The engine has been ordered, payed and is on the way... Nothing to do but wait...
In the mean time, though...
During my last year's Nurburgring trip I noticed what I had to do with the car:
- wider fenders
- racing seats
- 4/5/6 point harness
- rollcage/rollbar
Well, all there are done but I had to have this year's Nurburgring trip without the car because of the engine problems
.
So, here is a short review of the 2012 Nurburging trip (12-16th of October). I will write this review over here even though it has nothing to do with my car because, for the future trips it is easier to make comparisons when all the reviews/comments are all in one place.
Well, this was a pretty strange trip for me because I did not have the same emotions as last year. I might becoming more accustomed to Nurburgring or I am just getting more unconscious of the risks... This year I only did 13 laps. I had one lap of the VLN track (Sprint Strecke and Nordschleife) with my friends Golf 2.0 TDI (similar setup as mine) and 12 laps of the Nordschleife on a rental Suzuki Swift Sport.
My friend let me drive his car because I wanted to go on the Sprint Streke. This GP Short Track is very nice but also very challenging with cold tires.
And, as I said, the other 12 laps were done in a Suzuki Shift Sport. The very first ones were very demanding... The car was all over the track because of the cold weather (4 degrees), the wet track and the cold semislick tires (Yokohama Ad08). The rest of the laps were quite a lot of fun but I had no traffic free laps so no great times to brag about...
When comparing to my car, the Suzuki Swift Sport was a little bit faster in a straight line but it had a lot of body roll. Also the ESP could not be turned off (but after about a half a lap the ESP would come completely off). I would advise anyone who wants to rent a car on the Nurburgring to go for the Swift (either from Rent4Ring where they have really fast Suzuki's or from RentRaceCar where I went because the others were all reserved). I rented a GTI in 2009 and the Swift is much more fun (slower though)...
Here are some video taken from this trip:
A few interesting things about this one:
- 2:58 - a poorly signaled accident after a blind curve taken with ~100 mph (before Adenauer Forst); it is not very well visible on the video but I had some problems keeping the line while decelerating
- 4:44 - I overtake a Passat CC but it is a risky maneuver because I try to keep momentum.
- 7:10 - I overtake a Clio RS but I am a little bit excited in Hohe Acht
- 7:38 - I overtake another Clio RS in Eschbach but, because of the line and the speed I am at the limit (as you can see and hear). I really liked this curve...
- 7:55 - I overtake a Mondeo in Brunnchen (like my friend told me, I tend to make risky maneuvers)
Besides that, as I said, you can hear how close I am to the edge because the Yokohama Ad08 tires are very noisy at the limit.
And another one:
This is a faster lap than the previous one but I am really slowed down before Adenauer Forst (2:50) where a Series 1 M is being towed. The only risky part (except always pushing the car) is when I overtake a Subaru Impreza that was very slow to move to the right side (again the problem with being too aggressive when overtaking).
And a few photos with my friends car and me:
And a few photos with the car in action (the body roll is quite visible):
All comments are welcomed!
Thanks for watching!
