IceBone
Blue Wheel Hipster
This weekend i just went out on a whim and drove up to Alok, who invited me to join him on an Tuner GP shoot at Hockenheim ring. And since a visit to Alok isn't complete without at least 2 parties, i threw in a barrel of wine in the boot and stormed off.
Predictibly, the wine was a huge hit with the boozer crowd at the campus, although there was quite an issue with opening the barrel, which we finally managed the day after, but fortunately i brought some in bottles as well, so getting tanked up after a 9 hour drive was assured. I'm told i was quite loud that night, lol...
But anyway, the next morning we drove all groggy and hungover to Hockenheimring (about 35 kms from Alok's place), which is an awesome place. The infield and pits were filled with awesome eye candy; Ferraris, Lamborghinis, tuned Audi's, Porsches, even a hot-rod or two. Tech-Art had a thing going where you paid them an insane ammount of money for a lap in one of their 997's. Their body kits actually don't look that bad, although there was no Cayman, which IMHO would have looked far better than the 997s.
Meanwhile, the inner track, mainyl the Sachs bend was occupied with a bunch of drifters going sideways a lot and you could smell the burned rubber even outside the track. Our old friends IDC made a show and I think won a few throphies. Alok will be able to tell you more about that, since the wee bastard has a press pass now and was allowed on the infield, where as i had to stay outside...
And now for the uber part. Apparently he made friends with some professional photographer that had a rolling shoot with 2 Tech-Art Porsches planned for after all the events were done and guess who got to ride along in the chase van.
Alok was even more fortunate as he was in the back, taking a few snaps as well, and i drove (may seem like i pulled the short straw, but it's a start - not like i wasn't flashing my cam around everywhere, so it wasn't obvious i'm just as much into it as Alok). I still have to see the pics from that shoot, but from the previews i've seen, it was quite awesome.
Fast forward a few hours, another party, yay! This time we managed to break the seal on the wine barrel valve, which wouldn't open on its own and had a nice evening. Didn't get as drunk as the night before, so we were able to wake up the next day for our Ring trip. And OMG, i've never seen so many cars in one place. It took us an hour to get from the entrance to the parking lot to the Ring entrance itself. The place was packed tight! There were Ferraris, Lambos, Astons, Evos, Imprezas, Skylines everywhere. I'd say there were actually too many cars there and on the track at any one time, since it was closed due to crashes for most of the time we were there. We met up with Ford Prefect and his racing Mini, which stupidly got turned back at the ramp due to a small crack in the windshield.
Stupid, really, since he said he's done about 15 laps with that crack already and nobody batted an eyelid. And while Alok was out there hitching rides (actually managed 2), Ford and I went back to the parking lot to get my car so we could use his ticket. We agreed that he'd go first, since he has experience with the track and be able to give a verdict on the car after. I had no idea my car could go around corners so quickly and composed. We were literally flying, but seeing all the other cars just zoom past put things in a bit of perspective, hehe. In the end i think we managed a time of around 12 minutes, maybe a bit less. Afterwards, drove out and parked to let the brakes cool off and shoot some more of the exotica. There was a guy from the UK in an Evo X FQ-360 who said he'd love to give me a ride around the ring in it, but it was just for show and promotion, so fudge... During that time, the track got closed off again due to another crash and after an hour or so it was my turn, woo! First time on the Nordschleife! Ford was my co-pilot and was explaining all the turns and braking points. I admit I was quite scared, but having seen that the car can handle quite well, i did push quite a bit. We actually managed to overtake one other car and finished with a time of 12:27. But any Ring-lap without crashing is a good lap for me. XD So now it's boasting a nice black vinyl above the Mitsubishi badge at the back.
After that it was getting quite late for me, so I convinced Alok that we leave, since i had 9 hours to drive back, not including the 2 it took to get to Alok's place. I had to leave the wine barrel there, since we only managed to drink about 6 litres (of the 30), but at least it'll remain a source of happiness for them for a while longer (next time i'm bringing bottles only).
Said goodbye, see ya in July for the proper ring meet, and off i go to ze autobahn, home free, right? Wrong. That's when i got a proper shafting from the German ATM's. For some stupid reason, it wouldn't give me any money. I knew i had more left in the account, but the ATM's all disagreed with me, so i was stuck with 60 euros for fuel. At german prices that's 40 litres. 40 litres for a journey of 800 kms... Riiiight... That meant averaging
less than 5.5 litres/100 kms, which would mean breaking my old record of 5.6 (over a much shorter stretch) and driving at a maximum speed of 90 km/h... ugh... 90 km/h for 800 km, including the derestricted autobahns... Fucking hell... I even got overtaken by bloody caravans!
After 4 hours I was too exhausted by it all, so i just pulled over for a nap, woke up 3 hours later and continued. As soon as i got into Slovenia, though, i checked the first ATM i could find and confirmed what i knew all along... FFS...
