My European Trip [56K warning] - Page 4 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Gamedemon · 17th June 2006, 05:20

This AWESOME. I am so Jealous ! I lived in Switzerland when I was a kind and went to the track when I was 11.. Was not allowed to drive back then

. Now I WANT TO GO !!!!!

Sir_Dingo · 17th June 2006, 08:25

Wow how cool was that ? Ya have balls driving through that Icelnad stuff, these roads looked pretty mean with all the snow, and to end up in the countries you did is amazing

CarlosGM6 · 17th June 2006, 09:19

BRAVO.....

.......Incredible read with pics & vids. I was entrenched!
Thank You very much.

Sir_Dingo · 17th June 2006, 17:08

I really love that Z06...been a Vette fan for years, but thought they were cheaply built, and all plastic, but this new C6 Z06 is a leap forward

Blue Thunder · 18th June 2006, 17:04

Ok, here is the next installment of the Nurburgring saga

Now it´s Tuesday and I got a call fromt he dealer. They said that they had installed a new driveshaft with new bearings, guibo, etc. but the vibration was still there. And to make things even worse they now told me it came from the gearbox. As all of you probably know, you cannot get replacement parts for the gearboxes to fix them yourself or at your dealership.

So a new gearbox was ordered - ouch!!!

It did not come as a great surprise to me that they would find a problem with the gearbox. I had been having problems with the 1-2 gear shifts (it would sometimes just not go into 2nd) and also there had been some weird noises coming from it - see this thread: Weird noise from drivetrain - can you help? (videos) (the clunking noise was probably fixed by the driveshaft/guibo change). My mechanic in Iceland had put a "listening scope" (sorry don´t know the correct english word

) to the gearbox and said that something was not right with it. But since you cannot fix it he told me just to drive it until it would break.

The upside to this is that the gearbox is half the price in Germany compared to what it is in Iceland so maybe it was luck it happened here instead of at home.

It also turns out that Frank the hotel manager at Altes Forsthaus (www.ringhaus.com) has a friend at Getrag and is going to contact him to have him take the old gearbox and fix it. I can then sell it or keep it as a spare

So this will keep me stuck at Nurburgring for a couple of days more. I can think of much worse places to be stuck

After I had talked to the dealership I grabbed my camera and went to the track to check what was going on.

It turns out that there is a 2 day event taking place on the track Tuesday and Wednesday. It is hosted by a big German car magazine. You basically pay 1.500 euros and bring your own car (food and hotel is inluded in the price). Instructors from the DTM series teach you how to drive on the track. They also get a passenger ride in a mean machine that I will tell you about later

Here are some pics from the event:

Some nice cars in the parking lot:

A very mean looking E46 3 series:

Caterham - a very light car, must be fun on the Ring!!!:

A gorgeous red E30 M3:

And a black one:

This must be fun on the track

:

Nice looking Renault:

A gorgeous GT3 - looks awesome in white:

Cayman (or Gayman

):

A sinister looking EVO in the shade. Note the matte paint:

Another sinister looking car:

This just has to be loads of fun on the Ring:

Here the participants were lining up in groups behind their teachers:

It looks like this car is anxious to get going

:

Here is a truck from Renault, they were testing a Clio race car:

A nice looking Elise with a Honda Type-R motor:

After looking around the parking lot I decided to take a walk along the track.
At the first bridge over the track you can see how the track runs along a highway:

If you look over the high fence on the bridge - this is the view:

Found a hole in the fence along the track that enabled me to get closer....:

And there was this nice view:

A bit further up along the track there was this bench made out of armco:

By standing on top of it I got these shots:

Here is the red E30:

A lot of M3's:

One of the M6:

Here I am a bit further up the track:

I had to cross a bit of a jungle to find good spots to shoot:

And judging by the look of that fence, I am not the first:

Yet another group:

E46 M3's:

The black E30 M3:

The white GT3 blasting past:

Just to return a minute later AND DRIVE THE OPPOSITE WAY BACK!!!

They must have sent him out just before Touristfahren started and had to turn him around.

