Roo
Premium
- 7,453
- Hampshire, UK
- GTP_Roo
I've referenced a lot of towns on the journey; check Google Maps if you're interested. For a map of the Nürburgring with the corner names, go here.
Most of the pictures started life as 2-3MB 3008 x 2000; if you want one, PM me and quote the picture you want, and give me an email address (because sending as an attachment is easier than trying to host a large picture somewhere). I’ll send you the unedited, as it came off the camera version because I resized everything to 800 x whatever first and then played with them afterwards.
-----------------------------------
I've been promising myself for years that one day I'll go to the Nürburgring in the Mini. After a few months of me half-heartedly planning a few things without committing to anything - the route there, where to stay, the rules of the road and so on - Vexd put his Nürb visit thread up, and this struck a chord:
What the heck then. Booked the hotel a few days later, and sent the deposit off. Can't back out now! I asked a few friends along too, but work and money got in the way... so I went by myself. The itinerary: leave Monday 16th June, enjoy the Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions, and come home Thursday 19th. As I was going to Donington Park for the Download festival, time was going to be limited; coming back on Sunday night / Monday morning, leaving by noon on Monday. If I wanted to get to the hotel by any reasonable time, it ment getting the Channel Tunnel, the train that travels underneath the English Channel. The ferry would've been half the price, but taken twice as long, and I didn't have time for that. A return ticket on the train was duly booked; local time 14:50 out, 16:20 back.
Over the months that followed I planned the route, followed it on Google maps, checked it again, noted down petrol stations, zoomed in on every junction; everything I could to fool my sense of direction into thinking it knew where I was going. This paid dividends, as I didn't get lost once. I bought myself a Sparco open-face helmet - not necessary but advised; it also had the nice touch of enhancing the feeling of being on a race track.
Day 1 - Monday 16th June
The 16th rolled around. Got home from Donington at 2am; up again at 7 to pick the Mini up from having her serviced. Got home, loaded up, a quick picture of the mileage:
11.30am. Time to go. A bit early, but better than late.
Things started badly, and leaving early was a good idea; it took three attempts to find a petrol station with petrol in it. It had taken 20 minutes to travel a mile into the journey. Fortunately, the petrol fiasco wasn't a sign of things to come, and I got to Folkstone 45 minutes early, 101 miles down. When you check in at the Eurotunnel, if you're early enough it gives the option of travelling on an earlier train - in this case, the 14:20. Just enough time to grab some food for the journey then.
A copy of F1 Racing and Terry Pratchett's latest book (Making Money) at half price, and it's time to board the train. Yes, driving through a train does feel a little odd.
My worries about driving on the other side of the road were calmed as I got off the train - the terminal on both the British and French ends lead more or less straight onto the motorway, which gives you more than enough time to become adapted. A quick stop to top off the petrol, and then onto the E402 to Brussels. Everything is in kilometres now I'm on the continent, but years of playing the PAL version of Gran Turismo 2 means I can convert to miles in my head. That, and the A4 sheet I printed off before I left with a conversion chart on it.
36 miles later, and I'm in Belgium. The novelty of driving on the wrong side of the road hadn't worn off, which was lucky as driving across Belgium is hella dull. (Sorry Serge and DustDriver, but it is!) An Alpina Z8 passed me, and I stopped for petrol for the third time outside Brussels; so had the Z8, so I got a couple of photos:
Encountered the only traffic jam on the way there on the Brussels ring road, where a motorbike and wedged itself under the back of a Vauxhall Zafira.
People who had been to the Nürburgring had told me that the Karrusell is really bumpy. As I found out later, it is, but compared to the E40 between Brussels and Liege, it's silky smooth. Maybe because I was driving a Mini I noticed it more; whatever, it felt ploughed-field bumpy. I hoped for better things in Germany.
