The NORDSCHLEIFE!! (Nurburg) Woohoo!! Done it!

[EDManual]

Well well well!

I thought it was going to be great and it exceeded that expectation, I think its the best place on Earth!

I go over to Europe every 2 years of so to family near Geneva, and thought I'm going for a drive! 650km North, on Autoroutes in France for near 400km (30 Euro toll ticket!) through Luxembourg, and about another 150ish km in Germany to Nurburg! I LOVE the normal driving in Europe, on any country road in any country (hwy or not) a good percentage of drivers are doing 40+ over, and you never see a cop ;-)

So I pulled in at Nurburg, drove around a bit until I found the Nurburgring F1 circuit, and after a bit more wandering found the Nordschleife entrance! The German F1 grand prix was on the previous weekend, so there was uncountable amounts of dollars worth of nice machinery hanging around for a few extra days for some laps on the Nordschleife!

Couldnt believe the cars, no self respecting German or European of any description would dare have a Porsche of any pedegree less than a GT3! There were heaps of GT3s, GT2s, turbos, GT3 RS's, the new GT3 3.8 and even a new GT3 4.0! Plus full race porsches of course! I was surprised to see about 7 Z06 supercharged corvettes, and most were modded! There were Astons, Ferraris, Lambos, even a KTM Crossbow. Merc SLR in a Matt finish, lightweight track special cars.....ahhh!!
And there were other more normal cars too, like Focus RS, new Megane (whatever that FWD nurburg record car is), local young Krouts with their BM(Vee) race M3s, and Hot Golf GTis, Honda S2000s etc etc. There was a group of guys i spoke to with motobikes that lap the isle of mann tt there for laps!! And there was the odd slow tourist car with a whole family who would go for a lap!

Just sooo nice to see these cars used for what they are made for!

I looked from the starting area dreaming....for hours... :-)
Went to a few other spots on the track dreaming as well....

Right thats enough dreaming! Off to book into my room! Stayed at Ardenau. Do that, go to my room, look out the window and whats that! The Nordschleife going past with Corvettes and Porsches flying past! Lovely!

Had sausages, Frites, beer and an Apfel Strudle for tea in the summer warmth while track cars came driving past to their accom in Ardenau.

Napped, next morning visited the Nurburg castle, went to see the F1 circuit (they were packing up all the gear) cool place, the indoor complex where all the team shops etc are even has a rollercoaster that roars through on the roof! then it goes back outside for some loop the loops! Then went to visit the race car rental place where i had booked my car for laps! They ran me through the procedure, saying I have a brand new Clio Sport RS Cup that I will be taking it for its 1st laps! Said rev it right to 7500rpm as thats where it has power, it has brembo brakes this and that suspension, recaro seats etc, they say they were sure I wouldnt be the slowest driver out there so told me about passing and being passed etc. Had a look at their garage of rental race cars! Nice!

I thought very hard about what to hire, my budget was 300 euros, i could have a Golf GTi, a Sirocco, or a Clio. The VWs were turbos and not revvy and make their power everywhere and were those DSG gearboxes, the clio makes similar power (bit less) but only between 6000 and 7500 but was a manual! And weighs less. Had to go the clio! They say it can stay with anything in the corners, and theres nothing like a ripping revvy top end I reckon! Sounds like much more fun! So went with that!

Had to go away for another 2 hours, so went had a look at the industrial area of the Nordschleife where all the cool companys have test facilities! Aston, Jag, AMG, Bridgestone, etc etc and theres race teams. Was slowly going along up to a big roundabout where there was a black porsche all covered up doing flat out laps!! when he saw me he stopped and drove off gave me a wave, was a thin blonde haired middle aged man with a mo! (Porsche test pilot no doubt!) (Saw the same car fly past on the autobahn later at about 250 on his way back down to Stutgart, hehe)

So went back got my car, all excited, I thought i would stop and start and swerve a bit on my way to the track (about 8km to the entrance from the hire place) to get a feel for it, and gee its a tight little car and sooo revvy once you hit 6000+ woohoo! (thats the only place i'm going to be with it!) Got the the track parked and waited for the Touristfahten (tourist laps?) to open. On the track during the day BMW had about 20 M3s and 10 of those new M 1 series, and some minis for some expensive track days. Cool seeing them fly past in formations! M3s sound great I must say!

