6 hours at the Nürburgring

"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
10/22/2016 at 04:00 • Filed to: Nürburgring, VLN, Endurance, Nordschleife, Photography

This one turned out way better than expected. (Pflanzgarten)

In the first weekend of September, a friend and I decided to make the drive down to the Nürburgring (roughly 250 km), in order to watch the ROWE 6 Stunde ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, better known as round 7 of the VLN championship.

I should have posted this long ago, but the start of the academic year caused me to spend time on studying, instead of editing photos. In the caption of the photos you’ll find the name of the corner, as added information) Link to the Flickr album:

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For those unfamiliar with the VLN championship: The VLN championship is a multi-class racing league for endurance racing running on the full Nürburgring, combining the GP strecke with the Nordschleife. The large entry field (a healthy 113 cars) consists of cars from all over the spectrum, ranging from a simple Peugeot 306 run by a family team, to full on GT3 cars from teams like Black Falcon. In this case, the race lasted 6 hours, which meant each car was ran by multiple drivers, which is not mandatory in the shorter 3 hour races.

Two striped Twingos in their natural habitat, one is faster though....

We arrived just in time, but missed the first pass of the first group of cars through Hocheichen, since finding a parking spot near the track entrance appeared to be hard, which is to expect for an event with free access to the whole Nordschleife, the GP strecke had a €15 entry fee, but we didn’t even have time to go there, since we wanted to explore as much of the Nördschleife as we could.

M235i’s everywhere... I guess this and the M2 have sort of taken the M3s place. (Hocheichen)

Kremer 997, it is really as awesome as the idea sounds (Hocheichen)

After spending some time in several corners between Hatzebach and Hocheichen, we walked back to the car, in order to drive towards Adenauer Forst. However upon arriving in the parking area, we found out is was full, and since I knew it would still be quite a long up hill walk in the burning sun, we decided to go to Breidscheid instead (my friend is quite the Dutchguy, including the pale skin, so he’d probably have burned his skin even more had we walked the to Adenauer Forst). Having parked at the Aldi, got some fries at an imbiss, and climbed the stairs to the Breidscheid viewing area.

The only Ferrari running the event, the livery is stunning though! (Breidscheid)

Fluorescent yellow 911. (Breidscheid)

BMW Z4 GT3 (Breidscheid)

Breidscheid was really awesome, but there was almost no shade, so the sun started to burn our necks quite hard. Which is why we decided to leave Breidscheid, and drive to a viewing spot at Bergwerk, which I had found online. After walking for what felt like half an hour, I figured we must have taken a wrong turn, but then we met some Germans, who were also looking for a viewing spot. Together we came to the conclusion that this spot did not exist anymore, unless you have good binoculars that is:

Race Astra! See, we were that far off the track. (Kesselchen)

Having walked back to the car, we decided to drive to Brünnchen. However, since we ended up parking closer to Pflanzgarten than to Brünnchen, we decided to check out Pflanzgarten first, after which we walked along the track to Brünchen.

I like how the fence and the sun light work together on this one. Also, the only American Muscle present on track. (Pflanzgarten)

See what I was talking about with the M235i’s. (Eiskurve-Pflanzgarten)

Quite a lot of Vantages around too, which my friend is absolutely crazy for. (Eiskurve-Pflanzgarten)

We ended up in a nice quiet spot hidden in a small forest, where we were able to take some nice photo’s of cars doing high speed passes. Brünnchen ended up being a bit harder, since there we had to shoot through a high fence (we only discovered the photography cut out once the racing had finished...), but it was a nice way to end the day. We had no idea who won though, until we checked it when we were back in the Netherlands and had our 4G coverage back.

I don’t know why, but I just love the ROWE M6. (Brünnchen).

Looks a bit like a Kinder Egg, don’t you think? (Brünnchen)

More of the Kremer 997. (Brünnchen)

All in all I really enjoyed the race, and I’m sure I’ll return someday (maybe even for the 24 hour version). The roads around the Nürburgring are also great to drive, though it was quite a challenge for me to keep up with traffic, since on some parts there is no (clear) speedlimit. This meant most people drove around 100 km/h, only slowing down in the corners, but the Twingo misses some torque to be able to keep up.

See ya Nordschleife! (Brünnchen)

Next to the enjoying the racing, I also think I honed my photography skills quite a bit (it was actually only the second I shot moving vehicles). Of course remarks/comments about the pictures and the way they have been edited are welcome.

I hope you enjoyed the read and the pictures, as much as I enjoyed the racing, and taking the pictures!

