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Well first trip of the year for me, and boy was it a good one.
Picked up my passengers in Ashford too damn early on Friday morning and then got the 7am Eurotunnel.
Blatted through France and into Belgium, traffic was light so we kept it under 100 most of the way until the dreaded Brussells ring road which was suprisingly clear of traffic (first time ever I think!) and we when we stopped for fuel we met up with a load of other british cars all heading for the ring - an MG, a couple of Mitusbishi Evos, a Ford Focus RS, Clio 182 Trophy, Vauxhall VX220, an RX7 with a silly bodykit and an Impreza STi. We took advantage of the empty motorways and enjoyed a "spirited drive" in convoy with little bursts of acceleration when catching up slower vehicles, and doing silly things like warming our tyres (F1 style) through roadworks sections
I really do like the autobahns. Well, more to the point I really like the derestricted sections of the autobahn. I don't think I need to say any more than that 
Went straight to our guesthouse and checked in, dumped our stuff and then drove cross country through the Eifel mountains to get to the ring. You can always tell when you're getting close to the Nurburgring - every second car you pass is a stripped out Golf with tiny Euro-style alloys, a full roll cage and lots of stickers - the atmosphere in the car always changes into a mood of excitement and nervous apprehension.
We arrived in Adenau village to absolute bedlam, there must have been 10,000 bikers there... it way busier than Easter back in 2005 and there traffic jams everywhere. Went and had lunch near the track at Breidsheid and listened to the sounds of squealing tyres as we ate. Took a quick walk up the hill to Wehrseifen and called some friends back home who decided not to come with us, leaving sounds of tyres and screaming engines on their voicemails lol.
Decided to drive round to the main entrance and go and buy some lap tickets - I really like the road between Adenau and the main Nordschliefe carpark - lovely and twisty with a couple of hairpins. Just as we arrived we found the main carpark and the track closed due to a serious accident. Parked up in the dusty car park over the road and walked over to buy a ticket for a few laps - was suprised how much the price has increased since last year but paid for an 8 lap ticket by card - then wandered round what is probably the most expensive car park in the world! Every other car was a Porsche GT3 RS with rollcage, lots of the usual trackday machinery (Impreza's, Evo's and the like). Also saw a stunning Ferarri 360 CS and a lovely silver Porsche Carrera GT, along with one of the new Mercedes McLaren 722 Edition's - not my cup of tea but still an impressive piece of machinery nonetheless.
We particularly liked this GT3 that had met the armco and was hastily repaired and then had a new light sprayed on
Talk about battle scars!
Met up with a couple of guys from the Northloop.co.uk site and had a chat whilst waiting for the track to reopen, which didn't take long. An ADAC recovery truck appeared with a severely rolled German Golf (excuse the camera phone pic)
Proof, if any was needed, that the ring is a dangerous place and when things go wrong they can go badly wrong.
Anyway, we put any bad thoughts aside and went out for a steady sighting lap. As we entered Wippermann there were yellow flags being waved by marshalls for a biker down over the blind crest. Duly slowed down for the accident and it didn't seem that anyone was seriously hurt so we carried on back to the main entrance to find the track closed again while they recovered the bike and cleaned up some oil/fluid. At this point we decided to call it a day and went back to Adenau village for a nice steak and salad at the Blau Ecke.
Whilst having dinner and trying (but failing) to impress some local german girls with my GCSE C grade grasp of the German language, a group of English people we spotted in the carpark earlier came and sat next to us. Turns out they were ring virgins and were down for the weekend in their MX5 and TVR Tuscan S. Swapped a few stories from the day and gave them a few invaluable tips.
Went back to the guesthouse, drank beers and watched some onboard video footage taken by some bikers who were testing some nice machinery for Performance Bike magazine - boy were they scarily fast with sub 8 minute BTG times
Got up nice and early on Saturday morning and had a few nice clear laps back to back without incident or accident before it got busy - then decided to get to some of the less accessible veiwing points, get some photos and watch the action. Went down to Bergwerk and took a load of shots from the marshalling post.
Went and had some lunch (bratwurst and chips, naturally) and then took the long uphill walk to Adenauer Forst.
Very tasty S2000 with J's Racing bodykit and hideously expensive carbon fibre hardtop -
Shortcut across the grass -
The sun went in and it got really cold so we stayed for about an hour and then drove back to our guest house before going out for a lovely italian meal in Hillesheim.
