Very long and not very accurate, My Ring Report!!!
25 September 2003, 02:28 AM
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Right then…
My 4TH 'Ring trip, 12th -15th September '03…
The weekend had been meticulously planned as usual (!) via myself
and buddy Rich managing to wangle a lift over with the wonderful flapmeister
Gossy, in his silver Wagon… in return for sharing the fuel costs and the tunnel. Things didn't quite go as planned with the wagon, (when do they ever when the cursed owbow is involved, I hear you ask!) but more about that later…
Right, me n Rich howled down to Gossy's late on the Thursday night, Rich didn't finish till 10:30 so we slung the bags in the long suffering 106, had a ***, and started our journey. Little more than 20 miles from home, Rich's bone-dry n/s CV joint started to howl, as the gaiter split about 10 years ago and grease has therefore long since left the building. She got us there ok though by about 1am, and after carefully following Gossy's directions:rolleys:, we got into his pad and had a cup of tea. Any ideas we'd had of having a nice early night spoiled by the presence of Stef's Colliekisser video, so we made a few mental notes, finally crashing into unconsciousness about 3am.
At about 6am, we were woken by the master himself, shouting about a crash on the M25 and that we had to leave pretty quickly. Fair play he sorted us brekky and after shouting at MeJulie a bit, and us finding that a wagon seems to have a smaller boot than a mini
, we set off, nice and comfy in the back.
Gossy drove like a man possessed pretty much from there on, boosting this and whistling that, accompanied by bangs from the exhaust, chuffs from the dump valve, intermittent shouts at MeJulie and hysterical laughter from us two in the back… We thought we drove like nutters in the Valleys… we learnt that we hadn't seen anything! I think, at a guess, we were probably sworn at more that morning by commuters in their repmobiles than the variable speed limits on the M25. (What are they all about eh? You crazy Eeenglish people!)
We got to the services in one piece, met up with Robin and the other dude in a Lotus, DocJock and co, and some others,(can't remember who exactly, head by then a little fried by Gossy's driving…) So off we headed towards the tunnel, after a few hellos and a bog stop. Commence standard procedure "flat out dabble" as normally happens with these Scooby convoys, DocJock's car in particular sounding AWESOME… someone told me it had equal length headers but later told it didn't…? Got to the tunnel, goaded customs by dumping the dump valve, me and Rich shouting "COCAINE!" and Gossy shouting "JULIE! Where's me passport!" "err… it's in your hand Goss…"
Boring bit, someone else driving the train unfortunately… Gossy got his "I'm just an overexcitable tw@t" sticker from DocJock… how very very accurate! Got off the train, howled across the flat boring clean country, then the flat boring dirty lookin country, and into Germany. Started seeing Ausfart signs… cool… "we're nearly there kids!" oh yeah, jumped into MRK's Evo as things were getting a bit cramped n' sweaty in the wagon. Mark would turn out to be the star of the weekend, but that's still to come…
Got to the hotel, say hello to scary white haired lady , chuck bags in room, say goodbye to scary white haired lady, nip down to that glorious car park to scavenge our first passenger laps. Seem to remember my first was one of those "we'll just do a quiet one" laps… also my 1st lap in an Evo… and it's an Evo8 FQ300… Mark showed how it's done… nice chap, nice lap. Loads of fun in fact. It all came flooding back to me, all of a sudden I wanted a car of my own to drive. We met up with Jon Reeves the Ring "Hire car specialist extrordinaire" who informed us there was nothing to hire for miles around
.
And so, after hearing that somebody was heading up to Koln to get a Smart Roadster, me n Rich dived into a borrowed Civic TypeR, and headed to Koln with these dudes who could drive, but didn't have a map. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Upon arrival, there was, of course, only 1 Smart left, so after refusing lardy Golfs and rather expensive Mercs, we settled on a bargain Seat Leon 1.6 16v at a very respectable 73 euros, with only a £200 excess! Duly satisfied, we thrashed it, from cold, all the way back to Nurburg, in time for our first p!ss-up at Sabines…
Can't remember much more of that night, oh yeah, lots of Vodka, lots of red bull, more vodka… oh, now it's coming back to me… Harj the meister gets royally leathered after far too many shots, and disappears off to the loo to be sick. Soon afterwards a text message arrives from him, saying simply "Help me!" which was duly ignored by all. Matey boy Rich goes to loo, and finds Harj slumped over said convenience, throwing away good beer via his cakehole. Rich gets Harj a glass of water, which he throws down the toilet, before staggering through the bar and off to the hotel, not forgetting to literally fall out of the bar and onto the floor. When will people learn about trying to outdrink the Welsh?
