johnfelstead

It was a bank holiday weekend coming up, it’s Tuesday, I have nothing to do this weekend, cant stand the thought of sitting at home, don’t want to go throw spanners at a car, so I guess I best see if the ring is open. It is, errrrm, that’s that then. A quick call to Jon reeves to pull his finger out and book me a ferry and room later and I am set to leave for another weekend at the ring.

This trip I would be going over on my own, just go with the flow and have a very rare for me leisurely drive down on the Saturday, Sunday on the circuit and then leisurely drive home Monday, strange concept that one.

Friday was spent at work, interspersed with trips to get my part worn tyres swapped over on my track rims as the set on there were down to the canvas after the Elvington top10 shootout I attended 3 weeks ago. I also decided to bite the bullet and buy a DV camera to film my laps (bargain offer for £399) but I didn’t have time to get a decent camera mount so bought a cheepo tripod and some bungee cord to get me through the weekend.

Friday night I replaced my oil with fresh Castrol RS 10/60 and changed the shims in my steering rack to clamp it a bit tighter as the original ones were allowing the rack to move a couple of mm sideways under load, which is not ideal for feedback. I then loaded the car up with wheels, tools, spares etc and was ready to go by 9pm. quite strange owning a normal car really, what’s all this finished by 9pm all about? I then just had the packing to do and I was ready to leave early Saturday. The plan was maybe to go drive down to Tries after I had finished Sunday and spend the night at the WRC after rally bash so threw in some decent kit to wear too, just in case.

Saturday morning I was up at 7am (I am not a morning person) and set off at 8am, I had arranged to meet someone in Northants on my way down to drop off my old standard brakes I had sold, so far I was making great progress and made the meet point 30 minutes earlier than I expected, traffic was very free flowing for a Bank holiday weekend. That all sorted I carried on towards Dover at a steady pace, the only slow run was on the M25 towards the Dartford crossing, which is always chocca, once over the crossing it was a steady run down the M20 to the Ferry. That was a totally clear run and I arrived at the ferry an hour and a half early, I even had time to wash the car, which was covered in dead flies. Yuk.

I then had the incredibly boring ferry trip over to Calais, which I spent reading my copy of Motoring News (sorry, Motorsport News). Then it was just a case of cruise through France, Belgium and Germany on Auto Pilot stopping a couple of times for fuel and red bull. I arrived in Nurburg at 8pm local time; the sun was still up, how bizarre!

A quick unload of the car, wash etc and then it was time to go find some food and beer in Nurburg. I decided the Pistenclaus was a good idea so I headed into the depths of the basement restaurant. I think I was the only English speaking person in the place; it was packed to the rafters with Germans and Italians from the endurance race that had just taken place on the circuit during the day. One pepper and mustard sauce fillet steak and a few beers later I was ready for a good nights sleep. In bed by midnight, in Nurburg, I don’t think that has happened before.

I was eating breakfast in the Joong Stroof at 9am Saturday morning; I don’t think that has happened before either. LOL One egg, pot of coffee, some bread and meats later I was set for the day ahead. I then swapped my wheels over, which takes longer than it should, I need to invest in a nut gun I think, it’s a pain spinning 20 nuts off and on in one go, wastes way too much track time.



I arrived at the track at 10am, bought a 12-lap pass and then headed on out on my own for a slow sighting lap. I always like to do a first run at a slow pace to check the track condition plus get the oil temps in the diffs, box and engine up to the correct levels. It’s also allows me to build tyre pressure, brake temp, so the first 1/3 of the lap is quite gentle, never above 6K rpm and way under the limits. I followed a couple of bikers for the first 1/3 and then just started to up the pace a little as I was bored so passed them and then just ran at a sensible check the track out pace, that was a 9:10 BTG time.

I then did my usual, let the car idle for 10 minutes, measure and adjust the hot tyre pressures (40 front, 39 rear), check the brakes, check the oil, top up the intercooler spray reservoir and then have a think about the track conditions before heading out for a proper lap. The track was Very slippy, low grip pretty much everywhere with plenty of crap from the endurance race the previous day, so it was a case of be careful until the track surface had been cleaned up by some running.

