I arrived home from trip 23 at 1am on Monday and set off for trip 24 at 1.30pm on Thursday ... Tired? Yes. But another fantastic trip with perfect weather. No frame-grabs as yet, so I'll probably add to the report over the weekend - I never remember what happened out on the track until I watch them ...
With just three days between trips, and a fair bit to do at work, there wasn't a hope in hell of getting the radiator fans investigated, but I knew from last weekend that it wasn't a desperate problem. My preparation thus involved only checking the fluids, throwing in the spare inverter to see if that cured the carcam problem, getting Anders added to my insurance for the weekend and a quick visit to my local car-wash to get some of the wildlife removed from the nose and windscreen.
I'd also managed to find time to print off a few slips for those who offer to pay for passenger laps so that they can make a donation to Unicef instead. The website address given asks visitors which country they are from and then takes them to the appropriate donation form:
A quick dash down to Dover had me on the 15:15 crossing with five minutes to spare. I hadn't had time to eat, so had an excellent lunch at the on-board Langan's Brasserie. P&O has really made these crossings civilised in the last year or two.
I was drinking coffee when Birgit called to say she was just leaving. Her luggage - and you have to remember this is a mid-engined MR2 we're talking about, with even less luggage capacity than my old MX-5 - included a decanter I'd bought last time I visited her and didn't fancy taking back as hand-luggage ...15 weissbier glasses to supplement the 10 I bought last time for next month's beer and video evening ... and two 968 tyres! These were the fronts I had replaced between the two August weekends and which I wanted to have in Nurburg as spares. Francis's experience last time emphasised the importance of having spares there, so I'm going to try to get a couple of rears over there as well next year.
Photo taken the next day
A couple of people had recommended an alternative route via Spa, but my attempts to follow this were not hugely successful as the GPS kept trying to take me off along other roads, and I finally gave in and let it route me along the 410. This was a very slow road with lots of very slow lorries on it. I eventually picked up signs to the Ring, but missed one and ended up on a road which wasn't on the GPS. In retrospect, this should have been a clue. There was a hole in the road a little further on with barriers around it. That should have been a second clue. About two miles further, driving in the dark, the tarmac changed colour ahead of me. I realised this was because the tarmac was ending and the 'road' ahead was dirt. I hit the brakes and came onto the dirt. Which promptly turned right 160 degrees. So, somehow, did I. When the dust had cleared, I sheepishly turned around and drove back onto the tarmac and back past the 'Road closed' barrier that I'd mistaken for roadworks ...
Birgit had already ordered my pizza and - importantly - a bottle of decent red by the time I got to the Pistenklause. I also managed to reach Achim and arranged for him to fit the rollbar on Saturday morning. With good timing, Felix called me to say that the bar was finally in Nurburg after the final leg of its epic journey from San Diego.
Another Ring weekend, another gorgeous sunny day!
The Ring didn't open until 2.15pm, so we took advantage of the fact for a lie-in and lazy breakfast before wandering off to do a few essential chores.
Another couple of crates of weissbier for the beer-and-video evening
Introducing the bugs on Birgit's MR2 to a car-wash
Resisting the temptation to pack this cat in my bag
Birgit needed to do a bit of shopping, so we wandered into Adenau. While there, we checked out the local Internet cafe. This is open until late, so if anyone gets desperate for a net fix while they are here, it's next door to the cycle shop which is next door to the motorcycle dealer.
The local Internet cafe, inside a pizza place
I also made yet another attempt to clarify the position with fatalities at the Ring. Simon Bradley had noticed a chart in the police station while he was visiting it, so we called in and asked if we could see it. It is a bend-by-bend table of police attendances, and there are 67 crashes shown. We asked if these were all fatalities, and were told no, these were all the occasions on which police attended a crash. He said there have been 10 fatalities so far this year.
While this conflicts with other reports, I think it's the most definitive information we have, so I now tend towards the view that the ITU nurse at Koblenz wasn't distinguishing between actual Ring crashes and other crashes on the local roads. It's of course possible that some people died later without the police being aware of it, for example in a 'no other vehicle involved' crash where there is no requirement for further police involvement, but I still think that we're probably looking at more like one a month than one a week. I'll be amending my Warning page to reflect this.
The chart of police attendances, on the wall in Adenau Police Station
We headed over to the Ring to have lunch and await the opening. After a poor showing by 968.net last time, we weren't doing any better this time, with only one spotted. I failed to make a note of the driver's name - Colin?
