The GTS Chronicles - Getting Two/True Sportscars - Delivery Adventure - 2020-2023

Return to alavigne.net home

NOTE: You have javascript disabled in your browser. This presentation will continue to function, but with only basic capabilities. In order to view this presentation will full capabilities, please enable javascript in your browser, then refresh this page.

< Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Next Page >

Tuesday, August 7th, 2023 - A Hell of a Bike, A Drive of the Hell

Bike Once, Drive Twice

We awoke to a cloudy - but fortunately dry - day in the Nurburg area. Today was going to be divided into two very distinct parts: Exercise and sightseeing in the morning and afternoon, and driving (hopefully on nice, dry pavement) in the evening.

Pre-start Video Editing

Why not start driving right away, first thing in the morning? We couldn't. There was a scheduled private event on the track during the day, and public tourist lapping was only available in the evening. We had known the schedule well in advance, however, and had planned a nice filler activity: mountain biking. Specifically, mountain biking on trails around the perimeter of the Nordschleife circuit. We'd get exercise, we'd get to sightsee points along the track. And then we'd finish mid-afternoon and prepare ourselves for a full two-plus hour evening lapping session.

Breidsheid Exit

This cycling idea was a repeat from 2018, where we did exactly the same thing to occupy our time while a scheduled private event was occurring on the track. Because of that, the logistics were well known: walk down the street to a sports shop that we knew rented mountain bikes, get outfitted, and then hop onto the nearest trail. The whole of the countryside around the track is criss-crossed with foot and cycling paths, and one can chart various paths as one desires. As I've said before, it is unusual to have such a prominent track as this one intermixed with public access and trails and roads and towns.

Luke's Thoughts

[on heading out to mountain-bike...]

I'm looking forward to a bit of exercise and outdoorsness around the track to banish my depressing thoughts from yesterday. Being able to bike around the track and get so up close to it is really quite something, and I've read lots about the 24 hours of the Nurburgring and what a massive event it is for fans who come and camp out around the track. Something I would love to be able to do one day, and the biking gives you just a little bit of a taste of what that must be like. Mother Nature plus a race track and fast cars, what could be better?

Renting our cycles

Just like in 2018, we decided to do our grand loop around the track in a counter-clockwise direction. Our starting point at the sports shop was literally at the lowest point of the circuit (Ex-Mühle), so our initial bit of cycling was uphill. And fairly steeply uphill at times, too. The terrain in the area is much steeper than it looks in videos.

Ex-Muhle

Our path here closely paralleled the track. There were nice closeup views of several bits of the track - Weherseifen - an especially sharp low-speed curve, and Drei-Fach Rechtes, or "Three Way Rights" (also apparently known as "miss-hit-miss"). After huffing and puffing up about one hundred and fifty metres (400ft) of elevation gain, the path started to level out. We were now in the area of Metzgesfeld, a local highpoint where a prominent communications tower is located. We could see the base of the tower in the trees a short distance away.

From Metzgesfeld, the going was easy for a while, on a flat path through nice open fields. Then our track entered the forest again and we began a steep, rooty descent into the deep ravine of the Foxhole (Fuchsröhre). Partway along the climb up the other side of the ravine, we turned off the path and made our way directly to the railing at the edge of the circuit. We had noticed that there had been no traffic at all on the track, save for some sort of slow-moving tractor. Whatever entity had rented the track for the day clearly wasn't actually using it during the morning hours. Hatko stealthily hopped over the fence for a clandestine shot of him in the middle of the circuit. Ssh - don't tell anyone.

Cycling past Weherseifen

The Odd Couple

Nervous Pose

The path led steeply uphill again, and again with lots of exposed tree roots that required close attention to avoid wiping out on the bikes. At the top of the rise we came to the Aremburg curve area. There's an overpass over the track here, and we went over to it to get some overhead views of the curve.

Nearby was the crest known by the cross at this location: Schwedenkreuz - or Swedish Cross. This cross commemorates the murder of a tax collector from a nearby town, killed by deserters from the Swedish Army, in 1638. "Schweden" means Swedish, hence the name. This is also the location of a high-speed curve of the same name that is notorious for high-speed crashes, should one not manage the lightness of one's car at speed over this crest.

