Ring and Spa Trip...
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Ring and Spa Trip...
Early Saturday morning I was up at 3am and out of the house for 3.20 having packed the night before and after only having 3 hours sleep. I drove to my brothers who was at 3.25am drinking a coffee and nursing toothache. Good start I thought as that is an ailment that anyone could do without, particularly before this particular trip. 3.30am and we've found some more space in the front of my 997 and we were off. 30 minutes later we met up with a Ady (CSL) for the drive south to Folkestone. 260 miles in three and a quarter hours so we did quite well as the roads were virtually empty. :!
Arriving at the Chunnel we had time for breakfast and a quick visit to the electrical shop. (Can't seem to stay out of these places and end up buying far to many gadgets I don't really need). Anyway, last call was announced to board the train so we made our way out to the cars. We could see that on approach to where our cars were parked that a few other Porsche enthusiasts had parked a little further down from us and were casually chatting amongst themselves, preparing for what turned out to be one of the best cross country runs I have ever had.
Of course I had never met anyone from 911UK before and wasn't particularly well known on the forum. In fact most just ignored my threads, so I kind of felt a little nervous about meeting other members. Anyway, we jumped in the cars and made our way past the waiting 911UK posse and Sundeep was the first to jump out in front of me, pointing and gesticulating for me to stop and chat. With a great welcome and a shake of the hand we all moved off onto the train in one long convoy. It was actually really cool seeing all these Porsche's together. Through passport control and a casual crawl until everyone passed through.
On the train we were greeted and met by a number of other drivers, Sundeep, Dave, Dan, Harry who made us feel at ease immediately and like we'd known each other for years and to be honest, things just got better as the day went on.
What followed was a fantastic and spirited drive across France, Belgium (y'know, the country Sundeep wanted to keep the speed down in) and Germany in a convoy of 15 or so beautiful cars. It was quite amusing that as Sundeep took point he decided that speeding through Belgium was the best course of action. The look on some of the others faces when they realised we were still in Belgium and not on the German Autobahn was hilarious, particularly when speeds of 150mph + were becoming very popular.
One bit I remember was driving through Belgium (god I hate the condition of their roads) and we came along side a train running parallel with the convoy. The train was traveling at a pace and it was truly amazing how this long line of cars was majestically pulling away from the train. A fleeting glance at the train, just to show it's occupants there is nothing like the freedom of a motor vehicle suddenly turned into chaos as the convoy was all of a sudden compressed as emergency stopping procedures were put in place. It must of been great to watch as a train passenger as all the colours of the rainbow compressed into one.
ops:
The guys in the Skoda's joining in at 130mph for much of the journey was great fun also. I think all were amazed at the reletive ease they stayed with the Progressing pack of Porsche's. The little Yellow one was obviously up for a sporting drive as he chose most of the time to pull in front of me when other carriageways got cluttered.
We got split up from a few of the cars towards the latter part of the journey and I was left with directing proceedings by getting the group to the Ring, as I believe I was the only one with Sat Nav.
After one 3.5 mile detour (mistake on my part) we arrived at the Ring and waited on the missing party, who were having fun with the local constabulary and supping ice cool milkshakes. Soon after they arrived at the Ring also.
A quick visit with a long wait to the Ticket office and 200 odd Euro's worse off, 15 laps of sheer excitement had become all mine.
6.00pm arrived and the Barriers started letting eager petrol heads through. I, along with others waited impatiently for the rush and the queue's to subside, but they didn't! It was very busy indeed. So, helmets on I jumped into the C2S along with my brother (first trip to the Ring for him) and queued with everyone else. 3 Laps later, which is all we could muster in the 90 minutes I was left with sheer anticipation of what a whole day would bring at the Ring in glorious sunshine the next day. However, I was also left with another dilemma. The week before this trip I couldn’t decide whether I should opt for a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups in an attempt to improve my experience but decided against it in the end, a decision I was later to regret.
After a heavy night at the PistenKlause restaurant and having sampled this much talked about "Steak on a Stone", I have to say it was exceptional and a great introduction to this now legendary dish. The beer was darn good too. I really tried my best “not” to drink too much due to the next day’s activities but alas succumb to the pressures and the morning came with the all too often banging head.
