JonS Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 I'm back!! Unbelievable fun! 3 laps, no dings! (that weren't there to start with!) Few photos here More later
G Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Hey Jon, looks like you had a great time, photos look brilliant
MilesH Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Glad to hear it mate! I look forward to the full write up
R.I.B. Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Excellent!! Some cracking pictures, you going to buy one of those photos? Have it printed out for above the fire place Looks like you had the weather for it too Phil
richbk Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 hey jon back already?? that was quick. looks like great fun, you sure looked the odd one out surrounded by all that german metal. bet you had the most fun though... did you achieve top speed on the strights?? glad to see my helmets got to do the ring its proberbly as close as i'll ever get ;( richbk
Daniel Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Welcome back Jon - Look forward to the whole story. Glad you had a safe trip.
Castrol Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Hi Jon, Glad you had a great time! Another one looking forward to a write up. Regards, Matt.
Ladders Posted July 1, 2009 Posted July 1, 2009 Nice pic Jon! Good to see you using the banking as well! You'll have something to talk about now at the SELOC pub meet!
JonS Posted July 7, 2009 Author Posted July 7, 2009 So, the review! I think it has taken a week to realise what we actually did! I've been pretty busy this week so it's taken me a few days to get around to doing a review. Friday 26th June 2009 Two sets of brothers me and my bro in my Elise and our friends Jon & Joe in Jon's Z4. We had an early start to get to the Chunnel for 9:30 to get across to the old Reims Grand Prix circuit for early afternoon so my Bro can have a play with his fancy new camera. I went here on last years Alps trip and was slightly disappointed this time round. It is quite an eerie place, just the old grandstands and pit wall standing as relics along the middle of huge straight. This year, the grandstands which we were able to sit in a crawl all over have been visited by Mr Healthandsafety and were completely fenced off. You can still walk underneath the tunnel to get the back of the grandstands, but that is as far as you get without climbing 8 foot fences. Anyway, still worth a visit if you haven't been there, you just have less access than last year. In the evening at the hotel in Reims, over some Leffe Tripple (YumYum!) we changed our original route for the next day, cutting down the miles as we were pretty knackered (and a bit pissed) and the weather forecast was wet at best. Saturday 27th: We headed across France to the Mosel valley and some scenic river valley roads. There was an awesome set of switchbacks on the road down the valley sides to a town called Piesport (pronouced peesport). Me & my Bro had been here before when our parents were wine tasting in the Mosel and Rhine valley's. We followed the river winding north west and the weather soon turned from bright sunny weather, roofs off, shades on to headlights on roofs on, wipers on full and even fog lights on as the rain was so heavy you couldnt tell what was river and what was road! Which can be a problem some times! We re-assessed our situation and decided the de-restricted autobahn we were headed for would be much the same as the Mosel River, so we headed straight for the hotel at the Nurburgring. The roads within about 20 or 30 miles of the Ring are great, and the rain had stopped and left a nice glistening road surface behind allowing for a nice approach to what felt like a Pilgrimage in a strange sort of way! We got to the hotel, the Ringhaus (approximate 80 yards from the Entrance to the Ring!) shortly after 5pm, in time to check in and head down to the entrance to see the evening's Touristenfarhten and get an idea of what we were in for. To say I suddenly got the heebyjeebies would be an understatement! The rain was back, in a bit of a mist, the track had just opened up after a closure and there was a mad dash from every Porsche that has ever existed, nutters in their nova's and exotica like Fezza's and R8's and Lambo's, making for the toll gate like it was last orders! The conditions looked terribly slippery and the cars were honking horns of people not moving forward 2 feet in the queue, squeezing past by the skin of their teeth, closing together to not let pedestrians through, it was completely overaud, and needed some liquid refreshment to settle some very apparent nerves! We bought 1 lap ready for tomorrow and headed back to the hotel for some great food at the ringhaus and some great German beer! Sunday 28th: Next morning, up early, down at the circuit entrance for 8:30am supposedly the track was meant to be open at 8, but the dense fog had something to say about that. We settled down on the cafe balcony observing the goings on whilst the fog tried to clear. The only things being aloud out on the track was the Ring Taxi, one of which driven by the one and only Sabine Schmitz! We timed both cars out and back in the fog and Sabine clocked 9:20min whilst Karl-Heinz Muller clocked a measly 9:23min (that includes from a standing start at the toll gate and slowing down and turning back into the main 'pit' area. 9 minute laps in dense fog!! I'd have paid €195 for that! The cars were piping hot when they came back in and ticking all over, you could feel the heat from literally 3 feet away from them! The track eventually opened about 10:30, and again, there was a mad dash for the toll gates. Anything and everything was lining up, mostly Porsche 911's or BMW M3's! There were a lot of nice cars lining up, in particular the Gallardo Superleggera, my current favourite supercar! Absolutely stunning looking car! And sounded so much more! So glad we were able