Ok so here is one more pic fromt he Sunday when the car broke down - here is Olli the mechanic at the Altes Forsthaus hotel (
www.ringhaus.com) trying to see what was causing the vibration, without success:
Well the next day I got a truck to take my car to the nearest dealership to find out what the problem is and fix it:
Their findings were that there was a problem with the driveshaft bearings and they ordered new ones. That would take a day.
So here I am stuck at the Ring, itīs now afternoon and Touristfahren is starting. So I decide to go down to the track and see what is going on.
The parking lot was not as crowded as on the Sunday and the weather was very nice, sunny and warm.
I chatted with some Brits that were driving an Elise and got to ride as a passenger for a lap on the Ring. Very interesting experience since the car is so light compared to my M5. The Elise is 750kg - a ton lighter than my car!!!
You could really feel that in the turns - there was nothing trying to pull the car out of the turns - it was like on rails. But on the other hand - not much happened on the straight parts
Then one guy turned up that had been there the day before - the Finnish guy in the Z06. Yes, the 7 liter, 505 hp monster. He went onto the track and was back pretty quickly and parked his car. I went to look at his car and talk to the driver. This conversation turned to be VERY interesting.
The guys name is Kimmo Kaarna and he runs a tuning company in Finland. He has had 20 Porsches, including GT3 but gave up on them and got the Corvette. His company tunes Porsches and he is an expert Porsche engine builder.
Now, what does he say about Porsche today?
"The new Porsche cars are too soft - they have become cars for women" !!!!!!!
I could not believe him at first but he was quite firm on this point. His view is that the new Porsches (with the exception of the Carrera GT) are cars for yuppies, no dry sump and you cannot track them. There is some small print in the manual that states if you want to track the car you need a special aftermarket oil pan. He also said that if someone had told him 3 years ago that he would be driving a Corvette today he would have told him that he was insane.
He said that noone had passed him this weekend on the Ring and that the Z06 is faster than the GT3's.
By this point I REALLY wanted to get a lap with him in this car but he seemed not interested and said he had alot of luggage in the front seat.
Ok, so I didnīt put more pressure at this point and he went for another lap.
Later I ran into him again and we chatted some more about cars and the track. It turns out he is a former Scandinavian champion in carting and touring car racing - has raced for many years.
Now I just HAD to get a lap as a passenger. So I asked him again and finally he gave in, put the luggage in the back and said he would not drive at 100% because of the luggage. YES!!!!
We drove onto the track and when we passed the final cones onto the starting straight I knew that the guy wasnīt bullshitting at all. He drove completely flat out and was very agressive, used the kerbs and really knew his racing line.
There were many turns where I thought he would not make them but he always did. His fastest speed was 265 km/h and that was not on the straight but at Flugplatz. He once lost the back end but caught it very quickly.
Now I have also been in the E60 M5 Ringtaxi with Sabine but this is a completely different league - MUCH more action and speed.
I was smiling for hours afterwards.
Here are some pics of the car and the owner:
This passenger lap made my day!!!
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Thanks for shareing, it was enjoyable to read! 
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