I'm Famous!! [Nurburgring Trip2023 - Whoopsie at Brunnchen]

[Ed Doe]

I guess in retrospect this was a little inevitable :lol:

Just got back from my first 'Ring trip - and will shortly be adjusting to my new-found youtube fame....



For those who can't be arsed to read the rest of the post, basically I managed to make it onto the cover shot of the latest Youtube 'near-miss' compilation video from Auto Addiction, with a relatively spectacular slide and eventual spin at Brunnchen on my 6th and final lap of the weekend :lol:

The video isn't public yet (it appears to released early to members of the Auto Addiction YouTube channel) - I'll stick a link up here once it's live so you can all laugh at me :lol:

A bit of retrospective analysis; there is absolutely a large component of that spin which was 'last lap syndrome'; it was my 6th and final lap of the weekend, I had had a fabulous time over Friday & Saturday, the track was pretty clear and I was having a fantastic play with a swiss E46 M3 ring-tool, and I just got a bit carried away....

I do slightly wonder from reviewing the Go Pro footage if there was maybe a bit of fluid on the track where I turned in - the rear of the car snapped so quickly and I really didn't have it loaded up much, but none of that changes the outcome so I guess it's all a bit elementary...!

The good news is I managed to avoid the barrier (in the words of the video 'MEGA SAVE' :lol: ), and the car and I are absolutely fine, having driven the 4 1/2h schlep back to Calais without missing a beat a few hours after that video was taken.

Anyway, other than this wee whoopsie, what an incredible weekend, and an incredible place!

We stayed in Adenau, right next to the track, so you could see the cars coming down the hill and over the bridge from our balcony. That sound would be the best alarm clock in the world, but for the fact we were up and out by 8am when the track opened each morning to make the most of the quiet, cool earlier hours.

I went with a group of mates with a mix of cars (Boxster S, Clio 182, Lee off here with his Z4C), it was just a hoot swapping between cars all weekend, stopping to watch and walk about the place and take it all in etc.

To anyone umming and aahing about it, I whole-heartedly recommend going, even if you don't take your car on the circuit the atmosphere is just the best. I couldn't get over how epic the carpark was, let alone the track - the incredible array and diversity of machinery you could spend hours poring over, and watching the track from one of the various corners is great too.

On the driving side of things - the first lap on Friday evening was a real eye-opener. It was pretty intense, and mildly terrifying to be honest, trying to work out what it actually feels like to drive a track that it feels like you know so well from videos and sims. Nothing quite prepares you for how much tighter the corners are compared to how they look in videos, and also quite how much g-force your body goes through for instance going down through foxhole or up the other side of Adenau bridge. Combine that sensory overload with the locals in their ring-tool M3s or 911 GT3s going a million miles an hour and it gets quite 'busy'!!

Compare that first experience on Friday with the Early laps on Saturday & Sunday morning was night and day. By Sunday I was starting to find a rhythm and understand the flow of the track much better, but the big difference of doing laps early in the day was the comparative lack of traffic.

The car performed faultlessly the whole trip - it felt quite incredible, and when we swapped about and my mates drove it they couldn't believe how well it drove. I'm properly over the moon with how it handles and goes and stops - the weak link really is me frankly, need more seat time!! :lol:

Anyway, enough prattling and racing drivers excuses from me, time for an oil change for the car, a change of underwear for me, and then book next years' trip....!

Hope this gives you all a good laugh a my expense - I'll be happy to offer advice hints and tips on how to clean thoroughly soiled underpants in due course

 

[HGoward]

I sadly also had a oopsie on my ring trip two weeks back. It was my first lap of the weekend and was having a brisk lap to say the least getting excited being chased by some E46 M3s and then as I got to Youtube corner my turbo on my M240i went as I was going to overtake a TT. £300 in track recovery and my car is still sat at Crown Performance in Leimbach whilst I get a new turbo sent over. Currently the bill is looking to be in the £4000 range.

 

[Ed Doe]

I sadly also had a oopsie on my ring trip two weeks back. It was my first lap of the weekend and was having a brisk lap to say the least getting excited being chased by some E46 M3s and then as I got to Youtube corner my turbo on my M240i went as I was going to overtake a TT. £300 in track recovery and my car is still sat at Crown Performance in Leimbach whilst I get a new turbo sent over. Currently the bill is looking to be in the £4000 range.