Woke up the following morning feeling fine, and thrashed the cold Leon down to the Ring, eager to do our first laps. We decided the Leon was a bit of a lardy barge, so commenced to strip it down. Out went the spare wheel, tools, airfilter, throttle pedal limiter, parcel shelf, rear headrests and various other useless cr@p. Oh yeah, for the ultimate "Ring *****" look, we also pulled off the rather gay looking wheeltrims. I hogged the first lap, and there it was, the Green Hell… I was amazed how much of it I remembered from my previous trips. The first flat-out charge into Flugplatz without lifting, shat myself taking Schwedenkreuz more or less flat
, only to get the back end wagging all the way into the righthander after it. We took Foxhole flat and I was cheeky enough not to brake until what felt very late…. Bergwerk always catches me out, as does the right after Adenau bridge, which I'm informed should be flat, but never was. Oh yes, getting into the swing of it now, bang bang we went through Karussel, remembering to "drop" into it and power power power out of it. Brunnchen was taken with gusto and on we howled, the soggy suspension stubbornly refusing to lift off over Pflanzgarten… and all to quickly it was over… (11 minutes, 7 minutes, who knows…?)
For my lap knowledge I firmly thank MattOz, Tony Quinn, Harj and whoever has taken me for a lap before… And don't worry, I'm not getting overconfident, I know she can bite…
Rest of the day was spent playing about, went for the leeryest laps of the weekend, firstly in the TypeR, driven by DocJock's mate, very impressive , and in the M5, driven by Mark… You can really feel Newton's laws at work in that thing… 2 Ton saying "STRAIGHT ON!" and 4 little contact patches saying "turn, please…" At some point, Rich and Gossy disappeared for a lap in the wagon, and they seemed to take a very long time to come back… just as I was getting worried, Rich appears… on foot. Gossy's wheel bearing had totally collapsed (exactly as happened to my Fiesta last year!), causing the disk to chop through the caliper, and creating a VERY scary total loss of brakes half way round. True to form, Gossy had a good old flap, obviously worried he had dropped brake fluid on the track. After a quick look, it seemed that fluid loss (if any) had been minimal, the main reason for loss of braking being the angle of the disk causing pad knock-back on cornering.
So, back we went to the hotel, Gossy sorted the RAC to pick up the car, quick change and off for food. Everywhere was jammed solid, so me Rich and a few others shot down to Adenau for a stunning Pizza (and some stunning dining partners too)
After the Pizza, me and Rich headed back up to Nurburg and got hammered again in Sabines, and on returning to the hotel discovered the wonders of free hotel room ****-tv.
Our last day at the Ring was even better. Chris (Mellow) had a problem with the exhaust on his car, it seemed the centre had blown out of an old temp. sensor, causing a blow and loss of boost. We managed to remove the offending item and bung it, and after sorting the headers with lots of tie wire and gun gum it was sorted. In return, Mellow took me out for my best passenger laps of the weekend. I am always surprised by just how good a Scoob can handle, but this was something else, I mean we're talking Scalextric with Magnatraction. I was also massively impressed at Chris's lines and track etiquette, never failing to give the thumbs-up when somebody moved over, and anticipating bikers' movements with almost psychic accuracy. I know I'm bragging the guy up but there's a lot some could learn from him (eg. Myself, after managing to chase a rather more grippy Westie into Brunnchen and going across the grass, and my mate Rich, who managed to enter Brunnchen BACKWARDS!). Respect to all that were good enough to give me passenger rides, but my favourites were in Mellow's Scoob. I was due a lap driving the car, but unfortunately we had to shoot off to collect Gossy's hire car, which was to be our transport home, as the Scoob was beyond German repair… Kaput… Unfortunately, by this point so was the Smart Roadster, now looking not-quite-as-Smart, with a bent ****, scuffed side and spectacularly broken (but still inflated) rear wheel… All had been fine until somebody discovered a turbo hose off, reconnected it and unleashed the beast within… result: power oversteer and far higher corner speeds than the guys had gotten used to. Oops!
And so to the final night in Sabine's… Rich went off to bed early, and I got more p!ssed than any other night. At this point I would like to apologise to the lovely spiky-haired barmaid for harassing her with my camera, taking photos of her bum etc. all night. I ended up locked out as Rich had the keys, luckily the chap with the Boxster (name?) let me in via the backdoor of the pimpsuite (no laughing!) and so, to bed, to sleep, wake, return the Leon (undamaged but knocking under load!) and scarper, Into our Megane, back to Calais, Swap into Mark's Evo to get onto the Chunnel, then the simple task of collecting another hire car to get back to Gossy's… except the hire car is in Dover, not Folkestone thanks a bunch RAC... Luckily, Mark stepped in again and ferried us down there, the rest is boring blah blah… Got back to Wales in one piece about 10pm, had a smoke, went to bed.
