Post 31256 by V8guitar on 2005-07-12 16:28:19
So, finally, the dealer sends a mechanic to have a goosey...he links up the diagnostics and traces the fault to a triped relay controlling the immobiliser. Bit of fiddling later and the car jumps back into life. Fault ? Fairly sure it was caused by a battery shorting out.
130 Euros later, new battery installed and we head off back towards Nurburgring.
After what seemed like an eternity through really bad rain and "how many more corners", we finally arrived and met up with our biker mates. They were soaked through!! Ha, serves them right for leaving us ( only joking lads ).
Anyway, too dangerous for them to go out on the bikes, so keen to do some laps before the car goes again, we trundle down to the ring!
25 mins later, completed 2 laps with steam coming off the tyres and brakes.....absolutely amazing! What a place!
I then let Steve have a drive but proved to be the worst passenger ever by being totally terrified he would prang my car.....I was not feeling to positive about the whole trip at this time and was waiting for something else to go wrong. Anyway, shouldn't have worried, his driving was ace and put me to shame a bit!! He loved it to ( and I'm sure he'll add a bit to this thread ).
Anyway, left it then until the Saturday and set off towards the ring at 9 ish in the morning....disaster. One of the biker guys who we had met up with, got so excited to go to the ring, got up a bit earlier, set off on his own, forgot which side of the road he should have been on and hit a car head on about 200 yards from the circuit!! Luckily, although spent the weekend in hospital, only suffered cuts and bruises. VERY lucky.
We went looking for fuel as we could get to the circuit, and then wondered onto an Autobahn for a speed run......
VERY disappointed..Steve could not find his GPS until before we left and only managed a max of 150 ( clock speed!!). I've had 152 on the A42 before, yet the conditions were perfect....I'm sooooo upset. Anyone any ideas ? It seems to be running OK....
Anyway, went back to the ring, did 2 laps in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Last 2 laps we videoed, one with just us and one following my mates on their bikes to get pictures of their "sparkies" as they hooned it around the corners!
I turned in a lap time of 11 mins 10 secs, which I don't think is that bad. Most people there thought it was a respectable time considering it was only my 6th lap....to get the most out of it, you need to learn the ring. Got overtaken by a V70 D5!!
Before Adam gets too excited, I let him pass and could easily catch him on the straights. He just knew the track so well. Spoke to him after and turned out he was a Brummy with 2 mates who regularly fly out and hire a car to pound round the ring....yes, it was a hire car!!!
Finished the day off with both me and Steve being given a pillion passenger ride on a Hayabusa around the ring, hitting 165-170 on the last straight. VERY scary!
Didn't do any runs on the last day as I didn't want to hurt my car anymore and thought it had taken enough punishment so spent most of Sunday spectating.
So what is it like ?
Incredible, dangerous and immense fun. Not many Chavs, some serious machinery and real respect amongst drivers and riders.
Cars are more fun to watch, bikes more addrenalin on the circuit.
Surprises of the day ?
Audi RS6 that had stage 2 conversion and Nitrous caught fire after its first lap.
Lowered Alfas and Golfs were very quick around the ring. Dominanace comes from ring knowledge though. One of the quickest we saw was a stock Toyota Avensis estate!!!! The guy just knew how far to push it on each bend.
Cars are as fast around the ring as bikes.
Track closed about 4 times due to accidents. Sunday Morning my mates ran about 10 laps in the morning and saw at least one incident on every lap!
Porsche GT2 and GT3's are boring - there were about 15 of them there and few people had the skill to push them. One GT3 was struggling to keep up with a Fiat Uno....totally true!
It was a great experience and would thoroughly recommend anyone going, even just to watch. If you take your car, ideally:
Don't rely on it to get home as this will stop you pushing it - i.e. trailer over what ever you run.
Upgrade your brakes - thanks VT, without those pads, it would have been very different
Take the cargo ferry, its much cheaper ( £60 total for 4 adults, car and trailer!!)
Learn the track on Gran Turismo - its no subsitute but it does help. Learning the circuit takes easily 20 laps+. At 13 miles each one, that's alot of hammer for a car ( much easier on a Bike).
The circuit demands respect and is a very humbling experience. Go there to try and post a great time and prove yourself and you will get into trouble.The evidence is all around for you to see...
If anyone wants to know more, please let me know....
