Well I made it to the Nurburgring today. The drive from Poitiers France was pretty nice until I got to Luxembourg. Then it started to rain, not hard, just enough to keep the Autobahn wet. It was great being on the Autobahn again.

Kicked the RSA up to a bit over 220kph (137mph), figured that was fast enougn on wet roads. I loved it, she sounds so good as she starts going past 5000 rpm.

Got to the Nurburgring and the bottom fell out of the temperature. Real cold and wet. I decided to pass on doing a few laps tonight. Even on a good day the Ring can be Treacherous. I drove it last year in the rain, I could feel the back end wanting to step out on a lot of the corners.

The Ring opens at 0800 tomorrow, so I'll go then. Hopefully the rain will stop tonight.

Here's the website for the opening times of the Nurburgring. I think today was the season opener.

http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/angebote/dri...rdschleife.html

Pray for Sun.

Later, Don

I think you may be lucky with the weather.
I just watched weather forecast. It will be freezing early in the morning. Sky should be scattered but no rain is announced.

Have fun !

One of the things on my bucket list! Enjoy the drive, and watch out for Sabine in the Ring Taxi.

Woke up this morning and there was ice on all the cars. So I decided to wait for it to warm up and left for the Ring a bit after 1000. It was still cold, seemed like it took forever for the engine to warm up on the drive to the Ring. I'm staying at the Hotel Ewerts in Insul. Best hotel I've stayed at yet when visiting the Ring.

Anyway got to the Ring, bought a 25 lap Ticket and went on the track. The first couple of laps were to relearn the track and warm up the tires and engine. I think my best lap was 8-9, just flowed around the corners. The RSA sounded so good going around the track at between 4000-5000 rpm.

I think I did at least 10 laps today, kinda lost count. Burned up over a half a tank of gas. I just realized 10 laps is over 140 miles, cool. What was really nice was it wasn't too crowded today, usually on a weekend its packed.

After coming off the track I went to the Motorsport Cafe for coffee when the adreniline wore off. I've got 3 more days here before I leave for Luxembourg and
fly back to San Diego to renew my licence.

Later, Don

That was great fun to read !!!

....

Awesome! My dad and I are going at the end of the month.
I love reading your updates. Please keep them coming with lots of pics!

Glad you guys are enjoying the trip too.

Kevin, that sounds great. Couple of things about the Nurburgring, you will be on the track with novices (me), full blown race cars, motorcycles, and the occasional bus filled with tourists. Always watch your mirrors and move to the right to let others pass. Some will try to pass you in a corner or chicane, it’s happened to me. One lap is 21kms or 14 miles long, 85 to 145 corners (Top Gear), there’s a lot. It’s not about speed on a track like the ring, it’s about car control, control the car and you’ll get the speed later.

1 lap costs 26 Euros, 25 laps cost 490 Euros. There are also 4 and 8 lap tickets IIRC.
No cameras, bummer I know, but they will stop you from entering the track if they see one, ask me how I know.

You enter the track with a long straight with a slight curve to the left, it dips, then goes uphill to a 3rd gear right and left turn which leads to a 2nd gear right turn. Then you go down a straight to a left turn into the “S”'s, a lot of them, most 3rd gear. You come out of the S’'s to a uphill straight with a right turn at the top, this is a blind curve, you can’t see it until you’re there. It goes onto a long left hand sweeper, 4th and 5th gear. It makes a left which leads to another long straight with a left turn at the top into a long downhill straight with a chicane in the middle. If you’re lined up right you can blast right through the chicane. Caution, at the bottom before it goes uphill it will make you sink into the seat. Wait until after that to brake hard, downshift into 3rd and make the left at the top, another blind corner. From there you have a lot of left and right corners with elevation changes.

There is one corner, one of the few with runoff room, if you’re not lined up right or are running a little too hot, you will miss that corner, don’t try to make it, go straight over the curb into the runoff area. The curbs are curved so it won’t hurt the car and brake hard.

There is a video on U Tube that shows that corner and over 30 cars trying to make the corner when they are out of shape and they rolled their cars. I missed it last year; I went straight, saved the RS America and myself. The pucker factor reached 11 on a scale of 10.

The carousel¸ it’s a trip, you dip down into it and it shakes the crap out of you and the car then spits you out the other end towards the wall, you have to turn a hair to the left when it spits you out. There is also a small carousel further down the track but it’s not as severe.

One last thing, if you get in a accident on the Ring, you will be responsible for all costs, towing, track repair, lost business, etc. Get the idea?

And that’s about all I can remember to tell you right now.

Hope you and your Dad enjoy your trip to the Ring.

We had a quided tour on track before driving ourselfs. They told us that if you have a accident in track not killing your self and when you voke up in hospital and see track companys bill you hope you vere dead

It is wonderful track! I am not a race driver but that track was absolute awesome to drive with car and bike!

Thanks for sharing! I love the Nürburgring... (if my screen name is any indication) driving in the rain isn't all bad either. I think my best laps were in the wet, not the fastest of course but the motorcycles vanish, and the huge tour buses full of heads bobbling about with white helmets on head for the hills too!

Rain is a great equalizer too! Running over especially careful Ferrari drivers on race tires with my rental Suzuki Swift race car running all seasons was a blast. My little Swift was no match for the few 911's that came with rain tires though!

Taking photos in the car park is always fun too, regardless of weather. Talking about this just makes me want to return... NOW! I mean... please don't visit there, it's a awful dreadful place full of potholes and oil spills.

All this is so awesome. Never happen here in America... especially CA.

I worked in Germany for several years in the late eighties and while I did do some fun things during that time, there are several things I regret not doing. One of those is that I never did a lap or two at the old Nurburgring. A good friend and I always talked about it, but just never got around to it. Another regret was not attending a grand prix at Monaco. I saw several grand prix and sports prototype races at Hockenheim, the new Nurburgring, Norisring, Spa, Le Mans, Zandvoort and Brands Hatch, but not Monaco. I guess there is a lesson here.

lets hope you are in the 911 and not in the blue beetle...

Yesterday the plan for the day was to wash and detail the RSA take a nap and then go to the track at 1700. The first part of the plan went pretty nice, got her washed and detailed. Went to my room and checked emails and then did a check on the opening times, it wasn’t 1700 today, it was 1300. It was 12.45 then. So it was gather everything up and head for the ring.

By the time I got there the engine was warmed up, well almost. The thermostat finally opened about 2kms from the Ring. Usually it opens in about 10kms.

I drove straight onto the track and took off with a warm up lap. I think my best laps were 3-4 today. On the 6th lap I started feeling really tired and my steering, braking, and shifting started getting shaky, or I was driving faster than my brain. I realized that and slowed down and just concentrated on following my line and staying out of the way of the other drivers. Got to the finish, parked, had some coffee and called it a day.

Lots of neat cars here today, cars that passed me like I was standing still. 5-6 of the new 4.0L Porsches, a couple of R8 Audi’s, few Nobles, and one Ford GT-40.

I’ll take it easy today; the track does open at 1700 today. I’ve still got 9 laps left on my track card.