Aah dude sorry to hear that, that's rotten luck

Seems quite easy to get carried away doesn't it! I'll keep my fingers crossed your final bill is a bit gentler than £4k, and you get it all sorted quickly!

 

[HGoward]

I understand all the hype now though, as when I was on track the car just felt perfect and like all the practice in the build up with youtube and sim time had paid off.
My new turbo gets delivered today so will be sending it to Germany tomorrow so I'm hopeful I can pick the car up at the back end of next week. I've managed to save money by going for a upgraded hybrid turbo for £1700, BMW UK and Germany wanted about £3000 for a stock turbo. With my car already being stage 2+ it was the easiest option to go down this route, the car should then be making about 530bhp.

 

[mmm-five]

You don't even need a quick car to have fun, and a cheap car in bad weather is great value for money.

I've been in everything from a 105BHP Alfa 147 JTD, to my 320D, to my e34 M5s and the Z4MC. Lost count of how many poor laps I've done, but it's never been enough to justify a Jahreskart

Also had plenty of passenger laps in much faster cars, with much better drivers...and had a really scary memorable ride with a guy in a 500bhp 2wd GT-R32 was sideways for 90% of the lap

 

[Ed Doe]

I understand all the hype now though, as when I was on track the car just felt perfect and like all the practice in the build up with youtube and sim time had paid off.
My new turbo gets delivered today so will be sending it to Germany tomorrow so I'm hopeful I can pick the car up at the back end of next week. I've managed to save money by going for a upgraded hybrid turbo for £1700, BMW UK and Germany wanted about £3000 for a stock turbo. With my car already being stage 2+ it was the easiest option to go down this route, the car should then be making about 530bhp.

Yep so do I, I'll always have the bug now, I simply can't get over how incredible the whole place was. I'll be back 100%!

You don't even need a quick car to have fun, and a cheap car in bad weather is great value for money.

I've been in everything from a 105BHP Alfa 147 JTD, to my 320D, to my e34 M5s and the Z4MC. Lost count of how many poor laps I've done, but it's never been enough to justify a Jahreskart

Also had plenty of passenger laps in much faster cars, with much better drivers...and had a really scary memorable ride with a guy in a 500bhp 2wd GT-R32 was sideways for 90% of the lap

So true, my mate with the clio 182 I think had the biggest grin out of everyone in our group all weekend - everyone who he took out as a passenger just came back hooting with laughter at all the 3-wheel, lift-off oversteer! :lol:

 

[buzyg]

Nice save sir. Looking forward to the video link. I still have my last lap ticket somewhere. So true what they say.

 

[Birr97]

Shame to hear you spun, glad there was no damage and you got back in one piece.

I recently went to my first track day at Llandow and had a couple of oversteer moments, with this being the worst: [youtube]6p5ZSDSeizQ[/youtube]

I found the Z4 quite progressive but the I think the lack of limited slip differential (and my lack of skill as I should've countered quicker) makes it quite unpredictable once the limit has been reached/exceeded.

 

[Mr Tidy]

It's good to see you had a great time Ed, and a relief to that you only made it onto the the "near-miss" compilation. :happyclap:

Also a relief to see that my previous Coupe survived Llandow. :wink:

 

[mmm-five]

It's up...3m:02s for the relevant action if you don't want to watch the rest.

[youtube]_cPQZqnpyKI[/youtube]

 

[beanie]

Lucky bugger! Glad to see you got out of it unscathed. Smashing your car would be bad enough but the extra costs of doing so at the ring are frightening.

I completely echo your thoughts on the place, particularly the mildly terrifying part :lol:

 

[j3nks79]

It’s live. More luck than skill for sure
https://youtu.be/_cPQZqnpyKI

 

[mmm-five]

Lucky bugger! Glad to see you got out of it unscathed. Smashing your car would be bad enough but the extra costs of doing so at the ring are frightening.