Respect to all whom made it, all the people whose names I can't remember, all the generous passenger ride givers, tool lenders, drink buyers, key lenders, lift givers and to all those who've bothered to read this cr@p. And one final toast to absent friends, we missed you.
So, Easter it is then?
Owain [still grinning]
My 4TH 'Ring trip, 12th -15th September '03…
The weekend had been meticulously planned as usual (!) via myself
and buddy Rich managing to wangle a lift over with the wonderful flapmeister Gossy, in his silver Wagon… in return for sharing the fuel costs and the tunnel. Things didn't quite go as planned with the wagon, (when do they ever when the cursed owbow is involved, I hear you ask!) but more about that later…Right, me n Rich howled down to Gossy's late on the Thursday night, Rich didn't finish till 10:30 so we slung the bags in the long suffering 106, had a ***, and started our journey. Little more than 20 miles from home, Rich's bone-dry n/s CV joint started to howl, as the gaiter split about 10 years ago and grease has therefore long since left the building. She got us there ok though by about 1am, and after carefully following Gossy's directions:rolleys:, we got into his pad and had a cup of tea. Any ideas we'd had of having a nice early night spoiled by the presence of Stef's Colliekisser
video, so we made a few mental notes, finally crashing into unconsciousness about 3am.At about 6am, we were woken by the master himself, shouting about a crash on the M25 and that we had to leave pretty quickly. Fair play he sorted us brekky
and after shouting at MeJulie a bit, and us finding that a wagon seems to have a smaller boot than a mini, we set off, nice and comfy in the back.Gossy drove like a man possessed pretty much from there on, boosting this and whistling that, accompanied by bangs from the exhaust, chuffs from the dump valve, intermittent shouts at MeJulie and hysterical laughter from us two in the back… We thought we drove like nutters in the Valleys… we learnt that we hadn't seen anything! I think, at a guess, we were probably sworn at more that morning by commuters in their repmobiles than the variable speed limits on the M25. (What are they all about eh?
You crazy Eeenglish people!)We got to the services in one piece, met up with Robin and the other dude in a Lotus, DocJock and co, and some others,(can't remember who exactly, head by then a little fried by Gossy's driving…) So off we headed towards the tunnel, after a few hellos and a bog stop. Commence standard procedure "flat out dabble" as normally happens with these Scooby convoys, DocJock's car in particular sounding AWESOME… someone told me it had equal length headers but later told it didn't…? Got to the tunnel, goaded customs by dumping the dump valve, me and Rich shouting "COCAINE!" and Gossy shouting "JULIE! Where's me passport!" "err… it's in your hand Goss…"
Boring bit, someone else driving the train unfortunately… Gossy got his "I'm just an overexcitable tw@t" sticker from DocJock… how very very accurate! Got off the train, howled across the flat boring clean country, then the flat boring dirty lookin country, and into Germany. Started seeing Ausfart signs… cool… "we're nearly there kids!"
oh yeah, jumped into MRK's Evo as things were getting a bit cramped n' sweaty in the wagon. Mark would turn out to be the star of the weekend, but that's still to come…Got to the hotel, say hello to scary white haired lady , chuck bags in room, say goodbye to scary white haired lady, nip down to that glorious car park to scavenge our first passenger laps. Seem to remember my first was one of those "we'll just do a quiet one" laps…
also my 1st lap in an Evo… and it's an Evo8 FQ300… Mark showed how it's done… nice chap, nice lap. Loads of fun in fact. It all came flooding back to me, all of a sudden I wanted a car of my own to drive. We met up with Jon Reeves the Ring "Hire car specialist extrordinaire" who informed us there was nothing to hire for miles around.And so, after hearing that somebody was heading up to Koln to get a Smart Roadster, me n Rich dived into a borrowed Civic TypeR, and headed to Koln with these dudes who could drive, but didn't have a map. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Upon arrival, there was, of course, only 1 Smart left
, so after refusing lardy Golfs and rather expensive Mercs, we settled on a bargain Seat Leon 1.6 16v at a very respectable 73 euros, with only a £200 excess! Duly satisfied, we thrashed it, from cold, all the way back to Nurburg, in time for our first p!ss-up at Sabines…Can't remember much more of that night, oh yeah, lots of Vodka, lots of red bull, more vodka… oh, now it's coming back to me…
Harj the meister gets royally leathered after far too many shots, and disappears off to the loo to be sick. Soon afterwards a text message arrives from him, saying simply "Help me!" which was duly ignored by all. Matey boy Rich goes to loo, and finds Harj slumped over said convenience, throwing away good beer via his cakehole. Rich gets Harj a glass of water, which he throws down the toilet, before staggering through the bar and off to the hotel, not forgetting to literally fall out of the bar and onto the floor. When will people learn about trying to outdrink the Welsh?Woke up the following morning feeling fine