Went back to the parking lot and there was this nice E36:

Then it started raining - a lot!!!! :

The cars started coming off the track in to the parking lot:

Including the brits in the Elise I got a ride in the day before - not so hot now to be topless

:

They set a new speed record in the parking lot to get to the other car where they had the top for the Elise:

Frantically putting it on:

Rather wet after all this:

By now the track was closing and I went back to the hotel.

Jaeger · 18th June 2006, 21:03

I laughed, I cried, I bought plane tickets . . . awesome!

Gustav · 19th June 2006, 00:46

Wow, awesoem job. Thiis is a crazy picture!

Blue Thunder · 19th June 2006, 22:32

Ok, now it´s Wednesday at the Ring.

It is starting to remind me of the movie "Groundhog Day" - all days are the same: wake up, breakfast, check if the car is ready, it´s not, go to the track & hitch rides and take photos

Anyways, at the track there was day 2 of the training event that the car magazine was hosting. When I got to the track I knew instantly that this was going to be a good day because this was the first thing I saw going out for a lap:

Not every day you see a black Carrera GT.

I also liked this one alot - really agressive look:

Here the black one comes back in:

Now they change passengers and then the car goes back out - the guy in the red jacket is running the show - we´ll get back to him later.... :

When he goes onto the track you don´t hear alot while he is going through the 30 km/h zone past the cones but then you just hear this monsterous roar that seems to come from the devil himself! This car makes the best sound ever! People have commented on my car and said it makes a devilish sound but it´s just nothing compared to this.

Here is a beautiful Porsche that has been modified by Cargraphic, the guys that make the rims I once was going to get for my M5:

Soon the black one comes back but quickly goes away to my great disappointment:

Despite this sign I went inside the fence. Now the straight was open and people were blasting at full speed. Here I also changed over to the big lens, the Canon 70-200IS:

Here is a Honda race car that made alot of noise:

I was greatly relieved when the Carrera GT returned, obviously just went for gas (supercars need to do that too!). Here they are changing passengers again. I had now found out that the participants in the training got a lap in the car with a professional driver:

Decided to walk along the track and shoot from the same places I did the day before but now with the big lens since I felt the photos from the day before were to wide. Here I am by the first bridge:

Now people were racing and there was fighting on the track:

But the cars could not challange this one in speed, looks or sound

Just insane when he blasted past on full throttle going through the gears:

Some fighting:

Here I am back on the armco bench:

An M6 in the woods:

Here I´m further up into Tiergarten:

Here you can see the solution I found to get the lens through the fence - used an broken camping chair I found to make an opening between the barbed wire and the fence:

Here I am just before the right hander over the bridge and it´s the mean looking E46 again:

A mixed group:

GT3 - a "race" inspired pic through the safety net:

Then of course this one came screaming past:

After this I walked back and on the way I started thinking that I had to get a passenger lap in the black one. I then went and spoke with the guy in charge and asked him. He was quite positive and told me to come back half an hour before Touristfahren started. Yessss!!!!

But things can change quickly:

Raining cats and dogs and I got this feeling that this would affect my passenger lap:

And I turned out to be right. The driver said he had had some scary moments in the wet and the guy that was in charge said they were only insured for those taking part in the course and he just could not take the chance of letting me go for a lap in these conditions. Damn, damn, damn!!!

I don´t think I have ever hated rain as much in my life!!! If it had stayed dry I would now have had a ride on Nurburgring with a pro driver in a Carrera GT

The driver seemed to be a star even though I did not recognize him - everyone was treating him as someone famous. The car was owned by Porsche so he was not the owner.

Many people were not scared by the rain and drove hard:

It did not take long to jack up the Honda

I then saw them park the black one and went to look at it up close - sorry for the many pics but I can look at this car forever:

But all in all despite the weather, it was a nice day.

CarlosGM6 · 19th June 2006, 22:51

Blue Thunder..please keep it coming. I can't get enough!!!
And thanks again.

mr.knd · 20th June 2006, 11:45

I think the driver in the black cgt is Horst von Saurma, chief editor of the german car mag sportauto. He does the laps for the so called supertest in this mag, where they drive the cars on the nordschleife.

Btw. very nice pics!