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- GTP_VEXD
For those of you who dont know, there was an almighty LAN event in Holland recently, and i tied it up with a trip to the ring.
Below is my quick write-up of what happened...
Mods, please feel free to edit anything unsuitable from this post. Thanx.
Right, im going to attempt this marathon post.
Firstly, let me say how much fun we all had in Holland, and how hospitable the Dutch guys are and how much fun we had, and how welcoming the Dutch can be and how much fun we had, and how i was made to feel at home along with everyone else, and of course, how much fun we all had.
If these guys ever do anything like this again, im going to be there, even if i end up being the barman.
I'll now tell you my story of a fantastic 7 days, if i can get fotobuck'et to work.
It all started in rain and crap weather in the UK on Thursday the 1st of May for me.
I went 7 miles down the road, and met up with Mike/Ren-Tec who had already been waiting 45 mins for me (sorry Mike), and we drove down to the port at Harwich.
I drive a civic, and Mike has a Rover (theyre extinct now, you know).
We then got onto the ferry (after i had a pat-down from the officials in customs....i must look dodgy or something) and sailed across to Holland for nearly 7 hours.
The journey was boring (no waves, people jumping overboard etc) so Mike fell asleep.
When we got to Hoek van Holland, Sjaak was there to meet us, and we followed him to the lan, where the fun would begin. I did mention how much fun we had, didnt i?
When we got there, i met a few people, and the housepig, Heisse:
He was a friendly sort, but always spoke under his breath, in fact, you could say he grunted a lot.
There were a load of folks there for a birthday bash, so we felt a little bewildered to begin with, but the Dutch are so welcoming, that that feeling soon wore off.
After a little time, and some car-washing (it was filthy, and i have mild OCD) we got some seats set up, and started to play some GT, before the lure of the bar got the better of me, and i ended up starting my 4 day bender.
The next morning, after an interesting trip down to Ruuds the night before, which involved security guards, copious alcohol consumption, speed bumps, police, and a duck, i was driven back to the lan, to find breakfast all ready for us. Nice one Jurund. 👍
However, the Dutch choice in margarine/butter, left me feeling a little homophobic.
Still, top quality service, and it was to continue throughout the entire trip.
These guys really know how to look after people, and there isnt an engishman alive that i know of, who wouldnt dream of giving that kind of a service, but could actually live up to them and their fantastic hosting skillz. yo.
After breakfast, Jan brushed his teeth for a good 20 mins, and Ruud tried to learn how it was done, then Sjaak turned up with some people I'd had the pleasure of meeting before.
This Belgian guy,
some Scot or other,
and his missus, who headed straight for the bar i might add....
Loox guilty, doesn't she.....
👍
With Ron, Kelly and Bert all present, and of course Sjaak bringing them in, and Hugo turning up also, it was time to race for a bit.
Or at least, look at the screens, and think about racing Hugo. (I mean, cmon, what actually is the point in racing Hugo...?)
See, he agrees with me, its just stoopid.
Rob/AMG/porsche carrera 4s as he should be known, turned up at some point, and im sorry, but the days blurred for me, so it might have been the Friday, or the Saturday, but either way, he had a race too. Here he is in a Sjaak/Boss sandwich....mmmmmm...
Later on on Friday night, and by later on, i mean 1:45 AM, after i'd spent all night here:
Three other people from England/Scotland and erm, the bible, or wherever Famine comes from, turned up.
I was highly innebriated by then, and had great fun (did i mention i had fun?) laughing at their "we just walked in on a massive party and we're the only ones sober" faces....
Unfortunately, i only managed to line two of them up for the "let us read your T-shirt" pose the next morning, as Famine apparently was sleeping to try and make up for the last two years, where he hasnt slept at all, just organised the results for the ocho etc...
Mark was proud to tell everyone how he felt about the whole, pro-creation movement in our society.
After another fantastic breakfast the next morning, we started to race, and things went quite well for a lot of people, until i started sticking a camera in their faces.
Admittedly, as Jan pointed out, Becht does look like we cut his head off and laid it out on some plastic sheeting here, but trust me, he was driving.
One particular Female, who shall remain nameless, made it quite clear that i shouldnt foto her whilst she was racing, so i asked Ron if he'd do it, but he didnt have the balls either.
This particular racer, is deep undercover in Holland, after doing some "work" for MI6, and as such, his name and identity must remain a secret, as he told me: "thatsch a niissch picture, but dontsch publish it, moneypenny."
No problem Mops. Nice headphones btw.
Merriment and racing continued until the wee hours, and yes i do mean urination.
Far too much unlabelled, no idea of the percentage in this stuff, erm, Biertje was consumed.
Not that this held the racers up... oh no! infact, some of them, especially the Females in the group, made good of the situation, and using their powers of superior beer-tolerance, stuffed the men into second place, good and proper.
But eventually, the Saturday came to an end, with the best race ive ever had, against some Boss person, which had me screaming at the tv "aaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh no!" as i crossed the line at the end of 2 intense laps on the ring, in second place.
