sebdavid

Well, it's not a Corvette video, but I'm sure you'll forgive me.

A couple weeks ago, with one of my friends, I drove my RenaultSport Megane R26 to Belgium. It snowed.

Spa is one of the most beautiful tracks in the world. The weather is another thing. We didn't get one dry lap all weekend. Lots of exotic metal (well, carbonfibre mostly) there that day: 458 Challenge and GT3 Cup aplenty, a few 430 Challenge, other various Porsches, a 275GTB Ferrari, a Noble, etc. And LOTS of classic racers were being unloaded for the Classic car race which was on the following weekend. Never saw so many 2.7RS or GT40s together. Awesome.

Not to mention we visited the Porsche museum in Stuttgart the day before...

Then, we drove to a little-known track in the Eifel mountains in Germany:

This was probably lap 5-6 of 20 for me that weekend. I had about 4 dry-ish laps, and 2 really dry ones. I went a bit faster following this lap, did an 8:47. There's obviously still a lot of time left on the table, but for a public day with traffic and a yellow flag, and with so little dry laps under my belt, I'm happy.

Falcon

Sounds like a hell of a vacation! Congratulations on a fantastic trip.

frankgtb

lucky you sebdavid

I tried to lap nurburgring afew weeks ago but found that the track is for sale and not open for public lapping very much....is that true?

sebdavid

I highly doubt it. Last I heard the tack was up for sale but it will take some time for them to find a buyer for the whole thing including the Disneyland-style complex they built over there. In the meantime, the ring Tourist Days are a cash cow that is not going away, I would surmise. Lots of revenue from there judging by the number of people there when I was there.

See following link for opening days: http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/angebo...dschleife.html

pkmoose

nice videos, thanks

Zoxxo

I just ran across this nice piece on the Nordschleife on espnf1.com. Good (short) read. Talk about "those were the days."

http://blogs.espnf1.com/Maurice-Hami...green_hell.php

Z//

Z06trackman

Thanks for the very cool article! Jackie is the best. "those days" are still here - but you won't get air like that at Flugplatz since they leveled it off a bit in the 70s.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you are a track rat and you haven't driven 'The Ring, you are doing yourself a huge dis-service. The experience is life changing. Take a year off running your car at home to pay for it if you must , but DO IT.

RT coach airfare to FRA - $1,500 (major cities)
4 days Rental car from FRA - $200
12 laps in a Clio RS from RSR Nurburg including fuel and lap tickets - $1,300
Hotel, meals, beers - $500
Total = $3,500 (~ equals a set of tires, two sets of brakes, travel and fees to burn them up)

Experience and memories of your pilgrimage to the Mecca of track driving - Priceless

sebdavid

100% correct

Shaka

Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz has placed a bid for the Ring.

I drove 6 laps there in 87 in a Porsche 928 and 6 laps in a 93 ZR1. Without knowing the track, you can't go very fast most of the time.
Buy a 2014 Vette Z51 in September, ship it to Europe in February, drive it in March/April when the tourists aren't there, sell it easy there and pay for the car, the trip with $$ to spare. A broker will get you to Belgium, Holland or Germany which ever is the fastest. You can purchase all the permits for the highways of France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland at the port. Take an oval USA sticker with you. The Autobahns are not congested and hotels are empty and the service is good. The car will draw the mot attention in France. Either a Frenchman or a German will buy the car. The owner has 90 days to Europeanize it. A GM dealer does it. The owner pays. You will have US plates on the car. If you don't have a front plate, you will be stopped all the time, but that is fun. If you are from a two plate state, only put the back one on because it might get stolen. The cops are usually car nuts. If you are speeding in Holland and France, they will just sh.t you out. Don't pass on the right in Germany and no U turns on the Autobahns. Ze Chairmans git pissed if you don't obey ze ggroowls.(Rules, for those who don't speak German.) To blast along the Autobahns at 180 mph everyday, is about the best thing that you can ever do. It makes you awful nervous though.
You can drive around Spa, LeMans( incourse and public road), Monaco and Monza. Whilst in Italy, visit the Ferrari factories. Stop in at the Schlumpf Collection in Mulhouse, France.