Firstly, thanks to a mate of mine for hosting some of my pics (I took over 200 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked2.gif ) but have only posted a few here.
After a few people we know from here and other forums making trips over to the Nurburgring, Eric (fasteddie) and I decided we would go and see what all the fuss was about, we booked up for a short trip leaving early Friday and coming back late Saturday. The track was open to the public Friday evening and all of Saturday.
We booked a hotel in Bonn, equipted the car with some fresh brake pads, and made our way over to Germany.
The car we took was an Audi S3, 210BHP standard, but this one has been remapped, performance exhaust, racing clutch and now some nice new RedStuff pads. The car is now pushing out around 270BHP. Here's a pic parked next to the 'Ring.
We arrived at the 'Ring about 4.30pm and went and bought 12 laps for E155, saving us a few euro's over buying the laps individually. We had a look around the car park at some of the metal brought along and soon met up with some English lads. I still can't get over how friendly everyone is. All the people there were enthusiasts and loved to talk about their cars and were always happy for you to get in and have a look, or take you out on track.
I was chatting ot the owner of this GT3 RS, he bought it for a bit of fun. He normally drives a Porsce Turbo, but he says the GT3 is better for the track - nice toy.
We got 3 laps in on Friday evening, it's an amazing experience. I've done track days before, but nothing like this. It's fantastic. Roll up to the barriers, insert track ticket and off you go! Closely followed by anything and everything, then it's every man for himself, if I was not so excited I'd of been scared!
The mix of cars and bikes on the track I think is quite dangerous and some people push right to the limits of their machinery, and some unfortunately beyond.
This Porsche was doing well, and the driver was tallented, however the next time the car was seen it was coming back on a tow truck, on it's roof. The driver was unhurt though.
However some are not so fortunate, the track was shut for an hour on Saturday morning whilst they cleared up after a biker came off, the bike came pack on the tow truck, I took no pictures though out of respect for the rider, who unfortunately lost his life in the accident - it sent a shiver down my spine, and a sudden realisation of how dangerous this 14 mile track is.
But 60 minutes later and the track was reopened and we went for a couple of laps. I've no pictures of us on the track (as filming is not allowed) but some other brits we met up with filmed and photographed us, I hope to have the footage emailed to me soon.
We did 2 more laps then broke for lunch. We (us and some brits) took the cars into a small village and had some food, then went for a wander to get some footage of others on the track, I have posted a very small selection.
This bloke was a cracking laugh, he was one of a group of 4 elises, we would have got a passenger lap in with them but we ran out of time.
Here's a pic of Sabine, pilot of the ring taxi, now she can drive:
We took a vantage point at a corner call Adenau Forst, plenty of off's here and people running out of talent. As soon as we turned up we was greeted with the ring taxi coming through the fisrt bend closely followed by a 360:
The Ferrari lost it and Sabine strolled away:
Every time Sabine went out in the taxi, the 360 would follow, trying to chase her. It was only later we found out that the 360 driver is her husband!
Finish straight:
The next picture was a familiar sight for us, the car was averaging less than 10 MPG per lap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked2.gif and if it wasn't fuel the car needed, it was cooling down, the brakes were often smoking by the end of a lap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gifops:
We made our way around a couple of points on the tracks and took a few (alot) of pics, here are a couple or 3.
We were overtaken on a few occasions by these 2 nutters - they were super quick:
Just about to go home and we hook up with the driver of this Nissan 350Z who offered a passenger lap - lovely. He was talented and comes to the 'Ring every year for a week, he was fairly committed :-D
To sum up, Eric and I never stopped smiling for the entire 2 days, the only reason I'm not smiling now is that my face muscles ache far too much.
We're hooked and are going back again later on in the year - it is fantastic - if you like driving you MUST go. I can't believe it's taken me this long to do it.
Anything this good should be illegal - do it before they close it.
Kev.
ps. sorry for the small selection of pics but I cna't host them all!
After a few people we know from here and other forums making trips over to the Nurburgring, Eric (fasteddie) and I decided we would go and see what all the fuss was about, we booked up for a short trip leaving early Friday and coming back late Saturday. The track was open to the public Friday evening and all of Saturday.
We booked a hotel in Bonn, equipted the car with some fresh brake pads, and made our way over to Germany.
The car we took was an Audi S3, 210BHP standard, but this one has been remapped, performance exhaust, racing clutch and now some nice new RedStuff pads. The car is now pushing out around 270BHP. Here's a pic parked next to the 'Ring.
We arrived at the 'Ring about 4.30pm and went and bought 12 laps for E155, saving us a few euro's over buying the laps individually. We had a look around the car park at some of the metal brought along and soon met up with some English lads. I still can't get over how friendly everyone is. All the people there were enthusiasts and loved to talk about their cars and were always happy for you to get in and have a look, or take you out on track.
I was chatting ot the owner of this GT3 RS, he bought it for a bit of fun. He normally drives a Porsce Turbo, but he says the GT3 is better for the track - nice toy.
We got 3 laps in on Friday evening, it's an amazing experience. I've done track days before, but nothing like this. It's fantastic. Roll up to the barriers, insert track ticket and off you go! Closely followed by anything and everything, then it's every man for himself, if I was not so excited I'd of been scared!
The mix of cars and bikes on the track I think is quite dangerous and some people push right to the limits of their machinery, and some unfortunately beyond.
This Porsche was doing well, and the driver was tallented, however the next time the car was seen it was coming back on a tow truck, on it's roof. The driver was unhurt though.
However some are not so fortunate, the track was shut for an hour on Saturday morning whilst they cleared up after a biker came off, the bike came pack on the tow truck, I took no pictures though out of respect for the rider, who unfortunately lost his life in the accident - it sent a shiver down my spine, and a sudden realisation of how dangerous this 14 mile track is.
But 60 minutes later and the track was reopened and we went for a couple of laps. I've no pictures of us on the track (as filming is not allowed) but some other brits we met up with filmed and photographed us, I hope to have the footage emailed to me soon.
We did 2 more laps then broke for lunch. We (us and some brits) took the cars into a small village and had some food, then went for a wander to get some footage of others on the track, I have posted a very small selection.
This bloke was a cracking laugh, he was one of a group of 4 elises, we would have got a passenger lap in with them but we ran out of time.
Here's a pic of Sabine, pilot of the ring taxi, now she can drive:
We took a vantage point at a corner call Adenau Forst, plenty of off's here and people running out of talent. As soon as we turned up we was greeted with the ring taxi coming through the fisrt bend closely followed by a 360:
The Ferrari lost it and Sabine strolled away:
Every time Sabine went out in the taxi, the 360 would follow, trying to chase her. It was only later we found out that the 360 driver is her husband!
Finish straight:
The next picture was a familiar sight for us, the car was averaging less than 10 MPG per lap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked2.gif and if it wasn't fuel the car needed, it was cooling down, the brakes were often smoking by the end of a lap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gifops:
We made our way around a couple of points on the tracks and took a few (alot) of pics, here are a couple or 3.
We were overtaken on a few occasions by these 2 nutters - they were super quick:
Just about to go home and we hook up with the driver of this Nissan 350Z who offered a passenger lap - lovely. He was talented and comes to the 'Ring every year for a week, he was fairly committed :-D
To sum up, Eric and I never stopped smiling for the entire 2 days, the only reason I'm not smiling now is that my face muscles ache far too much.
We're hooked and are going back again later on in the year - it is fantastic - if you like driving you MUST go. I can't believe it's taken me this long to do it.
Anything this good should be illegal - do it before they close it.
Kev.
ps. sorry for the small selection of pics but I cna't host them all!