How the heck Hugo passed me coming into Schwalbenschwanz, i still dont know, and it opened my eyes to what kind of a driver he is. Not only could he lead me for a whole lap, then follow me for half of one, but he chose the most surprising overtaking manouevre, that i was completely erm, surprised, and convinced he'd fall off, but no.... not Hugo.
Top race man, i will never forget it.
Thanx for that. :liar:
Later on in the evening, Hugo tried some GT5P, and Danny watched....
I propped up the bar as id had such an epic battle with Hugo, that i needed to relax, well it sounds good anyway, and a few others came in. Eventually, i even managed to get Daan, Venari and Famine to drink something, and they ended up putting the world to rights with us all.
Top job behind the bar, Jurund. 👍
That guy is so ahem.... first hole from the neck..... :drunk:
Next day, people were relatively slow to surface, and another top breakfast was devoured by all, except Famine, who was asleep, apparently.
We had some fun races on the Sunday, but for Jan, GT4 was over, and this seemed to be the general feeling throughout as GT5P was played by a few, and the day slowly plodded along. I dont actually remember what i did all day Sunday, but i do know a few people left while i was in Amsterdam ( i went twice).
Here are some shots i took. I couldnt stay there and have a look around though, as i left the car for ten seconds, and a tow truck turned up, and was about to hook up the civic, so i waved at the disgruntled tow man, he swore at me in dutch, and i moved the car.
Amsterdam was beautiful though, as the weather was continuing in its trend of hot sunshine, and all the girls, bicycles and boat riders were out in force.
The hills arent really this steep, i just tripped while taking the shot:
Here's a "coffeeshop" with the VEXD VTEC outside, just to prove i had been there. Maybe thats why i couldnt park there actually....
Yes, so when i got back after the second trip, Famine, Venari, Daan, Ron, Sjaak and Kelly had all gone, so i didnt get to say bye to any of them really.... sorry about that people. :facepalm:
The rest of the day/night was a bit of a blur, as i found my way into the bar again (damn that bar) and Mikey plied me with drinx all night. (damn that mikey)
Monday came, and with a brief check of the cars and some quick goodbyes, Mike and i headed down to Germany, to try and find a ring.
It was a 4 hour drive in the end, due in part to an hour sat in a traffic jam, and us stopping to take in the absolutely stunning German countryside, as soon as we got off the autobahn. They do do the top speed of their car on the autobahn, if anyone was wondering, the Germans. Infact, they seem to do it a lot. The funny thing i noticed was how i went from Holland to Germany, just by passing a sign on the autobahn, no customs, but as soon as i did, all the cars ceased to be anything other than German cars. No japanese, or english, or american, or anything. Just German motors.
Anyway, we arrived at the hotel Blau Ecke (blue corner) in Adenau at 5:15pm, and the Touristenfahrten (that's "tourists: go kill yourselves on us"-in German) on the Nurburgring was due to start at 5:30, so we dropped our bags, and unloaded the cars of all unecessary equipment, before heading up the most gorgeous mountain road to Nurburg town, and the ring entrance.
I still found time for a shot of the civic from a different viewpoint at the hotel though:
And of the church i could see from the balcony also:
Arriving at the track carpark, i literally parked, jumped out of the civic, and took this:
I was so excited.... I was at the ring! I'd been dreaming of doing a lap for four years.... so i went to the lap ticket machine, and bought a four lap ticket, which was 70 euros (about 56 quid).
Mike jumped in, and we headed out and did my first lap within about 20 mins of being there.
I had a great time, but Mike was cough cough using my phone, cough, the whole way round, and he didnt feel too good by the time we came off Pflanzgarten II, but he stuck it out till the end.
When we got back, i waited about 15 mins, then went out by myself, and pushed the car hard round the course.
Its really difficult to describe in text, but its like this: The GT4 version is faithful to the course in terms of corner direction. Some of the sections are a little longer on GT than they are on the ring itself, like the run down to Hatzenbach, for example, which takes a few seconds and maybe two gear changes on GT, but is immediately upon you IRL. The biggest difference though, is the gradient.
Playing GT4 has given me an insight to the track that i really was grateful for, but it didnt give me any clue as to how steep the hills were! By the time i was two thirds around the track on lap one, my brakes were complaining, because i just wasnt expecting to be going down such steep hills all the time, and i was being so cautious and braking early. If you tried walking up some of the hills there on that course, you'd get blisters.... (more on that later)
The difference between GT4 and real ringing is huge, and im talking about the gradient, and the size of the kerbs. Only the 4x4 drivers would run them, unless your nuts....
Anyway, back in the carpark, we saw some crazy cars, as you always do there, so ive heard. Included was this Veritas, which i'd certainly never heard of, which was seen later on in the day lapping at full chat, with Sabine driving (local hero) with a chopper following her round at about 20 feet high, filming for some German tv show or other...