Another weekend, another 968.net attendee
The Swedish 911 contingent was rather larger, though we couldn't get a picture of all of them so had to settle for three in the car-park and a few more individually on the track:
The Yellow 911 Collection
More Swedish Pork
Pursued by another
And another :-)
A bike had gone down at Breidscheid and left a large oil-slick. The rider was up and about, which is always good news there, and the cones around the oil-slick actually made for a very interesting bend. You had to cross back to the left of the track a little earlier than usual, and I enjoyed the fun of a 'new' bend:
The new schicane at Breidscheid
As the car-park started to fill up, we spotted some Caterhams:
A Caterham in characteristic pose
These turned out to be Felix's group, who had been at Spa in the week, so I was at long last able to take delivery of the rollbar:
Felix hands over the rollbar
We stuck this in the car and dropped it back to the B&B garage to await fitting the next day:
My essential kit in the B&B garage
Euan was having car problems, his BMW doing a rather convincing impression of a diesel:
Euan checking to see if someone had swapped the engine overnight
I was again doing loadsalaps, but did find time for a couple of passenger lap. The first was with JW. We knew that Birgit could fit in the back seat of a 996, so we decided to see if she could manage a 964 with VCR. No problem:
911s - the practical 4-seat saloon
The second was with Mike Frison, in his new-to-him Kadet. He bought this as a wet-weather toy, but I persuaded him to take me out for a lap, and he seemed to be enjoying himself:
Proof that bikers can also find four wheels fun
Achim decided to follow us out, and I took this shot so that Mike can claim the Ringmini couldn't keep up with him:
That familiar blue Mini
Achim was finding Mike's new pace entertaining
Mike was hoping that the bumpy ride up Kesselchen would prevent me getting a pic of his digital speedo, but the blurred figures were just about readable:
A blistering 148kph (92mph) - memories of MX-5 days
The marshalls seem to have taken to hanging yellow flags out of the parked safety cars to warn of incidents, and it works well:
This one was for a BMW that met the armco at Miss-Hit-Miss:
The result wasn't pretty:
There was a second safety car in Galgenkopf, this time protecting a certain Elise that had run out of petrol. Those who were there will probably be able to guess the identity of the culprit:
Just visible - a glimpse of blue Elise in front of the safety car
Then it was back to more laps, all of which blur together so I can't remember anything to say about them until I look at the videos. :-) Birgit was kind enough to settle for about one lap in two, so I had a fair stream of passengers.
One of my passengers was Maaike, Niek's sister. Yes, he finally brought her along as promised, though I imagine there was some disappointment from the Ringers group as she was accompanied by her boyfriend. Alexander N was at Brunnchen and happened to catch this hilarious clip of one of my passengers enjoying the ride - I'm pretty sure this is Maaike:
Click here for brief video clip (104k)
Despite it only being a half day, I managed to get in close to a full day's number of laps. But eventually the end of the session arrived and it was time for food.
I'd been to a restaurant between Nurburg and the Ring a couple of years ago, and really liked it, so decided to take Birgit there that evening. Last time I went, the small group of us were the only people in the place; this time it was just Birgit & I in the restaurant and one guy eating in the bar. A great shame as the food is excellent, the small wine list well-chosen and the decor fun:
The ceiling lights
If you fancy a change from the usual Fuchsrohre, Pistenklause, Lindenhof triangle, this place is worth a go - it's the place you pass on the left opposite the fork leading to the castle as you drive from the Ring to Nurburg.
Saturday began with a trip to Achim, aka Herr Ringmini, to have my rollbar fitted. When I asked on the list where to have it fitted, Mike Frison immediately replied 'Ringmini - no question' and he was absolutely right. Achim and his father did a superb job for a ridiculously low price. Anyone wanting work done on a vehicle while there would be well advised to give Achim a call:
The comprehensive instructions that accompanied the bar were as shown below. The fact that this slip was marked with a 'B' did suggest that perhaps there should have been another sheet, such as one with diagrams on it, but this was in fact all that was supplied:
Most people may have felt a little deterred by the lack of detail, but Achim merely nodded and set to work:
Resting the bar in place to see what needed to be removed
Plastic trim, carpet and noise-insulating material removed from a wheelarch
Removing a square of carpet for the main 'feet' ot the bar
Putting the bar into place to use as a drilling template
Hitting a temporary snag ...