Picked up my passengers in Ashford too damn early on Friday morning and then got the 7am Eurotunnel.
Blatted through France and into Belgium, traffic was light so we kept it under 100 most of the way until the dreaded Brussells ring road which was suprisingly clear of traffic (first time ever I think!) and we when we stopped for fuel we met up with a load of other british cars all heading for the ring - an MG, a couple of Mitusbishi Evos, a Ford Focus RS, Clio 182 Trophy, Vauxhall VX220, an RX7 with a silly bodykit and an Impreza STi. We took advantage of the empty motorways and enjoyed a "spirited drive" in convoy with little bursts of acceleration when catching up slower vehicles, and doing silly things like warming our tyres (F1 style) through roadworks sections
I really do like the autobahns. Well, more to the point I really like the derestricted sections of the autobahn. I don't think I need to say any more than that Went straight to our guesthouse and checked in, dumped our stuff and then drove cross country through the Eifel mountains to get to the ring. You can always tell when you're getting close to the Nurburgring - every second car you pass is a stripped out Golf with tiny Euro-style alloys, a full roll cage and lots of stickers - the atmosphere in the car always changes into a mood of excitement and nervous apprehension.
We arrived in Adenau village to absolute bedlam, there must have been 10,000 bikers there... it way busier than Easter back in 2005 and there traffic jams everywhere. Went and had lunch near the track at Breidsheid and listened to the sounds of squealing tyres as we ate. Took a quick walk up the hill to Wehrseifen and called some friends back home who decided not to come with us, leaving sounds of tyres and screaming engines on their voicemails lol.
Decided to drive round to the main entrance and go and buy some lap tickets - I really like the road between Adenau and the main Nordschliefe carpark - lovely and twisty with a couple of hairpins. Just as we arrived we found the main carpark and the track closed due to a serious accident. Parked up in the dusty car park over the road and walked over to buy a ticket for a few laps - was suprised how much the price has increased since last year but paid for an 8 lap ticket by card - then wandered round what is probably the most expensive car park in the world! Every other car was a Porsche GT3 RS with rollcage, lots of the usual trackday machinery (Impreza's, Evo's and the like). Also saw a stunning Ferarri 360 CS and a lovely silver Porsche Carrera GT, along with one of the new Mercedes McLaren 722 Edition's - not my cup of tea but still an impressive piece of machinery nonetheless.
We particularly liked this GT3 that had met the armco and was hastily repaired and then had a new light sprayed on
Talk about battle scars!
Met up with a couple of guys from the Northloop.co.uk site and had a chat whilst waiting for the track to reopen, which didn't take long. An ADAC recovery truck appeared with a severely rolled German Golf (excuse the camera phone pic)
Proof, if any was needed, that the ring is a dangerous place and when things go wrong they can go badly wrong.
Anyway, we put any bad thoughts aside and went out for a steady sighting lap. As we entered Wippermann there were yellow flags being waved by marshalls for a biker down over the blind crest. Duly slowed down for the accident and it didn't seem that anyone was seriously hurt so we carried on back to the main entrance to find the track closed again while they recovered the bike and cleaned up some oil/fluid. At this point we decided to call it a day and went back to Adenau village for a nice steak and salad at the Blau Ecke.
Whilst having dinner and trying (but failing) to impress some local german girls with my GCSE C grade grasp of the German language, a group of English people we spotted in the carpark earlier came and sat next to us. Turns out they were ring virgins and were down for the weekend in their MX5 and TVR Tuscan S. Swapped a few stories from the day and gave them a few invaluable tips.
Went back to the guesthouse, drank beers and watched some onboard video footage taken by some bikers who were testing some nice machinery for Performance Bike magazine - boy were they scarily fast with sub 8 minute BTG times
Got up nice and early on Saturday morning and had a few nice clear laps back to back without incident or accident before it got busy - then decided to get to some of the less accessible veiwing points, get some photos and watch the action. Went down to Bergwerk and took a load of shots from the marshalling post.
Went and had some lunch (bratwurst and chips, naturally) and then took the long uphill walk to Adenauer Forst.
Very tasty S2000 with J's Racing bodykit and hideously expensive carbon fibre hardtop -
Shortcut across the grass -
The sun went in and it got really cold so we stayed for about an hour and then drove back to our guest house before going out for a lovely italian meal in Hillesheim.
Nice one!