After having spouted on at being at the Ring for 8am this didn’t actually happen albeit 8.15am was a good attempt under the circumstances. Sat in traffic for a good 20 minutes before getting parked up.
Not long later and after a few more laps during the day only the psycho’s on Bikes and Ring Veterans were passing me but only two or three cars/bikes per lap so I was getting better. In fact Dave joined me on a couple of laps and even though I got a few breaking points a little wrong, Dave stayed very calm. Obviously not driving fast enough and a lot more practice needed.
The laps went up, myself getting more and more confident. 1, 2, 3 laps, Hatzenbach and Flugplatz, no problem at all 4, 5 laps getting more confident, Schwedenkreuz, Aremburg, I can remember the corners now and I'm improving all the time, 6, 7 laps, Adenauer Forst not scary anymore, 8 laps, the right hander after Adenau Bridge, getting more speed out of the bend and up the incline (after my chat with Sundeep) 9, 10 laps, the blind crest at “Eiskurve” (I think it’s called), not causing me to break and now having the nerve to take it flat out, still growing in confidence by the lap, let down only with my poor decision not to get Cup Tyres as the PS2’s were struggling even when dropping the pressures, 11, 12 laps, the section between Kallenhard and the Karussell not so daunting now, however retaining an element of composure and not being too confident as I know I need to keep my whit’s about me, lap 13, doing really well, getting better and better, confidence still growing, ”then DISASTER”...
Lap 13 (unlucky for me any way). I was coming down through the series of downhill bends after Bergwerk, I think it’s called Kresselchen and Angustkurve, when I noticed on approaching Angustkurve in my rear view mirror the incredibly quick Viper (the one you can hire similar to the Ring Taxi). Anyway, the first course of action was to get out of its way as it had decided to duck down my inside, off the racing line so I stayed out wide (which I understand is Ring etiquette anyway), indicated to the right and slowed to a speed to take the bend on the outside, therefore signaling my intention. The Viper passed incredibly quickly with no trauma as it was able to take the left hander with minimum fuss. However, there was another car to contend with. A Cooper S Mini in hot pursuit of the Viper tried the same maneuver as the Viper. By this time I was round the bend on the outside of the road and the Mini, which never adjusted it's speed and required all the road to navigate the bend successfully was stopped in it's track by the fact that I was in it's way...
The rear end of the Mini hit my front wheel at about 90/100mph as it is an extremely fast corner. The result of this was the most horrendous bang and the front of my car forced under momentum towards the Armco barrier on the right hand side. Thankfully, the verge and barrier was avoided however I was left feeling that I’d just lost the front end of my car and a big bill was looming. I was able to pull off the road on the right midway between the Angustkurve and the next right hand bend. The Mini inertia switch had engaged and he had no choice to do the same.
After getting out of the car heading straight for the guy who had come to rest in front of me, I was shouting and balling at the [beep] as he got out of his car and started to walk towards me. My brother then decided to accompany me as he could see that this situation could get very heated this had the opposite effect on the Mini driver taking a less aggressive stance once he saw my brother. I noticed he had his son with him as he got out of the car who looked about 12 or 13 years old which made me think that brawling at the side of the road was not the thing to do. Anyway, it turns out that the impact was literally wheel to wheel and the bang was due to the rotation of the wheels rotating in different directions. I was able to remove a lot of rubber from his tyre off my front bumper near the arch leaving minor scratches and a damaged indicator lens. The wheel wasn’t quite so lucky, pic below. It doesn't look too bad to be honest but I can tell you being clipped at that sort of speed was fairly scary.
The Culprit. I thought the Registration was quite apt!
The Mini had similar damage to mine, not that I cared much, but glad neither the driver or passenger was hurt.
The Marshall’s turned up and slowed the other drivers down for a while, which I can only apologise for. It wasn’t my fault. I was asked for my licence and Passport by the Marshall and also asked if I wanted to get the Police involved, although I wanted to I decided not to. The Mini driver was claiming it was my fault and I his, therefore a his word against mine situation, with only the damage caused as the only clue to what really happened. Cost me 96 Euro's to get my docs back and pay for the Marshall's time etc.