There appeared to be a problem when looking beneath the car. The bolts came through the floor and should have emerged beneath the car, but were in fact nowhere to be seen. It appears that the 968 has a double-skinned floor. However, a closer look revealed an access hatch which, while awkward to work in, provided sufficient room to insert the backing plate and secure the bolts. Autopower did know what they were doing after all!
Drilling the holes for the rear support struts
There's something unnatural about having holes drilled in one's car!
One of the main support pillars secured to the floor
One of the rear support struts secured to the wheel-arch
The backing plate under the wheel-arch
With the bar in place, there was no room to refit the plastic trim around the wheel-arches. Achim had predicted this from the outset and soon had a solution. He would cut each piece of trim in half, cut half a hole, then use a strip of carbon-fibre riveted-in, no less, to join the two halves:
The rear half of the trim in place
Cutting the semi-circle with a jigsaw while his dad held the trim for him!
The piece with the carbon-fibre backing-plate in place
Fitting the other half of the trim
The whole job took three hours from driving in to driving out. I can't imagine that anyone would have done it faster, or made a more professional job of it. The finished bar looks almost factory-fitted.
The end product!
Viewed from the front
And from the rear
Driving the back road from Adenau to the Ring, we came across a Z3 that had crashed on one of the hairpins. We stopped to see if we could be of any help. It turned out to be a hire-car, and the driver was on the phone to the hire company to check that he'd taken out Collision Damage Waiver! Could we do anything to help? Yes, he needed a cigarette. :-)
Birgit gave up smoking a while back but carries some as a sort of talisman: if she knows she can have one, she doesn't need to. So she handed him a few. We waited until we'd driven off before we burst out laughing at the idea of him having to persuade the car-hire company that, yes, he knows he was claiming he'd crashed on a normal road less than a mile from the Nordschleife, but it was really true!
The cigarette pack also came in handy as an indication of scale for a key-ring digicam we'd spotted in the Gadget Shop last time Birgit was over. (She loves cars and gadgets - is she the perfect woman or what?!) The amazing thing is that it takes pretty decent pics!
Birgit did of course have to buy one
But then we were at the Ring and it was time to play. :-)
The bracing in the 968 Cabriolet is excellent, but a rollbar further stiffens the body. I don't know how much was real and how much was just psychological, but it did feel tauter.
It has been odd on Friday to see no crowds at Adenauer-Forst or Brunnchen, but the crowds were back today:
The spectators at Adenauer-Forst ...
... and at Brunnchen
Next break I took a wander down to the Swedish Corner of the car-park to see if I could book passenger laps with Anders and Ulf. While there, I spotted another bulletcam - these things are really becoming default Ring equipment!
Anders reported feeling vibration on his most recent lap, so he was taking a look at the tyres:
Rolling the car forward to check all round the tread
The check unfortunately revealed a partial split in one of the tyres:
It wasn't quite game over, as Anders had some spare road tyres, and a tentative drive found that things didn't deteriorate any further on the R tyre, but it was the end of fast laps. On the upside, it forced Anders to drop his pace to a cautious one, so I was able to keep up with him for much of a lap. :-)
As I'd had no time to have the fans looked at, a delegation of seven mechanics took it in turns to peer under the bonnet. They couldn't locate the fan switches either!
"Hmmm - there's some metal stuff ... some wires ..."
But as before, the engine was not over-heating on the track and full-blast heating kept it within the normal range in the car-park. I was planning on trying a new Porsche specialist after my last one failed to spot that the front pads were almost completely gone, so I'd put it on the list for him to sort.
It was obviously 'Bring a sister' weekend as Laurens also turned up with his sister, Esther. As he is planning on emigrating to the States, and he knew he'd never again beat my annual number of Ring trips, he has clearly hit on the cunning plan of sending in a substitute. An, er, ringer, one might say. Esther had apparently come along once before and got hooked, so we're probably going to see a lot more of her there (behave, Niek!):
Esther and Laurens
A couple of Ringers participated in close-up studies of the armco. One we'll keep fairly quiet about: suffice it to say that the person who hired the car had let Lars drive it, and Lars had been a bit ambitious in his attempts to brake and steer at the same time on the approach to Wehrseifen. The car ended up parked against the armco in the first right-hander. The blackmail fees I'll be charging the hirer for keeping the pics off the web will presumably be added to Lars' bill.
