Easter at the Ring

Winter is over and it is time for the first trip of the year to the "Ring" excitment is growing day by day - like Xmas when you were a kid :-)



Wake earlier than planned - car all prepared and packed the night before - head off to catch the ferry. No problems with traffic but got a front wheel wobble so when I arrive in Dover early I call into a tyre place and they balance one of the front wheels.



Board the ferry and go to the quiet room for a nap. All good so far, but off the ferry at Dunkirk and the wheel wobble is worse :-( Nothing for it but drive to Germany at slightly higher speeds than planned - makes for a smoother ride the faser the wheels turn around.....


However, after two hours of this I have had enough and RSI is developing in my hands so I stop and switch the front wheels to the back and vice versa - it is a bit better.

Arrive at the hotel at 730pm park the car and wander down to the Pistenklause to see who is around - the place was heaving and I joined a table with Steve, Jochen, Rich, Dave, Dutch Bob and Rich's mate Mark. Had Steak and Chianti and then off to bed for an early start in the morning.


In the Ring car park for 8am only to find it was not open due to fog at Adenau.........














Spent the time looking at cars and talking to people. Rich's Honda conversion had been done really sweet it looked like it had always been there and the noise it made was even sweeter.

A stag party arrived in convoy - one of them with an MDF spoiler on the back and a Colonel Boogey horn :-) you had to laugh as they were all dressed in Tux's.


Took an age for the Ring to open but then got out for my first slow lap - new wheels and tyres , brakes and carbon fiber air box......steady as she goes. No issues, everything performing ok so about to set off for a second lap when Rich's mate Mark asks if he can have a pax lap. Sure no problem was the reply but you need to wear a helmet - I had a spare in the boot and it fitted so off we went.





After a few laps I drove over to Ring Racing to drop off the road wheels for balancing and to see if they could get a better spacer for the journey home - also to say hello to Manu and Uwe the brothers who run it.

Then it was back to the Ring and more lapping now that the tyres had heated up - the carbon fiber airbox sounds fabulous and the extra power is just intoxicating .......... boys and their toys.


The car park got busier and busier until you could hardly move - very few incidents and almost no closurers - excellent. Went for a pax lap with a few friends in thier cars and other friends came out with me - some just to hear the airbox :-)

I had met some young Irishmen in the carpark of the hotel and offered to take them out to show them the lines - they turned up in a monster 500+bhp Skyline. One by one I took them out and in usual Irish terms they enjoyed the "crack" and could not believe the grip and poise through the corners of the M3.




The weather was fantastic - blue skies, virtually no clouds, but a cold wind. Everyone was in good form and there were no incidents - could life get any better...

Next I noticed a real exotic in the car park a Porsche Carrera GT in silver with an appropriate UK number plate - they only made them in LHD which confused a number of people - the same happens with the E30 M3 - they were only made in LHD also.


It is a lovely supercar as you can see from the photo - the rear tyres are massive 335 breadth - I would not want to be the one paying for their replacement!









The owner turned out to be a guy I know through another friend - James who has a Porsche also - a 968CS. Steve agreed to give me a passenger lap in the Carrera GT - Wow was I pleased - never been round the Ring in such an expensive supercar before. He said he would be back later in the day when it was quieter.


James and I had both done the BMW Car Club Faher Training at the Ring - back when James had a similar E30 M3 but his was a rare Sport Evo. He now has the 968CS in a very attractive shade of Racing Blue. We agreed to go out in my M3 with James as a passenger and then he would follow me in the 968 and then I would have a passenger lap in the 968. All in the cause of science you understand - the science of the petrolhead that is :-)

Well later Steve came back with the Carrera GT and gave me a passenger lap. with a car like this you could not be a "shrinking violet" everyone crowds round and wants to take a photo and ask questions. I had my camera on me and took some shoots from inside the car my favourite is this one - out the passenger window capturing the rear view door mirror with the rear haunches of the car extending backwards and some blurred images of the cars trying to follow!



Steve was being very circumspect around the corners and giving the car and it's vast power a lot of respect, but on the straights the acceleration and power was mind bendingly fast.

