouldn't or couldn't come to get us. I'm really happy it didn't get to that point although I was looking forward to meeting you guys. Lovely!!!!

Tim42 (and again Sloggs) who prepared us for the M20. We made the train within the 24 hours of the planned return which meant only a £ 16 surcharge. Happy with that!

Joe. My requests made us 2 hours later than expected (that and the snowfall of that morning which delayed Joe 2 hours) and that was one hour too many as a lorry / bus flipped over (again - note to Barnacle) on the m25 getting us stuck on there. We didn't manage to get through the entire to-do list, but with things like brand new silicone hoses and really really good oil the car should be able to go through a lot. Which it did.

The car - never missed a beat! Kept us warm (but not singing as I had Joe strip the radio out) and has proved to be incredibly frugal in traffic jams! We filled it up on tuesday after leaving the M25 and sat in it for a total of 17,5 hours doing a total of 200 miles (averaging 11 mph) - it used only half a tank with sat nav, GSM, lights,... on all the time. I guess some people expect the car to kill them in this situation. In this case, it's kept us alive. The Brera would have killed our backs, the 147 would have been crazy without LSD and too much torque for these conditions. We just set the boost to 0.6 and it was a gem with the Viscodrive. Before we got stuck, the only cars we saw were cars having accidents.

Nigel and Barnacle, also for giving us good tips and keeping the spirits high.

The people of the Cock Inn - although we HAD almost thrown the windows in the night before (nobody home) they gladly took us in and proposed

Definately no thanks to...

The Surrey Police telephone operator who refused to take our call for help as a priority and refused to send someone out to get us. Luckily when this prick's shift was over we got someone who DID help us. It could have meant the difference between life and death.

The Kent police for blocking the M20. What a shit way to 'organise' a county! They have everyone leaving one single exit while - in fact - they just have everyone go over the roundabout and get on the M20 again. I mean... really? Why don't they just divert trucks to the A20 over a range of exits instead of blocking it off by doing such a stupid thing?

Whoever buys the grit to spread on the roads. It's not grit. It's not salt. It doesn't do ANYTHING against freezing or snow. Instead of buying the stuff in Danmark try the Belgian supplier. I'm definately not in favour of spreading grit or salt, but if you plan on doing so, use stuff that WORKS like brocoli, kiwi or hedgehogs.

K&N for making the 57i kit which really sounds bloody awful. Where's the engine noise gone!? Standard airbox and K&N filter will be fitted again this weekend.


But I'm happy to be home. Now... better get to work. Full thread of our adventures (which will explain many how's and why's) is on the book for tonight.

I love you guys.

PS - both Joke and me would like to be back in the Cock Inn for this meeting in March! Mario - can you organise something?

KJ just glad to help where needed!!

glad you and family are home safe!

epic uk adventure for you all!

look forward to meeting you at spa or the next visit!
never know, if me mario and nick have a weekend free, we may come over to say hi.

What an epic story, nice one guys.

Klaas,
so pleased you made it! Look forward to the mini-series on the television and DVD to follow.

Working in East Kent Operation Stack drives me crazy - mind you it is usually caused by French workers on strike. Every ten days then ! They should let the cars through and keep the lorries on the side roads; I am biased though .Hope to see you and the Coupe next year. Long live the Fiat Coupe!

Tim

By the way, JimO, did your Coupe get back home?

PeteP, trust you got home safely as well!

JimO & coop in the same sentence

Thanks Tim, I got home with no problems at all.

The car is very definitely staying on the drive today, there's about 6 inches of snow over it now.

again, well done you lads for your brilliant efforts, and particulalry Pete who (at his age ) shouldn't really be pushing cars about!!

so glad Klass, Lene and Joke got home safe and well as it was looking distinctly dodgy there for some time!!

Jim hasn't had a coupe for a few years. His current 'motor' is a Mondeo Diesel

Must be why he got stuck!!!

Only catch this topic today, almost breath taking when reading through it, so heart warming to see a community responding in this way! So glad there is a happy ending to it.

I can indeed! Do you remember the ladys name?

Klass, what an epic adventure for you and everyone involved! So glad that you made it back all in one piece. If you had got stuck around the Reigate area, you could have dropped in on the other half as she was at work and would have taken care of you.

If you're back in March, you may get to see my mythical coupe as well

Well done to everyone involved

Oooh - I didn't know it actually existed!