I then met up with Roy and gave his 13-year-old son a lap at a semi-decent pace, still taking it fairly easy with an 8:55 lap. The tyres I was running were part worn off another scoob and the camber wear angles were all wrong for my own geometries, so I was using this lap to scrub the tyres in also, they were starting to come good by the end of the lap but still needed one more lap to get some decent levels of grip.

Back in the car park I got chatting to some Dutch Impreza drivers so gave a lap to one of the guys. He was trying to film the lap using a hand held camcorder; I think 90% of that will be of the floor or roof, the other 10% being the doors. LOL It was pretty funny listening to the guy commentating on the lap and how my STi compared to his Euro spec 555 (similar to a UK turbo). All I could think of was Dom Jolly from Trigger Happy TV doing his Dutch Tourist impressions, he sounded identical, that had me giggling to myself whilst doing 150MPH into swedencruax. The Dutch guys were good fun, great bunch of people. The track was beginning to come good, as were my tyres so it was time to start pushing on just a little bit more. I am still way below the limits because I like to have some in reserve with there being so many bikers and novices on track and sometimes people do things you just don’t expect. There were plenty of the “I have seen you but your not going passed” bikers, but you just have to be patient, there were also some very helpful bike riders too, who were using their mirrors well and gave way as soon as was safe.

Lap times were trickling down steadily (I don’t actively time my laps, just look at the video at the end of the day, this stops me trying for a time, I just drive as I feel comfortable, it’s safer that way).

I was still struggling with my 5th to 4th down changes as I still haven’t had my gearbox rebuilt and 4th gear syncro is shot. The most noticeable point this was causing me problems was at the jump for Flatzgarten1, I was hitting 8000rpm in 4th and then had a choice of either grab 5th for a couple of seconds, take the jump then take the immediate right after the jump in 5th. Do the same but risk a balky down change just when you need power on to take the corner safely, or just hold it at 8K in 4th and take the jump a little slower, but have an easy exit. This is 120MPH and the car goes all wheels air born, on landing you are immediately into a sharp but fast long right-hander, I have seen some very big crashes there, it’s quite a challenge to get it right when you carry a lot of speed over the jump. I tried all 3 methods and found holding 5th was a pain through the right-hander (to compound matters I have a weird gearbox ratio setup. 1st to 4th are very close ratio, 4th is good for 120MPH, fifth is good for 175MPH! So going to 5th had me down from 8000rpm to 4500rpm, which felt all wrong), changing into 5th then back to 4th after the jump was a bit hairy and caused me to run slightly wide onto the ****. So in the end I settled for holding 4th at 8000rpm for 3 seconds, it was slightly slower, but ultimately a lot safer and more enjoyable on the right-hand exit. When I have the box rebuilt that should be a lot more fun and a fair bit quicker, I may drop the 5th gear ratio to make it a better match too, I need to see how viable that is on cost first.

johnfelstead

The rest of the day was spent giving passenger rides to people I met there. Zoe got 2 runs; the second was quite quick being 8:34. It was fun to give Bren and Suz a lap too, the first time Bren, who runs a guesthouse near Nurburg, had been in an AWD car on the circuit. It was fun to meet Suz too; I was quite surprised when she said Hi in an American Accent. It was nice to have another American onboard, next time should be Jamie in November, which should be a lot of fun again. I am looking forward to giving Jamie a run in a quick car round the track, last time was in my sport which was quite slow on the high speed sections.

I had a good laugh giving Rob (a brit biker, not a full shilling I think ) a lap in the car, most of the time we were laughing about the way the tyres were not sounding too happy, I had some cracking slides around brunchen and flatzgarten and adenau forst in particular.

