Newcastle to the 'ring in under 24 hours

[PRO5T]

As usual I've messed up and I've booked a family event with the kids on Saturday the 2nd of May in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

I am also due to be lapping the Nürburgring at 9am on Monday the 4th of May!

Not something I've never easily achieved in y past (and in my youth I hasten to add!) but I wondered if anyone had an easier way of getting there than a long Saturday night schlep down the A1 to the M25 and down to Dover?

Ideally I'd like to get to the track walk in plenty of time on the Sunday evening, I anticipate being able to leave Newcastle city centre at circa 8pm on the Saturday.

[SpamDisco]

Take the car down before, leave at an airport, fly back to airport Sunday

[jeremyc]

Overnight Hull - Rotterdam ferry?

You might have to leave Newcastle a little earlier depending upon timetable.

[snotrag]

jeremyc said:

Overnight Hull - Rotterdam ferry?

You might have to leave Newcastle a little earlier depending upon timetable.

My thoughts too, can tou duck out a little earlier? You only need to arrive in Hull at 8pm ish at the latest You'll be at the Ring by 11am on Sunday!

Otherwise its book a flex Eurotunnel and get some kip in the car somewhere. Easily doable to arrive there by Sunday evening.

[PRO5T]

snotrag said:

jeremyc said:

Overnight Hull - Rotterdam ferry?

You might have to leave Newcastle a little earlier depending upon timetable.

My thoughts too, can tou duck out a little earlier? You only need to arrive in Hull at 8pm ish at the latest You'll be at the Ring by 11am on Sunday!

Otherwise its book a flex Eurotunnel and get some kip in the car somewhere. Easily doable to arrive there by Sunday evening.

This would have been the perfect option (and the one I usually use) but the concert starts at 5:30pm meaning if I'm not to bomb my kids off I won't have time to get from Newcastle to Hull.

[mmm-five]

Used to do the there and back in a day (from London), but haven't done that for over a decade as I prefer a longer break with some driving around the rest of Germany inbetween Ring opening days/hours.

So now, if I'm going direct (i.e. not picking my mate up in Cornwall), I do Liverpool to the 'Ring in less than 12 hours using Eurotunnel (add an hour if using ferry).

If I'm meeting up with others from the UK, then we tend to meet up at the Premier Inn at Ashford Eureka Leisure Park (J9 M20, c.20 minutes from Eurotunnel terminal) and get an early-ish ferry/train in the morning. It also means we can stop at Tesco (J10 M20) to top up with Momentum and buy last-minute supplies for our trip (which I'd be stopping at each way for fuel anyway).

Your route should only add 1h to the UK section, so either do the whole trip early Sunday, or get down to Ashford on Saturday night, to beat the traffic in the UK.

If you do stop at Tesco on the M20, then be careful on the new road layout, as there's now no direct southbound slip-road off that junction...you have to come into the Tesco from the J10 sliproad, and then go out of it south on the A20 to J10A to rejoin the M20 south).

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 30th December 16:00

[PRO5T]

Realistically mmm-five I think something like that is out only choice.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gf3574cYCQNGs3ym6

I was thinking of bedding down somewhere around Maidstone, if we leave Newcastle city centre at circa 8pm that'll get us down to Ashford for 2am. I can insure my mate on the GT3 so we can share some of the driving and I'll just have to not resort to alcohol to get me through a Taylor Swift tribute act!

Is it still around 4.5 hours from Calais euro tunnel to the ring realistically on a Sunday morning?

[mmm-five]

PRO5T said:

Is it still around 4.5 hours from Calais euro tunnel to the ring realistically on a Sunday morning?

Depends how fast you drive, the route you take, and what the traffic is like. But realistically it's only the Brussels ring road that has ever caused us problems.

5-6h is about average for us on a Thursday/Friday/Bank Holiday, but I'd expect the weekends to be quieter, so 5h should be easily doable on a Sunday - assuming no roadworks, accidents, etc. and sticking to major roads (e.g. E40 towards Aachen, A4 towards Cologne/Kerpen, A61 to A1 to B258 or stay on the A61 toto use the B257).

