Catholics have the Vatican, the Islamics have Mecca, Jewish people have the Wailing Wall, and we car guys have the Nurburgring. After months of discussion, my new wife decided she would be the best person in the world and let us spend the first few days of our honeymoon in a sleepy west German hamlet named Adenau, located minutes from the track.
The road from Southern Ontario to Germany was a long one, fraught with difficulties from the onset. First, as a word of warning to all thinking of making the pilgrimage, there are no less than THREE cities with more than a passing resemblance to “Nurburg”, there is also Nuremburg, and Nurnberg. Our travel agent made an executive decision and decided we wanted to go to Nuremburg, which I only discovered as I map quested the distance between the hotel and the track (477km-not a comfortable drive to say the least). After a few nasty emails to the customer service representatives and threat of a lawsuit we booked ourselves a little closer than the original destination.
After landing in Munich, having missed our final connection to Koln due to U.S. Airways incompetance, we decided that we would drive the distance in an Opel Corsa rental car along the famous Autobahns. This in itself was an awesome experience for two reasons. Firstly, the locals are simply the most courteous drivers I have ever encountered-moving right at a moment’s notice with no attitude or retaliation for wanting to travel faster. Secondly, we legally reached a GPS confirmed 187km/hr on several sections.
Finally, more than 30 hours after leaving home, we reached Hotel Blau Ecke at 1:00am. We woke up the next morning just in time to visit the ruins of Nurburg castle, have lunch, and show up at RSR Nurburg for a one hour lesson before two hours of pure adrenaline. A friend let me know earlier this summer about these guys and how they’re the only official school allowed to instruct on the ‘Ring. I had booked a 2008 Renault Clio Sport, instructor, and spare underpants for the event. I was introduced to Dale Lomas (yes that Dale Lomas) and my instructor, Ed from Massachusetts.
We pulled into the car park in our matching Renaults about 4:55 in the afternoon, just in time to line up for the TouristFahrten. I parked mine and hopped in the passenger seat as Ed was readying himself to lay waste to some of Germany’s finest vulcanized products. My wife from the back seat started to giggle nervously as we pulled under the bridge and through Hohenrain and Hatzenbach flat out between third and fourth gears. When it was all said and done, I figure Ed went Bridge to Gantry somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30, as timing is not allowed, the best we can do is guess.
Now, this is where the fun starts. The two of us slid into my rental car waiting to follow the stone cold nutter in front of us. I tried following in his wheel path; and even with him guiding me over the two way radio, I feel no less of a man admitting I nearly evacuated my bowels on no less than 18 occasions.
Some particular memories that stand out over my eight laps are the 90 degree right through Aremburg, and under the bridge where I almost went off roading (twice, ahem). Next came the compression in Adenauer Forst-Travelling flat in fifth gear was disconcerting to say the least when the road looks like a piece of spaghetti strung between two chairs. This led almost directly into Metzgerfeld, which was also flat in fifth, but this time was a decreasing radius blind uphill left-even now when I think about that, and the instructor yelling me to keep my foot off the brake, my sphincter tightens.
The rest of the track was pretty amazing, though not nearly as terror inducing as the first half. Also, having never experienced anything like it before the Karussell is really terribly hard on the car. Every single lap made the TCS go insane. As we reached Brunnchen we did as everyone should do-rolled down the window, threw up the horns and squealed the tires for all the photographers. On the third lap, I was caught being a show-off and almost spun my car on the left hander immediately after.
Unfortunately, immediately after the mini karussell, someone had hit the Armco and there was construction the entire evening.
So, during my eighth lap that damned Karussell bit me, and with a prepped Volvo S60 on my ass, the car stalled out and went into limp mode. After a little messing about, she restarted and we drove the balance of the lap with our hazards on, staying the heck out of everyone’s way.
We returned to the barn where Dale and Ed were gracious about my defeat and not only fed us a beer, but told me that the fault was going to be covered under warranty. All told, I logged eight laps, two hours, ¾ of a tank of fuel and one set of almost new tires on the biggest, baddest “One way public toll road” on the planet.
I would recommend an instructor to anyone who wishes to drive the track. It takes so much experience to know the place, and with their help I was able to pass a throng of much more powerful cars and motorcycles.
Without Further ado, here are the pictures. I have avoided all the regular pictures as we have all seen them a million times before, and just kept the ones I felt needed to be shared. Oh yeah, the other 12 days of the honeymoon were fun too.
A view of our hotel-the main building was made in the 1500's sometime.
A roadside view taken just after we left the track.
At the Nurburg Castle.
Again, taken from the castle, looking north (?)
Looking at the new complex.
The man. (Ed)
The myth.
The legend. (Also taken from the castle with several years salary zooming down the back straight during the Porsche track day)
I am sure this seat still has a little brown spot.
Bugger off, I was inspired.
Most of these photos are completely unretouched, but I am worse in Photoshop than I am behind the wheel.
Now, comes the mega thread portion of the post. Below are all the various websites that helped us plan the vacation of a lifetime.
www.rsrnurburg.com The guys that made the whole thing possible. Gracious and professional are the best words I can come up about them.
http://www.blaueecke.de/start/ Where we stayed in the Hatzen Bach room. Clean, comfortable, and spoke better English than I do.
www.bridgetogantry.com The website that Dale Lomas runs, everything you wanted to know about the track and more.
http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/ Ben Lovejoy`s site, run by a British enthusiast.
