Public driving @ Spa-Francorchamps & Nurburgring - Spring 2012

[rex]

Hi everyone  !

I am opening this topic to see if any of you is interested in doing some laps around Spa and Nurburgring during their public driving sessions (touristenfahrten).
I am still opened to doing some trackdays on these tracks but from what I read these are more expensive than the public driving sessions (even if these are with better drivers and fewer people). When the dates for the trackdays will be clear I am sure my colleagues will post them here.


So what I am thinking of doing:
- spend 3/4 days at Nurburgring (from the 27th of April until the 30th of April or until the 2nd of May)
- spend 1 day at Spa (1st of May)

This being said I will continue with explaining the dates, the tracks, the prices, etc....
Some of you know these things but I think it makes sense to present this information for those of us that don't know.


Dates
The dates can be seen here:
Nurburgring
Spa

As you can see, the Nurburgring dates are not complete but, from my experience (only 3 years) we are to expect about 2 days of driving in the week days and full days of driving in the weekends. This is only when the track is opened. Because the 28th of April is opened all day most likely there are no events (races) scheduled and so I think we can guess that the 30th will also be opened for the whole day.
In the past years I emailed Nurburgring officials and I asked for the schedule. They were kind enough to give me the schedule for the whole year but this schedule was not the final one. This would change and so I think there is no point in emailing them again.
So, I am not sure when we would know the dates for sure but I hope for the best (tony_danza said that in 2011 the schedule kept changing until March).


Prices
Well, unfortunately no good news here... The prices have gone up compared to the previous year:

Spa: one session has 25min (about 6-7 laps). A package of 4 sessions costs 235 € (in 2011 was 215 EURO). At this price you should add some taxes for each extra driver, helmet, etc (depending  on what you want)...

Nurburgring: a lap is € 26,00 (24 EURO in 2011) but there are packages for more laps:
4 laps: € 95,00 (89 EURO in 2011), incl. 1 ring°werk ticket
25 laps: € 490,00 (470 EURO in 2011), incl. 1 ring°werk ticket
They also took out the 10-30 EURO voucher and the 15 laps package.  


Accommodation:
Around the Nurburgring there are a lot of great places to stay. During my previous visits I liked the La Lanterna best.
Even if the prices for the accommodation are not small, I liked the atmosphere very much. I also liked that they have a large dining/breakfast room where we can hang out. They have a nice backyard where I can change the tires and do some work on the car and they have (among others) 1 EURO beer  .
Also the restaurant is very good. It is an Italian restaurant situated 1 mile from the hotel. The food is great and not expensive. Last year I also saw some crazy cars in the parking lot (some Russians with Enzo, GT3 RS 4.0, etc).
I have to say that the manager is Rumanian and this is the reason I went here last year but I liked it very much and I would go again here anytime.
Of course I am opened to other ideas and staying here is not a must for me.


Participants
The list is opened and so far a few of my friends said they will be coming (you might know one of them his name is Adrian and he was at GTI International 2011. He drives a 500+bhp S3).


Track description
Many of us have seen these track but some haven't so I think it is better to say a few words about them.

Spa-Francorchamps is a 7km long track with big elevations (~100m). Many pilots consider this circuit as being the most beautiful (M. Schumacher is one of them).
I like this track a lot! It is both fast and technical and, unlike Nurburgring, it has a lot of runoff areas.
For more information please visit the official web site.

Below are some movies:
NeilM's video from November (hope you don't mind showing this video here)

One of my videos filmed during the August 2011 trip:

Nurburgingring Nordschleife is the most famous track in the world. Nicknamed Green Hell/ Grune Holle it is a 20km track considered to dangerous for GP competitions but safe enough for amateur drivers (very little or no runoff space). Till now I managed to visit this mind blowing circuit three time (in 2009, 2010 and 2011). I can tell you that these visits forever marked me and that is why I am trying to visit Nurburgring at least once every year.
For more information please visit the official web site.

Here are some videos:
One of my videos from the August 2011 visit:

One video from Hurdy of a fast lap including the GP Nurburgring Shot Track (hope you don't mind showing this video here):



Well, I hope I haven't forgotten anything. Sorry for the long post!

So, what do you think, anyone interested?

 

[Dw1]

Hi Rex,
I'm up for a Ring/Spa back to back, I just posted on another thread about it. Although I'm looking to do an organised track day rather than the Ring TF (after having driven over 200 TF laps over 8 years I'm at the point of no more TF, it's now too busy and too dangerous for me). On an organised track day I reckon you can get in 20 laps (3 hours worth of driving which is about the norm for a track day), which in TF is a miracle if you can get in 20 laps in a day due to closures, so in reality it doesn't work out much more to do an organised day and you get more peace of mind.

If our paths do coincide I'd appreciate a passenger ride with your new harnesses, as per our comments in your other thread.  

Having just watched your lap again it is a beautifully driven lap, so smooth and calm and you embarrassed a lot of high powered cars all in your bog standard golf with bouncy seats

[rex]

I would really like to have you as a pasenger in my slow car  .

On the other hand I am not sure about going in April/May because on the 27th and 28th of April Nordschleife will be closed for the VLN race  .
So it's back to the drawing board for me...

[Dw1]

I would really like to have you as a pasenger in my slow car  .

I think the only thing I would be able to add is extra weight    but would happily be a passenger. Your lines looked good, you were nice and early on the power and had excellent vision looking right through the bends.
I could offer you a pax lap in mine in return.

[rex]

Deal  !

[Dw1]

 
I'm afraid it won't be in my gti though, it will be in my less comfortable, silly car.

[rex]

Even better!