The second was Job, who had got one bend further round the track before an over-enthusiastic overtake saw him nurfing the Breidscheid armco with the rear of his Golf. Unfortunately the damage was extensive, including a bent rear-axle. This didn't seem to phase him much, and he was quickly on the phone trying to source a replacement and get it to the Ring. This didn't work out, but definite style points for trying. :-)
"A new light-cluster, axle and chassis and she'll be as good as new"
Some engine somewhere in the rust!
A third Ringer had had a very, very narrow escape when he overtook a bike on the approach to Schwedenkreuz and thus approached it from the inside. It was only in last weekend's report that I mentioned how tight this makes the bend, so step forward JW to illustrate the point by losing the back, sliding backwards down the grass on the inside of the bend before completing a 360 back onto the tarmac! He was courteous enough to capture this on video, so watch out for it at the Beer and Video evening next month. (Framegrab in the dinner section, below.)
The highlight of my day was a lap in the Ringmini. :-) Being front-wheel drive, it doesn't oversteer under power. So Achim's standard approach to a bend is to turn in, brake to step the rear-end out and then slide round sideways. He is then able to use the sideways sliding as a substitute for slowing down for the bends. If you think the Ringmini looks spectacular from the outside, you should see what it looks like from the passenger seat!
Free Ringmini lap with every rollbar fitted
As for the way he took the Karrussel ... I have seen people stretch the laws of physics a little at the Ring, but Achim entirely repealed them for the duration of the bend. If you talked to me in the car-park late in the afternoon and found me merely repeating 'Unbelieveable' over and over again you will now know why. That was Fun with a capital F.
Many more laps later, it was time to head back for a quick wash-up before the Ringers dinner at the Fuchsrohre. What had started out as a booking for 13 people had grown to over 30 by the time the day arrived, so we pretty much took over the place.
I'd invited Achim to join us, partly as a thank-you for his work, and partly because I thought people would enjoy meeting him. This turned out to be a top move.
The main table (Achim front right)
And yet more tables round the corner - Euan wandered round for a drink,
and JW promptly nicked his place at the bigger table!
We were having a smashing time
Laurens had lined up a whole succession of passenger-laps for Esther, so it was no surprise to see that she was still beaming when she arrived for the dinner:
The Dutch contingent arrives
The food arrived so quickly that I nearly lost my chance to eat it - I was chatting to Jocke further down the table when Sabine brought my steak, called me over and, when I didn't come over straight away, promptly sat down and started eating it. :-) I sat on her lap, which prompted about half a dozen people to take photos.
Sat on Sabine's lap as she eats my steak
We commandeered the TV and video for three sets of videos. First, three Ringers who'd had adventures had been kind enough to capture them on tape. First up was Lars demonstrating how to lose the front of a car by braking and steering simultaneously (no picture of this one for car hire related reasons ...):
Have camcorder, will crash
Next up was Kim, demonstrating an entertaining line through Breidscheid:
I'm sure that armco should be viewed through the side window ...
Finally, we saw JW demonstrate how to stop anyone overtaking you at Schwedenkreuz - just throw up a smokescreen:
JW sliding backwards down the grass at Schwedenkreuz
We then had a photocall for the three culprits:
Kim, Lars and JW
Next up on the video was a lap of Anders following Sabine. Most entertaining, with Sabine putting on a show for the camera and Anders giving a commentary on her 'mistakes'. :-)
But the main feature of the evening was a couple of videos Achim brought along. These were compilation videos of footage shot by spectators, mainly at Adenauer-Forst, Brunnchen, Hatzenbach and Hocheichen. Each tape contained only clips of non-serious 'whoops' moments, the average clip being just 5-10 seconds long. Each tape was shot over the course of a single year. And each was 2-3 hours long! So we spent a good couple of hours laughing our socks off.
Yet another 'failing to turn left at AF' incident
It was definitely footage not to be missed, but also video to be carefully controlled. The good news is that Achim is doing me a copy of one of the tapes to show at the Ringers Beer & Video evening next month. The bad news is that this is on strict condition that no copies are made from it, for understandable reasons, so you'll have to come along if you want to see it.
The dinner was most enjoyable:
Thanks to Jocke for this pic
Niek was doing a deal with his dad that appeared to involve first a Peugeot 206GTI and later a Porsche:
The numbers gradually dwindled, and by 1am we were down to about 8 or 9 of us. We headed off to bed while I understand that Euan and Lars kept the rest entertained for a while longer ...