Moral of the last bit is.... always withdraw all the money you think you'll need... or something...
FFS...
pics to come tomorrow
Predictibly, the wine was a huge hit with the boozer crowd at the campus, although there was quite an issue with opening the barrel, which we finally managed the day after, but fortunately i brought some in bottles as well, so getting tanked up after a 9 hour drive was assured. I'm told i was quite loud that night, lol...
But anyway, the next morning we drove all groggy and hungover to Hockenheimring (about 35 kms from Alok's place), which is an awesome place. The infield and pits were filled with awesome eye candy; Ferraris, Lamborghinis, tuned Audi's, Porsches, even a hot-rod or two. Tech-Art had a thing going where you paid them an insane ammount of money for a lap in one of their 997's. Their body kits actually don't look that bad, although there was no Cayman, which IMHO would have looked far better than the 997s.
Meanwhile, the inner track, mainyl the Sachs bend was occupied with a bunch of drifters going sideways a lot and you could smell the burned rubber even outside the track. Our old friends IDC made a show and I think won a few throphies. Alok will be able to tell you more about that, since the wee bastard has a press pass now and was allowed on the infield, where as i had to stay outside...
And now for the uber part. Apparently he made friends with some professional photographer that had a rolling shoot with 2 Tech-Art Porsches planned for after all the events were done and guess who got to ride along in the chase van.
Alok was even more fortunate as he was in the back, taking a few snaps as well, and i drove (may seem like i pulled the short straw, but it's a start - not like i wasn't flashing my cam around everywhere, so it wasn't obvious i'm just as much into it as Alok). I still have to see the pics from that shoot, but from the previews i've seen, it was quite awesome.Fast forward a few hours, another party, yay! This time we managed to break the seal on the wine barrel valve, which wouldn't open on its own and had a nice evening. Didn't get as drunk as the night before, so we were able to wake up the next day for our Ring trip. And OMG, i've never seen so many cars in one place. It took us an hour to get from the entrance to the parking lot to the Ring entrance itself. The place was packed tight! There were Ferraris, Lambos, Astons, Evos, Imprezas, Skylines everywhere. I'd say there were actually too many cars there and on the track at any one time, since it was closed due to crashes for most of the time we were there. We met up with Ford Prefect and his racing Mini, which stupidly got turned back at the ramp due to a small crack in the windshield.
Stupid, really, since he said he's done about 15 laps with that crack already and nobody batted an eyelid. And while Alok was out there hitching rides (actually managed 2), Ford and I went back to the parking lot to get my car so we could use his ticket. We agreed that he'd go first, since he has experience with the track and be able to give a verdict on the car after. I had no idea my car could go around corners so quickly and composed. We were literally flying, but seeing all the other cars just zoom past put things in a bit of perspective, hehe. In the end i think we managed a time of around 12 minutes, maybe a bit less. Afterwards, drove out and parked to let the brakes cool off and shoot some more of the exotica. There was a guy from the UK in an Evo X FQ-360 who said he'd love to give me a ride around the ring in it, but it was just for show and promotion, so fudge... During that time, the track got closed off again due to another crash and after an hour or so it was my turn, woo! First time on the Nordschleife! Ford was my co-pilot and was explaining all the turns and braking points. I admit I was quite scared, but having seen that the car can handle quite well, i did push quite a bit. We actually managed to overtake one other car and finished with a time of 12:27. But any Ring-lap without crashing is a good lap for me. XD So now it's boasting a nice black vinyl above the Mitsubishi badge at the back. After that it was getting quite late for me, so I convinced Alok that we leave, since i had 9 hours to drive back, not including the 2 it took to get to Alok's place. I had to leave the wine barrel there, since we only managed to drink about 6 litres (of the 30), but at least it'll remain a source of happiness for them for a while longer (next time i'm bringing bottles only).
Said goodbye, see ya in July for the proper ring meet, and off i go to ze autobahn, home free, right? Wrong. That's when i got a proper shafting from the German ATM's. For some stupid reason, it wouldn't give me any money. I knew i had more left in the account, but the ATM's all disagreed with me, so i was stuck with 60 euros for fuel. At german prices that's 40 litres. 40 litres for a journey of 800 kms... Riiiight... That meant averaging
less than 5.5 litres/100 kms, which would mean breaking my old record of 5.6 (over a much shorter stretch) and driving at a maximum speed of 90 km/h... ugh... 90 km/h for 800 km, including the derestricted autobahns... Fucking hell... I even got overtaken by bloody caravans!
After 4 hours I was too exhausted by it all, so i just pulled over for a nap, woke up 3 hours later and continued. As soon as i got into Slovenia, though, i checked the first ATM i could find and confirmed what i knew all along... FFS...
Moral of the last bit is.... always withdraw all the money you think you'll need... or something...
FFS...
pics to come tomorrow
