bart
07-18-2006, 09:11 AM
First, if you don't follow Top Gear or think I'm talking about a fancy pretzel, go to another thread please :)
ok ok, vid is here if you hate to read. (pics below): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5376766121685709831&hl=en-CA
Anyway, I decided to go to the Nurburgring and see how good or bad Jeremy Clarkson is as a driver, commentator wise he's very good. I arrived in Frankfurt, rented an Audi A4 TDI Wagon for about 120EUR and drove ~170km to the ring. Laps are 16EUR each or 4 for 56EUR, etc. I bought four laps. First lap I just got a feel for the car and the track, its impossible to memorize the thing with only four laps, I went off twice in the same spot.
Jeremy's Jag had 205hp I believe, my car was 140 so I was at a 60hp disadvantage. I also had an extra 500lbs worth of passengers and almost every lap I did there was a course caution. They close the track once every hour for 30 mins cause some idiot falls off his bike, so waiting was annoying and I had a world cup final to see that day!!
So did a couple more laps, 2nd lap was a 10:39, 3rd a bit better and my last lap down to 10:15 (the taped one).
It was really exciting and it's worth it. I had more fun then I thought, saw lots of nice cars and I could go there every day. I hope to be back very soon and do it again alone with a faster car, but you have to be 25 to rent a porsche or any really fast car from a rental company, so I have to stick with normal cars for now... Also, renting is risky, even though its not a race track (but a public toll road) rental companies have something about it in fine print. So don't go too crazy and don't total the car! I took that chance.
I feel with an empty car, no cautions, a few more laps I could do it (get <10mins). Any pessimists?
There were also lots of GT3 RS' and even saw a wrecked one! Oooops.
If you are planning on going or have any questions, let me know! Comments on the vid also entertained! :)
-bart
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring1.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring2.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring3.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring4.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring5.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring6.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring7.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring8.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring9.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring10.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring11.jpg
ok ok, vid is here if you hate to read. (pics below): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5376766121685709831&hl=en-CA
Anyway, I decided to go to the Nurburgring and see how good or bad Jeremy Clarkson is as a driver, commentator wise he's very good. I arrived in Frankfurt, rented an Audi A4 TDI Wagon for about 120EUR and drove ~170km to the ring. Laps are 16EUR each or 4 for 56EUR, etc. I bought four laps. First lap I just got a feel for the car and the track, its impossible to memorize the thing with only four laps, I went off twice in the same spot.
Jeremy's Jag had 205hp I believe, my car was 140 so I was at a 60hp disadvantage. I also had an extra 500lbs worth of passengers and almost every lap I did there was a course caution. They close the track once every hour for 30 mins cause some idiot falls off his bike, so waiting was annoying and I had a world cup final to see that day!!
So did a couple more laps, 2nd lap was a 10:39, 3rd a bit better and my last lap down to 10:15 (the taped one).
It was really exciting and it's worth it. I had more fun then I thought, saw lots of nice cars and I could go there every day. I hope to be back very soon and do it again alone with a faster car, but you have to be 25 to rent a porsche or any really fast car from a rental company, so I have to stick with normal cars for now... Also, renting is risky, even though its not a race track (but a public toll road) rental companies have something about it in fine print. So don't go too crazy and don't total the car! I took that chance.
I feel with an empty car, no cautions, a few more laps I could do it (get <10mins). Any pessimists?
There were also lots of GT3 RS' and even saw a wrecked one! Oooops.
If you are planning on going or have any questions, let me know! Comments on the vid also entertained! :)
-bart
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring1.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring2.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring3.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring4.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring5.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring6.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring7.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring8.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring9.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring10.jpg
http://servfiles.com/bart/nurburgring11.jpg