Rawhide

I got back last night from Germany, we made the last Eurostar after leaving the ring at 4:30 and made last orders in my local pub

What can you say about the place. It's just crazy! I really hope they never close that place but I expect one day the safety nazis will have their say

I was out there with a couple of Clio cups, a Golf VR6 turbo conversion car, and a Type R.




The first day it was drizzling around the earlier part of the course and there was a drying line on the later part of the track. This was pretty dangerous as the grip level were hard to assess. First lap and my mate in the clio spins his cup in front of me. No damage and I managed to stop in time. Second lap I'm a lot more careful but the back end snaps around and I do a full 360 but thank god don't hit the armco

The third lap my friend spins his Clio for no apparent reason on a straight section and hits the front end on the armco. He drove off the track but got caught by the marshals later who charge him 2900 euros for 48m of armco damage At this point we decide to leave it until it drys.




The next day the weather has got worse. I decided to not go out. Everyone else who does sees far to many accidents and to be honest it's just not that much fun.

On day three we had a dry morning. I managed to get a few good laps in and got a lot quicker taking advice from my mate in the Clio who is now putting in some good laps. (9:08 with accidents+traffic) However it's really busy out there and the ring was closed for a major accident. It seems a biker went under a car and a couple of other vehicles were involved. It then started to rain so we called it a day again.

On the final day it was perfect. I had the hood down for a few laps and finally actually managed to remember most of the track I was also keeping up with the M3s and overtaking a lot more faster machinery. I also took a passenger ride in one of the fastest cars there. A supra track car with 500+hp




The old guy driving really knew the place well and he had no problems taking out Porche 911 RSs and sitting behind Sabine in the M5 ring taxis. We did actually see Sabine crashed at one point. She had collected an English Elise at the end of the start straight. Her first accident. There were a lot of accidents on the sunday. I got a pic of a italian S2000 in the wall of a fast section

It's a bit fuzzy but it was taken from the Supra

I did 15 laps and it was only then starting to come together for me. The car was superb. It was the most composed through carousel of all the cars and felt very planted. It's the first time I've tracked the car it it took all the punishment. Only problem is for some reason the battery seems to have died which was interesting on the Eurostar

I Saw some amazing machinery there and some amazting and scary driving. I'm going back in August. It's very addictive. The place is a total mecca for petrolheads and everyone should go visit. If you want to drive you need to expect some seriously quick cars and be comfortable sharing the road with LOTS of bikes. Which contrary to their opinion are NOT faster round the track.



Some karts racing down the switchback road in the wet down to the valley

I'm still buzzing and can't wait to go back!

Sundance

Good post

But shocked that Sabine managed to crash

Rawhide

Yep - I expect what happened is the Elise had not spotted the ring taxi bearing down. It's a fast section and the S2000 could get well over 100mph so I expect the M5 would be a lot quicker than the Elise. The elise definately came off worst though

Richy123

Damn I'm jealous. Keep meaning to go but haven't even sent my passport application off yet.

Kobe

he crashed in the wet? it's not really surprising if it was the first few laps for him..

certain parts of the track are like ice in the wet..

last time I was there in the wet.. I had 4 wheel drifts under braking.. it was not fun at all.

I don't know why you are mad about the marshalls charging for the armco.. that's the rules of the ring. He was lucky the police we not involved - leaving scene of accident etc.. is pretty serious offence in germany.

Rawhide

I do understand why they charge for the armcos but theres no way he slid for 48m along it. He only glanced off it with cosmetic damage.

I'm not (personally) mad but I do think that it's a shame this happens. The ring charge the insurance companies directly who cannot really argue the incident and suprise suprise more and more insurance companies are now excluding the ring. I do understand the risk of driving on the track with a damaged car and leaking fluids etc but there were many cars that had prangs that drove off and left the ring only to return later in the day. My friend was slightly unlucky thats all.

Kobe

but that's the problem..

because so many people also drive off.. the ones they catch are somewhat "punished" for every last scratch.. but remember if you are doing 80mph.. you are passing a lot of armco every second.. 48metres is less than 2 seconds.

from what I have read.. if you are reasonable and play fair with the marshalls..and also get somebody with local language skills.. the amount of armco can be discussed.

KMB

Nice write up but far too many crashes for my liking

AquilaEagle

Sounds like carnage, or you're focussing on those kind of events in your write up.

Badger

Think someone spotted you on the webcam - there's a Brit plated Silverstone in the sightings thread.