All pictures where taken with a Canon 700D with a 18-55 lens and a UV-filter. For the rest of the pictures (some edited in photoshop and others straight from the camera) you can click the link below:

https://www.flickr.com/short_urls.gne?photoset=aHskLQCGCb

DISCUSSION (21)

CaptDale - is secretly British > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/21/2016 at 18:36

Very nice. I enjoyed the photos and the write up

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > CaptDale - is secretly British
10/22/2016 at 02:43

Thanks!

Jobjoris > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 05:52

Great read and those panning pictures look awesome. And that far away white Astra has overtaken me so many times during Touristen Fahrten, that guy is actually great!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Jobjoris
10/22/2016 at 06:33

Thanks! It was really awesome to try something new. The Astra and Calibra were awesome, both were running Ronal turbo rims, and the Astra driver was waving to everybody once the race was finished. There was also a Manta B, which was converted to a full winged racer.

Clemsie McKenzie > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 07:35

Great write up and pictures! Now it’s my time to be a bit jealous!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Clemsie McKenzie
10/22/2016 at 07:40

Thanks! I’m sure there will someday come an event we can both attend, so none of us has to be jealous.

Clemsie McKenzie > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 07:46

Well, from what I hear, we’ll both be at the Ring in March, so there’s that to look forward to!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Clemsie McKenzie
10/22/2016 at 07:55

True, I´m even planning our activities there. Would you want to take the Clio on a lap of the Nordschleife if there is a Touristenfahrt? (They still have to decide on the dates for 2017) I’m thinking of taking the Twingo for a spin, so you wouldn’t be the slowest.

DutchieDC2R > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 08:20

I was going to ask you about the Manta, but then I read the comments below. Great pictures!

PS: they did decide on the dates for the Europpo Meet, 25 to 27 March.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > DutchieDC2R
10/22/2016 at 08:29

Thanks!

I meant the dates of the Touristen fahrten, 2017 still shows fully closed on the site.

Clemsie McKenzie > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 09:12

I guess it would depend on the state of my car at the time and om how much money I could save! It is tempting, though.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Clemsie McKenzie
10/22/2016 at 09:16

Yeah, I need to fit some better tires too, before doing so. Also depends if I’m still on my winter tyres, or I’ve swapped them already.

sonicgabe > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 12:18

Great shots! Shooting cars on track is tough. I really like the #669 BMW pic. Fantastic job on that one. The car is crisp enough and you got a great amount of movement with the background. Kudos.

sonicgabe > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 12:28

Also, there are some really great shots in your Flickr album. Like this one:

https://flic.kr/p/Nnps6H

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > sonicgabe
10/22/2016 at 12:36

Thanks, I had some doubts about that one, since only some parts of the car were in focus. Good to hear you like it!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > sonicgabe
10/22/2016 at 12:43

The first few (50-ish) shots were hard indeed, but once I had found the right settings the photos started getting better. The #669 BMW pic is among my own favourites too, as is the top #941 Porsche pic.

sonicgabe > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/22/2016 at 12:54

I know the feeling. When I go to the St Petersburg Indy Car weekend, I feel like I spend the first day and half just dialing it in. This year, I went back and looked at the metadata from my best shots from last year, which gave me a good place to start from. Just when I feel like I’m in the zone, the weekend is over.

sonicgabe > sonicgabe
10/22/2016 at 13:30

One tip that I can offer for when you are up on a fence and have to shoot through it... use a longer lens, like a 70-200 or something like that. When you put it up against the square hole of the chainlink, you won’t get any of fence in the shot. Even 55mm is too wide in most cases. But you might know this already.

In St Pete, there is a photo cut-out on the inner fence in the final corner. I can position myself to shoot through it from behind the second fence. Works great.

I got stuck shooting around another photographer, so I still got a little of the inner fence, but it works; gives the shot a little more depth.

Kinja'd!!!

DutchieDC2R > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/23/2016 at 00:54

Aaaahh, understood. :)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > sonicgabe
10/23/2016 at 12:00

Yeah, I figured I need a longer lens, I’ll probably start to look around for one in a couple of weeks time, when my exams have passed.

That’s a nice one! The fence indeed gives it a bit more depth.

sonicgabe > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
10/23/2016 at 13:03

For that shot, I most likely had the lens pulled all the way back to 60mm, but because of the geometry and maths of how focal points works and other crap I pretend to understand, even when part of the fence you are pushed up against cuts across the edges in front of the lens, you are really looking past it.

I just woke, so I’m upset that I made myself think about math this early in the day. But if you can get right up the the fence, the long lens will help. I have what should be a crappy non-AI 60-160mm from the 1970s that works like a champ. The glass is great, and it’s built like a tank. And they are plentiful on eBay for very little money. I have a thing for old lenses, but if you need a long lens but need to save up for a decent new(ish) one, do yourself a favor and spend $40 on eBay. It’ll get the job done, and you just might like it a whole lot, too.