Since Lastsoul only had half the story, I'll add some story and detail around my pictures. Friday started a bit later than planned, as the boat from Sweden, bringing us more participants was a bit late and due to reasons team UK was more tightly packed than they would've wanted. Then a stop at a garage to drop some extra Lexus stuff etc etc. Meanwhile a bit further along the way, waiting for people to arrive, I was tackling with different kind of winter equipment.
Partly as lack proper tools and partly because I'm an idiot I broke the inner tube in the process, so couldn't push people to have a go with mah bike when they finally arrived.
So, as that plan failed I spent my time attacking the DX, changing resistors controlling fan speed (as I only had fan speed three). Not that hard a process, gaining access to it.
As we were running late we just grabbed the DX and 130i, a late lunch and got back on the road again. There was still 4 hours or so to go after all. In true Top gear (and Final gear) tradition, we failed and got separated after a small stop midway. I was planning on adding some more interesting roads rather than doing speed camera ridden 80kph limit roads the whole way, but apparently some didn't get the memo. Only me in the DX and Lexus took this route. And while it was good fun for me I got some differing opinions from the Lexus.. :lol: We were first at the cabin though and of course I missed it in the dark. And after making a U-turn this happened.
The road was plowed wider than the road base, so as I was driving on the edge, front right tyre just dropped in. And as the back wheel started to sink while pushing we got to deploy the tow rope, to get moving again. After that we hit the right cabin exactly the same time as the other crew taking the main road route.
*Enter the cabin, check e-mail*
Also, some silly drinks from UK.
So much room for activities!
After getting the sauna going and a smoky attempt to use the fireplace..
Things were a bit more foggy for a while.
Yet another picture of our cabin mascot (or one of many).
Saturday morning started with lovely weather, to document the randomness of cars present at the event.
On the way to the track, we made a honorary standing around stop at the original BMW ditch.
Group shot! I left my BMW at the cabin, as it would've been somewhat pointless on the track, having unstudded tyres.
As has been mentioned before, the weather was lovely and bright. I spent most of the day as a passenger of the DX, trying to give some useful pointers to first timers. And lacking a wide enough angle to document such activities.
At least taking photos of other track users worked a bit better.
Or not.. :lol: I still like the picture though.
Brotan, showing newbies how not to drive (ASX driver looked like he's either just got, or about to get his licence soon and was treating the presumably family car with caution).
Someone with Sierra showing him how to drive.
"Uh, so that way, right?" :lol:
Some faster stuff with appropriate tyres around as well, to carve deep grooves (and more grip for us) to the track throughout the day.
Two cars that got to know those snowbanks most intimately.
We (as in all cars) were occasionally pulled from the track, to allow some family activities.
And he wasn't playing safe, running against the limiter for over half the straight.
As the DX was on the track most of the time, more fuel was needed. While heading to the station I took a quick snap of the lovely and rather challenging road to the lake (track). Good thing I didn't bring the 1er, I'm not sure if it would've cleared some of the bumps there.
Fuel station was only 500m or so away, quick enough run to cruise around slowly and appreciate how lovely a golf course can look on a sunny winter day.
After almost getting stuck on the side of the road again, while making room for oncoming traffic, I arrive to the track to see this.
It would seem Lexus got enough speed to go over the bank. It took quite some time and effort to get it out again. And as an added bonus, there was quite a lot of water on the other side of the bank, so it really started to look like we were pulling it out from a lake.. :lol: No damage or anything though, so all was well. And I even got to experience the waftiness from behind the wheel later. That very nearly ended in denting the car when I was making room for those track toys at one point. As they were passing in a left-hand corner, they were in my blind spot and I only saw one of them and cut back in
very close to the second car. Despite that close call and several ditchings, everyone and everything survived up to the closure of the track
I headed out to visit my relatives for a bit, while others went to town for food. After that it was back to the cabin, for (by now traditional) car dealing.
Discussing something about the keys.
After that people headed for sauna (naturally), made some use of the video projector, drinking beer and watching footage from the track. And as D-fence wasn't around, dinner was more fishy, as public made us some lovely salmon, which I ate too much of and had trouble sleeping because of that.
Next morning started with a sound of a horn, literally. The usual wandering around, doing nothing happened while trying to get the cabin clean and empty, before taking off to the next track. Unfortunately the weather was much more gray, but fortunately just about cold enough still. Arriving to the track and the pits, people insisted on parking quite far from the track entry for quite a while. :lol:
Like everyone else, I spent most of my time on the track, rather than taking pictures, so not much to contribute on that front.
Approving activities.
The other loaner, that stayed on the track much better than Sierra.
A barge with an automatic perhaps, but turbo and enough steering lock
Other than that, I only got dashcam footage. But it was good at documenting random events, like an attempted driver change.
[video=youtube;-auwEs18h0g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-auwEs18h0g[/video]
Or Timis thoughts about the handling of the (at the momement his) Sierra. :lol:
Later in the afternoon, when the track was nicely polished, I devised a single lap time attack for everyone. Sierra and DX were the most commonly used cars throughout the weekend, so everyone did a lap with a standing start in each. I'm hoping we'll get some video footage about timed laps in the future, so I'll leave the times out for now. That event ended my day on the track though, as the exhaust on the DX snapped after maytum was returning to the pits from his lap. He was the last one to do a lap though, so it didn't affect our "competition". I rushed to a nearby Motonet to get some hack fix supplies and built this.
Mark of a proper ride height, the car was on its wheels for the entire time I was fixing it. I had bigger plans for the fix, hence the excessive amount of hose clamps, but failing that I just tightened them on. At least it worked well enough to make it home, returning to its nesting place once again.
Nice weather to drive back as well, a bit of snowfall and slippery enough for sidewinds to push the DX to a slide. Seemed to make other traffic around me a bit nervous for some reason..
The return journey also went as well as expected. As soon as we set off from, again a late lunch, half of the group took a completely different route and while rest followed me I was like 10 minutes ahead for some reason. Despite this, both groups arrived almost at the same time, some minutes after me. Sierra was left in my care, as well as DX and 1er of course and the remaining people and stuff were packed to remaining cars continuing towards Helsinki. Apparently it was just as (or more) slippery on the way, but at least everyone made it there.
Great weekend this was. And after a couple of years, we had enough winter for things to go as well as expected.
