|
www.nurburgring.org.uk | Trip
reports | Trip 49: October 2006 |
|
|
This was a second Nurburgring 700 trip. This is a rather brief report, partly because I'd had a very busy week at work and was feeling lazy, and partly because I managed to leave my card-reader behind so couldn't keep it up to date as I went. |
Jochen took a lot of |
| Preparation Plan A was to drive the Striker with its newly-upgraded 2-litre Pinto engine - if that was fitted in time. Plan B was, of course, the CCar. This was put into a small amount of doubt when a fellow syndicate member had a small armco-related embarrassment a couple of weeks prior to the trip. Fortunately the damage was minor, so this seemed likely. Plan C was TTE's new DRT rental car, a BMW 325. One way or another, it seemed likely I would have something to drive, even if I wasn't quite sure what. This was another Nurburgring 700 trip, which meant crossing Belgium at a rather lower altitude than is ideal, but with the luxury of someone else doing the driving. :-) Rather than a standard weekend, the public session was Sunday and Monday, which I hoped might see it a little less busy than on a normal weekend. Saturday Circuit Days had arranged for me to be picked up from home by Adam, who drove the support van on the previous trip. He'd trailered his track Clio across, then had to drive it home when the trailer was needed for a deceased FTO. I was glad to find that my lift would be neither a van nor a stripped-out Clio, but 'Knight Rider', an Evo 8:
So-called because Adam is threatening to fit those strobing LED things. He hummed the Knight Rider theme tune about seven times in the 90-minute drive to Dover. I fashioned a yellow and red card out of leaflets found at the port and advised that I would be deploying them if he exceeded the permitted number of theme tune renditions. Knight Rider was a surprisingly comfortable mile-muncher. It also reaches 165mph at times (on a derestricted stretch of autobahn, obviously). A quick run down to Dover to meet up with the others, then the Norfolk Line across to Dunkerque, which is quite a civilised way to do it. On board the ferry, one car turned out to have neither GPS nor map. Circuit Days provides a route card, but they decided they'd be happier with a map, so one was produced. They looked suitably bemused.
Knight Rider has a fuel tank range of about seven miles, so if you ever want to know the locations of all the petrol stations between Dunkerque and Nurburg, Adam is your man. We reached Nurburg at around 8.30pm. The silence from Frank on the subject of the Striker meant it was no surprise to find that it wasn't ready, so plan B would be deployed in the morning. I'd had a week of pretty late nights, so had an early night. Sunday Sunday morning was foggy but dry:
We'd arranged for me to give the newcomer briefing at 9am, so I was, amazingly, at breakfast by 8.30am. At 9am, the Grunne Hoelle was open but deserted.
I did my usual briefing, but this time didn't do the bend-by-bend bit as I'd decided that was pretty pointless when you're new to the track. The briefing seemed to work as everyone drove their cars home at the end of the weekend - though one particular member of the group did do his best not to (more on that later) ... The Ring virgins duly warned what they were letting themselves in for, I bummed a lift from Darren down to TTE to pick up the CCar. The car was there, but the key wasn't[1], and Marc wasn't reachable, so I left messages for him. [1] We did start out with one key per syndicate member. Someone then forgot their key and borrowed someone else's. And thus began the gradual dwindling from eight keys to, er, one. We really must get some more cut ... Back to the track. There were lots of Elises around, as there was a Lotus trackday at Spa the following day. Robin Iddon was there in his new Elise, and he was just handing the keys to Kelvin whose car had suffered a mechanical failure the previous day. I invited myself along for an enjoyable passenger lap. (I'm used to people doing two laps at a time, and usually take the mandatory in-car photo on the 2nd lap, so didn't get a photo of Kelvin.) Marc had phoned to tell me where the key was, so Robin gave me a lift down there. As it turned out, there had been some confusion over which keys had been left for various people, and the CCar one was not among them. However, one of the keys was for Marc's new DRT rental, a red BMW 325 named 'Uschi' (don't ask me why, but if you do a google image search on google.de, the first results are not worksafe ...). Would I mind using that instead?
This had in any case been Plan C, had the CCar not been ready, so this was my toy for the weekend. It needed petrol, the first tank of which was kindly sponsored by Justin Beevor, Martin Birkmann and Daniel Robinet. I headed out for the first couple of laps. The BMW has a useful amount of power, significantly faster than the CCar, and feels really nice to drive.