, and thrashed the cold Leon down to the Ring, eager to do our first laps. We decided the Leon was a bit of a lardy barge, so commenced to strip it down. Out went the spare wheel, tools, airfilter, throttle pedal limiter, parcel shelf, rear headrests and various other useless cr@p. Oh yeah, for the ultimate "Ring *****" look, we also pulled off the rather gay looking wheeltrims. I hogged the first lap, and there it was, the Green Hell… I was amazed how much of it I remembered from my previous trips. The first flat-out charge into Flugplatz without lifting, shat myself taking Schwedenkreuz more or less flat, only to get the back end wagging all the way into the righthander after it. We took Foxhole flat and I was cheeky enough not to brake until what felt very late…. Bergwerk always catches me out, as does the right after Adenau bridge, which I'm informed should be flat, but never was. Oh yes, getting into the swing of it now, bang bang we went through Karussel, remembering to "drop" into it and power power power out of it. Brunnchen was taken with gusto and on we howled, the soggy suspension stubbornly refusing to lift off over Pflanzgarten… and all to quickly it was over… (11 minutes, 7 minutes, who knows…?)For my lap knowledge I firmly thank MattOz, Tony Quinn, Harj and whoever has taken me for a lap before… And don't worry, I'm not getting overconfident, I know she can bite…
Rest of the day was spent playing about, went for the leeryest laps of the weekend, firstly in the TypeR, driven by DocJock's mate, very impressive , and in the M5, driven by Mark…
You can really feel Newton's laws at work in that thing… 2 Ton saying "STRAIGHT ON!" and 4 little contact patches saying "turn, please…" At some point, Rich and Gossy disappeared for a lap in the wagon, and they seemed to take a very long time to come back… just as I was getting worried, Rich appears… on foot. Gossy's wheel bearing had totally collapsed (exactly as happened to my Fiesta last year!), causing the disk to chop through the caliper, and creating a VERY scary total loss of brakes half way round. True to form, Gossy had a good old flap, obviously worried he had dropped brake fluid on the track. After a quick look, it seemed that fluid loss (if any) had been minimal, the main reason for loss of braking being the angle of the disk causing pad knock-back on cornering. So, back we went to the hotel, Gossy sorted the RAC to pick up the car, quick change and off for food. Everywhere was jammed solid, so me Rich and a few others shot down to Adenau for a stunning Pizza (and some stunning dining partners too)
After the Pizza, me and Rich headed back up to Nurburg and got hammered again in Sabines, and on returning to the hotel discovered the wonders of free hotel room ****-tv.
Our last day at the Ring was even better. Chris (Mellow) had a problem with the exhaust on his car, it seemed the centre had blown out of an old temp. sensor, causing a blow and loss of boost. We managed to remove the offending item and bung it, and after sorting the headers with lots of tie wire and gun gum it was sorted. In return, Mellow took me out for my best passenger laps of the weekend. I am always surprised by just how good a Scoob can handle, but this was something else, I mean we're talking Scalextric with Magnatraction
. I was also massively impressed at Chris's lines and track etiquette, never failing to give the thumbs-up when somebody moved over, and anticipating bikers' movements with almost psychic accuracy. I know I'm bragging the guy up but there's a lot some could learn from him (eg. Myself, after managing to chase a rather more grippy Westie into Brunnchen and going across the grass, and my mate Rich, who managed to enter Brunnchen BACKWARDS!). Respect to all that were good enough to give me passenger rides, but my favourites were in Mellow's Scoob. I was due a lap driving the car, but unfortunately we had to shoot off to collect Gossy's hire car, which was to be our transport home, as the Scoob was beyond German repair… Kaput… Unfortunately, by this point so was the Smart Roadster, now looking not-quite-as-Smart, with a bent ****, scuffed side and spectacularly broken (but still inflated) rear wheel… All had been fine until somebody discovered a turbo hose off, reconnected it and unleashed the beast within… result: power oversteer and far higher corner speeds than the guys had gotten used to. Oops!And so to the final night in Sabine's… Rich went off to bed early
, and I got more p!ssed than any other night. At this point I would like to apologise to the lovely spiky-haired barmaid for harassing her with my camera, taking photos of her bum etc. all night. I ended up locked out as Rich had the keys, luckily the chap with the Boxster (name?) let me in via the backdoor of the pimpsuite (no laughing!) and so, to bed, to sleep, wake, return the Leon (undamaged but knocking under load!) and scarper, Into our Megane, back to Calais, Swap into Mark's Evo to get onto the Chunnel, then the simple task of collecting another hire car to get back to Gossy's… except the hire car is in Dover, not Folkestone thanks a bunch RAC... Luckily, Mark stepped in again and ferried us down there, the rest is boring blah blah… Got back to Wales in one piece about 10pm, had a smoke, went to bed.Respect to all whom made it, all the people whose names I can't remember, all the generous passenger ride givers, tool lenders, drink buyers, key lenders, lift givers and to all those who've bothered to read this cr@p. And one final toast to absent friends, we missed you.