to see this car there! Anyway, we headed out for the toll gates around 10:50, after the rush had cleared, and the nutters had done their first laps to get the built up frustration out of their system. Roof off, car warmed up, we lined up together at the toll gate, having paid our €22 the day before and causally headed out through a tight chicane of cones, and nailed the throttle, just like everyone else! the first thought was that the track was pretty wide, but then again, we hadn't hit any corners! By the 3rd corner (named Turn 1!) we'd been overtaken by the Ring Taxi - none other that Miss Schmitz! Around the outside of a 90 degree turn, my friend Jon was on the apex of the right hander and Sabine was easily drifting round the outside of us! That is a great claim to fame in my book lol Overtaken at the Nurburgring by Sabine Schmitz! Anyway, the first lap seemed to go quite quickly, it was about 2 or 3 km in when it suddenly occurred to me where I was and what we were doing! I shouted to my bro next to me "we're on the effing Nurburging!" and suddenly all that hype and tension that had built up seemed to ease away and total enjoyment came in. Everyone know's one story or another about the reputation of the Ring, or The Green Hell as Jackie Stewart aptly nicknamed it. We all have opinions of this place and what it has become simply by being there and and trying to be the most dangerous racing circuit in the world. I for one like to form my own opinion of things without passing judgement, as much as I can anyway. The Nurburgring seemed to be an exception because you hear far too many horror stories. We decided to go to the Ring in the first place to make our own opinions and to see it for ourselves. It is true that it is an exceptionally dangerous place and we did see the unfortunate results of too much confidence and not enough caution. My point is, on this first lap we simply wanted to achieve a lap to say we had done it and in one piece; taking apexes where it was clear to do so and staying to the right to allow the far faster cars through. Care and consideration. So, back to the lap, we soon caught up another Z4 (as my mate was in a Z4 as well) and latched onto the back of him, much in the same frame of mind as us as it seemed. Also an Audi A3 caught us up gradually and stayed behind me, boxing us in which really helped keeping an eye on traffic approaching. When it came to the Karrousel Jon went high missing the concrete banking. I went half in, half out. If we were only going to do one lap I was gonna have a toe in at least! It was exceedingly bumpy with half the car on a smooth tarmac and the other on undulating concrete, but we survived and carried on, smiling! The greatest point of the lap was the Compression. A apart of the circuit that dips steeply and climbs steeply the other side. I felt the suspension bottom out and our stomachs were sent through the bottom of the car and left dragging along the track. The downward G went on for a good 30 metres and all you could do was laugh and groan at the same time! The first lap done, back into the parking area, we jumped out and all of us had grins from ear to ear! It was an incredible feeling! We had made it round, hit a tonne in several places and left various parts of my insides at certain corners! It was so good in fact, we headed straight for the ticket reception and bought 2 more laps! This time we headed out to do 2 laps in succession and then come back in straight back to the hotel to park the cars up to cool. There is a different toll gat out on the s/f straight that you go through to stay out on the track. 2nd and 3rd laps got more and more quicker and, as the tyres and brakes were pretty hot, the car was getting a fantastic work out. Taking more apexes as we seemed to have a fair amount of clear traffic, once we'd passed this super bike going dangerously slow weaving across the corners not looking (and who out braked himself and almost ended up underneath the front clam!) we were really starting to get a feel for it. As I had never driven the circuit before on a computer game the layout was pretty new to me, I can see the advantage of at least knowing what corner/straight is over the next blind crest. The 2nd & 3rd time through the Karousel I entered to ride the whole of the banking and absolutely nailed it (probably not, but it felt great!) all the way round. On the 3rd time though, I changed down to 2nd doing about 65mph and flung it into the banking, the revs shot up to over 6,500 (!) and we shot around the bank before it threw us out just before the huge camber change. The g's swapping side to side was a superb feeling, and despite being too fast for the gear entering that corner, the grip was phenomenal! The last time through the compression we were pushing 90mph and not braking until the top of the hill, stamping the brakes quickly and swirling the car through a left and right hander. Awesome! So we made it, 3 laps! We decided to stop there for the moment as that was €66 already and you can easily see how much people can spend in a day there. We went and chilled out up at the cafe at the castle just up the road where we had lunch. We went up the castle as well. It has panoramic 360 degree views from the top and you can get a feel for how variation there is in altitude of the circuit. You could see it through the odd cutting in the trees, but most of it was dense pine forest. The late afternoon we headed out to spectate and to try to get some photos. It was great to see the cars going round the circuit, so you could judge how fast we were actually going round the corners. Some of the cars had scintillating pace, and the sounds were just stunning on some. We finished the day with a great meal at Pistenklaus, a recommended restaurant in town and got mildly battered as we revelled over the stories we'd made during the day. A day none of us will forget for a long time. Monday 30th: A long