Post 31257 by Mrsmopp on 2005-07-12 16:36:54
What a brilliant report!!
Sounds like you really had a blast!! Mucho respect for the time that you made it round in!! I'd be very happy with that having only done 6 laps!!
x
Post 31258 by Mrsmopp on 2005-07-12 16:38:22
HMMMMMMMMMMMM ....... I think I might want to go actually........
Is a friday to Monday thing a good idea? or midweek? Was it packed? Any decent acommodation?
How much is it to run? Was it an expensive weekend?
x
Post 31259 by rottertron on 2005-07-12 16:41:12
Wow, what a weekend, one youre not going to forget for a while!!
Post 31262 by splatt on 2005-07-12 16:57:47
Absolutely right about knowing the track.
Top Gear Sunday saw the German girlie do it in just over 10 mins........in a Transit!!!
Sounds like you had an awesome time despite the hicups!!
Post 31263 by gibbo on 2005-07-12 17:03:34
[QUOTE=splatt]Absolutely right about knowing the track.
Top Gear Sunday saw the German girlie do it in just over 10 mins........in a Transit!!!
Sounds like you had an awesome time despite the hicups!![/QUOTE]
Yeah i saw the top gear report. I had to laugh when she overtook the bikers in the van.
Moppy has asked the questions i need to know.
Excellent report mate
Gibbo
Post 31264 by Mrsmopp on 2005-07-12 17:06:39
Gibbo - TDS put me onto this website which is an excellent source of info for the ring!! http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/
x
Post 31267 by dicky b t5 on 2005-07-12 17:15:50
What a great read !, Big up to you V8 , Must get to the Ring one day sounds fantastic...T5 meet anyone ?...
Post 31272 by TangoDeltaSierra3 on 2005-07-12 17:25:47
I'm off in september again i did run a post about a Europe run i n January and got Zilch enquirys, but u gotta try it, even if its to watch or go as a passenger on a lap with someone, just ask the many guys in the car park if u can have a ride.
Post 31324 by biggbn on 2005-07-12 20:51:01
one o my ambitions has always been to drive the 'ring !!..your report has fuelled the fire even more, nice one man!!
Post 31330 by ade74uk on 2005-07-12 21:17:38
Sounds like fun.......a couple of my mates have Porches and i rekon you can get a T5 for about £1200....strip it out of all the excess weight take it to the ring and look in ya back mirror at all the estate agents and solicitors in their 50k 911's. Nice
Post 31355 by Redbrick on 2005-07-12 22:52:30
[QUOTE=dicky b t5]T5 meet anyone ?...[/QUOTE]
You bet!!
Anyone else up for it?
Post 31356 by V8guitar on 2005-07-12 22:55:57
[QUOTE=Mrsmopp]HMMMMMMMMMMMM ....... I think I might want to go actually........
Is a friday to Monday thing a good idea? or midweek? Was it packed? Any decent acommodation?
How much is it to run? Was it an expensive weekend?
x[/QUOTE]
They only have public days at certain weekends. Other times its booked out by manufacturers or corporate days.
Was it expensive ? depends how you look at it. Ferry £60, 4 tanks to get there and back, accomadation £30 per night. each lap - 15 Euros ( about £10 ) but that is 13 miles of extacy. Best bet is find a mate who has a season ticket and get free laps!!
Ben Lovejoy's site is the definate guide to the ring...
Glad you all enjoyed the post, DEFINATELY recommend it as an experience, but it really is hard on your car. Steve and I considering buying a old banger to trailer over and use...
Looking forward to getting the video back from my mate....
Bigbn - just do it! Can give some tips if you arrange it. Mates of mine going again in September.
watching top gear right now...my mate saw clarckson out there last time, perhaps filming that sequence, I don't know. He had a chat to him and said he was a top bloke!
Post 31357 by V8guitar on 2005-07-12 22:58:35
Sorry Mrs M., didn't fully answer the question....it wasn't packed, just nicely busy. It doesn't so busy that its unuseable
Post 31359 by TangoDeltaSierra3 on 2005-07-12 23:00:02
[QUOTE=biggbn]one o my ambitions has always been to drive the 'ring !!..your report has fuelled the fire even more, nice one man!![/QUOTE]
FlyingBanana maybee looking for carsharer/s to come wiv us Sept9th to 14th if anyone interested. Rang our organiser who is happy to try sort ferry/rooms etc if you quick.
