Dear all,
I think I should start at the begininng, as many of you guys know myself, and my pa and little brother visited RUF in December last last year. I wrote a report(of course) here:
http://www.bmwm5.com/vbulletin/showt...threadid=26384
So we went away wanting to get a RUF car, but which colour? Well we thought that a sort of titaniumalloy colour seen on the 360 modena's are quite nice, and also black. Then whilst we were discussing this at home my Pa just went, hey how about Guards Red? It wasnt my idea it was his, strange...Anyways the whole family liked the idea. It was a special enough car to warrant the look at me colour. I thought so anyways.
Estonia kept in touch with us weekly,keeping us informed on when this arrived, when they were installing that etc. And the car was basically on target. Construction began in late January when the shell was recieved from Porsche(all these build pics were kindly taken by Estonia)
and the rollacge was installed:
The body was then painted, and now is seen as a shell, with the requiste parts ready for installation!
You can see the carbon fiber wing here:
The build process was going well, and it looked like the car would be ready for the April 14th delivery!
Anyways, I was set to fly out on the Sunday April 6,
The flight was good and I walked out of the terminal and met a chauffeur who ferried me very quickly to Mr Vidal's house. Mr Vidal is one of the top guys at RUF and he was very kind in letting me stay with him for a night!
Anyway, monday morning came and I was so excited, here is the first time i saw the car..
It was marvellous!
So on monday and Tuesday I was watching and sometimes helping them build the car, this basically involved watching Andreas work on the exterior, Thomas work on the interior and Brend work on the electronics! Some of the stuff they were doing was just mind numbingly skillful, and they seemed to put every effort in to make everything perfect.
On Tuesday evening myself and my room mate, Dick, were invited out to supper with Mr and Mrs RUF and some of their friends, after dinner Mr RUF asked me if i would like to go with him to deliver a car, he then told me it was a very very special car...
So on wednesday, in the afternoon Mr RUF came and got me and took me to where they hold all their classic cars, the car we were delivering was a 356 Carrera 2 Cabrio, built in 1963(i think) and one of only 9 built that year!
And what was really great was that Estonia was coming too, but sadly there were only two seats in the little 356, no problem we'll just take one of these!
This was a great trip, Mr RUF just loved every moment of it, and i too loved this tiny little car. It had so much character and was just such an event!Its very quick too, we hit 200km/h easily on a nice clear stretch of autobahn...it was stable also!
On the way back we tested out this red CTR2 Sport...the acceleration is just brutal, what happens is it is not quite as linear as the R Turbo. What it does is it makes this growling sound and starts accelerating, wow this is good..and then the full force of the boost hits you...ouch hehee
That was a really great day and wonderful experience, thing is i think Mr RUF enjoyed it even more than me, he is a serious petrol head!
When we returned to Pfaffenhausen Alois asked me if i would like to come with him to Essen to see the classic car show, sure i said, then he told me i would have to get up at 5 am
hehee and also that i should bring my license!
The drive up was great, at the begininng in the morning there was no one around so were able to max out the 3400S which we were driving, it was this exact car:
One of things i will always remember about it was the sound, it was glorious. The induction note under full acceleration was just tremendous, the constant burble of the engine was just something!
So we arrived at Essen surprisingly untired(is that a word?!) and wow the cars there were amazing!
This was a Jag XK 120 FHC, very nice, and there was also the only Jag XJ 13 in existence, i got some pics but they were not good at all...
We were really to build up contacts for the restorationn business Mr RUF runs, it was really great seeing all the parts of these classics.
So we had a good time but had to leave at around 5pm get back to Pfaffenhausen in relatively good time. Half through our journey on a quiet stretch of autobahn Mr RUF pulled over, gave me the keys to the car, my jaw nearly dropped to the ground i was so surprised, and bloody nervous! He said it would be fine and boy it was great!Two pictures of one very smug git!
Not bad for first drive in Germany, in a RUF 3400S being taught by Alois RUF!
I kept my speed to around 80-90mph, i wasnt too confident at all, but it was just great! Especially when a lorry would pull out and we would have to slow to 50mph..then it was max acceleration! It was heaven ehhe. Funny stuff sometimes when i would get ready to shift gear my left hand would slam against the door by accident...