Another Ring day, more blazing sun. Actually, this isn't quite true as I'm told it was damp at 8am, but I decided against finding out for myself. By 10am it looked like this:
Blue skies, sun and a crowded car-park
On my first laps, there were a few patches of wet track, but all off the line. And within a few laps even those last lingering puddles were gone.
Birgit decided that it was time to take her baby out, so I texted JW - who was on photographer duties at Wehrseifen - to ask him to look out for a black MR2, hood down of course. After one lap in which she was diving off the line at the merest hint of a distant spec in her mirrors, Birgit started to relax and get into the flow of it. The next lap was lovely.
Traffic started to build as the day went on, but nothing dramatic. There was the usual problem of a few people not using their mirrors, but most were paying attention.
A modest strung-out queue of bikes along Flugplatz
Did I mention how dry & sunny it was?
The anonymous Ringer whose hire car Lars had modified yesterday had been on the phone to airport car hire depots. He had managed to find a suitably stylish replacement in Bonn:
SLK Convertible? That will do nicely ...
There was a sprinkling of minor incidents, but most appeared to be damage-only:
A bike down in Wipperman, rider up and trying to lift the bike
Having heard several Ringers sing the praises of Ulf's driving, I decided that it was time to sample it for myself.
The sign doesn't show up well in the pic, but reads 'Nordschleife'
Ulf at work
The lap was as advertised - very fast and very smooth. We were taking bends at higher speeds than I'd ever been through them, but it was all so controlled you'd have sworn we were just nipping out to the shops. Now I know why Ulf's team came 7th in the 24-Hour. Unfortunately it was interrupted first by one blind biker ...
This guy simply had no idea we were there
And by one Dutch biker who we were both convinced knew we were there but simply would not let us pass. His riding got more and more ragged, running wide on several bends and finally mounting a couple of kerbs in his apparent desire to stay ahead. Ulf kept it cool and simply backed off each time, but the biker gave every impression that he would rather rather risk killing himself than be overtaken. He has since emailed me to say that he was unaware we were there, despite the fact that we had been right behind him for several kilometres with Ulf flashing his lights several times. If so, then a reappraisal of both his lines and the frequency of his mirror-checks may be in order ...
Apparently oblivious to our presence for several kilometres
I needed to pop back to the restaurant we ate in on Friday evening, so we walked up the road during a closure. Arriving there, I spotted this sticker on an Elise in the car-park:
Since I intend to drive the Stelvio Pass and others in the region at some stage, I went to have a chat with the driver and passenger. It turned out that they had decided to drop in at the Ring on their way home and had broken down not 300m from the car-park!! After chatting for a few minutes, one of them asked me: "You're not Ben Lovejoy, are you?" I admitted it, and they laughed as the friend who prompted them to include the Ring in their itinary suggested they look for me when they got there.
They were waiting for a recovery truck, so I decided that the least I could do was offer them each a passenger lap so that they got to experience the Ring before being recovered home. This seemed to go down well. :-)
Much more lapping followed, but eventually it was time to start thinking about heading for home. My tyres said that they appreciated that idea:
Who stole the tread from the sides?
And, er, all the tread from the rears?
Jocke's girlfriend Caz had hitched a lift over with Euan to avoid having to pillion across Belgium, and I'd arranged to give her a lift back. Since I had a large quantity of weissbier glasses and a decanter to transport, plus Caz's luggage, and less space thanks to the rollbar, I asked Euan to transport the beer. Once I'd said goodbye to Birgit for a couple of weeks, we set off in a little convoy of two.
Stopping for petrol at a place called Waremme, we heard the distinct sound of cars whizzing past with some enthusiasm just behind the petrol station. I've since had an email from someone who lives there to advise that the event was an annual amateur rally around the town called Criterium Jean Louise Dumont:
One of the competitors
Jocke was getting some odd wear in his rear tyre, which may or may not have been related to the absence of air in the tyre. After upping the pressure from 1.8 to 2.8 bar, we continued on towards Calais.
The band of tyre damage
We'd been keeping our speed relatively modest in deference to this, but after a second petrol stop revealed bare canvas Jocke decided that a further reduction in speed was called for. Jocke wasn't happy about Caz riding pillion from Dover, so I took her to Dartford and they set off on local roads from there.
And so ends another Ring year. It's a real shame there are no full weekends next month, but given that the result for me was two perfect September weekends, I can't complain too much. Er ... is it Easter yet?
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