We arrive at the Ring Saturday at around 12:30 the VLN race was under way. Those race are 4 hrs long. They used part of the GP track and the Nordschleife making a lap 24.369Km long.
We park at Brunnchen and walk slowly along the track all the way to the Carousel watching the cars. Then the cloud roll in and it started to rain gently it was around 3pm.
We got back to the car around 3:30. At the pension the owner told us how the race finish, the Audi R8 was in the lead by almost a minute over the Porsche in 2nd place. But when the rain came it lost 54sec. Both cars pit at the same time for rain tire, the Porsche ended up winning by 0.2 sec. He told us also that one of the driver of the winning Porsche was there guest on the Friday night, he is always staying at there place.
Sunday morning we went to pickup the car at Rent a Racecar, the Porsche 996. This time I took a coach for 1hr ( 9:00 to 10:00 ) to learn the track better, there was some corner that I know I was having problem with, he give me the right reference point and it work very well. He is certified to give racing license, he told me that in the race of Saturday about 20% of the racer got their license approved by him. He really knows the track. Most of the corner on the track are late apex and a few corners that look like double or triple apex are actually taken in one long sweeper if your entry point is right. I did 4 laps in the hour he was with me. The Porsche was fun to drive the handling was very good, doing back to back laps toward the end of the second laps the tire where getting too hot and started to get greasy.
I did back to back laps again before the traffic get too heavy on the track, with my friend riding with me, that's what he like to do. On the second one we did a 8:33, 30sec faster than the TT I had the last time. After those 2 laps my friend stomach was not feeling so good.......he had to take a break. I went for 1 laps alone and that one felt really good, unfortunately I didn't time it but I'm pretty sure it was faster than the previous one. Then they closed the track because someone had crash. In the morning when I pickup the car there was a guy from Vancouver Canada picking up a VW GTI, so we started to chat with him while waiting the reopening of the track. He is an AX guy and he was at the National last year with a Formula Ford. He his friend with Milligan and Chen the A/M guys, he told us about there new car, it look to be something... It was his 1st time on the track he was having fun but he was finding the track difficult, so he came with me for one lap that I show him what I know and what I had learn in the morning with the coach.
I had a good lap I hit almost all the mark right making it a nice smooth fast lap. I then went with him, the traffic was starting to be more heavy and when you go slower you are getting pass often and its more difficult to stay on line. The lap was good but he has a lot to work On. The rules for passing is street rules you pass on the left side, usually the car being pass move over to the right side and usually turn the right blinker On to let the faster car pass. Then the track was close again.
When it reopen my friend came back with me he was feeling alright again. To make Cline happy at the beginning of the lap I pass 3 Mini that where following each other. After Aremberg I got pass by the new Mercedes SLS AMG what a nice sound that car has. After Adenauer Forst when I try to shift to 4th as I was coming up on 2 Corvette the shifter when completely free??? I started to look for a place to stop but then realize that the car was still in gear, so I said let's try finish the lap if we can, that will be better than stopping on the side of the track. 3rd gear work actually pretty well, there was basically only 1 long fast section left to do, the one after Bergwerk, I even pass a GT3.... When I was debating if I should stop or continue the Mini's had catch up to me but they quickly disappear in the rear view mirror when I decide to continue in 3rd gear.
After the lap we drove directly to Rent a Racecar. They had a quick check directly at the shifter but didn't saw anything special. They had to put the car on the lift to check what was wrong. So he offer me to take a 997 C4S to continue, hard to say no. We went back to the track but it was close again, another crash....We park the car and went to find the Canadian to chat again. When they reopen the track, Theo was back with the 996 they had fix it, the shifter cable had pop off at the tranny end, they put it back in place and did something to make sure it doesn't come off again. We took the 996 again, will have been fun to see how the 997 C4S will have went.
So we went for another lap with the 996, traffic was really heavy, didn't really do a good lap. At the end we decided to do another one, my friend was feeling good now. It started OK still some traffic, not far into the lap at Hocheichen there was another crash at least 2 cars I had to brake fairly hard because the cars in front where stopping but the Audi R8 coming behind me had to brake even more. I said to my friend that's the last lap I'm starting to get tired and it's starting to get pretty crazy, time to stop before something happened. We finish the lap but it was not as good as the morning one, not as smooth. I did 11 laps, the most I ever done in 1 day there, 220km of track and the fastest I ever went on the ring. On one lap I was behind a Ford Focus RS, that thing is fast, on the long uphill after Bergwerk he was pulling away slightly. I was making ground in the corner but not that much.
In a previous tread someone was curious to know the price of the GT3 and the M3. The GT3 is 2,500euro for 1 day, the M3 E92 IS 1,200euro for 1 day. The business seem to be good they have a lot of cars now. I saw 4 Suzuki Swift Sport all rented, 6 Scirocco, that car look nice I think that 4 of them where rented. The 997 C4S might be for rental in a near future, they just got it not long ago and are using it for follow on lap at the moment. He said that the price will be in the 996 range, my guess is more closer to the M3 E92.
So it was a lot of fun, here some pictures and a link for more:
http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k262/ ... ?start=all
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