Gutmann pug

Thought I would put something together for when I have my own website.

Was nice to meet all the guys and girls from on here at the 'ring' this weekend. My third time this year and I cant wait till September to go again

Piccys at the end

Nurburgring report June 2004


Early starts.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to have a good nights sleep when your excited about getting up to go to the ‘ring’ and England playing Portugal the night before with extra time and penalty’s doesn’t help either. 11pm to bed and 3.30am the alarm goes off. Out the door by 4am for the 146 mile slog to Dover.
1hour 45 mins later I pull into the BP garage for some fuel to be greated by the sound of a gaggle of Exiges pulling in. Recognising one of the cars I have a chat and ‘yes’ they are off to the ‘ring’ as well. The difference is they have quality ear defenders with an intercom system whereas as I have a stripped and caged 205 Gti which emits about 110 Db, on the inside !!!
Onto the sea cat and off we go.

Getting there.

From Calais it’s a 275 mile drive through France, Belguim and Germany before the Nurburg Castle comes into view and we know we are there. It’s a great sight and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck as I drive past sections of the track on the way to the guest house. I can’t unpack the car quick enough and sit impatiently waiting for Emma to say she is ready to go to the track

Warm up laps

The track doesn’t open till 2.15pm and the car park is pretty empty, that’s a good sign. As soon as the green light comes on Emma says go on then I can see your itching to go. Strap myself in and I’m off. The first lap is pretty un-eventful with me getting to grips with the track again and remembering corner speeds etc. Its very quite and that’s good. It wont last I’m sure.
The second lap is a different story I’m feeling confident and out I go. Everything is fine till a momentary lapse of concentration sees me go into Hocheichen in fourth gear instead of third. It’s a right hander with an immediate left and I’m going far too quick. What happens next is a blur. I’m on the grass on the left going backwards getting very close to the expensive Armco. Moments later I’m spinning across the track and onto the grass the other side. A split second later it ends and the car has flooded and stopped diagonally across the track after a blind bend. Key into ignition, pray it starts and off I go again. This time giving the track the respect it deserves.

Meeting the gang

It’s a month since I was at the ring and it was nice to meet Karl again. He is a Brit who lives just a few miles away and comes to the ring what seems like every day. His trusty steed is a Mk2 golf Gti which he drives like a man possessed, mostly sideways.
A quick chat and a passenger lap is on the cards. I get into the seat and we are ready. Hmm, how come he has a competition seat and five point harness and I have a std seat and normal seat. Anyway the lap is great and I spend most of it watching Karl’s feet (no I don’t have a fetish) to see where he is flat and where he is lifting. We come back in having overtaken some very powerful machinery and a sub 9 minute lap. For those who don’t know the ring a newbie doing 10 to 10 minutes 30 second lap is doing well. Under 10 minutes and your quick. Under 9.30 and you have definitely done a good few laps and are seriously quick. Under 9 minutes is normally reserved for people with serious machinery and who are fanatical about the ring. This kind of time should not be underestimated. It means you WILL overtake 911 GT3’s Ferrari’s and everything else that isn’t dedicated to making good times. Under 8 mins 30 seconds gets you into elite territory and under 8 is restricted to race drivers in GT3 RS etc.
Its time for me to follow Karl for a lap. The idea is for me to try to hang on to his rear bumper while he does everything he can to get rid of me. Around 9 minutes later we come back in and I have managed to sit on Karl’s bum the whole lap. He has taught me loads and probably knocked 20 seconds off my lap time without realising it.
I spend some time talking to the Exige boys and girls and Matt who has brought has Scooby with him. I manage about 12 laps and go back to the guest house a happy man.

Time for a beer or 6

The rest of my friends have turned up in their 944 turbo’s and we have an evening out on the beer. We manage not to drink ourselves into too much of a state which is no mean feat considering how nice German beer is. An early night is called for and we leave the bar around midnight. Hmm not so early after all.

Laps before breaky

Use of video’s on the track is not allowed but I really wanna try to break the 8 minute barrier and I want it on tape. At two minutes passed 8 Dave in his 944 turbo and me in the pug pull up to the gate. The idea is a slow lap to check the track is dry and get tuned back in then a quick lap while its quiet to see if I can get into the 8’s. With my camera mounted and Dave in front off we go. We have a steady quiet lap and catch up with a 964 RS doing his early laps like us.
The second lap is the one to try for the 8 on. I go out first with Dave follwing and the initial sections are fine. The problem is I hit the dirt on Adenau Forst and am not a million miles away from rolling the car. I loose a good few seconds and Dave comes past. The rest of the lap is pretty un-eventful but very fast. I sit behind Dave for the majority but get past him on the fast twisty section Eschbach. We go under the gantry and stop the clock and its 9 mins 4 seconds. Without the excursion 8 mins would have been easy.
Our stomaches get the better of us and decide food is required. 100 yards from the guest house on a tight bend at 20mph I meet a British biker on the wrong side of the road. He proceeds to lay his bike down which slides down the road and into the front of the pug. Damage to the pug is minimal but the bike is a mess. I’m gutted for the rider.

