Nurburgring trip
 

I am finally taking an actual non-working vacation after 7 years of running 949 Racing. Heading to Nurburgring Thursday. There for a week. Private track day renting a Suzuki Swift and an FR-S. Public day in a plain rental car. Porsche museum. Possibly some beer and bratwurst here and there (I love dem brats).

Group for the trip

William (bellwilliam)
Sonny (vagaxt)
Rylan (krazik)
Martin (drtone)
Zhong (evoix)

Will post pics and vids. William organized things. More info on trackHQ here Ring Trip/Track day?

Have fun! It's on my list, too.


When you say Porsche museum, so you mean the one in Stuttgart? The old downtown in Stuttgart is pretty nice. There are discoteks in the basements of many of the big old buildings downtown that you won't know about unless you are there at night and watch where the people are going.

It will still be pretty chilly this time of year.

Sad that the Ring is quite a bit to drive for me and that I am going on vacation on Saturday - I would have loved to get to know you and see how you are doing lapping the Ring...

BTW - I was just about to order a Master bushings kit for my third Miata project... You don't have a little space in your luggage, do you... ;-)))
(Would save me quite a bunch of shipping and import fees...)

Be careful at Adenauer Forst, it's sneaky.

If you're going to Stuttgart/Baden-Wurtemburg, definitely have the Maultaschen, along with other 'typical' German fare.

It's too bad you won't be stopping into München.

Viel Spaß und mach viele Fotos!

Make sure to stop by Pißwasser for a beer:

A few pics so far.

We got the BMW 320D rental up to 145mph on the autobahn with Sonny driving (vagaxt)
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1364684160

Mercedes museum is a must see if you are near Stuttgart

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1364684160

Staying at the Burgstube Hotel right at the track. 4 of us piled into the little room but everyone has enough space. Some gear lined up for tomorrow.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1364684160

That last picture is absolutely priceless. :D

For real. You guys all race/work/live/eat/sh* and everything else together? :giggle:

Any notable passes at 145mph by insane people in Apollos or something?

Someone needs to make the following meme:



Background: Crusher.

Top caption: We're at you 'Ring

Bottom caption: Stealin' your lap times.

You guys probably do not have time but

Cologne is about an hour away. It is very beautiful.

This is about 5 hours away. Tallest mt in germany.
Zugspitze the highest peak in Germany : Zugspitze : Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG

Boy the April fools jokes are rolling out today - Nurburgring to be sold and demolished, while an identical ring is constructed in North Korea. Lulz.

The Nürburgring is sold. Demolition planned.

Nice to meet you guys! And yes, sorry for the April fools! Let's hope the weather improves for tomorrow... that was a cold and late start!

Ring closed again this morning, ice on the track.We did not to risk waiting for the ring to maybe open so we went to Spa and rented an Exiges S instead.

That poor, poor car.

Here's Sonny going flatout through Eau Rouge in the diesel rental (320d) on snow tires... :giggle: I think they will enjoy the Lotus too!


http://www.mazda-speed.com/albums/Sp...73399569_n.jpg

hahaha WINNING!!

Fun to watch. Thanks for sharing.

Lotus Exige S at Spa
 

We all got about 10 laps each in the Lotus Exige S. William also did some laps in Renault Megane RS 265 and Clio Sport. The Clio Sport is a really quick 200bhp N/A. Huge brakes, stiff suspension, lots of torque. Very cool little car. I also got a few laps in the Rotrex supercharged NB that belongs to our UK distributor MOT Motorsport.

Passing rules were very strict. Passing on left only and only with consent, signified by the slower car indicating which way they are going with the turn signal.

Holy crap your second pass through Eau Rouge is damn fast. How much speed did you carry through there?

177kph at the crest. Anorher 12kph or so on the table but we were not interested in bending the rental and buying it.

Did that douche in the BMW honk at you around 4:55? Nice you got to drive a properly prepped car!

The honking was us. The Lotus has its horn on a stalk.

:party: I noticed they didn't engineer any storage for your legs. Big kudos for driving flatout with your knee on the shifter! Was Spa even on your original itinerary? Turn for turn, it seems to be a better driving experience than the ring (from video and Forza - I've never even been to that continent :loser: ). Props for not wadding a track rental 12k miles from home. The AmEx would bleed for months if that happened... :crx:

Was that a F360?

The dickhead pass was a 430. I braked, put two on the grass at 170k and he still almost hit me.

Spa is a fantastic track, my new favorite. The ring is a different experience really. Running the GP tracj today. VLN course tomorrow which is the full Nordschleife plus the "Sprint course" which an abbreviated version of the GP course.

lol @ Facebooking in the car at Spa.

lol @ Sonny requesting the brake.

Nice driving!
Have fun!
The Ring is really great!
You will love it!

This is so awesome. Must say the Exige S is one of my dream cars, what did you think of it Emilio? How does it compare to a well prepped miata?

the lotus looks signicantly more fun than the auto diesel bimmer.

Great car to drive even bone stock. Agile, rewards good driving but does not tolerate weak car control skills like say, an Evo or GTR.Kinda fragile and parts are absurdly expensive.

Are these rentals equipped with anything other than factory parts? Such as race compound pads, harnesses instead of 3-point belts, etc.

Mostly stock with basic safety gear. HPDE car.

This was posted tonight by Sonny:
Flatout

Oh hai there! :wavey:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365060878

Next time you visit, don't piss off quite so many Porschey-pilots! ;)

This was my lunchbreak:

Dale,
So much fun! If I ever make it back over there, will you give me a ride around the track?

