4 Sep 05 Nurburgring "R" GTG - PICS & VIDEOS

[R Kelly]

Well I guess I'll get this started...

Outstanding fun again today, thanks to everyone who came out. Some highlights in bullet format since I'm military:

KVB lost his cherry in wrxowner's car last night.

Dealer just resetting error messages doesn't fix a bad magnetic shock sensor or bad accelerometer, because 4C was still possessed.

Despite 4C insanity, with JC helping me navigate, (well, mostly reassuring me that I can keep it floored, no sharp turns ahead) I knocked a whole minute off my lap times. Which I was very happy with considering suspension fun and it was my first lap of the day.

PLEASE NOTE - the following video is an entire lap of Nurburgring. It is 150MB of quicktime movie. I advise you right click, download, and go grab some food. I have no idea where this video came from since it is evidently "discouraged" to video while on the track.

http://ss.otheron.com/rkelly/video/Ring4Sep05.MOV

We had lunch at Giulia's Pizzeria in Adenau as usual...

Afterwards we climbed up the bridge and watched the cars go by. GREAT video of Sabene getting sideways in M5 Ring Taxi..
(3MB)
http://ss.otheron.com/rkelly/video/RingTaxi2.MOV

Interestingly, I think Sabene was going much quicker than this Viper
(2MB)
http://ss.otheron.com/rkelly/video/RingViper.MOV

I did another lap in the afternoon, this time with fuse 27 pulled, No 4C. VERY interesting. Wheels stayed planted well, but the body roll made me queasy, and I was driving. I can only guess how sick my passenger was. Both passengers were impressed by my 245/40x18 BFGoodrich G-Force T/A KDW2s, they totally rock on the track.

Later, I rode in the back seat with wrxowner driving and KVB sitting shotgun. Gotta give props to Denny, great driver. He clocked a 9:33, impressive for stock engine with 400 lbs of dead weight weighing him down.

Saw a couple of interesting misc cars, this GT40 replica was pretty convincing until we saw the Audi engine.

Here was a mystery Volvo wagon with a very strange mod, steering wheel on right side, help you see curbs better when parking??

Denny fingering a furry hole...

Finished up the day traveling to another viewing spot, got a couple of great video clips there, first, this Audi not choosing a good line...

http://ss.otheron.com/rkelly/video/RingAudi.MOV

And then this video showing traffic congestion and a mystery R, KVB said driver was female...

http://ss.otheron.com/rkelly/video/RingFemaleR.MOV

All in all another great day in the shadow of the castle

Everyone, please post your pics!

[JCviggen]

Oh ya the day was a blast! A little overshadowed by a little parking lot incident in the morning where my car sustained slight body damage

After that (which was still before Kelly arrived ) we all went out for a lap with Denny as a passenger and the lap was pretty fast...I passed Brian and Johann's V70Rs at Flugplatz and up to Schwedenkreuz but Jesse was too far ahead and my 850 couldnt stick with an R through slower corners..regardless the lap only took 9:37 on my watch which was definately the fastest lap so far. As Denny can confirm I dont think my car could do it much faster than that with me as a driver...if Sabine would drive it, it would be obviously
I even ran a few inches too wide at Brünnchen kicking up dust in front of Johann (sorry )

Then I navigated for a few people and shot the inboard with Kelly (came out very nice btw! I thought it'd be worse, not easy to hold the cam in front of me over all those bumps)

Dont have much time before work but here are some vids I made!

Ring taxi slide in front of us

Nice sounding S60R pulls away

Onboard footage from Johann's 400+ bhp V70R part one (up to an accident with a bike ahead)

Johann onboard part deux with a nice slide at the end!

Pics and stuff later

[Johann]

Thanks Jan, thanks all the others! Great day and a shipload of fun!.

Here are a few pictures and a short movie of Russ mastering the green hell.
Unfortunately shortly after that the battery of the camera went dead.

@Scott,

De rear sway did wonders! Complete transformation of the R experience!

For comparison,

Rear bar only, 2 people in the car,

Front and rear track kit with one person in the car,

Track kit with more than 1 person in the car making a sharper turn,

Thanks Jan for finding these images.


