foreigneRS

think it was probably the best 'ring trip so far in 4 years of going.

reason being that the 2wd sapph cosworth that i bought off ebay with a couple of mates over a year ago off ebay from holland (thanks again to Rene for his help, shame you couldn't be there to have a drive) finally came together and did it's maiden laps.

this is the engine bay less than a month before leaving, and it didn't have a front wing at that time either



also had a full gearbox rebuild, with parts from gearboxman



and front brake calipers rebuilt with new seals off ebay and foliatec 2 pack black paint



it was only 'finished' on thursday night when the strut brace went on, and then i left for the 'ring on friday morning at 7am.

met my mates, mike and dave, in a tvr griffith 500 on the way to the m3 and we went in convoy down to the eurotunnel terminal



once at the terminal we met with my mate simon in his elise 111S and got on the tunnel after a half hour delay



then it was onto the motorway and we started to head across france



and belgium. stopped for petrol and a piss in belgium and came across the best that continental tuning can do - a modified focus 5 door



there were some nicer cars in belgium though



got lost in belgium as the road we wanted to take was closed , but finally arrived at the 'ring zufahrt around 5pm and it was looking busy.



parked up the cossie and took a look around the car park and found my mates




at this point, the motor had done 1200km and was officially run in. we took it off to an official oil changing place as the laws in germany are very strict concerning that kind of thing and changed the cheapo running in oil to silkolene pro s supplied by oilman it was then ready for it's first run in the morning.

went to check in at the guesthouse in a lovely little village in the middle of the 'ring and have a few beers in the conservatory with a bunch of german and dutch bikers and a little schnitzel delivery from pinnochio's (a bunch of greedy island monkeys had eaten all the pizzas )



saturday morning came and i was up bright and early. made my way to the start/finish and it was pretty quiet and dry - just how we like it

got a good gentle first lap in to make sure everything was alright with the car, and it was superb. the suspension (bilstein dampers) was very well balanced and allowed lovely 4 wheel slides around some of the medium speed corners. did a few more laps as passenger and a bit of spectating at adenauer forst. everytime we go up there to watch the damn track gets closed

it eventually opened again and we saw some good track action. got some video footage of dingy, gracie and others, and saw a couple of spins that luckily ended without impact. watching the ring taxi's drift this section of track is always fun :toP:

after some more laps towards the end of the day, when the track is always quieter we headed out for an evening at the Pistenklause restaurant in Nuerburg. A bit overrated to be honest, and the service was terrible. Wouldn't go back, even if Sabine was there dancing naked on the table so we headed back to the guesthouse for more beers and chat

easter sunday came, and the lovely people at the guesthouse got us all chocolate eggs and easter lamb cake

the king of bling (not the user that has recently appeared on here) decided to make an appearance



sabine rolled up in the official 'ring taxi and she loved my outfit. i got a cute smile from her



got some more laps in, and our 'ring taxi was flying. i'd really learnt the lines now, and not much was coming past, but this just crept past down a long straight



did some more laps and done some filming with a bulletcam on the roof



let the lap timing begin (if you're into that sort of thing )



looking back at the spectators as we enter Bruennchen (where some are calling 'showboat' )



we then headed to the 'halfway' point at the bridge near Adenau to do a bit of spectating. to stand here and see the gradient of the incline as you go into the right hander at Ex-Muehle is incredible and shows you why you need to hit this corner really hard to keep momentum up the hill.



got some good pictures from here including our 'ring taxi, jims 24v and others








towards the end of the evening when the track was quiet again, i had another lap with Azrael as passenger - hope you enjoyed it mate

my mates took some of the bikers from the guesthouse out, and they couldn't believe how fast a couple of old fords and some plastic english cars could be, then it was back to the guesthouse for a few beers

sunday evening was spent in pinnochio's in adenau with the usual massive pizza diavolo (that i just managed to finish bar some of the crust) and a couple of beers for the princely sum of 12 Euro (about Ł8 )

some high jinks outside the restaurant that had mario come out with his pizza shovel




more beers in the guesthouse and to bed ready for the last day

monday morning and the track was even emptier. mongo gave me a passenger lap in the beemer, the last lap that it survived . i then met up with jim, and he very kindly let me drive him around in his car well impressed with the 24v.
at the end of lap, there was the evidence of an off, and as we pulled into the car park the track was closed due to the accident of a porsche 911 and chip in the beemer. it started raining soon after, so we called it a day and headed for the tunnel. arrived there about 4 which was 2 hours ahead of schedule for our 8 o'clock train. turns out to be a delay due to signalling faults and we can't get an earlier train and sit about in massive ques until we finally get on a train about half 9. next time i'll wait for moses to part the waves and drive across the channel finally got home about 1 in the morning, but didn't matter as i had the next day off as it was my birthday

all in all, a superb trip and one that every car fan should do in there life at least once. next time i go, i want to have a lap in one of the official 'ring taxi's.

Steven_RW

Nice write up

RW

AlexF

Sorry we ate all the pizza

GARETH T

PMSL

Rene

Nick: no problems man as its was much closer to me anyway glad u got what u looked for

sorry i wasnt there but will be there next time and probably in another toy

the original

best handling saff i have driven, well done on the rebuild

cossiemen

nice story, good read mate.


9 out of ten it's a bloody diesel.

poor Belgium