Dear all
I thought I would share with you all my experience over the Easter weekend. As some of you know my Pa and I were set to head off to the Ring over Easter with Wheel-torque on a private trackday..however this was cancelled, as we had already booked the car on the channel tunnel we decided we would go on a holiday to visit my uncle who lives in Luxembourg (a handy 1hr drive from the Nurburgring). We had a great time at my uncles but on Sunday morning at 6am my pa and I headed off to the ring..we would also be driving across the legendary autobahn...yep the de-restricted parts!
So here is a video of us doing some serious acceleration from 60mph to120mph
http://hobbystage.net/bmwm5/adamt/1017762978-001771.mpg
We didnt want to stray too far past 120mph as there was little traffic we and it was de restricted roads cruising was fine as we would need as much energy as possibe for the Ring..
After an hours drive we find the nurburgring..its very well sign posted to the gp circuit, but not to the nordsliefe that was tricky finding it.. just outside the main paddock of the nurburgring is this...our spiritual home..
and inside was this:
here are some more pics...
We arrived really early at around 8amish when the ring just opens..I got some very good advice from the board..get there early and learn it without the hassle of faster cars..very very helpful advice indeed..
Anyway as we were buying our set of tickets we parked the Beast next to another beast..
The 12 lap ticket which we bought was 140 Euros which is worth every penny in my opinion and will easily last the whole day as a lap of the 12.8 mile circuit is really really tiring as we were to find out!
So we headed for the ticket booth...i put the ticket in the machine and we were off...here is the first pic i took on the ring at the begining of the circuit.
here are some more
Note you can see a Hayabusa bike in some of the pics...he wasnt trying and neither were we but we kinda stayed with him..(first time on the ring one has to go seriously slowly
so i bet he was just learning too)
Anyhow on the second lap nothing much was happening until we were overtaken by a 944 turbo...by overtaken i mean even though checking rear view mirrors practically every free moment we still didnt get a glimpse of it..he just sped past us like a bullet! Then he nearly lost control and nearly flew into the armco! He just corrected it in time and sped off..I tell ya they are a different breed!
Anyhow if that wasnt strange enough imagine our surprise when we overtook this..
I had heard of buses but eheheh a van?And he was taking the racing line too!
After that lap we found we werent the only british M5 at the ring..a nice chap who owned his own dealership in England came over to get used to the ring as he was driving in the 24hr race here in an e36 m3..he was very nice and showed us some of the racing lines..
It was a 02 m5 with luxury interior and was carbon black, very nice indeed!
We had a few more laps to put under our belts, and as we did so we noticed an increasing amount of cars..by midday there were hundreds of cars..some of my later pics will show this..but it was a bit of a jam in the car park but on the ring there were no traffic jams or anything..and as we were begining to go at a fare speed nothing was really catching us except for 944 turbos
and other porsches and souped up golfs driven by locals!
I cant remember which lap this was but we encounterd a modified S3..We actually started the lap about a 100m behind him and progressively caught him..this gave my pa more confidence as S3's are quick little cars and it was nice to equal him on the corners and roast him on the straights..anyway when we did get to the main straight you come out of a great right hander..we were about 15m behind him..he pulls over to the left a bit and floors it..we do too...and i tell you it was great!We just caught him and flew by..more so than i thought but hey it was just brilliant! Sorry i dont have any pics but i was too excited to take any!
Anyhow as the car park was filling up we decided to park and have a nice lunch..the food at the ring is superb with fresh coffee and energy drinks as well!Anyway after lunch we decided we were going to try and find Johann, i had seen his silver mini beast enter the ring as we were leaving it so i knew he was here..i just wasnt entirely sure what he looked like...anyhow we found johans mini beast and i wanderd up to the nice group of chaps around a hayabusa(i dont think it was the same one as earler..) and a laguna seca blue m3(it actually looked quite nice..better than in the pics) and i said to the nearest guy..excuse me do you know a johan who owns this m3..and he looked me and said im johan! So after enthusiastic greetings we had meet johan!Our guide for the rest of the day!
Here is the Johans mini beast with the M5
in the last pic you can see just how busy it had gotten..
So we needed a break and it turned out johan did too as the m3's breaks were fried( lapping at around 8:40 minutes can do that to a car!)(oh we must have been lapping at around 10minutes hehehe)
So we went to a couple of view spots..
These pics are of the GT3 that would scream past..While we were there though the only major accident occured..a peugeot 405..rather clapped out..came screaming down the hill and lost control clipped the curb and tilted over...then went onto its room and then rolled back onto its wheels..the roll occured at 10mph and the driver and passenger were fine..when they both got out they were greeted by a 300 strong cheer from the watching crowd...I didnt take any pics as i thought it might have been a bit harsh..
Anyhow here is a video of the Gt3 overtaking a superbike as he comes round this corner..
http://hobbystage.net/bmwm5/adamt/1017777597-001809.mpg
So rested we headed back to the ring Johan kindly introduced us to Thomas(onkel_tom on the board) He has a beauiful m5 with some mods..kelleners exhaust(wow nice) and a kelleners chip.. very nice also tom laps the ring at about the same pace as Johan i.e seriously quick..
Following the lemans m5 was difficult..it looked a bit quicker in the straights..but it was a great learning experience! Johan was riding passenger and was very helpful indeed!Johan is on the left and my pa driving..
With that lap done we headed for the cafe for much needed refreshment..on the way we saw this..
Very very nice..unfortunetley it was only there for show it never went onto the ring while we were there..
After a nice coffee we gave our thanks and said our farewells to johan as were had to head home but not before two last runs...
They were both an absolute blast..i took a clip of us coming out of the last corner onto the straight...sorry about the quality as the car was shaking and the dufus at the end is me..jeez thats how the whole baord is gonna know me hehehe
enjoy!
http://hobbystage.net/bmwm5/adamt/1017763534-001773.mpg
Anyhow thats my nurburgring story. I hope you guys enjoy it and that anyone who hasnt gone goes asap!
I leave you with a pic of a pesky audi..
who try as he might to annoy us half way across france could neither over take us or match our acceleration, kudos to you audi owner for being a fool!
All the very best
Adam
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