The only real “moment” I had was as I was about to pass a BMW M3 at the crest just before scwedencraux, I was approaching at 150MPH and was positioned to the left to pass, which is how you should overtake in Germany. He was doing around 120MPH so the closing speed was quite high. Just as I committed to taking him he indicated left and pulled right in front of me, that was a bit of a sphincter moment, I was hard on the brakes, over the crest so the car went very twitchy and unstable. Thank god I have AP 330mm front brakes!


I would have stuffed into him with the standard Subaru Pathetic 4 pots. This Muppet then decided that getting to the right would be a good idea and indicated right and let me pass into Arenburg. No idea what he was thinking at all, he was German too, so it wasn’t like a brit getting confused? I can do with less of that anyway!

The day was fabulous in terms of track access, only one real closure and that was quite short around lunch. They closed the track at 7pm too just after my last run and then reopened it for 15 minutes before closing it for good for the night at 7:30pm. I was tempted to take it for “one last lap” but thought better of that idea, I had a good day, it would be silly to risk ruining it now. My last lap was my quickest of the day, 8:33, I am pretty happy with that considering my issues with my 4th gear syncro and worn suspension which is still the original 32K mile STi setup which isn’t up to the job really. I feel with the box rebuilt and the suspension renewed close to 8 minutes will be possible, which is the pace I used to drive my Westfield. Quite amazing for such a heavy car in a relative novices hands on the circuit really. I am learning every visit, which is one of the main attractions of the place. It should be very interesting to see how the lap times compare when the Atom is finished, I wont predict a time, but it should be quite quick.

I then had the decision to make about what to do Sunday night, do I drive down to Tries and go to the WRC bash, or do I stay in Nurburg and chill out. I decided to get my car ready for the Journey home by swapping wheels over and repacking all my spares etc and then going down to Sabine’s place for a meal with some of the guys and gals I met during the day. I was a bit on the tired side, so an hour’s drive followed by a night in a club didn’t have the same attraction as Sabine and her Bar/Restaurant just a few hundred yards away. One fillet steak, a big chunk of ice cream, a few glasses of bitburger and some great company later I was nicely chilled out.

The night ended with Sabine buying us all an Eiffel Wies and forcing us to drink it. She said something along the lines of “you drink this, it makes you faster”. I am not sure why Sabine still drinks it though, she is fast enough already! It was fun having a chat with Sabine about her racing and the ring taxi laps she drives. She was telling us about how she nearly wiped out a biker at Flatzgarten1, who was dawdling along all over the track, looking for mushrooms to pick she described it as! LOL She recons she had that M5 clear off the ground, 4 up, and way off line, almost off the track to miss this guy. The way she told the story was a lot of fun. If you are ever in Nurburg, go spend some time in the Fuchsrohre, it’s a great place, littered with race winning trophies from her past years on the circuits. Sabine’s website is http://www.bautenschutz-sinzig.de/sabine/index.html

Monday morning was another 9am breakfast, 2 in a row, amazing! I sat there eating my bacon and egg listening to the sound of F1 cars testing on the GP circuit, Nurburg is such a cool place for a petrol head. I headed off at 10am on my long journey home. It was pretty uneventful, as it usually is cruising through Europe. I got to within 5 miles of Calais and it got a bit interesting though as I caught up with a group of Easy Rider style bikers on their Harley Davidson Choppers.

I was sat behind about 15 of them, last bike bar one was a trike followed by a Harley. Next thing I know I cant see where I am going as the trikes engine spits out half a gallon of oil and covers my windscreen. By the time I had cleared the screen enough to see I start dieing of laughter as the last guy on the Harley is covered head to toe in oil and giving his mate on the trike a real hard time about it, I guess you had to be there, killed me. I found out later it had thrown an oil breather pipe.



I had a good chat with some of the bikers whilst waiting at the ferry port, some cracking hand made bikes. I think a lot of people were intimidated as they looked a bit on the hells angels don’t mess with us type, but usually you find these guys are just out for a bit of a laugh. They were staying not far from Nurburg for a big bikers bash up in the forests there over the weekend. It’s a shame you can’t get to hear the noise these things made, they were awesome going onto the ferry. I love seeing different sights like that, pity more people aren’t into doing their own thing and being unconventional, being normal is boring.