Post 31436 by steveT5 on 2005-07-13 10:14:51
Not much i can add to Guy's posts really, just to confirm that the whole weekend was amazing.
The place is just as exiting as a spectator, and the wife and kids will be going with me next time because i know they will love it.
As Guy said, the thing to do would be to get an inexpensive car and trailer it over. A high miellage 850, Manual of course would be ideal.
As became apparent over the weekend, power is not the key to a good and exiting lap, Its having the balls to push what you have to the limit.
I must say a big thanks to Guy for letting me have a lap in his car, put yourselves in his shoes people, he has only seen me drive once before (and we were taking our ladies out to the pub) and then he lets me thrash his pride and joy round arguably the most dangerous race track in the world !!
Must admit he did look close to tears at one point !!
The trip on the Hyabusa will stay in my mind forever. Never sat on a motorbike before, 12000rpm & 165 mph down the final straight !!! WOW.
Off to my local motorcycle dealer now for a look round, just out of interest you understand ! :sinner:
Post 31456 by Murphy on 2005-07-13 11:13:07
[QUOTE=ade74uk]Sounds like fun.......a couple of my mates have Porches and i rekon you can get a T5 for about £1200....strip it out of all the excess weight take it to the ring and look in ya back mirror at all the estate agents and solicitors in their 50k 911's. Nice[/QUOTE]
400hp Volvo T5 around the ring
380hp Porsche GT3
Watch the monster 850 do a lap, then watch the Porsche.
Post 31460 by V8guitar on 2005-07-13 11:38:07
I also have an in car with a Skyline, driven by Dirk Schoysman. As I said, its ring knowledge - 72 bends ( or 102, depending on how you count them ) most are blind, loads of odd cambers. So you don't know if the next ridge conceals a sweeping 125 MPH bend or a 30 MPH hairpin....
Murphy - forgot to mention - saw an RS fabia there as well...
Post 31463 by Murphy on 2005-07-13 11:43:08
[QUOTE=V8guitar]Murphy - forgot to mention - saw an RS fabia there as well...[/QUOTE]
Yay !!!!!!!
Was the driver upsetting the GT3 boys at the time !?!? :)
Seriously though, there is a guy on the Skoda forum who is a ringer (German bloke) usually drives a modified Porsche Boxter, but was impressed with the Fabia's ability to stay flat out around a lot of the bend he had to lift or brake for in the boxter [only becuase it was a lot slow of course] but for on certain sections he could make it through quicker than in the boxter !!!!!
Still handle like a barge though - lol.
Post 31469 by V8guitar on 2005-07-13 11:55:18
[QUOTE=Murphy]Yay !!!!!!!
Was the driver upsetting the GT3 boys at the time !?!? :)
Seriously though, there is a guy on the Skoda forum who is a ringer (German bloke) usually drives a modified Porsche Boxter, but was impressed with the Fabia's ability to stay flat out around a lot of the bend he had to lift or brake for in the boxter [only becuase it was a lot slow of course] but for on certain sections he could make it through quicker than in the boxter !!!!!
Still handle like a barge though - lol.[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately didn't see him lap, but you kind of hit the nail on the head for me...its not the speed, its the fun, of which you can get in slower cars, because its easier to take them to the edge!
And, as I said, I saw lesser machinery kick the ass of exotica....that's always funny! You never underestimate any car or bike at the ring....hence the general mutual respect..
Post 31492 by biggbn on 2005-07-13 13:03:37
corners are where the funs at for me, and ya so right..power don't always matter in the twisties, the ability to carry speed thru the corners is much more important..i used to love scarin bigger cars thru the curves in my wee civic coupe (sadly departed)..when they could scoot away on the straights i was always prettty sure to end up right on their tail when the goin got twisty..fun fun fun....personally i think ya could have a ball at 'ring in just about anything!?
Post 31504 by philt6 on 2005-07-13 13:35:26
[QUOTE=biggbn]one o my ambitions has always been to drive the 'ring !!..your report has fuelled the fire even more, nice one man!![/QUOTE]
Totally agree the report on top gear was good and when she drove the Diesel Jag S Type round in under 10 mins,
Sounds like you had a brilliant time .
Post 31507 by V8guitar on 2005-07-13 13:39:09
It was...actually picked my buddy's up from near you in Leam Spa....