The suspension is set up so that it goes fairly quickly from understeer to oversteer, but although it makes that transition quickly, it is a smooth progression, so no nasty snaps. The brakes feel soft but work (Marc is going to fit steel hoses). The brake bias also needs adjustment: there's too much rear brake, and it fishtails under hard braking like the CCar used to. There is no power-steering, so the steering feel is fantastic. However, the steering wheel is the original one and is about the size of Belgium. You can't go too small without PS, but a bit smaller would definitely help. There is a shift light, which is nice, and the world's biggest oil warning light:
All-in-all, a nice DRT. The track was cold but dry, and pretty empty. After two laps, I felt comfortable in the car, and we were even treated to some sun!
A short break for a car-park wander:
This race Tuscan was confusing a few people as it was never released in road-legal form.
I caught up with the owner later and he explained he'd converted it to road-legal form - no small task. It made me feel tired just listening to the list of things he'd needed to do to achieve it. I had to smile at a Ring car carrying sponsorship from ... an insurance company!
I also liked the passenger names:
Speaking of insurance, these guys may be worth a call if you're looking for track insurance:
I'm not sure about the idea of a magnetic car around all that armco:
T-Mobile has installed a phonebox by the entrance. I wonder who you get through to if you call the number shown for a taxi?
Then back out for another couple of laps.
The track was still quite empty, but the number of crashes was rising rapidly. I was typically passing three or four crash scenes per lap, which was a lot given how little traffic was out there.
Fortunately, all the crashes were being flagged, so there was no need to stop, and with the track pretty clear, I had two very enjoyable laps.
In case you were wondering, I'm giving a thumbs-up to someone for flagging a crash. A quick chat with some of the Elise guys, then back out to play again. The track was a little busier, though still far from crowded, and still 3-4 new crashes per lap.
I felt completely at home with the car by now, and had sufficient confidence in it to push hard enough to oversteer in a few bends. Someone got rather a nice photo of that in Pflanzgarten 1, so hope to get that emailed to add to the trip report.
Bob was there with his green Elise. Wait a minute, that car is normally immaculate, so what's that tape ...
A sticker showed the location of the minor embarrassment:
He was about to head out, so I jumped in for a couple of fun paxlaps.
A couple of the Scottish Elises had Honda engines, and Neil's request for a Type R sticker had been duly sorted out by Bob:
Bob, Dave and I then went for lunch, being joined by a couple of other Dutch guys, one of who was the one who'd crashed his BMW last trip. Turned out he hadn't known who I was that time, so finding his photo on my trip report came as a surprise. :-) During lunch, a closure was announced, and there was a second announcement asking people to keep the entrance clear. We didn't quite catch all of it, but it turned out to be for the doctor who went out at some speed. The closure lasted about 90 minutes, during which a group of us went for a post-lunch car-park wander:
We ran into Niek with his girlfriend. I naturally took the 'Before' photos of his car:
His girlfriend was puzzled by this. It seemed there were one or two parts of his Ring history he hadn't mentioned to her, so we felt it was our duty to bring her up to speed. Here Niek tries to persuade her it isn't as bad as it sounds:
They then joined the wandering Ringers.
I couldn't quite decide whether this polished cage with gold-coloured joints was beautiful or bling (sorry about the crap photo - the Ixus really wasn't coping well with the very bright sun):
Given the choice of wheels, I decided it was bling:
I'm not sure I'd fancy crashing this car on the road, when you wouldn't have the benefit of a helmet:
Sabine was in one of the Taxis so I had a chat with her. She told me it was a couple of bikes down, but nothing critical. Given the weather, Dave tempted fate by removing his roof. Only an Elise can make this procedure so complex it requires instructions and diagrams:
When it reopened, I was able to get out quite quickly. The sun was out, and the first lap was great.
The second lap was very crowded, as everyone piled out after the long closure. There were lots of people with no mirrors, both cars and bikes. :-( Exiting Pflanzgarten 1, someone was flagging. I slowed right down. Coming over the crest at Pflanzgarten 2, there was nothing visible. Trundling slowly down the hill, a lot of cars and bikes came into view on the crest of Pflanzgarten 3. There was oil on the track and a couple of bikes down, but everyone seemed ok and there was already a ridiculous number of vehicles parked, so I drove on. The track was of course closed when I got back, and the police went out shortly afterwards, so it was clearly going to be a long closure.
