Arrived back in the UK late Friday night after an eventful 5 Day "Tour de Europe".
I'd like to than DaveB the brake Guru from Vagbremtechnic for sorting me out an awesome brake set-up to go with and test out. 362mm 2 piece discs and full project Mu race pads for the 8 Pot brakes - performed brilliantly as they were set-up without the springs in. Never faded once, in fact I had so much brake power that the ABS would cut in first even when restricted!!!
Next up I'd also like to thank Steve Jr at Statller for going through my engine and suspension with a fine toothcomb to ensure everything was spot on for the trip. Before I went the car had all the major services done - Cambelt and waterpump, DSG service, Haldex service, engine service, sparkplugs, etc etc.
Ian and myself had booked ourselves in for two trackdays, back to back at Spa Francorchamps and the full VLN Circuit at the Nurburgring.
The start....
After an uneventful haul over from the UK to France via the Eurotunnel we headed over to Belgium to Spa and stopped at the Hotel de la Source, which was bang next to the track.
The morning of the trackday at Spa greeted us with a smattering of snow over the cars and a flurry of light snow in the cold air. The ground was cold and wet, but our spirits were high in anticipation of the day ahead.
On arrival we spotted several decent track cars along with the odd Audi R8, Porsche and GTR thrown in for good measure.
Ian went off to have an hours tuition whilst I went it alone and whilst on track spotted him in his blue R a few times....a bit damp!
One from slightly after....
Unfortunately Ian's car suffered from some kind of fuel starvation resulting in his car being towed off track. After taking off the coilpacks and replacing a sparkplug the diagnosis was still a mystery as his R wouldn't start.
Some more photos of the day...
And finally a reminder for Spa on my bonnet...
Straight after the Spa trackday we shot over in my R to Germany and stopped at the Dorint Hotel at the side of the GP circuit at Nurburg. All seemed well for the following day ....until I opened the curtains in the morning!!!
The photo doesn't quite do it justice as the snow was still coming down (sometimes heavily) until after 12 noon.
A quick photo of the lobby and you can just make out the snow on the main pitlane straight through the windows...
Not to be deterred, I ventured down underground to the garage to check my R over and see what other metal was around....
We finally got the green flag to go out on track at just after 12.30pm, but shortly after (and before my first lap) the track was closed again after a blizzard swept through at the other end of the Nurburgring section....
A quick shout for Frozenspeed and their great photo piccies.
After another half hour I finally managed to break out on track for a few "cautious" laps and then back in after spending most of my time behind two cars who appeared oblivious to moving over and must have been doing some kind of chase camera laps.....
You can clearly see that this wasn't a dry day. LOL
Off out again and another few pics of the R...
Anyway the track was closed again after a Porsche 944 Turbo had a crash and almost at the same time a BMW M3 smashed into the armco. Very frustrating indeed!
Once opened up again I had Ian onboard for some extra ballast
With the day over at 4.30pm we headed off to the Pistonklaus restaurant for some well deserved grub and to mull over the days proceedings. Another sticker went on the R too....
Finally the trip home beckoned and 13.5hrs travelling later the R was tucked up ready for it's next outing....
I have some video footage to stitch together, so not quite done yet guys.