We tend to travel much further south via Tournai, Mons, Charleroi nowadays to avoid the Ring Road, but it doesn't really save any time overall, just keeps you moving steadily instead of stop-start. We also go cross-country from there to enjoy the scenery/drive through the national parks (Haute Fagnes & Eifel)...but if the weather is poor we simply join up with the E40 around Liege and follow one of the routes above.

We have noticed over the last few years that the national limits are steadily being reduced on some of the twistier roads through the national parks...so where it was 100kmh for 10-20 miles at a time, it's now 100kmh for 1 mile, then 50kph for 10 miles, then 100kph for 1 mile, etc. so you can't make as much progress as 1) you can't go as fast on average, and 2) less legal opportunities to floor the pedal to overtake those driving below the limit.

[PRO5T]

I guess the main priority for starting the thread is we'll just "want to get there" what with my self induced late start. Ideally I'd have took the Saturday (or even Friday) Hull crossing to watch the bampots on TF over the weekend and breath in the atmosphere.

I reckon realistically we won't be getting to Nürburg until 4pm ish Sunday. OK, the mouth breathers will have hopefully left but it doesn't leave much time to "get in the mood" so to speak.

[mmm-five]

PRO5T said:

I guess the main priority for starting the thread is we'll just "want to get there" what with my self induced late start. Ideally I'd have took the Saturday (or even Friday) Hull crossing to watch the bampots on TF over the weekend and breath in the atmosphere.

I reckon realistically we won't be getting to Nürburg until 4pm ish Sunday. OK, the mouth breathers will have hopefully left but it doesn't leave much time to "get in the mood" so to speak.

Well, it's May, so the days will be a bit longer than they are at the moment...and if the weather stays fine the TF will be open until 7pm, so you won't be able to get a Ring walk in until after that anyway.

Is it a trackday you've got booked (DB?), or are you going for TF laps, as the schedule shows the track only opens at 5pm on Monday 4th May for TF laps?

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 30th December 16:46

[PRO5T]

mmm-five said:

Well, it's May, so the days will be a bit longer than they are at the moment...and if the weather stays fine the TF will be open until 7pm, so you won't be able to get a Ring walk in until after that anyway.

Is it a trackday you've got booked, or are you going for TF laps, as the schedule shows the track only opens at 5pm on Monday 4th May for TF laps?

Yes trackday, Darren has a DN day that date.

[mmm-five]

PRO5T said:

Yes trackday, Darren has a DN day that date.

Yes, just spotted that. Strange that it's not mentioned on the BTG or Nurburgring websites.

[PRO5T]

mmm-five said:

PRO5T said:

Yes trackday, Darren has a DN day that date.

Yes, just spotted that. Strange that it's not mentioned on the BTG or Nurburgring websites.

Yeah part of my aversion to an old style "smash and grab" bit of lapping is a mate is coming along in the passenger seat and he enjoys the atmosphere, a few beers, watching TF. So I don't want him to feel it's all a bit rushed. We'll have Tuesday to ourselves if we catch the Hull crossing back but there's not likely to be much on on a Tuesday, even over at Spa.

[mmm-five]

PRO5T said:

Yeah part of my aversion to an old style "smash and grab" bit of lapping is a mate is coming along in the passenger seat and he enjoys the atmosphere, a few beers, watching TF. So I don't want him to feel it's all a bit rushed. We'll have Tuesday to ourselves if we catch the Hull crossing back but there's not likely to be much on on a Tuesday, even over at Spa.

Well, you could always pop to Bonn or Cologne (sightseeing bus is good), Trier (sit and eat/drink at the Paulaner Zurlaubener bar on the river), Cochem (nice drive along the banks of the Moselle river and it's vineyards) or Monschau (more of a village, but the roads getting there are decent/twisty) for a bit of lunch/shopping/sightseeing.

It probably takes less than an hour to get to Cochem, then a 2 hour drive alongside the Moselle all the way from Cochem to Trier, and an hour back to Nurburg.

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 30th December 17:10

[dunc_sx]

No help with route choice but I've done the ring to Scotland (Dundee) in the same day before fairly easily. Left the ring at about 10.30am and arrived in Dundee about 2am via Dover. It's not as bad as you think, good tunes and open it up when the opportunity arises to keep you awake/entertained

Dunc.