Modified by Johann at 12:12 PM 9-6-2005

[Realdawg]

It all started out with me calling Kelly and waking him up out of bed.
He was not to late
We finally left and some German (local) decided he wanted some fun.
Kelly and I were doing about 115-120 MPH as always
We come across (passed) a new red Mustang Mach 1 and he wanted to play in our game of see who could go faster. No need to ask, Kelly and I left him behind.
New experience for my son thou
He can not wait until the next time, he says he is going to bring his friends.
On the way home I decided that I really wanted to see what this fine car could do and do it safely without scaring the crap out of myself and my son.
We passed a new Pontiac GTO, he thought he could hang, and he did for awhile and yes I know there is 400 hoursepower under his hood but driving straight and on autobahn or highway roads are two differnet things. He started 5 car links behind me and he fell farther and farther behind. I slowed down and next interchange and he was no were around.
Speedo said 160MPH I was told 158 MPH limited
(close enough)
it felt like it was on rails.
This car handles like a dream. I might need some new tires if I keep going to the ring.

Russ

[R Kelly]

Russ-

I so can't believe you dimed me out like that on international forum.

Always a blast driving up to Nurburgring, almost as much fun as the track itself. Especially when you are bounding all over the freeway (4C was so bad Russ noticed it without me saying anything).

Wish I could have seen the face on the Mustang driver. It was also great to meet Miguel. Hope he can make it next time...

[obsessed1]

We need a legal track like that here in the US. When I visit family there next time I gotta find sombody togo there with. Noone in my family overthere is into cars so I never pushed the issue and they are not even that far from there......

Nice Vids, keep them coming....

[JCviggen]

Small selection of pics from the day here

http://www.jcviggen.com/Ring4sept/

[JimLill]

Quote, originally posted by obsessed1 »

We need a legal track like that here in the US.

A couple thoughts....

the Ring as driven "above", is not really a track in that passing can only be done on the left as it's in effect a toll road.

Even still, there's no real control of people so there is some risk that not everybody will "play nice".

Of course, you can still drive fast so that's always fun. I just wish you guys would wear helmets to be safer.

As to the US, the needs are all about going fast without a fear of tickets etc.
There are currently ways to do that. There are numerous "Driver Education" (DE) events around the country. There is another recent thread that lists almost all of them in the Northeast.

In particular, VIR and Watkins Glen provide longer (> 3miles) tracks with good challenges and with an R a chance to approach 130 mph on a closed course.

The DE programs have structure that provides a safer environment and some instruction to increase your own skills.

The cost of DE varies, but figure about $200-250/day which includes 2+ hours of track time.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/zerothread?id=45138

[Dyno]

Yup. There are many, many tracks in the US where you can run your R, or any other car or motorcycle as long as it passes safety inspections. The number is probably in the thousands if you consider temporary autocross tracks. Add dragstrips and, well, you get the idea. Plus you can get high-quality instruction if you desire.

<on soapbox> This is one reason why I don't understand street racers. Why do they have to endanger others when there are plenty of better choices? <off soapbox>

[obsessed1]

I know there are race tracks etc to go on but there is nothing like the Nurburgring that is like 15 miles long. Maybe Bear Mountain/Harriman park NY......But we want legal right?

[JimLill]

Quote, originally posted by obsessed1 »

I know there are race tracks etc to go on but there is nothing like the Nurburgring that is like 15 miles long. Maybe Bear Mountain/Harriman park NY......But we want legal right?

I guess it comes down to going fast or learning to go faster. If you talk to N'ring drivers they'll tell you with so many turns, you never learn them all and you get tired too.

My own preference, is the longer tracks like Watkins Glen, VIR etc. where @ 3+ miles you stretch your R's legs but yet you get enough repetition to get a rhythm and a little faster each lap or session. Typical DE session is about 20 miles.

[speedemon]

Plus, the Nurburgring is a lot cheaper:

$18 for a one lap ticket
$72 for a five lap ticket (must be used in the same day)
$96 for a six lap ticket (good for anytime during the the year)
(I've got one more lap on my third 6-lap ticket this year)
$900 for unlimited laps for the calendar year
I think someone said they have some new options, but don't know the particulars.

A lot of people do wear helmets, especially if they have roll cages or are in full up race prepped cars.

If I had a helmet, I'd probably wear it. But then again I might push the envelope a lot more and risk crunching the "R".

