rnixon

Thanks for sharing. It's nice to hear some British accents.

RFJ

Bloody hell!! steering wheels on the wrong side.

UKKid35

You are absolutely right.

I am sure many of our Japanese contributors will confirm that although they are a RHD country, like the UK, the aficionados prefer cars that are configured as per the manufacturing country. In other words they value LHD German cars and RHD British cars, that's because there are always unpleasant compromises when a car is 'converted' to LHD/RHD. In the case of the 928 the throttle cable is the most obvious example, as throttle pedal feel is horrible on RHD cars (because of tbe cable routing), less importantly so is the bonnet release.

jon928se

All I can say is I am jealous. Since I left the UK Paul has been doing these weekend trips to the Nring. Makes me question why I moved to the other side of the planet.

928cs

Well, just take a picture of your SE in front of a surfing spot, and he will be jealous

UKKid35

One last time? Who was I kidding...

Last April the 928 was back at the Ring, but just for a single track day

The heavens opened by about 10:30am so I only managed a handful of laps before retiring - I have no intention of trying to learn how to drive on track in the wet, while at the Ring

It was my first opportunity to try the car on track with 17" wheels and AD08 tyres, it felt superb

Once again the Cerbera is out of commission, so I'm taking the 928 back to the Ring again in a month's time

Hopefully the track will be dry and I'll get to push the AD08 a little harder than last time when I was just feeling my way around

Marti

UKKid35

My first trip to the Ring was in 2006, but for the last seven years or so I've been doing Track Days at the Ring rather than Tourist Laps

I planned to retire the 928 from track day duty when I bought my Cerbera, but the TVR spends most of it's life on axle stands so the 928 has been back to the Ring several times

I did all the obvious prep work like getting car aligned, going for a shakedown in Wales

Then th week before leaving I fitted new Yellowstuff all round and flushed the old Racing Blue with new ATE TYP200

While checking fluids I noticed that the aircon belt was a little loose, but the compressor needs new seals so the aircon isn't working

Perhaps I should cut off the old belt, maybe later. Mistake #1

We decided to stop off at the Schumacher kart centre on the way to Adenau, and had a couple of sessions in the outdoor karts

I'd forgotton that I usually go karting after the track day, not before because my arms really suffer the day after. Mistake #2

We still managed to arrive in plenty of time, so I took the car to Tyre Trade Centre in Meuspath to get all four wheels balanced, and we left the car there and went to the registration and briefing

There were no obvious vibration issues, but I really like having freshly balanced wheels and they are very good at TTC

When we came out of the briefing and picked up the car, I immediately noticed that there was something wrong with the power steering

It had been fine all the way to Germany, but it most definitely was not after the wheels were balanced

There was absolutely no way anything TTC had done could affect the power steering, so I simply drove back to our apartment, swearing about how horrible it was to drive

I assumed there must be a problem with the fluid level, even though when I left London the level was perhaps a little high. Mistake #3

When I checked the fluid level it seemed fine, so I checked the belt which seemed ok and no sign of contamination, perhaps it could have been a little tighter. Mistake #4

There were no belt slip squeals, so the belt couldn't be slipping anyway. Mistake #5

I decided there was nothing more I could do, perhaps there was a heat soak issue and it will fix itself by morning

In the morning it was just as bad as the day before, manourvering in and out of parking spaces was almost impossible

Once moving things improved, but I was still fighting the steering all the way up to the TF car park, and not just on the hairpins

I went out for sighting laps and found myself fighting the steering on track, that was the last thing I wanted

However by the end of the sighting laps it seemed to have improved a little, so I went out after 9am

By the end of the first lap it seemed to have fixed itself, and when I came in to park it was fine

I continued lapping with breaks until about 11am, and then on the exit of Bergwerk I heard noise and lost all power steering completely

About a minute later as I was returning wounded the track was red flagged

I went straight to Meuspath and on opening the bonnet I could see the PS belt had been thrown off, and there was belt debris all around

Unfortunately I don't carry spare drive belts. Mistake #6

How was I going to find a new belt?

Eventually I found myself in Raeder Motorsport who kindly checked with Porsche and located a belt in Limberg

There was the possibility that I could get there and back in a couple of hours, and have the belt fitted within an hour

Perhaps I could be back on track by 3pm - not a complete disaster

Actually I didn't get back until 3pm, and I still needed to fit the belt

However when I got to work under the car it became clear that the old belt was fully intact

It had been thrown by the aircon belt that had shredded

So I'd wasted about 4 hours finding and buying a new belt. Mistake #7

Eventually I managed to fit the new belt but it was a two man job

Finally I got the the TF car park at 5pm in order to return the transponder

My theory now is that the overfilled PS reservoir contaminated the belt, which caused it to slip

However it only slipped under heavy loading, such as when parking, or on hairpin bends

It didn't squeal because of the contamination, but it dried out during the sighting laps, effectively fixing itself

Unfortunately the apartment where I'm staying doesn't have WiFi, and my 3G won't connect

So I didn't post here on Rennlist or on 928OrgUK about the PS issue on Thursday evening. Mistake #8

If I had I am sure someone would have told me that the belt was slipping, and I just needed to tighten it

It just goes to show how much I rely on Rennlist, 928OrgUK, and other forums, and the wisdom that others are willing to share

I'm glad the laps I did that morning were so rewarding, as even with all my stupid mistakes I still had a great time

Big thank you to the organisers and marshals for another great event

UKKid35

Apparently this guy lost power steering completely without warning

I have to count myself very lucky that the PS belt on my car was thrown on exiting a corner, and not on entry

UKKid35

Here's a link to a lap in the 928 from last week

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uo...QdE5_bofxLGBXY

Word of warning, this is not compressed, this is standard GoPro 720x25 quality, so you need to download it and watch, rather than stream

It is a fairly slow lap, I make no apologies for that, I do like to be able to drive home afterwards

Apart from a couple of laps last year, this is the first time I've had a chance to try the Yokohama AD08 on track, so I am still getting used to them on the 928

I've been using them on the Cerb for years, but it is about 400kg lighter, so I'm still feeling my way around

The great thing for me was that everything was working perfectly during these last few laps, power steering, brakes, tyres, engine, no vibration anywhere, it was a real pleasure to drive

UKKid35

TVR still in a thousand peices, so I was back at the Ring in the 928 last Monday

Sadly I had to retire the car when the steering rack blew its seals

Looks much better with headlights down, had to do a last minute dim/dip mod as lights are mandatory on track

UKKid35

Once again the Cerbera, which I spent months preparing for last weekend's trip, decided to try to self destruct on Saturday morning, this time one hour in to the journey to the Ring - No Oil Pressure

I had the car recovered, and we swapped in to the 928, which I had prepared as a backup again just in case

It behaved wonderfully!

Here are some photos from the Monday and Tuesday track days

UKKid35

Here are a couple of laps in case you are interested


The first is yellow flagged because of a live recovery just after Bergwerk


The second lap is clear, so there's no excuse for my laptime


As you can see, there is very little traffic, that is the beauty of a private track day with strictly limited numbers


On the other hand that means many of the participants are driving GT3 RS costing upwards of quarter of a mil


As my mate remarked, we seemed to be the slowest car on track (as well as the oldest and the highest mileage)

FredR

How many 1987 Porsches went past you?

UKKid35

There was a track prepared 968CS there, but I didn't see it in any of the photos, so I don't think it made it out on to track on either Monday or Tuesday

The 968CS was accompanied on the trip from the UK by a friend in a Citroen SM (which did not go out on track) so they definitely had some style even if things didn't go as well as they hoped