Wild Man Walter
09-30-2007, 11:56 AM
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Wild Man Walter
I just received my latest issue of Excellence magazine. In it is one of the neatest articles I've read written by a journalist that took a couple rides with Walter Rohrl. One ride was off road in one of 3 existing all wheel drive Porsche 953 works prototoypes (the same car Jacky Ickx drove in the Paris-Dakar in 1984). The other ride was in a vintage Porsche, a 1965 911 driven on the Ring.
Suffice it to say, the author of the article who was lucky enough to get to ride along, questioned whether he would make it out alive.
Quoting from the last 3 paragraphs of the article concerning his ride at the Ring:
The Key scene of this lap takes place in the Karussel. From behind a very fast BMW Z4 approaches. Our Porsche isn't cut out for exremely high speed, so that this capable driver in a more modern more powerful car makes it not just into our rearview mirror, but comes alongside. Neck and neck we near Karussel. One thing is sure and that is only one car at a time can use the steep turn of this "wall of death" The other must slow and give way. Or that's what I thought, anyway.
The Z4 wooshes into the Karussel, and I hear with disbelief, my companion say: "We are going to catch him round the top." Around the top means that while the potent BMW takes Karussel usng the "wall" without lifting, Rohrl puts the old 911 on the flat surface of the track outside the Karussel with its front pointing at the Z4, and, as if attracted to it like a swinging compass needle, stays alongside the other car at a steady angle! Peering through the windshield, I look directly into the face of the Z4's passenger, and he at mine. When we-how I simply don't know-come out of the bend and romp into the straight, the BMW crew raise their hands, cheer, clap and give us a thumbs up. They have never experienced anything quite like that. Me neither.
We come to a stop, I get out, and I feel miserable. And then he talks to me again. Proclaims Rohrl, "You wil never, ever cross the Nordschleife as fast again in our whole life" I will sign to agree to that immedieately, but only after my hand stops trembling....
Suffice it to say, the author of the article who was lucky enough to get to ride along, questioned whether he would make it out alive.
Quoting from the last 3 paragraphs of the article concerning his ride at the Ring:
The Key scene of this lap takes place in the Karussel. From behind a very fast BMW Z4 approaches. Our Porsche isn't cut out for exremely high speed, so that this capable driver in a more modern more powerful car makes it not just into our rearview mirror, but comes alongside. Neck and neck we near Karussel. One thing is sure and that is only one car at a time can use the steep turn of this "wall of death" The other must slow and give way. Or that's what I thought, anyway.
The Z4 wooshes into the Karussel, and I hear with disbelief, my companion say: "We are going to catch him round the top." Around the top means that while the potent BMW takes Karussel usng the "wall" without lifting, Rohrl puts the old 911 on the flat surface of the track outside the Karussel with its front pointing at the Z4, and, as if attracted to it like a swinging compass needle, stays alongside the other car at a steady angle! Peering through the windshield, I look directly into the face of the Z4's passenger, and he at mine. When we-how I simply don't know-come out of the bend and romp into the straight, the BMW crew raise their hands, cheer, clap and give us a thumbs up. They have never experienced anything quite like that. Me neither.
We come to a stop, I get out, and I feel miserable. And then he talks to me again. Proclaims Rohrl, "You wil never, ever cross the Nordschleife as fast again in our whole life" I will sign to agree to that immedieately, but only after my hand stops trembling....
Rohrl