After taking in the atmosphere, and Mikey finding the ticket booth closed when he decided he might like to do a lap, we went back to the hotel to chill, and after a bit of tv, we went up the road to Pinocchios for pizza, as i'd heard it was good.
We both made the mistake of ordering soup as a starter, and so when the pizza arrived and it was bigger than Holland, we were a little startled. So much so, i took a before and after to show what i managed to eat. Please consider which one out of the two of us was the fat bloke, as i left some, whilst Mikey on the otherhand....
Before:
After:
Yum.
We went back to the hotel and had some well earned kip, ready for day two at the ring.
Even the hotel rooms were named after corners.
Adenau town, where we were staying, is one of the towns that the ring runs through, or over, if you like. This means its extremely easy to go spectating in the sun, providing its sunny of course, and so we drove half a mile up the road the next morning, and parked up at the bottom of some steps, which lead to the spectating point at Breidscheid corner. (where there is some concrete run off, which causes arguments in WRS)
Mikey was far more keen than me...
As we couldnt actually get on track ourselves till 5:45pm that day, we decided to watch the guys testing on the course.
When its not open to public, or there isnt a race going on, manufacturers use the track to test out various things on there cars, including prototypes of some aero parts and even whole new models. We stood at Breidscheid for almost an hour watching stuff tearing past.
The scenery was breathtaking, and the weather was absolutely perfect. I got a tan, and Mikey got a magnum when we eventually got back, but before we did, we went for a very very long trackside walk. Backwards, up the track.
This meant, we headed from Breidscheid corner, up to Wehrseifen, which is a hairpin.
We then continued round towards miss-hit-miss, which, viewed in reverse is miss-hit-oh wait, its the same... and then we got round to Kallenhard. This is a long tight right, with a kerb run-off on the outside exit. In between Kallenhard and miss-hit-miss is this chicane, with such an awesome view into the mountains....(excuse the dodgy angle, i was getting sunstroke)
After moving round Kallenhard the wrong way, and dodging some biker, who was taking the quick way home up a gravel footpath, we came to Metzgesfeld. (remember we're going backwards here) This is where Hugo fell off on lap two in the race i had with him, and also where we took fotos of the cars passing, and some of the scenery behind the track as well...
You can see Nurburg castle in the distance if your glasses are really good...
Following on from Metzgesfeld, another walk took us to Adenaur Forst, and Mikey found us a great spot to take pix within a few feet of the track, literally from behind the armco as they came screaming into view.
After a while, we turned around and headed back to Breidscheid to have a drink, and check that the cars were still there.
The cars stopped touring round after an accident, and the track went quiet, so i took the opportunity to tag it, and Mikey found that someone had got plans for him too....
We decided to go up to the viewing point at Brunnchen, to see a different perspective, and see if we could find the place, to be honest, and got some snaps up there too. There are countless videos as well, but i wont be uploading those, cos i dont know how to.
The cars were running again by this time, though a repair truck came round shortly, to replace some armco that somebody had bought (if you hit it, youve bought it, and the bills can run to thousands) and after a while, we headed off to Nurburg itself, as i wanted to see the place in the daylight, and get closer to the track for the TF opening time.
When we got to Nurburg, we stumbled upon the Bridge that is at the end of the long straight, and Mikey spotted a hole in the fence, so i went under the bridge, and got scared whenever cars came past at over 200mph....
See that bit of scaffolding on top of the bridge up there?
I decided it might make a good place to take videos of cars passing underneath me, so i tried it out.... i was right
I wanted to go get a bit fresher, and drop off some glass and some keyrings/stickers that id bought earlier before i went out to do my last two laps, so i headed back to the hotel, while Mikey did some modifications to his coop before his run on the ring later on.
When i got back to the carpark, there was a guy following me with english plates on his brand new astra VXR, so i stopped and chatted to him at the gate as we were early.
He'd had the car 3 months, but hadnt had chance to drive it much, as he was in the army.
He was on his way to Afghanistan the following week, so he thought he'd take the opportunity to try the ring before he went. He'd brought his gorgeous girlfriend along for the ride too.
Nice car eh?
After TF started, Mikey went and bought his ticket, and went out for a lap in the Rover, but he had to start off slowly, as a certain Vauxhall was parked in the wrong place on the side of the track, and he had to make his way past safely.
It later came back into the carpark, having made 0 turns on the course, under its own steam, but a full lap on the back of the ADAC recovery truck.
Less than 500 miles on this beauty.....
Shame..... another dead Vauxhall...
That's a lesson learned right there, always always always respect the ring.
Both driver and passenger were ok, but the car's a write-off.
Mikey came back beaming, having completed his lap safely, and had a great time, judging by his wide grin and enthusiasm for the place...
I went out and did my last two with a short break in between, to allow the car to cool down.
The first lap was a sighting lap, to see where the armco repair trux were, and check the grip level all the way round, and the last lap i did was full on commitment!
Mike took some video of me coming past at Brunnchen (thanx buddy!) and i looked pretty quick!
Once safely back in the carpark, we hung around till the session finished, and then headed back to the hotel to get washed and changed for dinner.