But i got around that pretty quick!
During the trip we phoned the company to ask how the car was doing..it was doing really well, the engine had been started and there were no problems! Roll on Friday!
So Friday was basically the cars test day, where the mechanics would take the car out with a diagnostic machine and record all the data,
Here is the car pulling out of the factory for the first time under its own steam.
Tomorrow we would be high max speed testing.
*Disclaimer* The max speed testing was carried out under the safest possible conditions. The time was 12am in the morning, the weather was cold but not freezing and the traffic was non existant.
So I met Mr RUF at the factory around 11:30 pm...we went in and saw the car
It was next Mr RUF's record breaking car, it was like one was giving the other advice
So out we went, hit the autobahn and just flew...it was amazing..
What happened was at 100mph i took a pic with the flash, this was under full accel,
on my camera it takes a load of seconds to charge the flast...15 or 20 seconds or something like that...so by the time we had hit 330km/h and had to slow down as in the distance we saw a car the flash still wasnt ready! So as we were decelerating it came back and i got a pic of 317km/h..not bad
So that was fun! Afterwards we went to Mindelheim where we stopped off at a restaurant where we talked cars, and also i had a really nice apple struddle...when suddenly Estonia phoned, told us to come back home as it was already 1:30 am!
That was a really great time, and Mr RUF was very impressed by the car, from my point of view the speedo numbers kept going up in big chunks of 10km/h then it slowed down at around 300km/h going up in increments of 2, it was astonishing to watch, and also the wind noise wasnt quite as bad as i thought it would be at 200mph +
The next day my folks would arrive!
So on Sunday I slept in and generally hung out with my room mates Dick and Chase,
At 5:00pm my folks arrived and we showed them the car, my pa was so happy, he couldnt stop grinning, it was really funny
We then arranged to pick up the car the next day, as it still needed a clean and some small things sorted out,
We went back to the hotel with Mr and Mrs RUF and had a really great dinner..the food was excellent!
On monday we arrived at RUF in anticipation...I was really looking forward to it, we parked the M5 here:
(quite a tasty line up of cars huh!
Mr RUF then gave my family the full RUF tour...here he was able to explain to my Ma how a turbo engine worked...utterly astounding as that typ[e of thing normally baffles here ehehe
Drooling over a recently serviced Porsche 906(I think)
Then some paper work had to be taken care of....very little in fact it just involved signing some ownership papers and then... taking delivery!
We were told by Mr RUF that a nice drive would be down to the Austrian border where there was a really picturesque lake...I wasnt really into the lake but I got a nice pic of it...
We managed to find a secluded car park where the two beasts could be secure...
My pa and i found it tough to leave the car, so on our return trip there was a very nice incident involving a 02 C2...
We were approaching a tunnel and the speed limit came down to 100km/h..so we slowed..going through the tunnel we heard over the walkie talkies that my ma in the M5 behind us was being tail gated by this Porsche...so my pa and i told her to move in and let it tail gate us
Coming out of the tunnel we had this prat tail gateing us, he flashed his lights once and put his indicator on...hu
mmm
60mph...we were in 4th...so we just had to down shift...comeing out of the tunnel we nailed it to 110mph...and the C2 nailed it also..(my ma told us as she was following behind, she saw the back squat down and the black exhaust smoke) from the RUF i couldnt tell if he was accelerating as the distance we pulled on him was 100m... it was really cool, we pulled into the slow lane and he passed us, only to immediately turn off and sell his car no doubt!
That was really fun, we headed back to the hotel, and settle down for a nice pizza meal, after that me and my pa went out to the car park to have a look at the car, only to come back and find out that Estonia had called to ask how the car was, astounding customer care!
On next morning, Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and headed off to south to see the Mountains on the Austrian border with Germany, we followd the advice from the RUF's and it was a really great drive when there wasnt any traffic...The scenery was just absolutely breath taking, and we just parked in a layby and took in our surroundings...ok ok we were lost but it proved a nice place to get some pics!
