A Weekend At The Nürburgring

Kinja'd!!! "Alex87f" (alex87f)
04/23/2014 at 13:00 • Filed to: None

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I spent last weekend at the Nürburgring and thought I'd do a quick post to share it with the jalopnik community, so that everyone can enjoy it!

As with all car adventures, it starts with being on the road, on the way there. It's a 120 miles drive from where I live, mostly on small german country roads:

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(this is actually in Belgium, but who cares?)

I got there around 4:30PM on Saturday and met with my friend who had arrived about half an hour earlier ( sorry! ). Since my car was still warm from the drive, we thought we'd take it for a spin right away!

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Here's what the fuel consumption looked like after one lap..

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(that's about 14mpg, for a 1.6 liter engine!)

Sadly, the track closed for the remainder of the day because of an accident, so my friend didn't get the opportunity to lap it. We headed to the Burgstube to grab a couple of beers, and drove to the GP track to see what was going on. We opened the door of the 'ring complex and were greeted with a small surprise:

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and...

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I'm pretty sure my jaw touched the floor at this point. The XJ220 is my childhood dream and I had never seen one in person. This was amazing. I spent a good 15 minutes looking at it and couldn't get enough of it!

We then headed for the track to see what the 15 minutes sessions were. The view wasn't too shabby:

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A couple of beers and some burgers later and we went in for an early night, in order to be ready early on Sunday morning.. (spoiler: I'm not a morning person)

... and arrived a the track at 11:00AM.

We set off, and I managed to do a 9:51 BTG, which I am rather proud of. It's really nothing to write home about, but with my limited talent, it's more than I was hoping to achieve. Here's the video:

(the action starts around the 0:40 second mark)

Before setting off for another lap in my friend's Subaru (which probably did not get 10mpg on the track), we saw another unexpected thing at the gas station:

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Yes, this is a Lola racecar with the world's biggest velocity stacks:

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The last lap in the Subie ended with an impressive 9:36 BTG despite a lot of traffic and some short shifting.

While pulling over into the parking lot and letting the car cool down a bit, something unexpecting drove past us:

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This is a real Skyline GT-R V-Spec II Nür! Another car I had never seen before..

The couple of laps each of us had logged on the Nordschleife seemed enough for the weekend, but we really felt like trying out the new 15-minutes sessions at the GP track. So we bought a couple of passes, and headed there.

... And of course, before buying the ticket, we forgot to ask the magic question: " is it open today?". Because had we, the cashier probably would have told us " yes, but only after 5:30PM, because there is an oldtimer event there and they're using the track"..
But we didn't ask, and only realized this when we got there. Happily though, the event wasn't too bad, and there were quite a few nice cars:

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There were three other GT40's in the garage the red one was pulling out of. Including two Gulf ones. I don't know GT40's that well, so no idea on whether or not they were replicas:

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Don't they say that the devil is the the details? (Yes, this is a Gulf-livery toolbox, on a Gulf-livery GT-40):

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Here's the sound that comes with the GT40's:


While walking around the pits, we also stumbled onto this thing, whatever it is, but it wasn't starting up. I must say that it had lapped the track before, and it wasn't as slow as you might expect.

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( they don't look very happy about me taking a picture, sorry! ).

Then we got to see from up close this incredibly loud Lola racecar, that had been lapping the track quite quickly. Here it is in the pits, where they were doing some fine-tuning, apparently on the intake side:


What the video doesn't show is how incredibly loud the car was ( except if you notice they guy putting his fingers in his ears at 0:38! ). I don't remember ever hearing an engine that loud. One could feel the vibration in his chest from several meters away. Again, no idea what precise model this is, but it had a DOHC inline-four engine.

Here's a Volvo Amazon racecar ready to get on the track:

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A 21 windows combi. I'm not big on VW's, but they are quite rare, aren't they?

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I tried to blend in as best I could, but I'm not sure it worked out:

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( day #1: they don't seem to notice I'm not an oldtimer...)

As I said, we left without being able to lap the GP track. But it was a great weekend nevertheless, and we come home with the promise to spend our un-used credits on GP track-time next time we go there.

tl;dr: I was at the Nürburgring, saw some cars and made a video of myself being slow.


DISCUSSION (16)


Kinja'd!!! E92M3 > Alex87f
04/23/2014 at 13:08

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I could never live there. I'd be homeless in no time. "Hey didn't we just put new tires on this car 2 weeks ago?"


Kinja'd!!! thebigbossyboss > Alex87f
04/23/2014 at 13:13

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"Belgium: Pretty much a non country" - Nigel Farage!


Kinja'd!!! thebigbossyboss > Alex87f
04/23/2014 at 13:16

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Amazing!


Kinja'd!!! EL_ULY > Alex87f
04/23/2014 at 13:26

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lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > EL_ULY
04/23/2014 at 13:49

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Indeed :)


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > E92M3
04/23/2014 at 13:51

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Or you could open a repair shop there!
Everything there seems to be car related. I saw a house with a couple of garages, which were opened.. there were two hydraulic ramps in there, with no less than six track prepped Corvettes, as well as an SLS and an SSR (strange!). Kind of a dream job for a car nut!


Kinja'd!!! Train > Alex87f
04/23/2014 at 13:52

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What kind of Subaru? It seems like a late model Impreza / WRX from the shifting and the inside view.


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > Train
04/23/2014 at 14:17

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It's a very late GT Turbo, like the one below. A 2000 model I think:

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Kinja'd!!! Jobjoris > Alex87f
04/24/2014 at 05:44

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Looks like a Riley to me. Probably a Nine Brooklands.

16.7 ltr/100 kms for a 1.6 is pretty good when going flat out. My old 1.4 Polo GTI reached over 20. My old 928 did... 45-ish.


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > Jobjoris
04/24/2014 at 06:22

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Yeah, it's actually not that bad, though it included the transfer from parking lot to the track, and the coasting on the straight line after the lap. I kept that average, and after the 195km drive home the average was back to 7.5l/100km.

The Subie... Over 350km of highway + 1 lap it got 12l/100km. But it's got so much POWER. Looking at the videos, I start the fast portion after Flugplatz at 130-ish kph in 4th, and get to about 195kph at the end. The Subie starts at 120kph in 5th and reaches 210... Two gears too high and it still beats me by 15kph!


Kinja'd!!! DSC Off > Alex87f
04/30/2014 at 02:14

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Hey great write up. I'll be at the Ring from Sunday to Wednesday next week (Scuderia Hanseat)... It's safe to assume I'll be the only Belgian registered blue BRZ, come say hi if you're around!


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > DSC Off
04/30/2014 at 03:12

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Thanks! Five days there, that's going to be nice! Do you go there often?

I typically go 2-3 times per year, and won't be there this weekend, otherwise I would have swung by to say hi. Next time will probably be somewhere in June or July.

Enjoy your time there then! Especially with a BRZ.. I've test driven one of those a while ago and they're very nice cars! Now if only they could get a bit cheaper..


Kinja'd!!! DSC Off > Alex87f
04/30/2014 at 03:29

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I try to go as often as I can, unfortunately rarely more than 5-6 per year, though. See you next time then ;)


Kinja'd!!! Poundingsand > Alex87f
04/30/2014 at 11:26

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Well, now I'm jealous.

Seriously, it looked like an amazing time...on my bucket list. With a rental car. haha


Kinja'd!!! davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Alex87f
05/07/2014 at 22:04

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Finally took the time to read this - looks like a fantastic time! Can't wait until it's my turn...


Kinja'd!!! Alex87f > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
05/08/2014 at 03:05

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It was really great! You should enjoy it while it's still easy to access :)