This could have been a real disaster and I dare not contemplate what could have been the outcome. All I know is that I was done for the day and swiftly gave the remaining laps to a Ferrari driver which was a bit strange as these owners tend to stay clear and off the Nordschleife. With hindsight, I wish I never now cos I was sure to be coming back later this year.
I’ve ordered a new wheel and today had it fitted and had the steering, suspension and geometry checked also. All seems fine.
Overall, I guess I’m extremely lucky and having had this little skirmish I have not been put off by the Ring at all and cannot wait to get back. Just hope I don’t see that GP Cooper S again that’s all.
It was great this weekend. The 911UK crew are great company and I hope soon we can do it again. (Roll on August)
Unfortunately, I was at Spa the next day and couldn't spend another excellent day with the 911UK bods, which to be perfectly honest would have been happy to do so.
Spa next!
We drove to Spa on Sunday evening, which took about 1½ hours or so, as most of the journey was the twisty roads. (Shakes head as still nursing my damaged front wheel)
We booked into the Radisson SAS Palce Hotel, just a few miles from the track and have to say the hotel was very good. It even had underground secure parking.
Apart from the staff at the hotel, when we ventured out for a drink and something to eat we found the Belgians quite rude and unaccommodating. Just getting a drink was tortuous to say the least.
Anyway, the morning of the 12th arrived very quickly as we were all tired from the days jaunt around the Ring the day before.
On arrival at Spa-Francorchamps sign-in took quite some time due to 140 people booked in on this particular event. Only 50 people allowed on the track at any one time. This concerned us quite a bit but alas we needn't of been concerned. Because the track is quite long, 4.35 miles to be precise.
On arriving at the sign on point you are greeted with the sight of the track known as "Au Rouge". Quite daunting actually as it never looked that steep on YouTube!! The nerves started tingling here as most clips on YouTube regarding Spa show accidents on "Au Rouge" or "Raidillon" (the bend after "Au Rouge"!!
After sign in we had to make our way to the F1 Paddocks as we had reserved one. Now this sounds a bit daft but we couldn't find the right way to get there. Others struggled also. The instruction we got and the signage that non existant was quite poor for a newbie. We spent 15 minutes driving round trying to find the right place, therefore missing our sighting laps.
Once we found Pit Garage 36 we were able to remove items from the car and store them in the garage whilst we threw the cars around track.
Feeling a little hesitant about the day due to the previous days events I set out onto the track.
Taking it stead I did about 10 laps before coming into the pits. What a great piece of tarmac.
On exiting the pits at turn 2 the first section is, oh yes you guessed it, Au Rouge. First you enter the track down hill gathering speed very quickly, through Au Rouge/Raidillon at 110mph if you have the nerve as turn 5 Raidillon is unsighted and at the top of a crest, accelerate hard then brake hard into Les Combers (turns 7 and 8.), 3rd gear corners for me, accelerate out of turn 8, swapping sides of the track and braking again into another 3rd gear corner called Malmedy (Turn 9). Once your through here it a short sprint down hill into a tight Hairpin called Rivage (Turn 10), this gets tighter as you progress round it and the apex is really late on this one, unsettles the Porsche with the weight being thrown out for so long, left hander into turn 11 and still down hill. Turn 12 is a test of nerve and tyres as it's a long left hander and it's this bend that completely wrecked my tyres in scorching heat! A good set of bends follow, all about 90 degrees or so through turns 13, 14, 15 and 16 leading onto turns 17 and 18 which is flat out until you have to brake very hard for a very tight chicane called the bus stop and aptly named I can tell you and thats turns 19 and 20. You're then on the pit straight which ends at turn 1 called La Source which is a very tight right hand hairpin which you turn into late hitting the apex and just missing the concrete wall!!
After my initial laps in the morning I sat it out for most of the afternnon only venturing back onto the track for a few more laps only to find my tyres were not coping with the heat so only did a few more laps before calling it a day.
