ALFAGTV6.COM

[Jim K]

Just in case anyone is remotely interested, we're going to the 'Ring again on October 4th. Should be fewer people than last month as on the previous day (Oct.3) the track is only open for a couple of hours. 10 of us signed up already and the entire trip (for the Athens based group) will cost ~900Euros this time because air tickets are more expensive by about 80-90Euros.
How about it 3M? (Mats, Maurizio, Micke) This is surely enough notice!
Jim K.

[Mats]

Sounds Plausible. Weather will be shaky I guess but hey it's always shaky in the Eifel mountains.

[Omawari_San]

Hm....the Ring is only about 170km from here....

[Maurizio]

Check... date is now in the agenda!

[MD]

Hey Greekster,

I want you to feel a little competition on the day. I am planning to rent some cargo space on the lower deck of Noah's new ark to bring the Brick across. The rates are great. The only snag is I gotta wait for the next flood which I am told by the global warming committee is just around the corner..you have been warned.

[Jim K]

Excuses...! Floods take too long, there's a better way: China is not far from where you are. If you can even convince half of them to piss into the sea at the same time, you got it made! Your raft will ride the (yellow ) wave all the way to the civilized world (Europe, heheh!)
Jim K.

[kevin]

I was gonna ship my car over but I hear half the parts will be stolen off it before it goes through our customs. Ask RZ. This would be the new superlegera GTV alla South Africa.

[Fernando]

Ha ha ha,you guys crack me up. Does racing the Ring,online,on X-Box's FORZA 2 count for anything ? They need some Alfa's on the new version.

[Mats]

So what went down? Rain?
We had the worst weather up here on Saturday with storm winds and heavy rain, Sunday was a little better...

No Schnitzel stories?

[Maurizio]

Well how did it go....

I was a bit late Saturday, the greeks would go on the TourRallye & TrackWalk with the lotus exige, so I kind of just missed them.
Weather was good, cloudy, lot of wind but no rain.
I walked along the track to watch the vln race on several places.
For the first time ever, I walked towards Schwedenkreuz and Aremberg corner.
Nice place to watch: serious speeds in those corners, you could hear several race cars run into the rev limiter in top gear just before the breaking zone of the corner!!!
I met up with the greeks ~ 16.30h at Ron's place.
The normal tech bs and the need to eat something

Track would be open at Saturday from 18.30h till 19.30h.
The predictions for Sunday were not so good. During the night it should start to rain and there should be a small window between 12h and 16h without rain.
So my plan was to do some good dry laps on Saturday.
But as always after a vln race,l track was open for just 15 min., extremely crowded and after the first serious accident track closed for today.

The only thing you can do then is go for a Schnitzel


Sunday: I was awake pretty early (5.40h) had a peak outside and yes it was dry!!!
So back to bed, and timer set on 7.00h. Track would be open from 8 till 19h.
At 7.55h when I drove up to the track it started to drizzle
(My car is on R888 is very tricky in the rain, so I'm not that keen on these weather conditions)
Did a moderate speed lap with a 3 greeks trailing me in their rental car.
The track was slippery but ok. The drizzle was present but very mild. The track dried up on the ideal line and did some faster laps.

On my fourth lap in a row I saw something that isn't very pleasant:
A rolled alfa 75 in the grass on the right just before Aremberg corner.... nobody around.

Track closed and I went to the rest of the group, to find out it was from a member of the greek group. Luckily it was a car with roll cage and the two guys in it were ok.
The car is totaled, so it became an expensive trip for the guy...

I don't know the exact cause of their crash, but I feel the need to comment on the event.
This is an example of what makes the n'ring a dangerous place, you have to have a healthy fear / respect for the nordschleife.
Blind and/or off camber corners, crests in the braking zone, steep up-down hill etc. It is very easy to fuck up, go to fast and crash. You need about 20-30 laps to actual know where you are & going.
So you are struggling with a car under high speeds/cornering/braking/the track + there is a lot of traffic around you (fast experienced guys).
AND there are almost no run off areas.
Rain /wet makes it even worse, it is like driving on ice (due to huge amount of rubber on the ideal line). On a day like that you see a lot of crashed cars trailer-ed of the track also from experienced guys.

People who think they know and practice the ring on a game console like gran-tourismo, etc ==> Forget it, this is the real thing, there is no game over/replay button!

So to make it a fun day: do it easy, know your limitations and enjoy the scenery and atmosphere. There is nothing to win on the ring.

After-wards did some more good laps and ~15.00h it really started to rain.
Speeds over 80 km/h on the straights was aquaplaning territory for me, so I called it a day!
Did some more (tech) bs / hanging around / eating and went home.
We had some good laughs and I did a total of 9 laps on sunday which is not bad considered the circumstances.

[MD]

Mate, I did suggest to Noah that he should shift the Ark buildig site to the Ring but he wouldn't hear of it...

[Mats]

Hmm, Aremberg. One of about three gravel traps on the lap right? Good spot to come unstuck I guess...

[Jim K]

Like Maurizio said, you need lots of laps AND a good memory along with (hopefully) driving skill to have a fast and safe day in the Ring.
The guy who rolled the car, ended up paying ~900Euros originally for the trip, 300Euros to the track for recovering the car and 6000Euros to Ron for the totalled 75 (which is all in the rental agreement you sign before picking up the car).
He was going way too fast and thought the following right hander was much wider...I don't think he'll be visiting there again...

Now the Exige S...a damn fast oversized go-kart! However, I believe it was designed for people under 1.7m tall, under 70kg and definitely under 40yrs old!! I did mange to get in and out but its awkward. The thing is so low and the sills too wide! You get the impression that in any type of accident you'd have a serious problem in this tub! Performance -wise... words are superfluous!
Now the schnitzels in Adenau...everyone enjoyed them, nothing more to say! And since the VLN practice was on (Friday) we just climbed a few stairs and had a first sight of all the machinery coming downhill and over the bridge. Two Mustangs with the umnistakable V8 sound were in the pack but looked to be well off the pace as well as a Vette. Them GT3's are THE toys to beat!
Ok, this trip is over; lets wait for the May 2010 one!
Jim K.

[Maurizio]

Them GT3's are THE toys to beat!

Also during thouristenfahrten....... cornering speed is not the trouble, the acceleration and deceleration of the 75 is

So I start saving up for an excige to celebrate my upcoming midlife crisis

[GarthW]

Its a damn shame i cant be there, i just live on the wrong side of the world...
As for GT3's, my Alfa now has more power/torque and a better power to weight ratio than most of them, well the standard ones lol.

Have fun over there guys, i'll be there in spirit, was always my favourite track to race on...simulator of course...