I was able to drive the ring again. But not in the condition that I was hoping for. It was wet today. The track is already not that easy dry so wet was an added challenge.
It didn’t started good yesterday, overnight a big storm passed in Europe with a lot of wind. When we left Erlangen in the morning me and my Swedish friend living in Germany we didn’t have 10 Km done that we had to turn around because a fallen tree was blocking the road. We finally made it to the Ring early afternoon. The track was close because of fallen tree, but they told us that it should be open for Sunday. Our car was reserved for Sunday morning anyway. We stop at the rental place, check the car and talk with them, they are very friendly. We also learn that in winter they don’t rent the very fast car. We had a nice place to stay, at work last week in the group I was working with there was a girl that is from the Ring area and her parent have a Pension in a small village a few km away from the track. The road we took to get there will be a very good Rally stage, very narrow; you can barely cross someone coming in the opposite direction. Sunday morning was less windy but it had rain overnight and it was very cloudy. We went to the rental place, they told us the track was open, so we took the Audi TT and went to the track. My friend doesn’t feel comfortable driving by himself on the track but he was more than happy to just come for the ride along and he took over the price for the track, 8 laps for 135eu. 1st lap was a reconnaissance one; with the track being wet it was more important. My friend time it any way from bridge to gantry and it was in the 11 min. There where not many car on the track but the more the morning was progressing more car where coming. The subsequent laps where faster as I was learning the wet track, the spot to watch and the car. The car felt good, but putting the power down in those conditions was not easy, I had the traction control kicking in quite often and ESP didn’t seem too much intrusive. The turbo sound was fun to hear. The last 2 laps where good, the track was slightly less wet but still slippery in some spots. On those laps I had to pass some cars but didn’t loose too much time, they where moving to the right side putting their right flasher like the rules say. Nobody pass us. The last lap was the fastest with a 10:01 min. The car consumes a full tank of gas for 8 laps. During the last lap the low gas light came On. In all we did 185km with the car. We return the car unscarred and when I told him I did a 10:01 he said that it was very good and jokingly said that next time he will give me a slower car…. He said that dry condition is at least 1min. faster. From the way the car felt I would say that in the dry it should break the 9min. I had a lot of fun and my friend like it also; he said he will like to do it again; I will also like to do it again but with a dry track instead.
Here links to pictures, a short video, Rent-Racecar and the Pension where we stay.
Pictures and Video
http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k262/ ... ?start=all
http://www.rent-racecar.de/
Pension
http://www.pension-hilberath.de/english/index.htm
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