Martyn
Well-Known Member
About three weeks ago my brother asked me if I fancied going to the Ring, we'd been planning to go for a while now, and he had a free weekend, which is quite rare for him, so we snapped up the chance.
I doubt February is a good time to go, especially as with 5 days to go until we were to be there, there was snow all over the webcam! But sod it, I can't think of another free weekend for us both to go!
Basically, this was a hardcore day trip into Germany from Stafford (ish) with very little sleep!
On Friday at 7:30am I got up, and went and did a day's work. Left there a bit early and got back into Stafford at about 5pm. I had a shower, and headed to my brother's house in Towcester. I got there at about 8pm.
We left Towcester at about 9:30pm, heading for Dover, to catch a ferry at 4:30am, intending to get a couple of hours sleep in the car at Dover.
We arrived at Dover at about 1am, and found a car park to stick ourselves for a couple of hours!
3:30am came along and we headed to Dover check in and were informed that the 4:30am ferry had been cancelled because of all the issues on the motorways during the day; coachloads of people going skiing had missed their crossing, so they brought ours forward and put them on that! How rude! So they'd put us on a 6:45am ferry. Joy of joys. Less time at "The Ring" for us then
At least we could attempt another couple of hours sleep though. I think we got about an hour.
Finally, we got on the ferry and were sailing towards Calais.
Here's me on the ferry, trying to comprehend the menu:
And here's me just looking bored. Bear in mind I got up 24 hours ago and have had about 3 crap hours of sleep in a car. :lol:
Ready to get off the ferry at about 9:30am (local time), and I fire up the Corvette branded TomTom!
And so we drive through Belgium, around Brussels' wonderful ring road, and stop at some services at around 12:
High quality European ham and cheese baguettes!
My brother and our 'Ring vehicle!
My brother enjoying his sandwich! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we sat outside!
Back on the road... Final Destination anyone?
Into the windy German roads heading up to N?rburg, some interesting scenery around!
Signs and things started to mention N?rburg, we must have been getting close!
Aha! A sign for the ring!
More signage!
The famous Mercedes grandstand of the Grand Prix circuit.
Oh my god! They're destroying it! (And putting a Roller Coaster in, apparently) As long as they leave the Nordschleife alone!
w00t! That looks like track to me!
In the car park, you can see me taking photos!
The BMW Z4M "DriftTaxi"
Hurrah! A Corvette! I wasn't expecting to see one, as it wasn't very busy and there wasn't a great deal of exotic supercars around. I'm a big Corvette fan.
My brother ready to take us out for a lap, which was absolutely stunning. Even in a 1.6 Focus.
Alfa 147
Audi R8
Integra
Generic Porsche...
This was a 1-series I think
Fiesta ST
AMG Merc, this sounded awesome going round the track!
Porsche and Audi about to go out for a lap.
You've got a get a cheesy picture of yourself with the map!
Trackside at Br?nnchen, I can now see what people mean when they say the photos don't do the terrain any justice!
One big bill for this Impreza owner...
Around the Wipperman area
This was a Seat Leon with an Audi style "beard". At least the German chav types have the sense not to hang around in a supermarket car park!
I beleive that's a Porsche Cayman
BMW Z3M
Trying to do a lap in under ten minutes maybe?
Turbo...
A Supra in the Wipperman area
Audi R8
The Corvette again!
Slippery down in the valley then...
Old Alfa
The hill to Karussell was very VERY steep. I was aware it was going to be steep, but I wasn't expecting that! You can't tell how steep it is from this picture
My brother before noticing the steepness
It was hard to walk down... even harder to walk back up!
Heading towards the penultimate corner before the Karussell
And the legend itself, the Karussell!
This TVR Sagaris didn't want to take the inside line!
This Audi didn't mind!
Alfa 156
Old Civic
I didn't see the DriftTaxi do any drifting!
The Merc growling round the Karussell!
The kid in the back is enjoying it!
Now THAT'S a powerful car!
Evo.
Me at Karussell
The insanely steep pathway again!
Back at Br?nnchen, and our Focus with some track in the background!
Br?nnchen
The Merc coming out of Hohe Acht
Sagaris in the car park
Fly splattered
More cheesy photos!
Sagaris again!
I love TVRs
My mate Rob at work wanted me to advertise our new company branding on the N?rburgring webcam...
I think I just about passed the test:
And a barrier...
And it's time to go home!
Getting back to Calais was going really well, we were scheduled to depart at 10:50pm, but half an hour from Calais we hit a massive tailback, and didn't arrive in Calais until midnight (at which point I've been up for 41 hours, with 2 or 3 hours of crap car sleep!).
We got transferred to a P&O crossing at 00:45 (local time), meaning we'd get back to Dover at around 1:15am.
I got another hour-ish of crap boat sleep in a rubbish uncomfortable seat.
We then drove from Dover back to Towcester and arrived there at about 5am! So that's about 46 hours in total, with about four hours of crap fake sleep!
Thank god for Relentless!
I think I'm in love with the place, I can't wait to go back!
Obviously it would have been nice to see some more cars about and things, but to be honest, for your first (or second in my brother's case) lap, it was an ideal time to go! The track was pretty dead. We had a BMW overtake us near the start, then we overtook a Mercedes, then a Porsche overtook us around the Bergwerk area! That was all we saw on the track!
