Thank you,
fuscobal!
And to continue the story...
This day, the 7th of August, was the second day of the weekend when the track was opened for the whole day. So, again I made as many laps as I could...
Unfortunately this day also had its share of accidents, bad weather and a lot of traffic. But not entirely.
Between laps of the Nordscheife I also went to see Robertos race. This time he finished second but the points are very valuable for the championship.
After pretty much a whole day of traffic and bad weather the miracle happened
. I managed to have a very, very low traffic lap with excellent weather. The track was not quite in the best state because there were a lot of oil spills so I did not push as hard as I could have on those sections. These things made me have my best lap yet. The time is quite hard to measure exactly (there are no line for BTG) but from my calculations I made a little bit better than 9:01:08. It could have been something like 9:00:80 but I will just round that to
9:01. One of my hidden objectives was to have a 8:XX time. This would have been the icing on the cake but it was not meant to be. No worries, I will try again next year.
If you look closely the film is 9 minutes and 3 seconds long. Considering that there are 3 seconds to reach the Bilstein Bridge and there are 2 seconds after I pass the Audi Bridge you might think my time was 8:58. Well, on my original film the time is 9.01 so I think that the film editor is to blame for shortening the lap.
For those of you who know the Nring I will say a few works about the bends where I feel that I could have gone faster:
- T13 - I could have had a higher entry speed (there is a small difference between my driving here and my conception of the best lines and speeds)
- Hatzenbach - I could have been faster here but I braked more than I should have. At least I had a nice "slow in fast out" approach.
- Hocheichen - I missed the apex. I lost a little bit of time here.
- Flugplatz - I could have been on the gas a fraction sooner but I lost very little time here.
- Schwedenkreus - I braked more than I should have. Considering that this is one of the most dangerous bends I am have I braked more than I should have than the other way around
- Fuchsrohre - I was slower than the maxim the car could give because there was the oil stain sign and at 125mph I didn't want to take many chances. But I don't think I lost a lot of time here, either.
- Adenauer Forst - I should have had a different entry but I was afraid that the car would understeer on the entry. The car did understeer mid corner especially because of the higher than normal entry speed.
- I am not hitting the apex before Miss-Hit-Miss
- on the entry of Miss-Hit-Miss I am not using the whole width of the track. If I was to use the full width the car would understeer and I would not hit the apex on the "Hit" corner. So I just preferred this approach.
- Bergwerk - I had to be on the brakes sooner over here because on the previous day there was oil on the track and the entire bend was covered in sand. Now the sand was still present and that is why I use the middle of the track more. Anyway the entry and exit are very good, just a little of attention is required because there is a lot of sand on the exit also.
- Karussell - I brake more than it is required for this corner. I didn't quite get the entry speed worked out for this corner. I am loosing some time here.
- Wippermann - I could have been a little faster through here
- Eschbach - there is a slower car that is costing me some time
- Platzengarten1 - I am slower than I should be because I have rubbing issues in this bend and also because it is quite a difficult corner. If you are a little bit too fast, you will hit crash the car.
- Platzengarten3 - I am only a little bit slower than my car can go. This is because of the big incline/decline, because of the high speed (more than 100mph), because of the blind curbs and because of the differences in level between the right and the left part of the track. I just didn't feel like risking it all to go with "the pedal to the metal" from the entry point. This is, in my opinion one of the scariest bends around Nring.
- Schwalbenschwanz - I brake more than I should have over here.
Well this was the description of the lap. I hope I didn't bore you to much!
Oh, and there are 2 more things I want to point out:
1. The Kumho v70a semislicks are not helping me too much on this track. The Nordschelife is quite slippery even with semislicks (honestly I didn't feel much of a difference between the semislicks and the normal road high performance tires). And to add to this the semislicks are a little bit more unpredictable than the normal high performance street tires. The wear on the semislick is minimal on this track.
2. I tried to go right to the limit of the kerbs without touching them (except Wippermann). For a good time I think it is imperative to be more aggressive and ride the kerbs. But, again, the time was not my primary concern.
Below you have some pictures of the car taken that day:
Thanks for watching!