Here is my favourite pic of the journey:
So after that we had a really nice meal in a small german restaurant and headed back to Pfaffenhausen to meet with the RUF's for our journey north to Boxberg!
On arriving back in Pfaffenhausen we met Stefan Roser, he is really cool...and i asked him if he ever had a scary moment when he took the yellowbird round the ring for the Faszination video, he looked at me in a bemused way and said not at all
Here is me and my pa and Mark Porsche, who was there having a look at the RUF restoration procedures
He and myself ended up trying to convince my pa to have a go at the Gumball next year, but we both gave up on the grounds that he was too old
It was my last few minutes at Pfaffenhausen so i thought i should take a load of pics,
This was me and Thomas, Thomas was in charge of the construction of the car and had come out to say good bye to it
Just as it was begininng to get dark we set off for boxberg, the RUF's leading on MN RT 350, and us following in the M5 and RUF. We went on some really great roads and it was amazing watching the R Turbo sit down through corners and accelerate away...quite something!
So we arrived in this place called Frederichshoffer,(i know i have spelt it wrong
) and it was a really nice hotel, and we immediately went into supper, it was really great the food was excellent and a lot was discussed!
I highly recomend the veal they serve..its very tasty
oh and also the chocolate desert *drools*
Anyway we stayed till 1 am, but myself and sid and sophie left before the adults, because tomorrow we had to get up at 7:30amish...for Boxberg
Waking up on the wednesday morning i walked down to breakfast, bleary eyed and tired, i sat down at the table and started gulping down the orange juice, when this chap sits down next to me. Hi he says im Wolfgang Weber, and from then i didnt feel tired, because the guy was just so full of energy, and i learnt later that he had already driven a vast amount of miles to be here...with Wolfgang came a really nice couple, John Lloyd from Chicago and Eve who came from Munich, they had brought a CTR. And we had already met them on monday. John is a very good driver and is competing in the upcoming Nurburgring 24. Also he has been on this site and funnily enough was telling me all about this guy in England who had a passenger ride in a MclarenF1....
So here are some of the car park pics:
And here are the pics from the journey:
Two R Turbos
The walkie talkies provided hours of amusement for my little brother:
Wolfgang leading the procession to Boxberg
Ok so we arrived at Boxberg and sadly were told that cameras were not allowed in the facility
but i managed to get a quick photo right in front of the gates before we went in:
I took a pic of the brochure to give you guys an idea of the place:
With us was Wolfgang Weber and Stefan Roser, a very nice Prince who owned the hotel we were staying in and some other guys in a C2 who i didnt really meet.
Wolfgang was running the show and lead us into the main compund and then into the alpine handling circuit...every imagineable corner was there, it was great! I went round with Wolfgang in Johns CTR and he just powerslided round every thing, it was amazing!
Then my Pa let me drive the M5! Damnit wheres the camera!? Anyway with Wolfgang in the passenger seat he was instructing me, it was really funny it went something like this:
Wolfgang: Ok Adam take this corner quite quickly when the tires squeel thats when you want to keep the power steady.
Me: Umm are you sure?
So i went round the first corner slowy...and then learnt that you go in slow, measure the corner and just put the power down until the tires start to squeel! It was really intuative and the M5 just felt right, though it took a while for me to get used to the quite notchy gear box shift.
One corner my pa saw was when he was convinced i came in to it too quick, he thought i was going to go straight off however i went round it with a bit of tire squeel...thank you Wolfgang!
So that was just great, after that we headed over to where you test the cars and their brakes...what it consists is a 4 metre wide tile strip which about 150m long, it is of course sprayed with water and the effect is very close to ice. We used that to learn how the cars react in emergency brakeing, it was very interesting to compare the M5 with the RUF, the RUF would go in at 40mph and stop about halfway down the strip, do that in the M5 and amazingly your still moving(just) by the end of the strip..it was the only time throughout the whole day i felt the M5 was just a bit out its depth..which is amazing considering the stuff we did later
There I was lucky enough to hop into Mr RUF's R Turbo...Wow it was amazing, the throttle was like a knife in the way it would respond to any input, and it was just so nice, and the car had covered 30,000km..most of them with throttle happy journalists!