I completely echo your thoughts on the place, particularly the mildly terrifying part :lol:

When I'm something other than the Z4, I'm known by my passengers as Qualcast...as I like trimming the grass more than staying on track

 

[TomK]

Jesus Ed!!! Very happy to see you got away with that :!:
Glad it hasn't sullied your view of, as you say, an amazing track and an amazing part of the world. Even if you don't fancy driving it, just to be there is a fascinating experience for anyone who is remotely interested in cars.
......Heads off to the tD company websites, haven't booked anything this year yet ...

 

[1536Z4]

So close .......

 

[Joycey]

What a trip aye Ed, I was only a few cars back and when I spotted all the mud my gut knew exactly what happened.

Go hard or go home :evil:

 

[Ed Doe]

Shame to hear you spun, glad there was no damage and you got back in one piece.

I recently went to my first track day at Llandow and had a couple of oversteer moments, with this being the worst:

I found the Z4 quite progressive but the I think the lack of limited slip differential (and my lack of skill as I should've countered quicker) makes it quite unpredictable once the limit has been reached/exceeded.

Eeh, a spin is to some degree inevitable on track eventually, I'm not overly upset that I spun out, just a bit of a shame as I was on a good lap! I'm sure I saw a cracker of a spin from Tom a while back at Combe on one of his videos. The issue I have is I had my moment on youtube corner so it's now immortalised for ever, for all the armchair track enthusiasts to dissect and point out how I didn't know what I was doing etc :lol: That and my wife wont let me go next year if she sees it hahaha

Jesus Ed!!! Very happy to see you got away with that :!:
Glad it hasn't sullied your view of, as you say, an amazing track and an amazing part of the world. Even if you don't fancy driving it, just to be there is a fascinating experience for anyone who is remotely interested in cars.
......Heads off to the tD company websites, haven't booked anything this year yet ...

Lol thanks Tom, definitely 'got away with that one'!! soiled underwear and a bit shaky for half an hour afterwards but yeah all good!
Definitely hasn't affected my view of the place, or the experience of the weekend. I cannot get over how incredible it is. It felt a bit like a dream, in that where we stayed (Adenau) was a 'normal town' but every car was a GT3RS or a ringtool M3 or GR yaris or a local Golf ring tool etc etc, and all the carparks were full of epic machinery, and all the billboards were advertising car parts and suspension instead of what was on at the local cinema. It was like it was somehow not real?! Absolute Petrolhead nirvana! I was gutted to hear the 24h race is this coming weekend; I'd have loved to hang about and watch that!
I spotted the video of your car going well at Snett, you seem to have absolutely nailed the suspension setup now, it seems to handle so well. No more cutting out issues now?

What a trip aye Ed, I was only a few cars back and when I spotted all the mud my gut knew exactly what happened.

Go hard or go home :evil:

Oh mate, incredible trip - soon as they release the dates for next year we're getting on booking it again, I cannot wait already! Also I can't believe little old me was pottering back on the Autobahn at 80, not realising it was totally derestricted :lol: oh well, saved fuel at least!

 

[Argenta]

Haha I saw this yesterday.. "Typical Z4M" was my only reaction... They are poison especially on Nordschleife! Or.. Heroin maybe? Lovely but deadly

Here's one of my lucky escape's.. At 8:48
(and like any Z4M owner, I have no clue why it snapped)

[youtube]_S1kpB4P1sQ[/youtube]

 

[TomK]

soiled underwear and a bit shaky for half an hour afterwards but yeah all good!

I bet

I spotted the video of your car going well at Snett, you seem to have absolutely nailed the suspension setup now, it seems to handle so well. No more cutting out issues now?

Thanks. The cutting out has gone, for now, but I have a fair idea of what's causing it, no biggy.
The car is handling well I'd agree, but it understeers too much for my liking. I'd had a lot of work done to the rear and the geo was re-set not quite to my settings. I was a bit annoyed at the time but on reflection I'd say the car is probably faster round a lap. That said, it's not as much as fun so I'll most likely put it back to slower and trying to kill you spec some time soon :evil:

 

[Liam22]

While we're comparing 'Ring "moments"
https://youtu.be/R6oin4zmtKU?t=380 (6:28)