So now the track is open, i head over to the boomgate, sign says "read steady go, have fun, take care" swipe my pass, drive through a few swervey witches hat areas before you can burn some fuel as fast as possible!

The track is just awesome, up and down, so many corners and crests that are quite blind. I hear people say the track is "thin" and has no run off etc, but I found it to be wide and forgiving as the surface is so good any mistake car be confidently corrected and washed away as there are no nasty surprises in the surface. I was keeping up with some cars but being passed a fair bit too, GT3s etc. On my 2nd lap I was flat out again and doing alot better, passed a fair few cars, even passed a gt3rs and a Merc Black series!! haha, they could obviously go a bit faster.... But its just the best place. Cool doing 180 or whatever and having a GT3RS fly past at 250 at race pace!! I just loved it all!!
Hit 200+ on the main straight before I had to slow down (the entrance to the track is halfway on the straight).
I seemed to do about a 10min 20ish lap on my 2nd lap...

Then, I spoke to an Engligh bloke who had his own clio the same as mine, new model etc, but a few mods like suspension. He said would I like to come for a lap with him. He is always here he tells me! Ever few weeks he comes for laps. He has a focus RS with 450hp as well as the clio. Wowee!! What a great lap, theres all these areas where you can keep it flat even though you cant see! We were passing nearly everything, including real fast motorbikes that couldnt nearly keep up through corners under maybe 160-70ish km/h, then they fly past at 280 on the straights... So nice to see how its done and with all these tips he gave me, I asked if he could come with me for a lap!!

He did and wowee!! Was topping out 5th gear around 200kmh though a few areas where i couldnt see! Up down, left right keep it flat, go wide here, cut in Now, pass this porsche now, go, flat here etc etc! Pass that R1! Had a Focus RS in my mirror about 50m back who couldnt catch me through the corners! caught up on straights a bit, then there'd be more corners and he had nothing on the clio surprisingly! I moved over to let him passed but he couldnt pass! Awesome fun! Did a 9:20! including some holdups (take maybe 15 to 20 seconds off for that) Amazing what having a navigator can do for you! He was impressed with my 3rd ever lap!! Actually had him laughing and squirming in his seat! hehe. And...he didnt want to come for another lap. Was hoping he would as I knew I could go much better again with him! By myself I was sure to drop at least 30 seconds Id say.

The clio handles that well its really impressive, and yes you really can keep up with near anything (in the corners)! Fantastic car! Said I was using 5.1 litres per lap, which is 25 litres per hundred.

I didnt get to do my last lap, as there was a crash that couldnt be cleared in time before the close of the days laps. I was SAD... ahhh, and I was going to video that lap. Probably just as well as now I think about if I knew I was going to have my last lap i would probably crash ;-D! 8000 Euro insurance excess.....hmm At the rental place they give you a huge excess like that just so you will be a little bit careful :-) I think thats a good idea actually!

So I had an awsome some kind of schnitzel for tea with beer.

And drove back down to near Geneva the next day along the AUTOBAHNS!!

Ahhh, its just lovely sitting on a comfy 150-60 and having mercs and beamers fly past at 220 + without a worry in the world.
I stopped in a rest area for a while just to marvel at the Autobahn, watching the closing speed of cars in the fast lane! May as well have been a race track too :-)

Why is it safe to do 200+ past trucks that are speed limited to 70 in Germany?! Doesnt seem to be a problem! Drove for about 400km on the autobahns, then into France for about 300km avoiding the autoroutes to save some Euro! ehhmm, on the country roads through the mountains of the Jura region I had the little peogeot 206 HDI Diesel flying (ie 50 over the limits), but still couldnt manage to keep up with the locals :-D! Never saw a cop on the whole trip

Got back safe, we got back Sunday night, and I drove up the Hume from Melb to Canberra on Wednesday sitting on 119 (I figure the cops wont get me for that). 3 cops flew past somewhere past Gundagai, and blocked the hwy up a bit further. Fatality they said, someone went off the road....bored sleepily watching their speedo I would imagine...

I'll put up some pics if you like :-)