If anyone has any other links to help in future travels I will add them in the original post
The road from Southern Ontario to Germany was a long one, fraught with difficulties from the onset. First, as a word of warning to all thinking of making the pilgrimage, there are no less than THREE cities with more than a passing resemblance to “Nurburg”, there is also Nuremburg, and Nurnberg. Our travel agent made an executive decision and decided we wanted to go to Nuremburg, which I only discovered as I map quested the distance between the hotel and the track (477km-not a comfortable drive to say the least). After a few nasty emails to the customer service representatives and threat of a lawsuit we booked ourselves a little closer than the original destination.
After landing in Munich, having missed our final connection to Koln due to U.S. Airways incompetance, we decided that we would drive the distance in an Opel Corsa rental car along the famous Autobahns. This in itself was an awesome experience for two reasons. Firstly, the locals are simply the most courteous drivers I have ever encountered-moving right at a moment’s notice with no attitude or retaliation for wanting to travel faster. Secondly, we legally reached a GPS confirmed 187km/hr on several sections.
Finally, more than 30 hours after leaving home, we reached Hotel Blau Ecke at 1:00am. We woke up the next morning just in time to visit the ruins of Nurburg castle, have lunch, and show up at RSR Nurburg for a one hour lesson before two hours of pure adrenaline. A friend let me know earlier this summer about these guys and how they’re the only official school allowed to instruct on the ‘Ring. I had booked a 2008 Renault Clio Sport, instructor, and spare underpants for the event. I was introduced to Dale Lomas (yes that Dale Lomas) and my instructor, Ed from Massachusetts.
We pulled into the car park in our matching Renaults about 4:55 in the afternoon, just in time to line up for the TouristFahrten. I parked mine and hopped in the passenger seat as Ed was readying himself to lay waste to some of Germany’s finest vulcanized products. My wife from the back seat started to giggle nervously as we pulled under the bridge and through Hohenrain and Hatzenbach flat out between third and fourth gears. When it was all said and done, I figure Ed went Bridge to Gantry somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30, as timing is not allowed, the best we can do is guess.
Now, this is where the fun starts. The two of us slid into my rental car waiting to follow the stone cold nutter in front of us. I tried following in his wheel path; and even with him guiding me over the two way radio, I feel no less of a man admitting I nearly evacuated my bowels on no less than 18 occasions.
Some particular memories that stand out over my eight laps are the 90 degree right through Aremburg, and under the bridge where I almost went off roading (twice, ahem). Next came the compression in Adenauer Forst-Travelling flat in fifth gear was disconcerting to say the least when the road looks like a piece of spaghetti strung between two chairs. This led almost directly into Metzgerfeld, which was also flat in fifth, but this time was a decreasing radius blind uphill left-even now when I think about that, and the instructor yelling me to keep my foot off the brake, my sphincter tightens.
The rest of the track was pretty amazing, though not nearly as terror inducing as the first half. Also, having never experienced anything like it before the Karussell is really terribly hard on the car. Every single lap made the TCS go insane. As we reached Brunnchen we did as everyone should do-rolled down the window, threw up the horns and squealed the tires for all the photographers. On the third lap, I was caught being a show-off and almost spun my car on the left hander immediately after.
Unfortunately, immediately after the mini karussell, someone had hit the Armco and there was construction the entire evening.
So, during my eighth lap that damned Karussell bit me, and with a prepped Volvo S60 on my ass, the car stalled out and went into limp mode. After a little messing about, she restarted and we drove the balance of the lap with our hazards on, staying the heck out of everyone’s way.
We returned to the barn where Dale and Ed were gracious about my defeat and not only fed us a beer, but told me that the fault was going to be covered under warranty. All told, I logged eight laps, two hours, ¾ of a tank of fuel and one set of almost new tires on the biggest, baddest “One way public toll road” on the planet.
I would recommend an instructor to anyone who wishes to drive the track. It takes so much experience to know the place, and with their help I was able to pass a throng of much more powerful cars and motorcycles.
Without Further ado, here are the pictures. I have avoided all the regular pictures as we have all seen them a million times before, and just kept the ones I felt needed to be shared. Oh yeah, the other 12 days of the honeymoon were fun too.
A view of our hotel-the main building was made in the 1500's sometime.
A roadside view taken just after we left the track.
At the Nurburg Castle.
Again, taken from the castle, looking north (?)
Looking at the new complex.
The man. (Ed)
The myth.
The legend. (Also taken from the castle with several years salary zooming down the back straight during the Porsche track day)
I am sure this seat still has a little brown spot.
Bugger off, I was inspired.
Most of these photos are completely unretouched, but I am worse in Photoshop than I am behind the wheel.
Now, comes the mega thread portion of the post. Below are all the various websites that helped us plan the vacation of a lifetime.
www.rsrnurburg.com The guys that made the whole thing possible. Gracious and professional are the best words I can come up about them.
http://www.blaueecke.de/start/ Where we stayed in the Hatzen Bach room. Clean, comfortable, and spoke better English than I do.
www.bridgetogantry.com The website that Dale Lomas runs, everything you wanted to know about the track and more.
http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/ Ben Lovejoy`s site, run by a British enthusiast.
If anyone has any other links to help in future travels I will add them in the original post
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