Transferred onto the E42 after Liege, taking me into Germany. The contrast was stark; from junctions and towns every 2 or 3 miles, as soon as I entered Germany there was nothing but pine trees. This was a problem, as I was getting low on fuel; why didn't I fill up in Belgium? At home I had calculated I could just get to Wittlich from Brussels on a tank, a distance of 160 miles. Cruising at 75mph across Belgium in the aerodynamically-rubbish Mini had taken its toll on the 7 gallon tank, and so for peace of mind I took a punt on not getting lost and made my way to Bergweiler. Found a Shell garage, filled up and only then realised I knew no German whatsoever. Hooray for phrasebooks!
Eventually, over 8 hours after I left home I got to my hotel, the Wilhelmshöhe, at 9.30:
A hotel/restaurant run by a couple, Jacqueline and Ulrich Miller. She’s English, does the paperwork and generally ensures the smooth running of the hotel, and he’s German and is the head chef. They stop serving food at 9, but despite arriving half an hour late, they still managed to put together a pork schnitzel and chips (and bowl of bread, and salad bar) for me, and very much appreciated it was too. The hotel is about 15 miles from the Nürburgring, but it means the car is nicely warmed up when you get there, and the roads are great. Oh, and it is right next door to a petrol station. Definitely recommended.
The view from my hotel window:
Day 2 - Tuesday 17th June
In the morning, I discovered a continental breakfast: mostly bread, cheese and cold meats. Wha?? Where’s the pig products, swimming in grease? Where’s the fried bread? Rubbish. What there was was nice, and they had plenty of cereals and a toaster, but I did kinda miss a full English... It did mean I got a lunch out of it though. Crazy, healthy continental types.
I got talking to a group of British bikers who were travelling home that day. They said the road to Cochram was good fun and that if I wasn’t doing anything, I should have a look. Well, they weren’t kidding. You could drive there, have a bundle of fun and go home without ever going near the ‘Ring; the roads are fantastic.
After a pootle around Cochram, I headed to the Nürburgring. The public session didn’t start until 5.45, but I went up anyway to find out how to get there and where to go once I arrived. Got a bit lost to begin with and ended up at one of the entrances to the Grand Prix circuit, where I found one of the two Nürburgring shops. Bought a map for €7.90 – GP circuit on one side, Nordschleife and the surrounding area on the other – and a sticker (€6), ready for the evening. With my new purchases in hand, I drove up to Pflanzgarten to see what there was to be seen.
As Vexd said in his thread, during the day there’s plenty to watch – manufacturers testing mostly – and for me, someone who enjoys taking pictures of cars, it was entertaining and very easy to lose track of time. The fastest cars are doing ~8 minute laps, so if I didn’t get the shot I wanted I’d just think ‘I’ll just wait for the next time it comes round’. By the time you’ve done that with the 20 or so cars on track, with new cars appearing all the time, it’s easy to lose 2 or 3 hours. I’ll post some of the cars in the next post.
The closest petrol station to the ‘ring is about 3 minutes drive away, and it has a brilliant model shop attached. I filled up with fuel and picked up these two 1:18 Mercedes DTM cars (picy taken when I got home):
I made my way to the car park at half 4. The track didn’t open for an hour, but I just wanted to be there. I parked the car, bought a 4 lap ticket (€70), and watched the cars testing down Döttinger-Höhe:
The barriers, and the famous webcam:
After a while, the on-track traffic lessened, so it was time for a wander around the car park:
Whilst waiting for the track to open, I visited the Nürburgring shop at the car park. I bought a T shirt and a prize for UKGTP10.
5.45 came, the track opened. It was time. I restrained myself to let as much traffic out as possible, but after a few minutes, I couldn’t wait any longer. Helmet on, let’s go!
I spent the first lap more or less glued to the right hand side of the track. Because during the Touristenfahrten the track is officially a “one way, derestricted toll road”, all the normal road rules apply; you must pass on the left, as passing on the right is undertaking, and thus illegal. As soon as I saw a faster vehicle in my mirrors – that is to say, every other vehicle – the right indicator went on and I got out the way. As I’d gone out so early, this happened on every other corner, so I couldn’t take any racing lines. Still, I was on the Nürburgring; racing lines can wait until the next lap.