Rooty trail

Andrew at Aremburg

SchwedenKreuz

From the Swedish Cross it was easy cycling across more open fields, past the high crest of the Flugplatz (the "airfield"), and on to the ess-curve complex of Hocheichen, where there is a nice open elevated grassy area one can sit at to watch cars go by. We then continued uphill, soon arriving at the Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve, newly-named in honor of local track legend Sabine Schmitz, who recently succumbed to cancer at a relatively young age.

Hocheichen Esses

Newly-named Curve

After the Sabine Schmitz curve, the path brought us to the streets of the town of Nurburg (after which this whole complex was named). We could see the nearby highpoint and the old, ruined Nurburg Castle atop it.

We cycled down the main drag of Nurburg, rolling past the entrance to Apex Nuerberg, the race-related facility that offers track car rentals, track taxi-car rides, hotel rooms, a gift shop ... and of course, home base for famous youtuber Misha Charoudin, who we were planning to meet later this evening.

From the town of Nurburg it was a short few minutes of cycling to the Touristenfahrten entrance to the track, and also the location of the bright-red Devil's Diner. Things were pretty quiet right now, as the track was reserved for non-TF activities (we had now surmised that the activity was an "industry day", where various manufacturers test their prototype vehicles).

Cycling past Apex

Cyclin' to the Devil....

We continued our counterclockwise journey next to the long Dottinger Höhe straight, and then back into the trees on a smooth path down to the "Little Karrussel" - one of the track's two historic banked concrete-slab sections. We started to see prototype cars roaring by on the track now, tires squealing in protest.

Mindful of the time, we picked up the pace a bit, following as close as we could to the track (which meant at one point crossing underneath through a culvert-tunnel), passing the memorial to Stefan Bellof, whose Nordschleife lap in a Porsche 956 in 1983 stood for nearly thirty years (until it was broken by a driver in a much newer Porsche). We then arrived at a busier part of the track (I mean busier from a trackside perspective). Here were a number of famous corners that onlookers like to gather at - Eiskurve, Brunnchen, Wipperman. The first of these curves is also known as "Youtube Corner", as so many youtube videos of the Nordschleife (including lots of crashes and spins) are filmed from here.

Youtube Corner

Surveying Wipperman

Now not far from the end of our big cycle loop, we descended to the famous hairpin that is the Karrussell, or Carousel in English. This is probably the most famous / well-known turn on the track, and is a very unique more-than-180 hairpin turn that is banked and surfaced in concrete slabs. These slabs date from the track's creation, nearly 100 years ago. Although unwieldy and bumpy, they are kept as part of the track's history. You know you are at a special place when you pilot your car around this bumpy concrete merry-go-round!

Supra at the Karussel

Proto-Mercedes

After the Karrussel, the bike path pretty much parallels the track all the way back down to near Ex-Muhle and the completion of our circuit. It is a long, long, long downhill, and at times - steep. But that made this section go by very rapidly, and by about 3pm, we were rolling back into Radsport Breur in Adenau, ready to return our bikes.

Finished for the day

Ok, so cycling done. Time return to our room to freshen up, have a snack, and get ready for the day's main event: Touristenfahrten lapping on the Nordschleife!

Tourist lapping opens at 5:30pm on summer evenings, and goes until 7:30pm. We wanted to be sure we made the most of this two-hour timeslot, so made sure our lap credits were topped up, gassed up the Cayman and Boxster, and headed over to the Touristenfahrten entrance overflow parking lot, where we stood around and chatted and waited until we heard the opening klaxon and announcement.

Waiting for TF Start

We were excited. Today had been dry, and as evening approached, the day had grown increasingly sunny. Temperatures were moderate. Perfect conditions for a grippy track and a nice cool car. Lots of other people apparently thought so, too, as even the overflow parking area had quite a few cars in it.

Soon we heard the call for the track open. We didn't immediately jump in our cars, as we figured we'd let the first pulse of cars head out before going into the start line ourselves. A few minutes later, we hopped in and drove into the entrance area adjacent to the Devil's Diner. Unlike yesterday, when the place was deserted, there were plenty of cars and people and brightly-clad officials about. Luke and I pulled into the line for one of the automated kiosk gates (once gain, the Tourist sessions have their access controlled by an automated gate and an optical reader kiosk; you scan the QR code in your phone, which is associated with your Nurburgring online account, and it "debits" you a lap). There are officials standing around for any glitches or hiccups, but generally, it is a self-serve system.