I need to get in as many laps as I can this year as I'm leaving Germany next summer. I think I'm gonna cry !!!!

[JCviggen]

Quote, originally posted by JimLill »

I guess it comes down to going fast or learning to go faster. If you talk to N'ring drivers they'll tell you with so many turns, you never learn them all and you get tired too.

There is some truth in this, but I have never been on a track as exciting and scaring at the same time as the 'Ring. Its extremely unforgiving, yet at the same time extremely rewarding when you make it round....the feeling of not lifting over blind crests is amazing. The problem is that its always somewhat dangerous depending how far you push it, and its really addictive...

once you're hooked, there is no substitute for the greatest track in the world...so my advice is better stay off it!!!!

[JimLill]

Quote, originally posted by JCviggen »

once you're hooked, there is no substitute for the greatest track in the world...

You're right... my comments were more aimed at the fact that we are not left without anything here in the US as DE @ tracks is pretty good and safe too.

[Warpedcow]

Quote, originally posted by JimLill »

I guess it comes down to going fast or learning to go faster. If you talk to N'ring drivers they'll tell you with so many turns, you never learn them all and you get tired too.

However, drivers can "learn" the nurburgring by driving it in Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo 4 for free before actually heading out to drive the real thing. In R Kelly's 10 minute video, I knew exactly what turns were "coming up" throughout the entire video because I've driven the Nurburgring in Forza about 100 laps or so. (Admittedly I kept thinking "kiss the apex, use the whole track" but then remembered he probably didn't want to wreck his car haha).

[R Kelly]

Quote, originally posted by Warpedcow »

(Admittedly I kept thinking "kiss the apex, use the whole track" but then remembered he probably didn't want to wreck his car haha).

Hey, besides the fact that I have NEVER claimed to be a good track driver (only 7 ring laps spread across 7 mos under my belt) the thing about the Ring for me is I'm always concerned some motorcycle or Porsche is going to come flying around the corner behind me (or I have one tailgating me at the time). SOOO, I tend to stick to the right. I'm more concerned about having fun and not crashing my car than maximizing times. And you know what, I have a blast, even if my lap times are 20-30 secs slower than some.

[Bavaria R]

Cool reports, pics and Vids... back from Greece Holiday 2 weeks without my 2 R's (the Volvo and the BMW Bike), no trill's nothing but Jeep Driving through the Crete Mountains...

I missed the Ring and you folks, must have been a blast again... keep it up.

Hey Kelly who is going to take over the organisation if you leave next year?

[Warpedcow]

Quote, originally posted by "R" Kelly »

Hey, besides the fact that I have NEVER claimed to be a good track driver (only 7 ring laps spread across 7 mos under my belt) the thing about the Ring for me is I'm always concerned some motorcycle or Porsche is going to come flying around the corner behind me (or I have one tailgating me at the time). SOOO, I tend to stick to the right. I'm more concerned about having fun and not crashing my car than maximizing times. And you know what, I have a blast, even if my lap times are 20-30 secs slower than some.

Hey I understand, I'm sure I'd be alot slower than you if I were to drive the real thing! Keep the cool vid's comin!

FWIW, I think last night, Discovery Channel aired the "american version" of the Top Gear episode where Clarkson flogged the Diesel Jag (about 200hp) around the nurburgring, trying for a 10 minute lap. He finally got 9:59. Then Sabine hopped in the Jag and drove a 9:12 (first lap driving that car for her). Dayum!

[R Kelly]

Quote, originally posted by Bavaria R »

Hey Kelly who is going to take over the organisation if you leave next year?

Well, I must have been sleeping during my coronation, cuz aren't monarchs the only ones who get to name their successor??

I have 4 laps left on my ticket, my car is getting the the 4C fixed (fingers crossed) on Tuesday, and I just switched to a triple resonator Svenske, so I think that means I'll be at the Ring on Sunday, 18 September. Track opens at 0830.

I'm not even going give a showtime for me. Between leaving wallets behind, 4C problems and screwed up alarms, I haven't had much luck lately. But I plan on getting at least one lap in prior to lunch at 1200 in Adenau. And I will swing by BK at Ramstein to caravan up with people in the morning. I guess I'll go make an announcement...

[Britspeed]

Fantastic!!!

Thanks for all the pics and video.

Enjoy!