At the end of the lap, I stopped in the car park to let the Mini cool down. I’d learned a few things:
1) Gran Turismo 4 does help. It doesn’t prepare you at all for the hills and slopes, which are massive, and look and feel at least twice as steep as their pixelated counterparts, but it does let you know where the next bend goes, and it gives you the confidence to go over the next crest flat because you know, thanks to the game, that there’s a straight on the other side. It means you aren’t wasting expensive laps trying to learn the circuit.
2) In my Mini – 45bhp, 4 gears, 0-60 in 20s – I don’t need to brake for any of the uphill corners; I’d enter Exmühle, the really steep 90 degree right hander after Breidscheid, flat and watch the speed just drop away. Brake and down a gear for Bergwerk, then flat out all the way to Steilstreke. At Kesselchen, I was doing 70mph. Still flat through the Angst Kurve, I’m doing 55, and that’s down to 50 by the time I got to the right kink after.
3) The Karussell is nuts. Chuck the car in, ignore the sound of the exhaust hitting the ground (how on Earth do Porsches, Lamborghinis and Vexd get through here?) and admire the world from the crazy angle you’ve found yourself at.
4) Hohe Acht is the highest point of the circuit, and in the Mini it signals the start of the fun – throw the car at the apexes, a touch of understeer and then it sticks, all the way to the outside. Apply big grin, rinse, repeat. The downhill means I can accelerate, too.
My second lap, and I passed someone! A BMW 5 series estate was cruising, and I past it at Hohe Acht. It was my best lap of the day.
On my third lap, an ADAC recovery truck followed me onto the circuit. A guy was waving a yellow jacket as a flag at the chicane between the Karussell and Hohe Acht; a bike had gone down on the grass. Back at the car park, the track had been shut; the biker left in an ambulance. It didn’t look too serious, but it was a reminder that this place bites:
As it was now nearly 7pm, and with the track due to close at 7.30, the track stayed closed for the rest of the day. I had a lap left on my ticket for the following day (multi-lap tickets remain valid until the 31st December).
A few photos of the Zakspeed Viper:
Back to the hotel for dinner (chicken with peppers and chips, om nom nom nom) and then to bed. Takes a lot out of you, this Nürburgring lark!
Most of the pictures started life as 2-3MB 3008 x 2000; if you want one, PM me and quote the picture you want, and give me an email address (because sending as an attachment is easier than trying to host a large picture somewhere). I’ll send you the unedited, as it came off the camera version because I resized everything to 800 x whatever first and then played with them afterwards.
-----------------------------------
I've been promising myself for years that one day I'll go to the Nürburgring in the Mini. After a few months of me half-heartedly planning a few things without committing to anything - the route there, where to stay, the rules of the road and so on - Vexd put his Nürb visit thread up, and this struck a chord:
What the heck then. Booked the hotel a few days later, and sent the deposit off. Can't back out now! I asked a few friends along too, but work and money got in the way... so I went by myself. The itinerary: leave Monday 16th June, enjoy the Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions, and come home Thursday 19th. As I was going to Donington Park for the Download festival, time was going to be limited; coming back on Sunday night / Monday morning, leaving by noon on Monday. If I wanted to get to the hotel by any reasonable time, it ment getting the Channel Tunnel, the train that travels underneath the English Channel. The ferry would've been half the price, but taken twice as long, and I didn't have time for that. A return ticket on the train was duly booked; local time 14:50 out, 16:20 back.
Over the months that followed I planned the route, followed it on Google maps, checked it again, noted down petrol stations, zoomed in on every junction; everything I could to fool my sense of direction into thinking it knew where I was going. This paid dividends, as I didn't get lost once. I bought myself a Sparco open-face helmet - not necessary but advised; it also had the nice touch of enhancing the feeling of being on a race track.
Day 1 - Monday 16th June
The 16th rolled around. Got home from Donington at 2am; up again at 7 to pick the Mini up from having her serviced. Got home, loaded up, a quick picture of the mileage:
11.30am. Time to go. A bit early, but better than late.