I then spent the very tedious 1 ½ hours on the ferry



back to the UK watching my video laps, lots of good footage there of all sorts of things from fast bikers (OK one! That passed me at speed) to 50 seater coaches on the racing line. My first run through wiperman was greeted with a cloud of smoke and a recovering Peugeot that had just lost it big time, lots of fun stuff. That close call was the M3 was interesting on video too! Hopefully I will get some video laps up on the net soon, so you can see for yourself what an STi5 TypeRA goes like on the greatest circuit in the world.

Back in 3 weeks time, should be a lot of fun.

johnfelstead

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[Edited by johnfelstead - 8/27/2002 9:29:28 PM]

johnfelstead

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[Edited by johnfelstead - 8/27/2002 9:29:56 PM]

johnfelstead

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[Edited by johnfelstead - 8/27/2002 9:30:57 PM]

davyboy

Does that Rob geezer look like Goldie and ride an R7

johnfelstead

not sure he looks like a dog? But yep, he rides an R7, he goes by Rob on teh ringers list, funny that. Why do you ask?

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you had a good time then John
So the tyres hold up pretty well??
Now the hardest thing is getting the hose pipe out or do you take it down to the hand wash place near the punto centre and let someone else do it for a fiver

Tony

johnfelstead

£5 of course!

Tyres were great Tony, they should do for teh next trip too.

dhorwich

isnt the R7 very rare and costs a packet...????

Dan

Philip Attaway

sounds like a trip

Good write up John

Phil

ripmaze

I hope to be there in September after really enjoying the trip in May - although none of the passenger rides I went in then got their wheels off the ground! Admittedly, it was too damp to go really quickly though.

chiark

Cool John, great novel again. It was about time we had one of these

There was a massive bunch of customised harleys at a set of lights in Picadilly circus on Saturday evening. The noise is fantastic. They sat there, giving it a bit of throttle, then ambled off... Many grins all round

jasonwrxowner

That must have taken ages to type. It took ages to read!

Good story though.

I just got pi**ed all bank holiday.

How the other half lives eh!

druddle

What a great read John !! I see P&O got the nicest ship, the Aquitaine, out for your return journey

johnfelstead

Glad you enjoyed teh writeup, here are 3 videos for you, just short clips.

150 MPH into Schwedenkreuz

miss hit miss

Karousel

if anyone wants to host a full lap drop me a mail.

enjoy

Claudius

How are the AP discs holding up? Any tiny cracks or anything in them?

Claudius

just watched the Karussel mpeg

You NEED some suspension!

Also watched the other vids. What does "miss hit miss" mean?

I shouldnt be drinking coffee after dinner, really ...

TaviaRS

miss, hit, miss = miss the first apex, hit the second, miss the third. I prefer to almost hit the final one as it gives me a better line down to the next bend.

John, I take it you haven't replaced your dampers since last time? Are they still overheating?

Nice write up, as usual. You still going on the 20th?

johnfelstead

nope, i havent replaced my dampers yet, so it still isnt brilliant on the handling front, thats why i am pretty happy with the times i was doing. You cant use the Karousel as a basis for seeing what a car handles like though, it's very high G and bumpy as hell, even with good suspension it looks horendous.

it wasnt as bad as last time, as the temps were lower, so the dampers were being cooled a little more, they still were pretty crap though. I was getting massive rear roll through Adenau Forst in particular.

I used to think miss hit miss was better taking the 3rd apex, but it isnt, you can carry a lot more speed down the hill if you let it drift to the left on exit, it takes more comitment because you feel like your heading for the armco, the camber being negative makes it more so too, but it is definately a nicer line for getting on the power early.

Yep, i will be there on the 20th, hopefully with some decent suspension and a better camera mount.

davyboy

Hence why I take the corner miss hit hit !!

repeat after me, armco is BAD !

johnfelstead

chicken.

I said it "feels" like your going to hit the armco, the reality is you wont unless you make a real cockup of it.