The vulture crowds are quite large these days:
I decided to nip to the museum cash-machine, and on my return not even the friendly marshall would let me back in. The road was jammed, as was the closest part of the dirt car-park, so I had to park a long way back. I was at least able to park in the shade:
Some were smarter and parked at the on-track barrier:
This didn't work quite so well when the barrier failed, leaving them stranded there ... When the track reopened, it was chaos, and there was clearly going to be no way to get out quickly, so I decided to let the roundabout and dirt carpark queues clear. I had a chat with Darren while waiting.
After a while, it seemed the number of cars exiting the dirt car-park was infinite, and if I wanted to get back onto the track before the next closure, I'd better join the queue. I did so, and it took over half an hour to reach the track. :-( I won't be parking there again ... The track was of course crowded. A BMW on red plates had cut me up in the car-park queue; I overtook him at T13. On the second lap, things were still very crowded. Mostly slow traffic, so you just had to weave your way through it. Crash-scenes, breakdowns and recovery trucks were rather common. For some reason, the exit to AF seemed a popular place to crash:
Andrew also photographed a few other more typical AF moments:
I then went out for a couple of paxlaps with Robin. Great fun, with tremendously grippy tyres! :-)
On the second lap, a car moved right to let us past between Brunnchen 1 and 2. As Robin came alongside, it moved left across the track! Robin had to take to the dirt, which he did in a very controlled manner, completing the overtake. I returned the favour, taking Robin for a couple of paxlaps in the BMW. I was stuck behind a British Pug, which moved right to let me past as we exited Hatzenbach 1. Unbelievably, we then had an action replay of Robin's Brunnchen moment. The Pug moved left as I came alongside, and I had to extend the width of the track. Fortunately, again no armco or bodywork was harmed in the making of this overtake.
Passing Breidscheid, the petrol warning light came on. Hmmm - I'm sure that was still reading quarter full when we set out! I was hoping to avoid the embarassment of running out of petrol, and fortunately we made it round ok. We exited at five to six. With the track closing at 6pm, and a refuel needed, that was going to be it for the day. But 10 dry laps has to count as a pretty good deal for an October day. My tank of petrol was kindly sponsored by Roland Smith and Tara Cottrell. Back to the Forsthaus for a couple of beers with the Elise crowd. A rather tasty addition to the car-park had appeared:
We then tried to order a couple of taxis into Adenau to meet up at Pinnochios with the Nurburgring 700 guys. In the end, we couldn't get two taxis, so Frank and his partner very kindly ferried us there. Pinnochios is famed for the size of its pizzas:
My dinner was kindly sponsored by Andrew Chapple and Ashley Croft, who were staying at the Forsthaus. They later had fun when they found themselves acting as an impromptu camera car for Autocar who were testing the new 997 GT3 RS. They were initially used for filming on-track, but then ferrying the photographer to spectating points.
Jochen also caught it:
Anyway, back to more important matters:
Monday The track opened at 1pm, which made for a nice leisurely morning. I wandered down to the track at 12:30 for, er, breakfast. It was a gorgeous day; could this really be October? The car-park was surprisingly busy for a Monday:
Time for a wander, from the everyday Ring fare:
through the rare:
and the very rare choice of Ring vehicle:
An Audi was being set up with camcorders front and rear, and as they only started this at about 12:55 and had an arrangement to go out first, they managed to delay the opening by about 15 minutes.
Lots of people were lined-up, looking impatient, so I decided to leave it five mins before going out to play. The first lap started out busy, but gradually thinned out. Straight out for a second lap, it was a lot quieter.
Exiting Wippermann towards Eschbach, I spotted a strip of fluid in the centre of the bend. I braked hard and went around the outside of the bend to keep off it. Sure enough, rounding the bend there was a trail of fluid leading to a BMW on the grass on the right. I grabbed the flag and ran back up the side of the track. I jumped behind the armco where I could be seen from the middle of Wippermann. The sun was out, and flagging was hot work. A bike marshall arrived, checked that I was happy to carry on flagging then went to the car. I swapped sides of the road, again getting behind the armco, so I could gesture for cars to stay over to the left. The bike marshall then came back to do the gesturing bit while I flagged, which worked well. When the safety car arrived, the bike marshall said he would take over the flagging so I could leave, and he would ask the safety car to return the flag to the office for me. There's little doubt that flagging the spill prevented some bikes going down, so that was a good feeling. With the sun out in full force and the running and flagging, I was pretty hot, as was the cabin of the car with it parked in the sun for 15 mins. When I got back to the car-parl, I was keen to park it in the shade:
I met up with Johannes and took him out for a paxlap, then went out for a paxlap in the 318. No surprise that the cars felt very similar, though the extra power of the 325 engine was quite noticeable.