Things started badly, and leaving early was a good idea; it took three attempts to find a petrol station with petrol in it. It had taken 20 minutes to travel a mile into the journey. Fortunately, the petrol fiasco wasn't a sign of things to come, and I got to Folkstone 45 minutes early, 101 miles down. When you check in at the Eurotunnel, if you're early enough it gives the option of travelling on an earlier train - in this case, the 14:20. Just enough time to grab some food for the journey then.
A copy of F1 Racing and Terry Pratchett's latest book (Making Money) at half price, and it's time to board the train. Yes, driving through a train does feel a little odd.
My worries about driving on the other side of the road were calmed as I got off the train - the terminal on both the British and French ends lead more or less straight onto the motorway, which gives you more than enough time to become adapted. A quick stop to top off the petrol, and then onto the E402 to Brussels. Everything is in kilometres now I'm on the continent, but years of playing the PAL version of Gran Turismo 2 means I can convert to miles in my head. That, and the A4 sheet I printed off before I left with a conversion chart on it.
36 miles later, and I'm in Belgium. The novelty of driving on the wrong side of the road hadn't worn off, which was lucky as driving across Belgium is hella dull. (Sorry Serge and DustDriver, but it is!) An Alpina Z8 passed me, and I stopped for petrol for the third time outside Brussels; so had the Z8, so I got a couple of photos:
Encountered the only traffic jam on the way there on the Brussels ring road, where a motorbike and wedged itself under the back of a Vauxhall Zafira.
People who had been to the Nürburgring had told me that the Karrusell is really bumpy. As I found out later, it is, but compared to the E40 between Brussels and Liege, it's silky smooth. Maybe because I was driving a Mini I noticed it more; whatever, it felt ploughed-field bumpy. I hoped for better things in Germany.
Transferred onto the E42 after Liege, taking me into Germany. The contrast was stark; from junctions and towns every 2 or 3 miles, as soon as I entered Germany there was nothing but pine trees. This was a problem, as I was getting low on fuel; why didn't I fill up in Belgium? At home I had calculated I could just get to Wittlich from Brussels on a tank, a distance of 160 miles. Cruising at 75mph across Belgium in the aerodynamically-rubbish Mini had taken its toll on the 7 gallon tank, and so for peace of mind I took a punt on not getting lost and made my way to Bergweiler. Found a Shell garage, filled up and only then realised I knew no German whatsoever. Hooray for phrasebooks!
Eventually, over 8 hours after I left home I got to my hotel, the Wilhelmshöhe, at 9.30:
A hotel/restaurant run by a couple, Jacqueline and Ulrich Miller. She’s English, does the paperwork and generally ensures the smooth running of the hotel, and he’s German and is the head chef. They stop serving food at 9, but despite arriving half an hour late, they still managed to put together a pork schnitzel and chips (and bowl of bread, and salad bar) for me, and very much appreciated it was too. The hotel is about 15 miles from the Nürburgring, but it means the car is nicely warmed up when you get there, and the roads are great. Oh, and it is right next door to a petrol station. Definitely recommended.
The view from my hotel window:
Day 2 - Tuesday 17th June
In the morning, I discovered a continental breakfast: mostly bread, cheese and cold meats. Wha?? Where’s the pig products, swimming in grease? Where’s the fried bread? Rubbish. What there was was nice, and they had plenty of cereals and a toaster, but I did kinda miss a full English... It did mean I got a lunch out of it though. Crazy, healthy continental types.
I got talking to a group of British bikers who were travelling home that day. They said the road to Cochram was good fun and that if I wasn’t doing anything, I should have a look. Well, they weren’t kidding. You could drive there, have a bundle of fun and go home without ever going near the ‘Ring; the roads are fantastic.
After a pootle around Cochram, I headed to the Nürburgring. The public session didn’t start until 5.45, but I went up anyway to find out how to get there and where to go once I arrived. Got a bit lost to begin with and ended up at one of the entrances to the Grand Prix circuit, where I found one of the two Nürburgring shops. Bought a map for €7.90 – GP circuit on one side, Nordschleife and the surrounding area on the other – and a sticker (€6), ready for the evening. With my new purchases in hand, I drove up to Pflanzgarten to see what there was to be seen.
