Nurburgring trip - April 2016 - Loooooong report.

[Sf_Manta]

Well, given I'd actually taken a long weekend to go to the fabled Green Hell, figured I'd do a post on it.
Started on Thursday after a few manic days at work to wrap things up , culminating in a half day finish having spent Tuesday working till 10pm.
This left me with Wednesday afternoon to sort out and pack ready to go, which for the most part worked out.

Cue Thursday, getting up at 5am, with a run down to the tunnel, made it with about 10 mins to spare for our train.


Once into France, we pressed on towards Germany, though of note, the E40 is horrendous when heading towards Liege, my ears felt like they were bleeding from the drone.
We got within 20 miles.. before well I could have made it on a single tank, however given it was down the 257 road, I decided best not to risk it and fill up. That said, I was impressed how well the car did on a single tank of V Power.


I always enjoy going the 257 road down rather other ways, given the long time on the motorways, it's refreshing. Plus views like this.



And finally arrived in Adenau at our hotel.




Next morning we popped up to the track enterance to get a look around, and enjoy the views.



Given there was a closed track day event till later that afternoon, we headed up to the karting for a few sessions to get our eye back in



There was also the rather big problem of I'd forgotten to bring along the secondary mirror we'd used last time, so had to go find one. Many thanks to Dale from Bridge to Gantry for the tip off of a store that may have one in Koblenz.. "Find the building that looks like a V8 and the auto store is behind it" Said "V8" building was actually a sex toy and such store

We got to Koblenz and he wasn't joking either!



Still after that, we got into the store and this place makes Halfords look tame, wheels, tyres, service and tuning parts, this place had everything and bays with mechanics.



Once that was all done, it was back to the track for the first afternoon session, got 2 laps in that day, 4 in total as both me and my friend were running, so while 1 car was cooling down, we were out in the other. I did get a bit of a telling off though as just as I'd gotten to the track, I'd gotten the car washed just prior and the RH HID decided it wasn't going to work!, had to go round with sidelights on, and got a bit of a telling off at the exit











Also managed to get a video of the first lap in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czKrrsz_v8k

Saturday ended up being a bit of a wash out, though after spending the day up in Colonge we came back to decent sunshine, and managed 1 more lap in my car before the weather closed in and the track closed for a bit due to an accident. Thankfully the light had dried out and started working again, though I'll be replacing the module again this coming bank holiday weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRXs3cetpLM

This actually turned out to be my best lap of the weekend, with very little traffic out due to the weather and allowed me to enjoy the run round.

Sunday was a completely different story. The weather really closed in and this was what greeted us that morning.



We went up to the Castle and a lookout tower (i forget the name of it) during the day so my friend could get some photography done.. including me getting a few freebies while the weather cleared before going to the track at Brunchen and watched some of action later in the afternoon.






Though towards the end of the day, the weather closed in again while we were at Brunchen (YouTube corner as it's known):





After going back to the track.. after some pestering from my friend, we decided to go for the final few laps we had left, (2 in his fabia, and 1 in my car) And i drew the short straw.. and went first.
Ended up getting caught on video, so we gave a wave on our way past as I tiptoed my way round in the snow :haha: Was rather dicy however I wasn't trying for anything and got round by going steady and keeping well off the racing line to find grip. Even passed a track prepared Corsa who had no grip due to the semi slicks he had on.

https://youtu.be/4TEOxi5SaWM @1.50 mark.

Sunday night was PistonKlause night, given it was our last night in Germany, Steaks on hot stones etc, if you've been there you'll know, if you haven't, you've missed out!



Monday Morning we packed everything up.. though did a stop at the Rewe in Adeneu for 'supplies'


Drove all the way back.. though only got as far as South Mimms this time on a single tank, was a few moments i was thinking "I'm not going to make it"


And that wraps it up, for this one at least. Got a few plans, car will need some work and servicing (starting with repairing the headlight) before the next trip.

Edited by Sf_Manta on Tuesday 26th April 19:48

[Scoobman]

Nice little write up
I have spent many an hour on that route into Germany

[M3greg]

Great report! What was the hotel like?

[Sf_Manta]

M3greg said:

Great report! What was the hotel like?

The Hotel was good with clean facilities and rooms, the breakfasts are excellent and price is decent. The only let down however was the wireless there is rather naff, really doesn't work and when you do connect it's painfully slow (think 56k modem speeds or less unfortunately). I was having less trouble getting things to load using my phone as a hotspot than the hotel's wifi.

[M3greg]

Sf_Manta said:

M3greg said:

Great report! What was the hotel like?

The Hotel was good with clean facilities and rooms, the breakfasts are excellent and price is decent. The only let down however was the wireless there is rather naff, really doesn't work and when you do connect it's painfully slow (think 56k modem speeds or less unfortunately). I was having less trouble getting things to load using my phone as a hotspot than the hotel's wifi.

Good to know as planning a trip myself. Although I hate bad wifi lol. Thanks.

[Wh00sher]

Thanks for taking the time to share that. Looks like you had all the weather. !