Johannes told me Marc was trying to reach me, so I texted him. Marc texted back to say he needed the BMW back, so I drove down to return that and pick up the CCar. Chatting with the Elise guys, I saw Steve heading out for a lap in the Clio, so hopped in for a paxlap. The Clio handles well, though there was a horrendous noise that Steve said his mechanic had not yet identified. The trial-and-error method of replacing parts to see if the noise went away sounded rather depressingly (and expensively) familiar.
I then returned the favour. Our first lap was rather spoiled by a biker who didn't want to be overtaken, crawling through the bends and doing the point-and-squirt bit between them. He was so erratic in his lines that I didn't dare to risk an overtake through a bend, so I had to follow behind him all the way from Wehrseifen to the barriers. I usually cruise down Dottinger-Hohe, but this time followed him down at speed to have a little word at the barrier. I tooted him and pulled alongside, pointing to his mirrors. He looked blank. I touched our mirrors. He still looked blank. 'Spiegel!'. Still blank. At that point, I gave up. The second lap was better, with very little traffic. A few bikes were down, but everyone up and about. I'd been asked for paxlaps by quite a few people, but the change of car didn't make it easy for them to find me. I decided to do one solo lap and then come in to see whether I could spot any of them. Switching from the BMW back to the CCar left the Golf feeling a little underpowered at first, and I initially missed the RWD, but the CCar suspension is set up so well the difference isn't as dramatic as you'd expect. I spotted Kelvin from the Scottish Elise group, and invited him out for the paxlap we'd been trying to arrange since the previous day. It was qute a contrast from the Elise, but he seemed to enjoy himself. The sun was low in the sky, making some bends blind. With the Karussell in particular, I pretty much resorted to waiting for the left side of the car to drop then turning left. :-) The Ring again closed at 6pm and it was 5.30pm by the time we got back to the barriers, so we headed straight back out. I figured we'd get that lap then maybe just time for a short break and one last lap - which would be the last one of the day, trip and year. However, the track was empty for that second lap with Kelvin paxing, so I figured that was a good note on which to end the season. After the track closed, we heard a whooosh as a car shot past at full tilt on Dottinger-Hohe. We thought at the time this was the 997 GT3 RS, but was apparently Autocar's 997 Turbo. The Nurburgring 700 dinner was at the Blau Ecke. Adam kindly followed me down to TTE to give me a lift back after dropping off the Golf. I thanked Marc for the use of the BMW and said I'd see him at Easter. The rest of the group was sitting outside the hotel when we got there. With the sun down, it was pretty chilly, but they were all hardy Northern types. The one car that had come close to not making it home was a Mini that had a major moment at Schwedenkreuz. The evidence was reviewed:
A too-early turn-in led to losing the back. Fortunately a grass-tracking moment didn't end in armco. The other Mini-related embarrassment also ended well when the car ran out of petrol ... directly outside the hotel!
Darren and I, being soft Southerners, went inside after 15 mins of shivering in the cold. The group dinner was accompanied by a few awards. Darren did the toastmaster bit. A woman called Karen won one of the awards and gave him a hug:
So when Jason and Richard won the main award, Jason offered him a kiss across the table:
Adam was threatening to leave at 6am. My face must have communicated my thoughts on this plan, so alternative arrangements were made for my lift home. Tuesday Though I escaped the 6am start, my watch was displaying some very odd arrangement of the hands when I crawled out of bed:
The alternative arrangements turned out to be Darren, driving Chris's TT Quattro turbo:
With around 280bhp, it goes rather well. It's also comfy once you've actually climbed inside.
We caught up with Dave trailering his Exige. Dave, if you'd care to send me a cheque, we'll say no more about the ferry port incident, eh? :-)
We reached Dunkerque in time for the 2pm crossing. We passed the time on board by playing a game where each person in turn had to come up with a car manufacturer beginning with each letter of the alphabet. We got a bit stuck on E, X and Z. (And no, please don't email me solutions - the novelty of the game wears off. ;)) Chris resumed the piloting of his TT at Dover, so I said my goodbyes to the others and Chris dropped me home. No prizes for guessing what was waiting for me on the doormat:
And that's it for me for 2006. A 100% dry October trip has to be a good way to end the season! Next trip, Easter 2007. |
| www.nurburgring.org.uk | Trip reports | Trip 49: October 2006 |
Copyright ©
Ben Lovejoy 1998-2006 | Email me | Bookmark
this site |
