1100 miles, many tanks of fuel and some great memories later I just got back from ticking a few things off my bucket list.
I'd been planning a double header track day at Spa for some time but chatting with FishyDave about that he suggested going to the Nurburgring instead for a day and only doing the 1 day at spa.
I asked if he would like to join and whilst I have no doubt he would have liked to come in his M the silly fool has sold it, so in he hopped into the passenger seat. Some might say that was quite a brave choice!
The journey to the ring was pretty non descript. Upon arrival to nuremburg I realised the place was anything but! Extraordinary is a weak way to describe the place and the general vibe, like a huge playground for grown ups with their big toys
It would NEVER be allowed in the uk...
Arriving late sunday Dave suggested getting up early and trying to get a couple of hopefully traffice free laps in. As I'm sure all brits are it was with some trepidation that I lined up on a public day for my first lap. That quickly got fogotten about! Oh wow, what an experience!! There's race tracks, and then there's the ring, an impossibly complex labyrnth of tarmac, and any old fool can come pay 30€ and try and play race driver. Terrifying
After saying I would only do one lap that went straight out of the window, and a second lap was purchased pronto..
It was still pretty quiet and helfully I managed to tag onto a well driven golf R and sneaked in an 8:37s, which felt pretty nuts at the time. Looking at the video there's time left all over the place, but for a 2nd go on the place I was pretty happy. (some caymans may have been upset in the making of this video ~5:20
)
[youtube]xJSYJ0YrwgU[/youtube]
Wisely I think we then moved on to the GP circuit and had a couple of 15 min sessions each, Dave mostly complaining about understeer, me happy that it's not snapping into oversteer in 4th gear, overall I was happy with the compromise.
I'd had the geo adjusted before coming out to err on the side of caution not knowing what weather conditions might be like. As it was we were pretty lucky given that it's quite possible it could be snowing at this time of the year.
After visiting the museum and Dave trying to point out the castle to me far too often :!: , I had a couple of beers and dave drove us to Spa. The excitement levels after the day and what lay in store for tomorrow couldn't have been much higher.
Typically unpredictable weather there meant that whilst the briefing at 8:30am was in the sun, the sighting laps just 30 mins later made me happy that I wasn't sitting in the caged and open mx5 in front.
Luckily it didn't get too wet, but Spa for your first time is I imagine quite a thing even in the dry. Both Dave and I had some fear/fun in the wet morning session, it dried up over lunch and I managed to get a fairly decent lap in after a few pointers from Dave, just snicking under 2:57. It's a truly fantstic track, but after the buzz I felt on the ring the day before even this was somewhat underwhelming.
[youtube]RFDTSqu8xGU[/youtube]
Had a good chat with forum member mikeyboy (beautiful looking car mate and those seats :wub before leaving for the slog back to uk.. Thanks Dave for your company and driving the car through the torrential rain of Belgium 
to the next time.... 
And big respect to the Z4M, punishing journey, didn't miss a beat, he's a good lad
I'd been planning a double header track day at Spa for some time but chatting with FishyDave about that he suggested going to the Nurburgring instead for a day and only doing the 1 day at spa.
I asked if he would like to join and whilst I have no doubt he would have liked to come in his M the silly fool has sold it, so in he hopped into the passenger seat. Some might say that was quite a brave choice!
The journey to the ring was pretty non descript. Upon arrival to nuremburg I realised the place was anything but! Extraordinary is a weak way to describe the place and the general vibe, like a huge playground for grown ups with their big toys
It would NEVER be allowed in the uk...Arriving late sunday Dave suggested getting up early and trying to get a couple of hopefully traffice free laps in. As I'm sure all brits are it was with some trepidation that I lined up on a public day for my first lap. That quickly got fogotten about! Oh wow, what an experience!! There's race tracks, and then there's the ring, an impossibly complex labyrnth of tarmac, and any old fool can come pay 30€ and try and play race driver. Terrifying
After saying I would only do one lap that went straight out of the window, and a second lap was purchased pronto..
It was still pretty quiet and helfully I managed to tag onto a well driven golf R and sneaked in an 8:37s, which felt pretty nuts at the time. Looking at the video there's time left all over the place, but for a 2nd go on the place I was pretty happy. (some caymans may have been upset in the making of this video ~5:20
)[youtube]xJSYJ0YrwgU[/youtube]
Wisely I think we then moved on to the GP circuit and had a couple of 15 min sessions each, Dave mostly complaining about understeer, me happy that it's not snapping into oversteer in 4th gear, overall I was happy with the compromise.
I'd had the geo adjusted before coming out to err on the side of caution not knowing what weather conditions might be like. As it was we were pretty lucky given that it's quite possible it could be snowing at this time of the year.
After visiting the museum and Dave trying to point out the castle to me far too often :!: , I had a couple of beers and dave drove us to Spa. The excitement levels after the day and what lay in store for tomorrow couldn't have been much higher.
Typically unpredictable weather there meant that whilst the briefing at 8:30am was in the sun, the sighting laps just 30 mins later made me happy that I wasn't sitting in the caged and open mx5 in front.
Luckily it didn't get too wet, but Spa for your first time is I imagine quite a thing even in the dry. Both Dave and I had some fear/fun in the wet morning session, it dried up over lunch and I managed to get a fairly decent lap in after a few pointers from Dave, just snicking under 2:57. It's a truly fantstic track, but after the buzz I felt on the ring the day before even this was somewhat underwhelming.
[youtube]RFDTSqu8xGU[/youtube]
Had a good chat with forum member mikeyboy (beautiful looking car mate and those seats :wub
before leaving for the slog back to uk.. Thanks Dave for your company and driving the car through the torrential rain of Belgium to the next time.... And big respect to the Z4M, punishing journey, didn't miss a beat, he's a good lad
Liverpool
Having enjoyed that session I called it a day, Tom had been good enough to let me thrash his car but I thought I should quit whilst I was ahead. We were both pretty tired with a couple of hours of the day to run and headed back to Spa for a drink before the drive to the Tunnel. It was hard to tear ourselves away from a trackday that was still running, it's a first I think? I echo the comments about Mikey Boys car, it looked way too clean to have been on track!
North West Surrey