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Circuit Days @ The Nordschleife

3K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  Craze 
#1 · (Edited)
I had another amazing session at The Nurburgring last week, thanks to Circuit Days. I met up with some mates from Switzerland and Sweden, with a a 10yr old GT3RS and a new 911 GT3CS between them.
We did the Touristfahrten on the Sat eve, Sunday and Monday eve, then hit the track all day Tuesday. I racked up 40 laps in all, and spanked 8 tanks of petrol. The M5 would do a whole tank (6 or 7 laps) without blinking, and never felt tired or had any brake fade. The difference with the Texstar BMW 'M Race Pads' was astonishing compared to stock pads, which I destroyed there last year. Everybody who passengered with me is blown away by the speed and handling of the mighty F10 M5, and folks came up to me afterwards too to compliment the Akrapovic exhaust's huge sound as I hit 180mph at the top of Döttinger Höhe :devil

Here's a couple of pics and some laps from the open pit lane day :)

A clip from Gustav's website:
+ YouTube Video
ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.


And here's a couple of laps with the new app and a crap camera mount, which I have since replaced!
+ YouTube Video
ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.


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#5 · (Edited)
How many days do you normally go for, and what type of a budget I should be looking at, roughly?
It depends....

The open pit lane days are normally a week day, so we try and get to the Touristfahrten the weekend before and sometimes have a day to kill playing on the autobahn in between that, and the actual organised day. So with 8 hrs drive there (inc Eurotunnel & all the faffing about that entails), then it's best to allow a day to get there and a day to get back. Some folks like to cane it and get up at 4am and drive the same day, but I like a fresh head to drive the Nordschleife.

Cost-wise, laps at Touristfahrten are around 22 Euros each, but this goes down if you use their new account system. You now get 15% discount for buying 200 Euros' worth for example. It's a great system though and you can keep tabs on the number of laps you have done, and what you've spent, all on the new iPhone/Android app :)

The open pit lane events themselves are around 5-600 quid. I always add training on top, so you get a qualified racing driver sitting next to you for an hour helping lines, braking points etc, and overall car balance through the many lumps and bumps that make the Nordschleife so brilliant. That's £100 or so.

Fuel-wise, getting there at a gentle motorway pace takes approx half a tank to get as far as the German border, then another half a tank for the last 140km just because the autobahn is so much fun ;) Once you get there, if you nail it she'll drink a whole tank in around 6 laps. That's just over 100 euros at Ed's petrol station currently.

Tyre and brake-wise, I munched through a set of Michelin PSS in 70 laps last year, and a set of standard brake pads. I now have the BMW M Race pads, and the wear and heat has not only reduced, but the braking force is HUGE, and the car handles better because of it. The tyres are around a grand a set, and the pads the same. That's over a whole year though, so I wouldn't worry about it for just a single trip. Wait til you get properly addicted before you start selling family members.

So you see it depends....!

This trip was bigger than usual, in both duration and number of laps, and with hotel, food and wine, it came in around £2200. I've done tourist-only weekends for a grands or so.

Hope that helps? :)
 
#9 · (Edited)
By the way...while Ed's Tankstelle is convenient, the one by the Breidscheid exit sells Aral 102 for less then V-Power. Or did last time I was there, anyway.

And personal experience ties in almost exactly with your costs.

Edited to add yep, I'm still right :)
 

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#11 ·
It's this little app here:

BMW M Performance Drive Analyser

You buy a little dongle that plugs into the OBD port under the dash, then use an app on your phone. It does a LOT more than just the video you see here. It has all the track data stored in graph, map and video form, and these can be exported separately. It's pretty awesome actually, even when I compared it to the excellent Porsche track data app, which is provided as one of the perks of owning a GT3.

It's about £250/£300 IIRC, but I was lucky enough to get mine as a gift from Coopers for all their screw ups in the early days :)
 
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