loungin

Anyone going to be at the Nürburgring on 5/15? We're booked to rent a car for the morning session. We're not experienced track drivers so we'll mostly just be driving it like a normal road =P. We tried to learn the track but there are way too many turns. Let me know if you'll be around in the morning and maybe we can meet up.

MattUF

You'll have a blast. What kind of car did you rent? Bridge to Gantry (http://www.bridgetogantry.com/nurburgring-information/) has a lot of great information for first-timers. As cliché as it sounds, I drove a lot of laps on Forza and also watched lots of youtube videos of ring laps (some out there do a great job breaking down the track and pointing out what to avoid, otherwise I'd just watch in-car vids to get a feel for what I'd be seeing). I found it to help not going in completely blind.

juniordrums

CosmosMpower

Just take it easy, don't drive beyond your limits and you'll have a good time. Video games won't prep you. There are a lot of blind corners and elevation changes.

Here's my video when I drove it last October during euro delivery of my M3. It's the VLN race setup connected to the GP track since they had a race the day before I drove it and left it this way.

Kobalt

I'm going there on the 18th, too bad, otherwise I've could have done some follow-me laps with you.

As other adviced: Be careful. Keep to the right. Indicate to the right and stay to the right when being overtaken. Drive careful in Adenau Forst.
If wet: The braking areas can be extremely slippery.

Try to be on the track as early as possible ->Less traffic.

loungin

Ah just missed by a few days. I'll be in Switzerland by then.

I'm getting a Rent4ring Suzuki swift, 8am sessions.

My rfactor simulations have not been going so well. Lots of off track excursions =P and that's in dry conditions supposedly. Those bumps and curves take you by surprise so I think I'll take it slow.

Cheers!

917k

Agreed. Also be cognizant of faster cars coming up which may necessitate moving over to give them the line (w/in the bounds of overtaking rules, stay right, indicate).

But as Cosmos says: take it easy, drive at the speed that you are comfortable with; and use the first lap or two to make a mental map and think about the line, then you can take it up a notch ie, 1st lap or so don't even go near your limit. Even F1 drivers don't when they are settling in!

So much fun! You'll have a blast.

Kobalt

Just one day left
Looks like you are going to have good conditions.

Good luck!

Please share your experience!

loungin

Thanks! Hope you're having fun there.

It was chilly when we were there. We took a while to get settled into the rental car. The straps were a little awkward and super tight so it was hard to see behind us. My wife had the first go at it. We missed the exit for the entrance to the track so we tried to make a u turn. But we couldn't figure out how to put the car into reverse (pull the ring up) so we got stuck and stopped a few cars while we were panicking and trying to jam the shifter into reverse (pull the ring up). Eventually the car rolled back and we were able to make the turn, found a parking spot in the main lot and tried to readjust the seats, figure out the GoPro, etc. We asked the driver next to us how to put the car into reverse. He looked at the shifter and said, try pull up the ring. Ohhhh.

With that out of the way we headed back to the track and found that the entrance was barricaded. Now we had to head out to the other parking lot where everyone else was waiting also. Then it started to rain. At some point the rain turned to ice. The ring must have been closed for almost an hour. Two cars were eventually flat bedded out. One green e36 had the entire front smashed in. In the meantime we waited in the car a bit and browsed the paddock a bit. Lots of e9x M3 (we have one at home), a few GT3, RSs. Lots of e36. We saw a sapphire blue and a yellow GT4. They looked more like spectators though. Not sure if they were queuing up to drive the track.





Finally it was open and it might have been raining when we started. We were pretty paranoid. My wife usually goes pretty slow until she gets comfortable. Then she goes really fast. But with the complexity of the track and the conditions I don't think she ever got comfortable. I tried to watch out for traffic for her. It was fun just to be on the ring and experience things like the karussel and elevation changes in person.

We switched after two laps. My first lap was in the rain. I took it pretty easy but took the opportunity to full throttle the car on straights and brake hard before turns. I also practiced being quick with downshifts and blipping. I may have tried heel toe as well. Things just go by so fast. There was a yellow flag in two areas on both my laps I think. There was a car on the side of the road near the end, and the track was closed off except for just a narrow lane to get by the incident.

My GoPro ran out of power in my first lap. My wife got the second lap on iPhone. Lap time: 13:30 lol. The lap in the MR GT4 video is almost 2x as fast. Anyway we're just happy to survive 4 laps without having to pay for any damages. =)

Kobalt

May I ask what day this was?

Anyway: sounds like you had a good crazy day. A lifetime memory I guess :-)

Kudos to wife taking the first stint. Perfect to be able to share experiences like this.

The Ring gives and the Ring takes.

Today it took one Mustang 350 and one brand new Audi R8 and a couple of GT86's.

loungin

Ouch... Poor cars. Hope the people are ok.

It was Sunday morning May 15.

Yeah it was awesome to be able to drive the ring and see those famous turns in real life.

Kobalt

It was a friend of mine :-(. He is ok but the car need some tlc.