Stoppages

The rest of the day is a mixture of laps and frustrations. Its very easy to get upset when the track closes but the reason is its normally due to a crash. A ‘ringer’ broke an ankle, both knees, 4 vertibrae and 5 ribs having come off his bike. That was only one of 3 major closures during the day. Not good.

Saturday night

As its my birthday we have the odd beer or six and its back to the guest house

Homeward bound

The others are staying the extra day but work means that Emma and I have to return home Sunday morning. The journey is pretty quiet until just before Liege when something goes wrong with the car. It feels like a puncture but isn’t. A phone call to my Euro recovery people later has a breakdown truck on its way. Its decided that they will recover us the whole way home and the rest of the journey is spent with the pug on the back of a lorry. It’s a great way to travel and saves on petrol for sure. Arrive home 1 am UK time.

The Car

Had the car up in the air tonight and can’t for the life of me find a problem. I have tested it slowly and quickly on the roads and haven’t a clue what went wrong. I will have it checked properly though in the next day or so.

And finally

I am getting to the point where I don’t get too phased when I overtake Porsches and alike anymore but having overtaken a Swiss 911 GT3 I was surprised when the owner came to find me in the carpark and asked how much BHP my car had. When I told him 140 he couldn’t believe it and told me I was a very good driver. I had a great lap on the track with him overtaking me twice on the straight but me getting him three times on the tighter sections. It made my weekend and he shook my hand saying he really enjoyed it. That just wouldn’t happen anywhere else. A 205 Gti worth around £2,500 overtaking an £80K GT3 and the owner of the Porsche coming to tell me he was trying his hardest not to let me beat him. A magic moment for sure.
Its only just over two months and I’m off again and I cant wait.


Mine and Davy boys


Me and Dave both overtook this Italian stallion
[img]http://images.fotopic.net/?id=5524551&outx=800&oq=0[/img

one from here


ring viper


I know which one my money's on


The journey home

allywrx

Great bit of reading Gutmann
Will really need to get my Mk1 Goof 16v finished off and ring it, I've been dying too for years and when you read something like this it just makes me want to go even more
Before the year is out I hope

Gutmann pug

Cheers ally ..... Your Mk1 would be back in its natural habitat over there. Its golf city and a fair few are very quick local cars with turbo's etc.

I will download the vid in the next day or two, get it hosted and post it up.

CraigH

Are you sure he was trying? Thought only Scoobs did that?

Ian and I will have to get the Westie over there soonish - won't be long before I've run out of excuses not to go

Gutmann pug

Craig .... well i did a dutch MY03 STi and some loud lairy classic as well so i guess pugs can manage it too plus he couldnt wait to ask me for a lap in the pug

What you dont wanna see on the track

Karl 227

Or this


Nice read Gary

Gutmann pug

Thats a different view of your car Karl .....normally i only get to see the back of it

Quick question ......what kind of time do you reckon we did on the lap when i sat on ya bum? I dont think we had traffic and i dont know what kind of time you lap in. Do you reckon we were in the 8's???

astraboy

Nice report mate. I sooo want to go over there in my 200sx its untrue. I WILL do it sometime. Mind you I always say that.
astraboy.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

LOL very true

Good report Gary

Karl 227

Somewhere around 8:55 - 9:00 I would guess

Squizz

Yup, we wanna do the same in our (ever increasingly) track prepared S13 200SX.

Karen and I did the 'Ring last year, and we've the offer of going at the end of July but have got too much on this year...

We'll go next year, for definite.

Photos here... 'Ring photos

Great reading, Gutmann.

Gutmann pug

Was a 200sx meeting there this weekend. A good few of them around and about.

Squizz

I'll certainly be a little more circumspect about driving on the 'Ring in our 200SX than in our Impreza like we did last time!

Especially after seeing a nice RX7 (FD3S) come back on the flatbed looking like it had been through a crusher.

Gutmann pug

There was an alfa which looked like it had been very badly in the wars while I was there along with the usual bikes which were only fit for scrap metal

Senior_AP

Where's the pic of my car arsehole!!!