Will we see 949Racing Miatas in the "ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring" in 2014 ?

if we go we will be renting seats.

Put me down for a one hour block, lol.

no, what I meant is we will not have a car there. we will rent seats in someone else's race car

Suzuki Swift battle on a cold track
 

This video is why we went.

Ice cold track, actually snowing as we roll out. Me driving the camera car with William riding. Sonny driving the blue Swift with Zhong riding. I think those two laps were about the most fun I've had outside of racing, ever. Epic.

How many laps in simulators/video games do you have in on the ring? Lame drivers like me need to get a rhythm on a 2 minute track to start carrying speed. I can't image getting 'fast' on a 12 minute track. Epic driving! :bowdown::bowdown:

Very nice driving as expected. I see some hessitation down Füchsröhre where you can drive flat out in a straight line and do the braking after the left turn (if you feel lucky).
Be very carefull in the fast left before Hohe Acht. You can cut over curbs before Wipperman.
Do not try to showoff at Brünchen as it will be very well documented if you da a fast early apex and crashes into the armco, on both sides. You should be able to brake after the jump at Pflanzgarten but make sure the car has settled as the ABS will be confused = brown pants. Its flat out across a series of blind kinks between Pflanzgarten2 and Shvalbenschwanz.
Have you recorded any BTG times ?

don't forget in the video. that was their 2nd lap ever at the Ring.....
it was snowing and frosting just earlier, weather hovered around 0 degree all day. track just opened 20 minutes prior, so there were a lot of tip toe'ing.....

can't do a BTG time, as this was VLN config.

Arild,

The second and slightly faster lap in that video was something like a 12:00 I think (full VLN). Still damp areas and black ice off line. So yes, we were very tentative. As you know, we can not drop wheels at the ring when its damp, and still very risky in the dry. That's why I was dabbing the brakes and jerking the wheel in the straights to see what the grip was like. The tires barely came up to temp on the first lap and would cool down on every long straight. Leaving Bergwerk on the 2nd lap we had a little grip but it was gone by the time we reached the karussell and had to warm them again for the first few turns afterward. Sketchy! When the track dried out a bit later on we all got down into the 11:07~11:15 range for the VLN course. We ran with a passenger all day. Best guess would be Sonny's one lap without a passenger at an estimated 8:44 BTG. That's allowing 1:55 for GP "sprint" course and 27s for gantry to bridge, ~185kph or so in the Swifts. Still pretty slow but they only had maybe another 10-15s in perfect conditions according to Dale.

They had so much grip and so little power that huge sections were done flat in 5th with maybe a tiny lift here and there once it dried out.

Qiddelbacher to Aremberg flat
Kallenhard to Wehrseifen tiny lift in middle of right
Galgenkopf flat with catching air exiting mini Karussell (woot!)
Small lift exiting Pflanzgarten I then flat to entry of ScwalbenSchwanz

Next time we go back and drive something with some power and have to use the brakes we'll have to learn it all over :eek:

For those of you that have not driven the ring, I highly recommend doing at least half day in something slow like the Swifts to learn it faster. Some of those blind bends done flat in 5th were ah, character building. My favorite was the fast downhill left - right chicane just after exiting Kallenhard. Spooky best describes it.:eek4dance

My last lap after it dried out a bit. Still 30°f (-1c°). Few mistakes but not too bad. With my weight and Zhong in the passenger seat, we were about 250 lbs heavier than Sonny running ahead of us so he ran about 5s faster.

What are the details on the Suzukis? They seem like pretty decent little cars.

Rent4Ring | Nurburgring and Nordschleife rental race car infos & prices

Sonny probably a thousand or so.
Me, maybe 75 laps in rFactor
Zhong, lots
William a dozen or so laps on sims just before we left the US

It helps if you generally learn tracks quickly which Sonny and I both do well. To be fair, none of us were driving 10/10ths. Penalties for small mistakes on the Nordschleife can be huge. A good driver can get to 8/10 with just a lap or two. 9/10 takes a dozen or so. Most of the locals will tell you getting a 10/10 lap there takes hundreds of laps. I would tend to agree. I drove well within my personal limits. First time I drove Chuckwall for example, i was 9/10 by 4 laps and 10/10ths by second session. No penalties = very brave :party:

That last lap was fantastic, imho. Balls out in every corner. Close call at Brunchen. It is obvious that you guys have a lot of racing experience being able to pull off laps like this on the first day driving the 152+F1 corners of the Ring. Hats off.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365209866
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365209866

William getting all of it on the GP track
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1365209866

Looks like one hell of a trip. Thanks for sharing the pictures and videos.

That's true, it's really a very difficult track to learn and mistake can involve serious injuries, during the "public days" called touristenfahrten there is crashes everyday.

A friend of mine with good trackday experience (I think something like 40 events with is miata and 20 or more laps on the ring) totally destroyed his miata with one single little mistake on the ring...

:laugh::laugh:

Very true. I'm almost a passable driver on a slow track with lots of runoff and no danger. 10/10 at triple digits with a wall 6' off the track isn't in my comfort zone yet. Thanks for posting all of this - it has been almost as much fun for us! :party:

I loved seeing you pass the same BMW with pink wheels in the Swift video as well as the Exige. At least I'm assuming they are the same BMW, cause why would 2 people want pink wheels...

It's one amazing trip!
I miss that track!
The last Swift video was hardcore in some parts! Nice!
More vídeos please!

Germany's Nurburgring racetrack closed after vandals paint 30ft PENIS on tarmac | Mail Online

After you guys left, right?