UPDATE 03-06-12 – The Nurburgring!
Hi all. Well its been a while since I last wrote on here and lot has happened. Ive been back from my week long holiday to the Nurburgring for a few days now, and im still buzzing from it! So here is a full report of the car and the place!
So, Thursday 24th May, I finally finished the longest day at work ever, time seemed to stand still for the whole day, but once 5:15 arrived I literally ran out of the door like a child finishing school for the 6 weeks holidays!
First job for that night, load the car onto the trailer.
Friday 25th, was an EARLY start! Up at 4am and driving to Dover for a morning ferry.
A fairly flawless crossing with P&O but then an absolute nightmare of traffic through Belgium meant a 9 hour trip to our hotel.
We stayed in our usual hotel, a place weve been to for the past 4 years, the good old hotel wilhelmshoehe.
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Meeting up with the other two ‘Ring Warriors, Rob (Burfyboy)
and Adam (AWX85)
a few beers and off to bed, in anticipation of tomorrows track time.
Saturday 26th – Time to hit the track!
After a short and sunny drive from the hotel to the track we arrived, brought our laps, and after I collected myself from the floor after passing out at the cost of lapping this place, got my helmet on and jumped in the car.
I had forgotten just how made this place is on a public day. It was completely packed, and even though I had driven about 30 laps of this place over the previous 3 years I felt like I was learning it for the first time all over again. I spend more time looking behind me then in front, and after about 11 minutes the first lap of the year was over and I could breath again!
Clearly I needed more practice.
This year my dad also returned to the track with me, and after his ‘eventful’ year in 2011 (see my FRP 441 thread for details!), he had some demons to face. He did very well, I was really proud of him, and the first time he drove around the corner that he became a bit over familiar with last year I could feel a sigh of relief from him, and that we were gonna be ok this year!
So Saturday was a day of driving, we did 8 laps that day, with no issues. They were not fast ones. I had a GoPro in the car of most laps, and in the evening we reviewed our progress. We were getting more confident throughout the day and out times were improving, from about 10mins 30 down to 9:45’s in the first day. I was happy.
Back to the hotel, and time for a few of these
Sunday 27th – Back to the Track
This place is still rammed with people! Lots of crashes and closures, and only small opportunities to get on track before closures, and even when on track it was really hard to get a clean lap, lots of yellow flags and marshal’s. But we were getting more confident, not panicking when cars came to overtake, and managing to actually do come overtaking as well!
The worst thing was the car parking, we were forced on the fields at the back of the track, which was just full of dust. The weather was roasting (28 degrees) and the dust was unbearable. The cars soon were covered in it!
but we had time for some lunch in our amazing back up vehicle!
That day we managed 10 more laps, my dad did 2 and I did 8. My times were hovering about the 9min 30s which was ok considering the conditions.
Back to the hotel
Monday 28th – The last day on track!
This was the day I wanted that one clear lap, when everything could come together, I could flow through the 12 mile madness with full commitment, to hold the throttle flat through the blind corners with complete confidence and have no hold ups!
The traffic on track was lighter, lots of people had gone home the day before, and there were less closures.
We were doing well, I went out a couple of times without a passenger, and had two ‘ok’ laps, both suffered with yellow flags, but I was now setting 9 min 10s and 9 min 12s. Things were looking up!
My dad had his final couple of laps, and managed his target of a sub 10 minute lap. Again he did so well and was happy with his performance.
So, the time came, it was my last lap of the trip, and the last lap for the next couple of years (getting married next year means no ring trip!)
This was my last chance. My fastest ever lap of the ring was in 2010 in my old Focus ST 260, which was a 9 minute 2 seconds.
Could a little Puma, with only about 165bhp do a lap on a public day of the nurburgring, in less then 9 minutes?
Well have a look here to find out!
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Yep that’s right, my last lap of this trip was 8 minutes, 55 seconds! I was so happy. It was a pretty faultless lap, but there was traffic (scope for a few more seconds off the time?!) but I loved it.
I know it should not be encouraged to time your laps at the nurburgring. Im not encouraging it here, and it’s a personal choice if you want to do that. I was not ‘live timing’ my laps, I just had a GoPro attached to the car and watched them back in the evenings to see how I did and what the times were. If you time your laps, be careful, don’t drive beyond your limits to chase those last few seconds.
So, we went home, with huge smiles. Back to the hotel
Tuesday 29th – A Day Off!
After the hangover, we went for a drive about the area, and first headed to the town of Nurburg, to see the castle.
The castle was closed!
So we went to try and find the out ‘south loop’. The Nurburgring used to be a 17 mile long track, with a large southloop. This part of the track was decommissioned and closed in 1927. Some of it is the new GP circuit, some is now the normal roads around the track, and some of it is just left to return to nature.
We had a look on google earth, and found what we thought might be a bit of track. So we drove off to try and find it.
And we did. Here are some pics of the old south track as it stands today.
it was really cool walking on the old forgotten track. Some sections were so steep, its amazing anything from the 1920’s could even drive up them!
We also went for a long walk along the main track and stopped at various places. Some of my pics:
So, after a good day, it was back to the hotel.
and on the next day we had a 11 hour drive home ☹
what an awesome trip, and an awesome car. All the efforts of the last 8 months have been worth it. The car was perfect, it performed amazingly well and im so happy with it.
Thanks for reading.
Ross