As Vexd said in his thread, during the day there’s plenty to watch – manufacturers testing mostly – and for me, someone who enjoys taking pictures of cars, it was entertaining and very easy to lose track of time. The fastest cars are doing ~8 minute laps, so if I didn’t get the shot I wanted I’d just think ‘I’ll just wait for the next time it comes round’. By the time you’ve done that with the 20 or so cars on track, with new cars appearing all the time, it’s easy to lose 2 or 3 hours. I’ll post some of the cars in the next post.
The closest petrol station to the ‘ring is about 3 minutes drive away, and it has a brilliant model shop attached. I filled up with fuel and picked up these two 1:18 Mercedes DTM cars (picy taken when I got home):
I made my way to the car park at half 4. The track didn’t open for an hour, but I just wanted to be there. I parked the car, bought a 4 lap ticket (€70), and watched the cars testing down Döttinger-Höhe:
The barriers, and the famous webcam:
After a while, the on-track traffic lessened, so it was time for a wander around the car park:
Whilst waiting for the track to open, I visited the Nürburgring shop at the car park. I bought a T shirt and a prize for UKGTP10.
5.45 came, the track opened. It was time. I restrained myself to let as much traffic out as possible, but after a few minutes, I couldn’t wait any longer. Helmet on, let’s go!
I spent the first lap more or less glued to the right hand side of the track. Because during the Touristenfahrten the track is officially a “one way, derestricted toll road”, all the normal road rules apply; you must pass on the left, as passing on the right is undertaking, and thus illegal. As soon as I saw a faster vehicle in my mirrors – that is to say, every other vehicle – the right indicator went on and I got out the way. As I’d gone out so early, this happened on every other corner, so I couldn’t take any racing lines. Still, I was on the Nürburgring; racing lines can wait until the next lap.
At the end of the lap, I stopped in the car park to let the Mini cool down. I’d learned a few things:
1) Gran Turismo 4 does help. It doesn’t prepare you at all for the hills and slopes, which are massive, and look and feel at least twice as steep as their pixelated counterparts, but it does let you know where the next bend goes, and it gives you the confidence to go over the next crest flat because you know, thanks to the game, that there’s a straight on the other side. It means you aren’t wasting expensive laps trying to learn the circuit.
2) In my Mini – 45bhp, 4 gears, 0-60 in 20s – I don’t need to brake for any of the uphill corners; I’d enter Exmühle, the really steep 90 degree right hander after Breidscheid, flat and watch the speed just drop away. Brake and down a gear for Bergwerk, then flat out all the way to Steilstreke. At Kesselchen, I was doing 70mph. Still flat through the Angst Kurve, I’m doing 55, and that’s down to 50 by the time I got to the right kink after.
3) The Karussell is nuts. Chuck the car in, ignore the sound of the exhaust hitting the ground (how on Earth do Porsches, Lamborghinis and Vexd get through here?) and admire the world from the crazy angle you’ve found yourself at.
4) Hohe Acht is the highest point of the circuit, and in the Mini it signals the start of the fun – throw the car at the apexes, a touch of understeer and then it sticks, all the way to the outside. Apply big grin, rinse, repeat. The downhill means I can accelerate, too.
My second lap, and I passed someone! A BMW 5 series estate was cruising, and I past it at Hohe Acht. It was my best lap of the day.
On my third lap, an ADAC recovery truck followed me onto the circuit. A guy was waving a yellow jacket as a flag at the chicane between the Karussell and Hohe Acht; a bike had gone down on the grass. Back at the car park, the track had been shut; the biker left in an ambulance. It didn’t look too serious, but it was a reminder that this place bites:
As it was now nearly 7pm, and with the track due to close at 7.30, the track stayed closed for the rest of the day. I had a lap left on my ticket for the following day (multi-lap tickets remain valid until the 31st December).
A few photos of the Zakspeed Viper:
Back to the hotel for dinner (chicken with peppers and chips, om nom nom nom) and then to bed. Takes a lot out of you, this Nürburgring lark!
.