Overall a brilliant track and highly recommended. Next time will be with some proper rubber though.
A clip of Adrian in his CSL down the Pit straight.
http://www.zen89393.zen.co.uk/Archive/Video/SpaCSL.wmv
Few photos to follow.
Arriving at the Chunnel we had time for breakfast and a quick visit to the electrical shop. (Can't seem to stay out of these places and end up buying far to many gadgets I don't really need). Anyway, last call was announced to board the train so we made our way out to the cars. We could see that on approach to where our cars were parked that a few other Porsche enthusiasts had parked a little further down from us and were casually chatting amongst themselves, preparing for what turned out to be one of the best cross country runs I have ever had.
Of course I had never met anyone from 911UK before and wasn't particularly well known on the forum. In fact most just ignored my threads, so I kind of felt a little nervous about meeting other members. Anyway, we jumped in the cars and made our way past the waiting 911UK posse and Sundeep was the first to jump out in front of me, pointing and gesticulating for me to stop and chat. With a great welcome and a shake of the hand we all moved off onto the train in one long convoy. It was actually really cool seeing all these Porsche's together. Through passport control and a casual crawl until everyone passed through.
On the train we were greeted and met by a number of other drivers, Sundeep, Dave, Dan, Harry who made us feel at ease immediately and like we'd known each other for years and to be honest, things just got better as the day went on.
What followed was a fantastic and spirited drive across France, Belgium (y'know, the country Sundeep wanted to keep the speed down in) and Germany in a convoy of 15 or so beautiful cars. It was quite amusing that as Sundeep took point he decided that speeding through Belgium was the best course of action. The look on some of the others faces when they realised we were still in Belgium and not on the German Autobahn was hilarious, particularly when speeds of 150mph + were becoming very popular.
One bit I remember was driving through Belgium (god I hate the condition of their roads) and we came along side a train running parallel with the convoy. The train was traveling at a pace and it was truly amazing how this long line of cars was majestically pulling away from the train. A fleeting glance at the train, just to show it's occupants there is nothing like the freedom of a motor vehicle suddenly turned into chaos as the convoy was all of a sudden compressed as emergency stopping procedures were put in place. It must of been great to watch as a train passenger as all the colours of the rainbow compressed into one.
ops: The guys in the Skoda's joining in at 130mph for much of the journey was great fun also. I think all were amazed at the reletive ease they stayed with the Progressing pack of Porsche's. The little Yellow one was obviously up for a sporting drive as he chose most of the time to pull in front of me when other carriageways got cluttered.
We got split up from a few of the cars towards the latter part of the journey and I was left with directing proceedings by getting the group to the Ring, as I believe I was the only one with Sat Nav.
After one 3.5 mile detour (mistake on my part) we arrived at the Ring and waited on the missing party, who were having fun with the local constabulary and supping ice cool milkshakes. Soon after they arrived at the Ring also.A quick visit with a long wait to the Ticket office and 200 odd Euro's worse off, 15 laps of sheer excitement had become all mine.
6.00pm arrived and the Barriers started letting eager petrol heads through. I, along with others waited impatiently for the rush and the queue's to subside, but they didn't! It was very busy indeed. So, helmets on I jumped into the C2S along with my brother (first trip to the Ring for him) and queued with everyone else. 3 Laps later, which is all we could muster in the 90 minutes I was left with sheer anticipation of what a whole day would bring at the Ring in glorious sunshine the next day. However, I was also left with another dilemma. The week before this trip I couldn’t decide whether I should opt for a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups in an attempt to improve my experience but decided against it in the end, a decision I was later to regret.
After a heavy night at the PistenKlause restaurant and having sampled this much talked about "Steak on a Stone", I have to say it was exceptional and a great introduction to this now legendary dish. The beer was darn good too. I really tried my best “not” to drink too much due to the next day’s activities but alas succumb to the pressures and the morning came with the all too often banging head.
After having spouted on at being at the Ring for 8am this didn’t actually happen albeit 8.15am was a good attempt under the circumstances. Sat in traffic for a good 20 minutes before getting parked up.
