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.
) wave all the way to the civilized world (Europe, heheh!)
They need some Alfa's on the new version.
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... 