After umming and arring about where to eat, i twisted Mikey's arm and we headed back up to Nurburg to eat in the famous "Pistenklause" restaurant, run by Sabine Schmidt, who is the most famous of all female Ring-Taxi drivers at the ring (she's the only female actually...).
It was easy to find...
Mikey ordered some pasta, while i went for the famous option, of steak on a stone.
They bring you raw meat, and chips.
The meat is on a hot stone, and you cut off a piece with your carving knife, then cook it to your own taste, by pressing it on the stone. It sizzles and goes brown/grey and as soon as its done to your liking, you put it in your mouth.
Honestly, its the best way ive ever eaten food..... 👍
Heading out of the Pistenklause, it was dark, so we stopped at the ring entrance for a minute, while i took some pointless shots...
Then we decided on a nutty mission....
I drove us back round to Brunnchen to have a look at the ring by night.
Getting there, we couldnt see a thing, as the moon wasnt up at all, and we couldnt get onto the circuit there as the fencing was all the way round the edge, and the gates were locked.
Earlier in the day, id spotted a place where we could get on, but it was back round at Pflanzgarten I, further round the track...
We headed there, climbed a small bit of fence, and we were on the track!
Then, madly enough, we stumbled upon a chair....
Here we are, sitting on the Nurburgring. (yes i am sunburnt)
Now if a guy was wearing the wrong shoes and decided to go walking...
We then had a cunning plan.
Being only 3 miles or so from the Karussel, and wanting to go see it in the flesh, we decided to walk backwards (again) up the course to the most famous corner.
What i didnt bank on, was how much damage 6 miles or so in smart (uncomfortable) shoes would do to my feet, having covered 8 miles earlier in the day.
So, off we went.
The armco was cooling down after such a long hot day, and kept making random banging noises as we walked along in total darkness. It was scaring us to begin with, until we rationalised that it must just be contracting, and carried on our way.
Back to those gradients again..... we walked up Pflanzgarten I, down Eiskurve, into Brunnchen II, then up Brunnchen I, up into Wipperman, along into Hohe Acht (the highest point on the entire course. Here's proof:
This was a mission, but then it was downhill to the Karussel.
Once we got to the Karussel, we could truly see the radius of the corner, and its huge!
It comes all the way round on itself, the exit almost meeting the entry.
Unfortunately, it was sooooo dark, that the poor camera phones just couldnt take any pix worth keeping of the surrounding scenery. Infact, my eyes couldnt see very far in front of my face, so im not surprised the phones werent very effective.
Nevertheless, we did get some pseudo-recognisable proof of our achievement.
It goes this way....
Blimey, i even look happy in that foto...
Mind you, i hadnt started walking back yet...
After a gruelling climb of Hohe Acht (Mikey took it in his stride... i was knackered) we made it back down the course the way its supposed to run, going back through Wipperman, round both Brunnchens, and up Eiskurve (feet really killing me by now) and back down Pflanzgarten I to the Honda, which was still there.
It was a great little mission, with some real fear thrown in at one point, when we thought there was a car coming round the track, and we both dived over the armco, schwarzenegger stylee. Eventually we got back in the civic, and headed for the hotel.
We slept well.
Next day, it was up and pack the cars after breakfast. Checked our oil, then drove back through the beautiful German countryside, back to the autobahn.
We made it back to Holland in 4 hours straight, and were greeted by a busy Jan, and some of his staff.
He still made time for us and we had drinx and snax while people came and went.
After a time, we started setting up the raceseats for the GT5P lan planned for that evening, and eventually Sjaak, Ruud, Rob, Mopsch, Jan, Hugo and mikey sat down to race.
I watched, and sat out of the way at the bar, and i got some shots... (no, not those kind)
After another load of goodbyes
we retired to the bar.
Rob, Hugo, Sjaak and Mopsch had all gone, and it was me, Mikey, Jan and Ruud left chatting. Freida (sp?) sat with us for a bit too, (Jan's wife) but then those two left for bed, leaving us two with Ruud for another 45 mins, before he eventually started the loudest bike in Holland, and rode off home, chips stylee. (those of you not old enough to know what chips is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSzEmPEnYxo )
We went to bed, well i went to bed, Mikey went to sofa, and the next morning after some hurried goodbyes from Jan, who was extremely busy, we got packed up, and headed back out of Holland on the 14:30 ferry.
I arrived home about half 10ish after a long days travelling, and so ends the report on the best week ive had in Holland so far... It just remains for me to thank everyone once again for the fun we had (did i mention... oh yeah i did) and the Dutch for their hospitality, which is second to none.
The cars hung on till the very end, and did us both proud, so my advice, buy a Honda.
Here's a shocking before and after shot of my speedo, the mileage is real, people.
Thankyou very much for reading.....
Before the madness:
And after the fun... (we had lots of fun!! )
Finally, after a good wash and polish, i fitted my ring stickers to the civic. Using one black and one white combined, i got a pretty good effect.