Not long later and after a few more laps during the day only the psycho’s on Bikes and Ring Veterans were passing me but only two or three cars/bikes per lap so I was getting better. In fact Dave joined me on a couple of laps and even though I got a few breaking points a little wrong, Dave stayed very calm. Obviously not driving fast enough and a lot more practice needed.
The laps went up, myself getting more and more confident. 1, 2, 3 laps, Hatzenbach and Flugplatz, no problem at all 4, 5 laps getting more confident, Schwedenkreuz, Aremburg, I can remember the corners now and I'm improving all the time, 6, 7 laps, Adenauer Forst not scary anymore, 8 laps, the right hander after Adenau Bridge, getting more speed out of the bend and up the incline (after my chat with Sundeep) 9, 10 laps, the blind crest at “Eiskurve” (I think it’s called), not causing me to break and now having the nerve to take it flat out, still growing in confidence by the lap, let down only with my poor decision not to get Cup Tyres as the PS2’s were struggling even when dropping the pressures, 11, 12 laps, the section between Kallenhard and the Karussell not so daunting now, however retaining an element of composure and not being too confident as I know I need to keep my whit’s about me, lap 13, doing really well, getting better and better, confidence still growing, ”then DISASTER”...
Lap 13 (unlucky for me any way). I was coming down through the series of downhill bends after Bergwerk, I think it’s called Kresselchen and Angustkurve, when I noticed on approaching Angustkurve in my rear view mirror the incredibly quick Viper (the one you can hire similar to the Ring Taxi). Anyway, the first course of action was to get out of its way as it had decided to duck down my inside, off the racing line so I stayed out wide (which I understand is Ring etiquette anyway), indicated to the right and slowed to a speed to take the bend on the outside, therefore signaling my intention. The Viper passed incredibly quickly with no trauma as it was able to take the left hander with minimum fuss. However, there was another car to contend with. A Cooper S Mini in hot pursuit of the Viper tried the same maneuver as the Viper. By this time I was round the bend on the outside of the road and the Mini, which never adjusted it's speed and required all the road to navigate the bend successfully was stopped in it's track by the fact that I was in it's way...
The rear end of the Mini hit my front wheel at about 90/100mph as it is an extremely fast corner. The result of this was the most horrendous bang and the front of my car forced under momentum towards the Armco barrier on the right hand side. Thankfully, the verge and barrier was avoided however I was left feeling that I’d just lost the front end of my car and a big bill was looming. I was able to pull off the road on the right midway between the Angustkurve and the next right hand bend. The Mini inertia switch had engaged and he had no choice to do the same.
After getting out of the car heading straight for the guy who had come to rest in front of me, I was shouting and balling at the [beep] as he got out of his car and started to walk towards me. My brother then decided to accompany me as he could see that this situation could get very heated this had the opposite effect on the Mini driver taking a less aggressive stance once he saw my brother. I noticed he had his son with him as he got out of the car who looked about 12 or 13 years old which made me think that brawling at the side of the road was not the thing to do. Anyway, it turns out that the impact was literally wheel to wheel and the bang was due to the rotation of the wheels rotating in different directions. I was able to remove a lot of rubber from his tyre off my front bumper near the arch leaving minor scratches and a damaged indicator lens. The wheel wasn’t quite so lucky, pic below. It doesn't look too bad to be honest but I can tell you being clipped at that sort of speed was fairly scary.
The Culprit. I thought the Registration was quite apt!
The Mini had similar damage to mine, not that I cared much, but glad neither the driver or passenger was hurt.
The Marshall’s turned up and slowed the other drivers down for a while, which I can only apologise for. It wasn’t my fault. I was asked for my licence and Passport by the Marshall and also asked if I wanted to get the Police involved, although I wanted to I decided not to. The Mini driver was claiming it was my fault and I his, therefore a his word against mine situation, with only the damage caused as the only clue to what really happened. Cost me 96 Euro's to get my docs back and pay for the Marshall's time etc.