It was also a gorgeous day! Though it was a bit unnerving at first driving into Ex-Muhle and seeing snow on the ground! Fortunately the line was dry!
Loved it!
I doubt February is a good time to go, especially as with 5 days to go until we were to be there, there was snow all over the webcam! But sod it, I can't think of another free weekend for us both to go!
Basically, this was a hardcore day trip into Germany from Stafford (ish) with very little sleep!
On Friday at 7:30am I got up, and went and did a day's work. Left there a bit early and got back into Stafford at about 5pm. I had a shower, and headed to my brother's house in Towcester. I got there at about 8pm.
We left Towcester at about 9:30pm, heading for Dover, to catch a ferry at 4:30am, intending to get a couple of hours sleep in the car at Dover.
We arrived at Dover at about 1am, and found a car park to stick ourselves for a couple of hours!
3:30am came along and we headed to Dover check in and were informed that the 4:30am ferry had been cancelled because of all the issues on the motorways during the day; coachloads of people going skiing had missed their crossing, so they brought ours forward and put them on that! How rude! So they'd put us on a 6:45am ferry. Joy of joys. Less time at "The Ring" for us then
At least we could attempt another couple of hours sleep though. I think we got about an hour.
Finally, we got on the ferry and were sailing towards Calais.
Here's me on the ferry, trying to comprehend the menu:
And here's me just looking bored. Bear in mind I got up 24 hours ago and have had about 3 crap hours of sleep in a car. :lol:
Ready to get off the ferry at about 9:30am (local time), and I fire up the Corvette branded TomTom!
And so we drive through Belgium, around Brussels' wonderful ring road, and stop at some services at around 12:
High quality European ham and cheese baguettes!
My brother and our 'Ring vehicle!
My brother enjoying his sandwich! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we sat outside!
Back on the road... Final Destination anyone?
Into the windy German roads heading up to N?rburg, some interesting scenery around!
Signs and things started to mention N?rburg, we must have been getting close!
Aha! A sign for the ring!
More signage!
The famous Mercedes grandstand of the Grand Prix circuit.
Oh my god! They're destroying it! (And putting a Roller Coaster in, apparently) As long as they leave the Nordschleife alone!
w00t! That looks like track to me!
In the car park, you can see me taking photos!
The BMW Z4M "DriftTaxi"
Hurrah! A Corvette! I wasn't expecting to see one, as it wasn't very busy and there wasn't a great deal of exotic supercars around. I'm a big Corvette fan.
My brother ready to take us out for a lap, which was absolutely stunning. Even in a 1.6 Focus.
Alfa 147
Audi R8
Integra
Generic Porsche...
This was a 1-series I think
Fiesta ST
AMG Merc, this sounded awesome going round the track!
Porsche and Audi about to go out for a lap.
You've got a get a cheesy picture of yourself with the map!
Trackside at Br?nnchen, I can now see what people mean when they say the photos don't do the terrain any justice!
One big bill for this Impreza owner...
Around the Wipperman area
This was a Seat Leon with an Audi style "beard". At least the German chav types have the sense not to hang around in a supermarket car park!
I beleive that's a Porsche Cayman
BMW Z3M
Trying to do a lap in under ten minutes maybe?
Turbo...
A Supra in the Wipperman area
Audi R8
The Corvette again!
Slippery down in the valley then...
Old Alfa
The hill to Karussell was very VERY steep. I was aware it was going to be steep, but I wasn't expecting that! You can't tell how steep it is from this picture
My brother before noticing the steepness
It was hard to walk down... even harder to walk back up!
Heading towards the penultimate corner before the Karussell
And the legend itself, the Karussell!
This TVR Sagaris didn't want to take the inside line!
This Audi didn't mind!
Alfa 156
Old Civic
I didn't see the DriftTaxi do any drifting!
The Merc growling round the Karussell!
The kid in the back is enjoying it!
Now THAT'S a powerful car!
Evo.
Me at Karussell
The insanely steep pathway again!
Back at Br?nnchen, and our Focus with some track in the background!
Br?nnchen
The Merc coming out of Hohe Acht
Sagaris in the car park
Fly splattered
More cheesy photos!
Sagaris again!
I love TVRs
My mate Rob at work wanted me to advertise our new company branding on the N?rburgring webcam...
I think I just about passed the test:
And a barrier...
And it's time to go home!
Getting back to Calais was going really well, we were scheduled to depart at 10:50pm, but half an hour from Calais we hit a massive tailback, and didn't arrive in Calais until midnight (at which point I've been up for 41 hours, with 2 or 3 hours of crap car sleep!).
We got transferred to a P&O crossing at 00:45 (local time), meaning we'd get back to Dover at around 1:15am.
I got another hour-ish of crap boat sleep in a rubbish uncomfortable seat.
We then drove from Dover back to Towcester and arrived there at about 5am! So that's about 46 hours in total, with about four hours of crap fake sleep!
Thank god for Relentless!
I think I'm in love with the place, I can't wait to go back!
Obviously it would have been nice to see some more cars about and things, but to be honest, for your first (or second in my brother's case) lap, it was an ideal time to go! The track was pretty dead. We had a BMW overtake us near the start, then we overtook a Mercedes, then a Porsche overtook us around the Bergwerk area! That was all we saw on the track!
It was also a gorgeous day! Though it was a bit unnerving at first driving into Ex-Muhle and seeing snow on the ground! Fortunately the line was dry!
Loved it!
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