What do you think?
VEXD
👍
Below is my quick write-up of what happened...
Mods, please feel free to edit anything unsuitable from this post. Thanx.
Right, im going to attempt this marathon post.
Firstly, let me say how much fun we all had in Holland, and how hospitable the Dutch guys are and how much fun we had, and how welcoming the Dutch can be and how much fun we had, and how i was made to feel at home along with everyone else, and of course, how much fun we all had.
If these guys ever do anything like this again, im going to be there, even if i end up being the barman.
I'll now tell you my story of a fantastic 7 days, if i can get fotobuck'et to work.
It all started in rain and crap weather in the UK on Thursday the 1st of May for me.
I went 7 miles down the road, and met up with Mike/Ren-Tec who had already been waiting 45 mins for me (sorry Mike), and we drove down to the port at Harwich.
I drive a civic, and Mike has a Rover (theyre extinct now, you know).
We then got onto the ferry (after i had a pat-down from the officials in customs....i must look dodgy or something) and sailed across to Holland for nearly 7 hours.
The journey was boring (no waves, people jumping overboard etc) so Mike fell asleep.
When we got to Hoek van Holland, Sjaak was there to meet us, and we followed him to the lan, where the fun would begin. I did mention how much fun we had, didnt i?
When we got there, i met a few people, and the housepig, Heisse:
He was a friendly sort, but always spoke under his breath, in fact, you could say he grunted a lot.
There were a load of folks there for a birthday bash, so we felt a little bewildered to begin with, but the Dutch are so welcoming, that that feeling soon wore off.
After a little time, and some car-washing (it was filthy, and i have mild OCD) we got some seats set up, and started to play some GT, before the lure of the bar got the better of me, and i ended up starting my 4 day bender.
The next morning, after an interesting trip down to Ruuds the night before, which involved security guards, copious alcohol consumption, speed bumps, police, and a duck, i was driven back to the lan, to find breakfast all ready for us. Nice one Jurund. 👍
However, the Dutch choice in margarine/butter, left me feeling a little homophobic.
Still, top quality service, and it was to continue throughout the entire trip.
These guys really know how to look after people, and there isnt an engishman alive that i know of, who wouldnt dream of giving that kind of a service, but could actually live up to them and their fantastic hosting skillz. yo.
After breakfast, Jan brushed his teeth for a good 20 mins, and Ruud tried to learn how it was done, then Sjaak turned up with some people I'd had the pleasure of meeting before.
This Belgian guy,
some Scot or other,
and his missus, who headed straight for the bar i might add....
Loox guilty, doesn't she.....
👍 With Ron, Kelly and Bert all present, and of course Sjaak bringing them in, and Hugo turning up also, it was time to race for a bit.
Or at least, look at the screens, and think about racing Hugo. (I mean, cmon, what actually is the point in racing Hugo...?)
See, he agrees with me, its just stoopid.
Rob/AMG/porsche carrera 4s as he should be known, turned up at some point, and im sorry, but the days blurred for me, so it might have been the Friday, or the Saturday, but either way, he had a race too. Here he is in a Sjaak/Boss sandwich....mmmmmm...
Later on on Friday night, and by later on, i mean 1:45 AM, after i'd spent all night here:
Three other people from England/Scotland and erm, the bible, or wherever Famine comes from, turned up.
I was highly innebriated by then, and had great fun (did i mention i had fun?) laughing at their "we just walked in on a massive party and we're the only ones sober" faces....
Unfortunately, i only managed to line two of them up for the "let us read your T-shirt" pose the next morning, as Famine apparently was sleeping to try and make up for the last two years, where he hasnt slept at all, just organised the results for the ocho etc...
Mark was proud to tell everyone how he felt about the whole, pro-creation movement in our society.
After another fantastic breakfast the next morning, we started to race, and things went quite well for a lot of people, until i started sticking a camera in their faces.
Admittedly, as Jan pointed out, Becht does look like we cut his head off and laid it out on some plastic sheeting here, but trust me, he was driving.
One particular Female, who shall remain nameless, made it quite clear that i shouldnt foto her whilst she was racing, so i asked Ron if he'd do it, but he didnt have the balls either.
This particular racer, is deep undercover in Holland, after doing some "work" for MI6, and as such, his name and identity must remain a secret, as he told me: "thatsch a niissch picture, but dontsch publish it, moneypenny."
No problem Mops. Nice headphones btw.
Merriment and racing continued until the wee hours, and yes i do mean urination.
Far too much unlabelled, no idea of the percentage in this stuff, erm, Biertje was consumed.
Not that this held the racers up... oh no! infact, some of them, especially the Females in the group, made good of the situation, and using their powers of superior beer-tolerance, stuffed the men into second place, good and proper.
But eventually, the Saturday came to an end, with the best race ive ever had, against some Boss person, which had me screaming at the tv "aaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh no!" as i crossed the line at the end of 2 intense laps on the ring, in second place.