So, Easter it is then?
Owain [still grinning]
25 September 2003, 05:36 AM
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Owain,
Glad you had a great time
but who could have a bad holiday there. 20 Worcs lot are going back either Easter/May Bank Hols
Mellow and John F maybe amateur drivers but their both professionals in my estimation
Tony
Ps Mellow & John that's another £10 you owe me
LOL
Glad you had a great time
but who could have a bad holiday there. 20 Worcs lot are going back either Easter/May Bank Hols Mellow and John F maybe amateur drivers
but their both professionals in my estimation Tony
Ps Mellow & John that's another £10 you owe me
LOL
25 September 2003, 07:17 AM
#3
Fantastic early morning reading Owain mate We won't mention our detour at Castle Coombe eh go check it out on the forums at www.lanceregister.com...great vid
Thanks Tony....cheap at twice the price mate We must be due to hook up soon !
We won't mention our detour at Castle Coombe eh go check it out on the forums at www.lanceregister.com...great vid Thanks Tony....cheap at twice the price mate
We must be due to hook up soon !
25 September 2003, 01:25 PM
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Owain, you champ, glad to have you out on my first ‘slow’ lap cough, cough of the weekend. Shame the brakes went soft out of the Foxhole
Not impressed that I wasn’t the best ride of your life out there, but hands down to Mellow. Passenger lap next time please Mellow.
Cheers to that toast Owain. Mixed weekend of feelings for me with someone very special to me, and some of you other Chappers not being there, but everyone was on fantastic form, and it turned out to be a great trip.
Until the next one.
I will get around to writing my novel, but after I hopefully get back from the Cannon Ball Run wish me luck
Mark
Not impressed that I wasn’t the best ride of your life out there, but hands down to Mellow. Passenger lap next time please Mellow.
Cheers to that toast Owain. Mixed weekend of feelings for me with someone very special to me, and some of you other Chappers not being there, but everyone was on fantastic form, and it turned out to be a great trip
.Until the next one.
I will get around to writing my novel, but after I hopefully get back from the Cannon Ball Run wish me luck
Mark
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25 September 2003, 06:39 PM
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MRK... as for the lap mate, your driving was spot on but the car can be even better.. some people like leery (hell, i like leery!) i personally was just so impressed at Mellow's scoob... as for the toast, what can i say mate... other than you're a sorted bloke and will see you there next time for a monster beer binge.
Photos this time... there seem to be so many! I've given up me job at REMAX and started a BEng in m/sport engineering.,.. will have to see if there's a colour printer i can abuse (used all 4 toners @ £200 each in the works printer with just my photos )
Rich, all i have to say is, does Mel have another hand? cos i've no idea what that face is on my mate!!!
So, as for Easter, we're very possibly gonna fly and hire, seems the best and cheapest method... with a paltry £200 excess it ain't even worth sh@gging my tyres! (so i'll stick to sheep...)
Owain.
ps. MattOz, where TF were you sailor boy?
[Edited by owbow - 9/25/2003 6:41:16 PM]
Photos this time... there seem to be so many! I've given up me job at REMAX and started a BEng in m/sport engineering.,.. will have to see if there's a colour printer i can abuse (used all 4 toners @ £200 each in the works printer with just my photos
)Rich, all i have to say is, does Mel have another hand? cos i've no idea what that face is on my mate!!!
So, as for Easter, we're very possibly gonna fly and hire, seems the best and cheapest method... with a paltry £200 excess it ain't even worth sh@gging my tyres! (so i'll stick to sheep...)
Owain.
ps. MattOz, where TF were you sailor boy?
[Edited by owbow - 9/25/2003 6:41:16 PM]
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