Next was just great fun! We headed to the skid pad where Wolfgang had set up some cones in a semi circle, we were told we were going to learn to powerslide the cars...Oh booy it was just so much fun, what you do is moveing off slowing you hit 2, give a bit of steering lock and then nail the the throttle, and then thats that, i was in the M5 and it was the most fun i have ever had. My Pa was in the R Turbo and found it a little harder to get past the grip and make it oversteer like crazy.
We then had a break and headed off to lunch, after that it was time for the high speed oval course!
It was just great, if any of you guys know the Gran Turismo games it was like that oval but much much smaller. The straights were about 350m each and the northern corner was supposed to be taken at no more than 100mph, and the southern one which had a wider diameter about 130mph...anyway, i hoped into our RUF with Wolfgang, and Sid and Sophie were in the back seat...It was really great because first wolfgang went round the track the showing us how you didnt have to steer round the corner, and as you went faster the centrifugal forces pushing the car down during the corner also acted apon us, it was impossible to lift your knees up! Then Wolfgang decided we should have some fun...we went for the track record, of course it was helfd by Wolfgang who regurlary test drives new cars there....
On this tiny track we were able to crack 180mph in the R Turbo, it was just so cool...
Afterwards we headed off to the slalom, which was very interesting, very difficult as it was on the skid pad, as a lot of cones were knock about!
The day was drawing to a close, and we made our good byes. The day was run by Wolfgang and i highly recomend it to anyone who wants to have a great day out and learn a lot about car control.We then said good bye to the RUF's, they had catered and looked after us in a way which redefines the term customer care...
We headed back to our hotel following the Prince who owned it, on the way we stopped off at an abbey which he owned..very nice
The next day we recovered from our exertions at Boxberg, and just relaxed.
On Friday we headed off to the ring...sadly the traffic was atrocious so we arrived at the ring rather tired, we squeezed into one of the grass car parks to have a look around, and there i met Gerrit! Sadly i couldnt talk long with him, but never the less it was great to put a name to a face!
After that we decided it would be best to head to the hotel. We were staying at the Dorint:
Which was just what we wanted, because it had these great rooms overlooking the GP track and that day there were these GT3 R's and Supercups blasting around! Absolute heaven! Anyways we didnt stay long as my pa and I were eager to get out onto the ring in the late afternoon when we thought it would get less busy.
We parked the M5 next to this and headed off to the ring:
The ring was really great we did three laps that evening, all three really slow as we were just re-remebering(or trying to) all the corners.
On Saturday we got up bright and early (7:30 am
heheheh) to be at the ring when it opens...
Some highlights of Saturday was my Mum driving it, and driving it very well...blasting down the Dottinger Hoe and hiting 169mph..not bad consider we came out the corner at 70mph. Just to compare the F40 there was driven by a raceing driving driver hit 174mph...and he would of come out of that corner a heck of a lot faster than us...
Here are some pics of Saturday:
And of course i always get a pic of a van on the ring!
On Saturday we met a nice British chap called Matt (MattOz on the board) he is a very good driver and he showed us the lines in his M5.
Also I met Kees! He is a real car nut and had absoluety destroyed his brakes on his Scooby! However we also asked kees to show us some lines!
We also met Pelle, he had brought a very good looking M5 with him, it was very quick also, he overtook us coming out of Fuchroe coming into Adenaur Forst
And of course we saw Johan again! He had brought his little mini beast and on Sunday we came out of the toll and saw johan tucked up by the side of the track putting his helmet on...we went behind him and waved, he then proceeded to show us the lines, we were following him (just) and it was really really good see johan drive his mini beast so quickly!
Here are a load of pics i took with Johan
Johan took me out in his mini beast..my pa would have come also but there was a lack of rear seating in johans car
The lap was amazing, really fast, we were in a constant state or max accel and max braking, and it was really nice to see a good driver fully using the potential of his car.
On the monday we had to head home, the trip through europe was smooth and fast, the moment we hit british soil the traffic ground to a halt
I cleaned the car and took some family pics..
Thanks for reading my story
all the best
adam