How the heck Hugo passed me coming into Schwalbenschwanz, i still dont know, and it opened my eyes to what kind of a driver he is. Not only could he lead me for a whole lap, then follow me for half of one, but he chose the most surprising overtaking manouevre, that i was completely erm, surprised, and convinced he'd fall off, but no.... not Hugo.
Top race man, i will never forget it.
Thanx for that. :liar:
Later on in the evening, Hugo tried some GT5P, and Danny watched....
I propped up the bar as id had such an epic battle with Hugo, that i needed to relax, well it sounds good anyway, and a few others came in. Eventually, i even managed to get Daan, Venari and Famine to drink something, and they ended up putting the world to rights with us all.
Top job behind the bar, Jurund. 👍
That guy is so ahem.... first hole from the neck..... :drunk:
Next day, people were relatively slow to surface, and another top breakfast was devoured by all, except Famine, who was asleep, apparently.
We had some fun races on the Sunday, but for Jan, GT4 was over, and this seemed to be the general feeling throughout as GT5P was played by a few, and the day slowly plodded along. I dont actually remember what i did all day Sunday, but i do know a few people left while i was in Amsterdam ( i went twice).
Here are some shots i took. I couldnt stay there and have a look around though, as i left the car for ten seconds, and a tow truck turned up, and was about to hook up the civic, so i waved at the disgruntled tow man, he swore at me in dutch, and i moved the car.
Amsterdam was beautiful though, as the weather was continuing in its trend of hot sunshine, and all the girls, bicycles and boat riders were out in force.
The hills arent really this steep, i just tripped while taking the shot:
Here's a "coffeeshop" with the VEXD VTEC outside, just to prove i had been there. Maybe thats why i couldnt park there actually....
Yes, so when i got back after the second trip, Famine, Venari, Daan, Ron, Sjaak and Kelly had all gone, so i didnt get to say bye to any of them really.... sorry about that people. :facepalm:
The rest of the day/night was a bit of a blur, as i found my way into the bar again (damn that bar) and Mikey plied me with drinx all night. (damn that mikey)
Monday came, and with a brief check of the cars and some quick goodbyes, Mike and i headed down to Germany, to try and find a ring.
It was a 4 hour drive in the end, due in part to an hour sat in a traffic jam, and us stopping to take in the absolutely stunning German countryside, as soon as we got off the autobahn. They do do the top speed of their car on the autobahn, if anyone was wondering, the Germans. Infact, they seem to do it a lot. The funny thing i noticed was how i went from Holland to Germany, just by passing a sign on the autobahn, no customs, but as soon as i did, all the cars ceased to be anything other than German cars. No japanese, or english, or american, or anything. Just German motors.
Anyway, we arrived at the hotel Blau Ecke (blue corner) in Adenau at 5:15pm, and the Touristenfahrten (that's "tourists: go kill yourselves on us"-in German) on the Nurburgring was due to start at 5:30, so we dropped our bags, and unloaded the cars of all unecessary equipment, before heading up the most gorgeous mountain road to Nurburg town, and the ring entrance.
I still found time for a shot of the civic from a different viewpoint at the hotel though:
And of the church i could see from the balcony also:
Arriving at the track carpark, i literally parked, jumped out of the civic, and took this:
I was so excited.... I was at the ring! I'd been dreaming of doing a lap for four years.... so i went to the lap ticket machine, and bought a four lap ticket, which was 70 euros (about 56 quid).
Mike jumped in, and we headed out and did my first lap within about 20 mins of being there.
I had a great time, but Mike was cough cough using my phone, cough, the whole way round, and he didnt feel too good by the time we came off Pflanzgarten II, but he stuck it out till the end.
When we got back, i waited about 15 mins, then went out by myself, and pushed the car hard round the course.
Its really difficult to describe in text, but its like this: The GT4 version is faithful to the course in terms of corner direction. Some of the sections are a little longer on GT than they are on the ring itself, like the run down to Hatzenbach, for example, which takes a few seconds and maybe two gear changes on GT, but is immediately upon you IRL. The biggest difference though, is the gradient.
Playing GT4 has given me an insight to the track that i really was grateful for, but it didnt give me any clue as to how steep the hills were! By the time i was two thirds around the track on lap one, my brakes were complaining, because i just wasnt expecting to be going down such steep hills all the time, and i was being so cautious and braking early. If you tried walking up some of the hills there on that course, you'd get blisters.... (more on that later)
The difference between GT4 and real ringing is huge, and im talking about the gradient, and the size of the kerbs. Only the 4x4 drivers would run them, unless your nuts....
Anyway, back in the carpark, we saw some crazy cars, as you always do there, so ive heard. Included was this Veritas, which i'd certainly never heard of, which was seen later on in the day lapping at full chat, with Sabine driving (local hero) with a chopper following her round at about 20 feet high, filming for some German tv show or other...
After taking in the atmosphere, and Mikey finding the ticket booth closed when he decided he might like to do a lap, we went back to the hotel to chill, and after a bit of tv, we went up the road to Pinocchios for pizza, as i'd heard it was good.