However, I am not a great lover of the engine noise - it is very mechanical - chains, gears, pulleys etc all wirring and clattering just behind your head. A BMW V10 sings when you rev it but this is very different - you do get a sense of great power and strength but it is not an aurally captivating noise. Indeed, Steve said when he gave his Dad a lift in it for the first time - he asked was it broken :-) LOL

Later that afternoon I had a problem manifest itself with the new brakes - lots of juddering under heavy braking. so off I went to Ring Racing to see if there was anything they could do? We had a look and the disks when hot were just touching the calipers - yeuch!!!!

Without the right shims there was nothing they could do :-( so I had to put up with it. Unfortunately, this eventually warped the disks and the problem got worse. I eventually ended up using the brakes less and less and adjusting my driving style to cope with this by doing cadedance (is that the right spelling?) braking. This somewhat took some of the fun out of driving.


John from Munich agreed to take my car out and we would do some tuning of the Alpha N now that the Carbon Fibre airbox was fitted. After 2 hours of going up and down the same hill he had completed the remapping. By the way Jake was going up and down the same hill as he had to have two large washers welded into his exhaust to bring his noise level down from 104dbs! in order for him to get back on the Ring.


After this the M3 was running even sweeter so the brake problem was even more of an issue I took it to another garage on the Sunday afternoon, one that Eric (an American Air Force guy) who lived in the area knew of. We were able to fit shims in the Calipers so this meant the disks were no longer touching them, but the warping was still there at high temperatures. There is always something isn't there.

The Ring is a road which demands great respect and things can go wrong very quickly even with modern super cars with all the latest electronic "gizmos" on board. For example this BMW M6 is having a bit of a problem in probably one of only a few areas where there is runoff. The driver "collected" the car adroitly and did not touch a barrier - Phew!!!!!




However, some people were not so lucky - there were about four Golfs which had terminal contact with armco - fortunately all the drivers were OK.







A more expensive contact with the Armco in Briedshied Bridge was had by a driver of a Porsche 911 GT3 - the driver was OK but the car was dead.


One of the Golf's belonged to a friend who has been very philosphical about it and is already planning the build of his next Ring car.....

You get lots of exotic cars turning up at the Ring including about five Ferrari 430's arriving together - all red of course. A 360 turned up during the day as well but unfortunately he contacted something on the way round and smashed the nose and one of the front radiators - ouch!

On the Sunday night the Nothloop forum (http://www.northloop.co.uk/) had organise a massive dinner event in Adneau and about 50 - 60 people turned up. I had paid my deposit to join the festivities but after a long day on the Ring - it competely slipped my mind and I wandered aimlessly down to the Pistenklause where I bumped into Steve and James and joined them for dinner and Italian wine fest. So I paid for two dinners that night but only ate one of them :-(







I spotted a car I had never seen before - a new Opel convertible - it looked pretty good from the front and the rear as can be seen from the pictures.

I particularly like the rear view with the flying buttresses behind the driver and passenger roll hoops.

























On the Monday - everyone seemed to go mad - and there were stoppages all the time - but no one was seriously hurt. At one point going round the Ring I counted 6 seperate incidents with all the recovery vehicles on the Ring at the same time...... There was even a stoppage for a BBQ which had gotten out of hand at the side of the track :-)



The day ended with a ride in another Steve's BMW CSL and the final lap was in Jake's BMW 320is which he had rebuilt in a mamouth effort shortly before coming out. We got round to Briedshied Bridge when the petrol light came on (you do not want to run out of fuel on the Ring!) so we came off filled up with fuel and then rejoined to finish the lap....



A final meal and drinks with some buddies down the Pistenklause and early to bed for a very early start in the morning ----- 630am yawn......................



Uneventful drive to Dunkirk - well that was apart from the freak accident in Belgium! A white van had crashed into the central concrete barrier - entirely demolishing a whole section of concrete. A Volvo estate with three bikes on the back which had been following the white van spun around while trying to avoid the carnage. It then went backwards into the hole in the concrete and landed up off all four wheels on top of the hedge in the middle of the two rows of concrete blocks! The white van had jumped the concrete and was in the fast lane of the other side off the motorway facing the oncoming traffic. Nobody seemed to be seriously hurt, but what a bizzarre accident.



I arrived at Dunkirk on time for the 1200 ferry only to be told I was not due to be on the ferry until 1000pm that night? I got on though and had an uneventful drive home through England.



Now all I have to due is get the car ready for it's next outing next week at Pro Drive, but that is another story.