day's drive ahead of us today we set off for Spa, leaving the Ring through some great German forest scenery and with my Bro having a good spirited drive in my car, we arrived to watch a bit of a track day that was going on. The cars going round were in a different league to us. Apart from your obvious GT3 RS and F430 Scud there were Radicals, an Ultima GTR, some single seaters and 2 GT40's! They look awesome in their Gulf colour scheme. There was also a couple (!) of Gumperts there. A car I thought I'd never see, and there they were, two of them on the same circuit! They came out of the pits did a lap and then drove straight through the pits twice, both of them. We thought it was a bit strange why they did this, and missed out Eu Rouge completely. Then, on their 3rd lap this became completely apparent! They absolutely went blistering through Eu Rouge and up the hill full throttle, no backing off! They must have been warming the tyres up for a couple of laps before blasting through one of the hardest corners in the current F1 calendar. Awesome sight and sound, and the feeling from inside must have been sensational! What a treat for us! We hung around here for a bit before heading back through Belgium to Calais. At Brussels (which I remember being busy last time) we stopped for a breather because of the sheer heat, it was roofs back on to keep the sun off and windows wide open to get the breeze in. When we left Brussels, my battery light came on. As the engine was running and i was running anything else I carried on. Thinking it wasn't right an maybe the alternator was packing up. We got to Calais in plenty of time, which turned out to be a blessing as my car wouldn't start again at all. I eventually got through to the AA and they sent someone out to take a lot. After fitting a new battery he thought he alternator belt had snapped, and he said that the battery he could fit would just drain and switch everything off. Needless to say, 15 miles from Chichester (whilst my Bro was driving I might add!) all the lights went out and we were plunged into darkness) it was 10:30 after all! We waited for a recovery truck as I had no juice left for a set of AA's! Eventually, approx 1:30am he arrived to pull me on to the flat bed and take me home. I was absolutely heart breaking to have the car finish the trip on the back of a trip, but nonetheless I was glad to be home safe and sound (within reason anyway. Crawled into bed at 2:30 only to think that 16 hours ago we woke up next to the Infamous Nurburgring! To summarise, it was an unbeliveable experience and one I can recommend, but recommend I will with a large helping of caution, it must be respected, but not just the circuit, it is the other nutters out there that you have to watch out for as well. My bro helped me with that by calling out for any traffic. It is good to be able to form my own opinion now and, having seen the reasons why the track gets the reputation it has, you really have to understand the responsibilities and the worst case scenario; drive at your own pace and watch those mirrors (and slow moving bikes ahead!) I'd love to go back, and can see how easy it would be to do in a weekend mixed in with a track day at Spa, but I have no idea if I would be able to go back any time soon. In the mean time, I'm happy as larry at what we achieved, and can now proudly put the Nurburgring track decal on my back window! Sorry it was such a long winded story, you I get carried away with these things! But this is something I am proud to have achieved and had such a great time with my friends and my bro at the same time! Here endeth the reading! (thanks for getting this far, I hope it made a good read) I've put a load of photos here :LINK: I'll explain a few tomorrow further in this thread
Daniel Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 Nice write up Jon, really enjoyed reading. It sounds like a great trip and the photo's are great.
Steve G Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 Excellent write-up Jon, really enjoyed reading that. Shame the car didn't quite make it back home, but I'm sure that didn't take the edge off what must have been a great trip too much...
PeterField Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 Great write up Jon, makes for a very enjoyable read mate. Glad to hear you all had such a good trip!
R.I.B. Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 Excellent write up Jon, really enjoyed the read. Shame about breaking down but at least it didn't happen before you got on the ring!
JonS Posted July 7, 2009 Author Posted July 7, 2009 Thanks for the comments We got back to my place in Chichester at 2:30am in the end, instead of the originally planned 7pm! 1 new alternator later the next day and all was fine I've added quite a lot of photos so I've narrowed it down to the following selection: Reims Grand Prix circuit: Still an eerie place. This grandstand is the one that is fenced off. Pit wall: Porsche's full of nutter's at the Ring's toll gates on the Saturday evening in the rain: Quite a car park on the Sunday morning: I want one! Lamborghini Gallardo Superlegera Sabine Schmidtz heading out into the fog: ...9 minutes 20 seconds later, she's back: Off out with her next bunch of victims: Rear of the Ferrari F430 Scuderia: Nose of the F430: Nobel M12 GTO we saw this going around Spa the next day as well: Roof off, ready! (Following the Lambo out!) 3 laps later, me and my Bro! Done it! Ferrari 355 F1 View towards the F1 circuit from the top of the castle: Our hotel (Ringhaus) in the foreground, Ring entrance buildings top left: Nice selection of the cars going round in one shot: Caught on camera! Beautiful pair of 911 Carrera's: Spa & Eu Rouge: Ford GT40's GT3 RS seen around the Ring the day before: Same Scud from earlier as well: One of the two Gumperts canning around: 4 extremely knackered but very happy fella's!
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