We both made the mistake of ordering soup as a starter, and so when the pizza arrived and it was bigger than Holland, we were a little startled. So much so, i took a before and after to show what i managed to eat. Please consider which one out of the two of us was the fat bloke, as i left some, whilst Mikey on the otherhand....
Before:
After:
Yum.
We went back to the hotel and had some well earned kip, ready for day two at the ring.
Even the hotel rooms were named after corners.
Adenau town, where we were staying, is one of the towns that the ring runs through, or over, if you like. This means its extremely easy to go spectating in the sun, providing its sunny of course, and so we drove half a mile up the road the next morning, and parked up at the bottom of some steps, which lead to the spectating point at Breidscheid corner. (where there is some concrete run off, which causes arguments in WRS)
Mikey was far more keen than me...
As we couldnt actually get on track ourselves till 5:45pm that day, we decided to watch the guys testing on the course.
When its not open to public, or there isnt a race going on, manufacturers use the track to test out various things on there cars, including prototypes of some aero parts and even whole new models. We stood at Breidscheid for almost an hour watching stuff tearing past.
The scenery was breathtaking, and the weather was absolutely perfect. I got a tan, and Mikey got a magnum when we eventually got back, but before we did, we went for a very very long trackside walk. Backwards, up the track.
This meant, we headed from Breidscheid corner, up to Wehrseifen, which is a hairpin.
We then continued round towards miss-hit-miss, which, viewed in reverse is miss-hit-oh wait, its the same... and then we got round to Kallenhard. This is a long tight right, with a kerb run-off on the outside exit. In between Kallenhard and miss-hit-miss is this chicane, with such an awesome view into the mountains....(excuse the dodgy angle, i was getting sunstroke)
After moving round Kallenhard the wrong way, and dodging some biker, who was taking the quick way home up a gravel footpath, we came to Metzgesfeld. (remember we're going backwards here) This is where Hugo fell off on lap two in the race i had with him, and also where we took fotos of the cars passing, and some of the scenery behind the track as well...
You can see Nurburg castle in the distance if your glasses are really good...
Following on from Metzgesfeld, another walk took us to Adenaur Forst, and Mikey found us a great spot to take pix within a few feet of the track, literally from behind the armco as they came screaming into view.
After a while, we turned around and headed back to Breidscheid to have a drink, and check that the cars were still there.
The cars stopped touring round after an accident, and the track went quiet, so i took the opportunity to tag it, and Mikey found that someone had got plans for him too....
We decided to go up to the viewing point at Brunnchen, to see a different perspective, and see if we could find the place, to be honest, and got some snaps up there too. There are countless videos as well, but i wont be uploading those, cos i dont know how to.
The cars were running again by this time, though a repair truck came round shortly, to replace some armco that somebody had bought (if you hit it, youve bought it, and the bills can run to thousands) and after a while, we headed off to Nurburg itself, as i wanted to see the place in the daylight, and get closer to the track for the TF opening time.
When we got to Nurburg, we stumbled upon the Bridge that is at the end of the long straight, and Mikey spotted a hole in the fence, so i went under the bridge, and got scared whenever cars came past at over 200mph....
See that bit of scaffolding on top of the bridge up there?
I decided it might make a good place to take videos of cars passing underneath me, so i tried it out.... i was right
I wanted to go get a bit fresher, and drop off some glass and some keyrings/stickers that id bought earlier before i went out to do my last two laps, so i headed back to the hotel, while Mikey did some modifications to his coop before his run on the ring later on.
When i got back to the carpark, there was a guy following me with english plates on his brand new astra VXR, so i stopped and chatted to him at the gate as we were early.
He'd had the car 3 months, but hadnt had chance to drive it much, as he was in the army.
He was on his way to Afghanistan the following week, so he thought he'd take the opportunity to try the ring before he went. He'd brought his gorgeous girlfriend along for the ride too.
Nice car eh?
After TF started, Mikey went and bought his ticket, and went out for a lap in the Rover, but he had to start off slowly, as a certain Vauxhall was parked in the wrong place on the side of the track, and he had to make his way past safely.
It later came back into the carpark, having made 0 turns on the course, under its own steam, but a full lap on the back of the ADAC recovery truck.
Less than 500 miles on this beauty.....
Shame..... another dead Vauxhall...
That's a lesson learned right there, always always always respect the ring.
Both driver and passenger were ok, but the car's a write-off.
Mikey came back beaming, having completed his lap safely, and had a great time, judging by his wide grin and enthusiasm for the place...
I went out and did my last two with a short break in between, to allow the car to cool down.
The first lap was a sighting lap, to see where the armco repair trux were, and check the grip level all the way round, and the last lap i did was full on commitment!
Mike took some video of me coming past at Brunnchen (thanx buddy!) and i looked pretty quick!
Once safely back in the carpark, we hung around till the session finished, and then headed back to the hotel to get washed and changed for dinner.