This could have been a real disaster and I dare not contemplate what could have been the outcome. All I know is that I was done for the day and swiftly gave the remaining laps to a Ferrari driver which was a bit strange as these owners tend to stay clear and off the Nordschleife. With hindsight, I wish I never now cos I was sure to be coming back later this year.
I’ve ordered a new wheel and today had it fitted and had the steering, suspension and geometry checked also. All seems fine.
Overall, I guess I’m extremely lucky and having had this little skirmish I have not been put off by the Ring at all and cannot wait to get back. Just hope I don’t see that GP Cooper S again that’s all.
It was great this weekend. The 911UK crew are great company and I hope soon we can do it again. (Roll on August)
Unfortunately, I was at Spa the next day and couldn't spend another excellent day with the 911UK bods, which to be perfectly honest would have been happy to do so.
Spa next!
We drove to Spa on Sunday evening, which took about 1½ hours or so, as most of the journey was the twisty roads. (Shakes head as still nursing my damaged front wheel)
We booked into the Radisson SAS Palce Hotel, just a few miles from the track and have to say the hotel was very good. It even had underground secure parking.
Apart from the staff at the hotel, when we ventured out for a drink and something to eat we found the Belgians quite rude and unaccommodating. Just getting a drink was tortuous to say the least.
Anyway, the morning of the 12th arrived very quickly as we were all tired from the days jaunt around the Ring the day before.
On arrival at Spa-Francorchamps sign-in took quite some time due to 140 people booked in on this particular event. Only 50 people allowed on the track at any one time. This concerned us quite a bit but alas we needn't of been concerned. Because the track is quite long, 4.35 miles to be precise.
On arriving at the sign on point you are greeted with the sight of the track known as "Au Rouge". Quite daunting actually as it never looked that steep on YouTube!! The nerves started tingling here as most clips on YouTube regarding Spa show accidents on "Au Rouge" or "Raidillon" (the bend after "Au Rouge"!!
After sign in we had to make our way to the F1 Paddocks as we had reserved one. Now this sounds a bit daft but we couldn't find the right way to get there. Others struggled also. The instruction we got and the signage that non existant was quite poor for a newbie. We spent 15 minutes driving round trying to find the right place, therefore missing our sighting laps.
Once we found Pit Garage 36 we were able to remove items from the car and store them in the garage whilst we threw the cars around track.
Feeling a little hesitant about the day due to the previous days events I set out onto the track.
Taking it stead I did about 10 laps before coming into the pits. What a great piece of tarmac.
On exiting the pits at turn 2 the first section is, oh yes you guessed it, Au Rouge. First you enter the track down hill gathering speed very quickly, through Au Rouge/Raidillon at 110mph if you have the nerve as turn 5 Raidillon is unsighted and at the top of a crest, accelerate hard then brake hard into Les Combers (turns 7 and 8.), 3rd gear corners for me, accelerate out of turn 8, swapping sides of the track and braking again into another 3rd gear corner called Malmedy (Turn 9). Once your through here it a short sprint down hill into a tight Hairpin called Rivage (Turn 10), this gets tighter as you progress round it and the apex is really late on this one, unsettles the Porsche with the weight being thrown out for so long, left hander into turn 11 and still down hill. Turn 12 is a test of nerve and tyres as it's a long left hander and it's this bend that completely wrecked my tyres in scorching heat! A good set of bends follow, all about 90 degrees or so through turns 13, 14, 15 and 16 leading onto turns 17 and 18 which is flat out until you have to brake very hard for a very tight chicane called the bus stop and aptly named I can tell you and thats turns 19 and 20. You're then on the pit straight which ends at turn 1 called La Source which is a very tight right hand hairpin which you turn into late hitting the apex and just missing the concrete wall!!
After my initial laps in the morning I sat it out for most of the afternnon only venturing back onto the track for a few more laps only to find my tyres were not coping with the heat so only did a few more laps before calling it a day.
Overall a brilliant track and highly recommended. Next time will be with some proper rubber though.
A clip of Adrian in his CSL down the Pit straight.
http://www.zen89393.zen.co.uk/Archive/Video/SpaCSL.wmv
Few photos to follow.
)
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Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.