The Best Day Of My Life: The Nürburgring

When you travel it is often the small, unexpected things which form the best and fondest memories, its the family that takes you in or the random side street you take which reveals an unexpected surprise. However, sometimes you dream of something, you dream of it for a long time and when you live that dream it doesn't disappoint you, it satisfies your greatest desires and leaves you with the warm glow of wanting more. For me, this was the Nürburgring.

We started by driving the 300 km from Würzburg to Nürburg, getting to Theos office at 8:30 to do the paper work. Theo is a fantastic bloke and he runs a great service because he handles everything and really looks after you. The hardest thing about putting such a car on the ring is the insurance, bending a BMW and causing 30K€ of damage isnt the bad thing, clipping a motorcyclist and then running over the poor bugger is the worst scenerio. Having sorted the paper work, Theo takes you to the gate, helps you purchase tickets and then takes you for one lap in the BMW, to show you the course and explain some general techniques. Once he takes off into the first set of bends you quickly realise how little you know about driving and if you put a foot wrong, how unforgiving this track could be.

After our first lap Jack heads off in Eurotank to find some good vantage points to take photos, hes got a mobile studio setup in the back of the volvo, camera, computers, tripod, schnitzels, hes got it all. I went out for a few more laps to go by the camera for him and as the laps ticked over, my knowledge of the track increased and I started to get better. My lap times were decreasing just by taking better lines through each corner, rather than driving any harder, which indeed you couldnt do because the track was still quite wet.

After each lap you generally have a break and head back to the car park and stretch the legs, have a coffee and chat to everyone else in the car park. This place is a car nuts dream, hot cars abound and everyone is more than happy to chat about their auto. Luckily for me, there were not so many people here this day, being at the end of the season, it is usually icey or snowy this time of year but being a particularly warm winter mean the worst we got was some morning rain. This was great news on the track as I got held up by lap traffic maybe 4 or 5 times all day, everyone is really cool on the road and slower cars always let you pass... just as you always need to be on the lookout for that VW Golf who is about to smoke you on the left side. In the car park I met Simon who owns an old Porsche 944, studies and runs a business selling parts for these old gems. He was a cool bloke and I gave him a passenger lap in the BMW. Here below is the BMW caught by Jack and Simon in the 944

 As the day went on the track started to dry out and combined with my growing knowledge of the track and confidence in the car I really got into these laps. Corners which you needed to gently glide around in the morning could now be attacked with more gusto providing some of the best moments of the day. However, just when you have put together a few good corners and you are feeling good, you will apply the brake half a second too late and feel the backend start to slip again and you get a rude reminder that you can not let your guard down for a moment here.

I took an 8 lap ticket and after they were done we had time and km left on the BMW for 4 more. I gave one of these to Jack, hes been a top sport by coming to take the photos and why not share the love around a bit. Along with this it gave me a chance to run around the car park with the D70 for a while.

As the hours ran short to the end of the day we had 2 laps left... I wanted to leave one final for the BMW to the very last but we had something to do first, something in particular I have dreamed of for so long, it was time to take eurotank onto the nürburg ring!

I drove jack out to one of the vantage points which involved several kilometers of rally driving through the forest and left him there and went back to the gate to start the glorious swan song of our beloved swedish auto. To my surprise, a filthy volvo wagon with odd tyres, rims and a bumper which is falling off didnt draw the attention of the officials. Awesome and with that Eurotank heads onto the world famous course.

As you can see here, this is something I relished in. Eurotank was slow, for sure but the track isnt that fast to begin with so if I could keep the speed up I was doing ok. The old boat rocked and rolled, gears were grinded and suspension (what is left of it) put to the test and I am happy to say Eurotank performed admirably. Nearing the end of the day the track was fairly clear and quite dry so it could hold on well, its kind of hard to get her out of shape really, probably a combination of the length and the fact you are not going very fast to begin with. I even passed someone. Sure it was an Italian tourist in a stock Seat but I still passed him :) So here it is, Jacks finest photo of me on the track, note the enthusiasm I am displaying which wasnt lost on everyone else at the track this day. I have already had several emails from people wishing us well who saw Jack or myself getting around the place and making idiots of ourselves. we were both happy to be there and it showed

 
So with eurotank back in the car park safely and with 4 tyres still firmly attached we went out for one final lap of the day. The tyres of the BMW were warm, the track was dry, the posers in their 100k€ had left, I had a memory of each corner and my confidence in the car had gone up by dozens.... with Anna R and Jack on board,  we took off...

And what a cracker of a lap it was... I knew the right lines to take and the dry track meant I could really dig into the corners, I barely felt the traction control kick in at all as the rubber theo put on the M series rims did its job to perfection. The highlight of each lap is the Karussell which sucks you in and takes you around almost 180 degrees. Each time you think you will be spat out the top and into the armco but you always manage to hold on right to the end and it leaves you breathless.

Bringing the BMW down the final straight I clicked off the stopwatch and looked at the time... 10 minutes 35 seconds... almost a full minute faster than my previous best.

To finish the day we fill the tank full of fuel and take it back to Theo, I put in 52 litres and the car did ~250km... do the math.. thats 20 litres per 100 km or 4 litres of fuel burnt for each lap. A environmentalist I was not this day.

Giving the car back to old mate we had a chance for a quick photo shoot thanks to Jack. What a day, I want to go back, normal life just doesnt seem so flash anymore. I want a 5 series and I want to race it around the ring some more. and more. and more. and more.

Here are my lap times for the day, I started right out of the cones and finished at a line about 50 metres from the exit. I have since learnt that I should have started at the first bridge and could have ended at the other bridge on the last straight (ala Clarkson in the Jaguar on top gear) so you can shave another 5 to 10 seconds off these ones. I also only timed the last 7 laps, good on the new iPods for having such a nifty timing feature.

Lap 1: 11:48
Lap 2: 11:40
Lap 3: 11:38
Lap 4: 11:21
Lap 5: 11:27
Lap 6: 13:18 (this was in eurotank)
Lap 7: 10:35

Clarkson did 10 minutes flat in the diesel Jaguar so Im pretty happy with my effort. Of course Sabine did the same in  9:12 and in less than 8 minutes in her BMW M5 ring taxi. I know I shouldnt be fixed on lap times but I cant help it, this is too much fun!