After umming and arring about where to eat, i twisted Mikey's arm and we headed back up to Nurburg to eat in the famous "Pistenklause" restaurant, run by Sabine Schmidt, who is the most famous of all female Ring-Taxi drivers at the ring (she's the only female actually...).
It was easy to find...
Mikey ordered some pasta, while i went for the famous option, of steak on a stone.
They bring you raw meat, and chips.
The meat is on a hot stone, and you cut off a piece with your carving knife, then cook it to your own taste, by pressing it on the stone. It sizzles and goes brown/grey and as soon as its done to your liking, you put it in your mouth.
Honestly, its the best way ive ever eaten food..... 👍
Heading out of the Pistenklause, it was dark, so we stopped at the ring entrance for a minute, while i took some pointless shots...
Then we decided on a nutty mission....
I drove us back round to Brunnchen to have a look at the ring by night.
Getting there, we couldnt see a thing, as the moon wasnt up at all, and we couldnt get onto the circuit there as the fencing was all the way round the edge, and the gates were locked.
Earlier in the day, id spotted a place where we could get on, but it was back round at Pflanzgarten I, further round the track...
We headed there, climbed a small bit of fence, and we were on the track!
Then, madly enough, we stumbled upon a chair....
Here we are, sitting on the Nurburgring. (yes i am sunburnt)
Now if a guy was wearing the wrong shoes and decided to go walking...
We then had a cunning plan.
Being only 3 miles or so from the Karussel, and wanting to go see it in the flesh, we decided to walk backwards (again) up the course to the most famous corner.
What i didnt bank on, was how much damage 6 miles or so in smart (uncomfortable) shoes would do to my feet, having covered 8 miles earlier in the day.
So, off we went.
The armco was cooling down after such a long hot day, and kept making random banging noises as we walked along in total darkness. It was scaring us to begin with, until we rationalised that it must just be contracting, and carried on our way.
Back to those gradients again..... we walked up Pflanzgarten I, down Eiskurve, into Brunnchen II, then up Brunnchen I, up into Wipperman, along into Hohe Acht (the highest point on the entire course. Here's proof:
This was a mission, but then it was downhill to the Karussel.
Once we got to the Karussel, we could truly see the radius of the corner, and its huge!
It comes all the way round on itself, the exit almost meeting the entry.
Unfortunately, it was sooooo dark, that the poor camera phones just couldnt take any pix worth keeping of the surrounding scenery. Infact, my eyes couldnt see very far in front of my face, so im not surprised the phones werent very effective.
Nevertheless, we did get some pseudo-recognisable proof of our achievement.
It goes this way....
Blimey, i even look happy in that foto...
Mind you, i hadnt started walking back yet...
After a gruelling climb of Hohe Acht (Mikey took it in his stride... i was knackered) we made it back down the course the way its supposed to run, going back through Wipperman, round both Brunnchens, and up Eiskurve (feet really killing me by now) and back down Pflanzgarten I to the Honda, which was still there.
It was a great little mission, with some real fear thrown in at one point, when we thought there was a car coming round the track, and we both dived over the armco, schwarzenegger stylee. Eventually we got back in the civic, and headed for the hotel.
We slept well.
Next day, it was up and pack the cars after breakfast. Checked our oil, then drove back through the beautiful German countryside, back to the autobahn.
We made it back to Holland in 4 hours straight, and were greeted by a busy Jan, and some of his staff.
He still made time for us and we had drinx and snax while people came and went.
After a time, we started setting up the raceseats for the GT5P lan planned for that evening, and eventually Sjaak, Ruud, Rob, Mopsch, Jan, Hugo and mikey sat down to race.
I watched, and sat out of the way at the bar, and i got some shots... (no, not those kind)
After another load of goodbyes
we retired to the bar.Rob, Hugo, Sjaak and Mopsch had all gone, and it was me, Mikey, Jan and Ruud left chatting. Freida (sp?) sat with us for a bit too, (Jan's wife) but then those two left for bed, leaving us two with Ruud for another 45 mins, before he eventually started the loudest bike in Holland, and rode off home, chips stylee. (those of you not old enough to know what chips is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSzEmPEnYxo )
We went to bed, well i went to bed, Mikey went to sofa, and the next morning after some hurried goodbyes from Jan, who was extremely busy, we got packed up, and headed back out of Holland on the 14:30 ferry.
I arrived home about half 10ish after a long days travelling, and so ends the report on the best week ive had in Holland so far... It just remains for me to thank everyone once again for the fun we had (did i mention... oh yeah i did) and the Dutch for their hospitality, which is second to none.
The cars hung on till the very end, and did us both proud, so my advice, buy a Honda.
Here's a shocking before and after shot of my speedo, the mileage is real, people.
Thankyou very much for reading.....
Before the madness:
And after the fun... (we had lots of fun!!
)
Finally, after a good wash and polish, i fitted my ring stickers to the civic. Using one black and one white combined, i got a pretty good effect.
What do you think?
VEXD
👍
. Still it was fun and i just love it in the German hills, almost like being in heaven for me.