Lining up for TF

Luke badges in

Luke's Thoughts

[on our first dry lap...]

It's dry, and we head out early to do an 'installation' lap. Andrew is forced to follow me for the first lap, as we want some footage of the two cars together. After that tho, he takes off ahead because as usual, he is 'on it' right out of the gate. Takes me a lot longer, I've said before. I need to take my time and really feel it out obviously more than he does.

And then we were off. Luke and I had agreed to stay more or less in formation for our first lap around the track, just for buddy-buddy's sake and also so the trackside photographers could get some cool shots of The GTS Chronicles together on the 'ring (see pics below).

The track was a lot busier this evening. Vehicles of all sorts, from supercars all the way down to minivans, were out on the track (although the distribution strongly trended towards performance cars). We dutifully followed the rules of the Tourist sessions, making sure to stay to the right when faster traffic came up from behind. Even though we were now in the dry, Luke kept the pace pretty sedate, and mostly we were passed, rather than us passing others. I figured Luke wanted a nice easy lap to verify that his Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ses were in fact nice and grippy, now that it was dry. Eventually I did pull a bit ahead of him - I submit that the Cayman made me do it. It was practically begging to go faster!

Nearing Ex-Muhle

Following Luke

Through the Karrussell

GTS Chronicles at Karrusel

After the completion of our first lap (and when doing TF laps, you have to come fully off of the track into the parking area around the Devil's Diner, and then go back out through the automated gates if you want to do another lap), we peeled off and drove into Nurburg. But not because we were tired of lapping. No, we were scheduled to meet with youtuber Misha Charoudin this evening, although he hadn't been super specific about exactly when during the evening. He basically said just come around the Apex facility to see if he was there, and if so, he'd meet with us. He was going to be actively doing laps in user cars for his youtube channel, and couldn't predict an exact time. We didn't want to miss the chance to meet him, so we decided to go and check. He wasn't around, so we turned around headed back to the track's TF entrance for another lap.

On the second lap, Luke and I were in the waiting line, with another car sandwiched in between us. The gate obediently opened when Luke scanned his QR code and off he went. The car behind him (and ahead of us) had some glitch with the reader, so that took a few tens of seconds to resolve. By the time Chris and I pulled out onto the initial straight, Luke was long gone. With a dry lap now under my belt and with no specific car to trail, I pushed the Cayman a little harder, going full throttle when accelerating and shifting closer to redline. The Cayman responded beautifully and unconcernedly. I was not getting into any ABS and I was not eliciting any squeals of protest from the tires, but still, we were going substantially faster this time. Step by baby step....

Around Metzgefeld we caught up with Luke's Boxster. I could tell Luke still wasn't pushing the Boxster that hard, as his lines around the curves were leaving a lot of space and he was clearly not fully dipping into the throttle. This time I decided to not do a leader-follower sort of thing and we went on by in the Kallenhard area.

Approaching Pflanzgarten

The rest of the lap went well and without incident. Having done many laps in the simulator, I was keenly aware of all of the spots where I should easily be going flat out, but I wasn't quite there yet. Still, we were going a lot faster than this time around. As I done in 2018 on dry Nordschleife laps, I had turned off the Cayman's stability control, as I wanted to really feel what the chassis was doing. And what it was doing was staying planted everywhere. No slipping, no sliding - just grip and competence. Clearly I was going too slow.

Luke's Thoughts

[on ramping up the pace...]

A couple more laps and we are done for the day - I'm wiped as it's so demanding, but this time I have no grip issues and I start to feel a bit more confident. Not Mister Cayman levels, but still better. I think I'll write a separate reflection on lapping the 'Ring all unto itself, so worthy of it, it is.

(to read more of Luke's thoughts from this day, check out his blog post)

After two laps, we pulled the cars out of rotation and again headed back into Nurburg. Time to check in at Apex and see if we could run into Misha.

We pulled into the Apex parking lot just as Misha was heading out in a pristine dark blue BMW E30-generation 3 series. He briefly rolled down the window and said he had to go out for a lap in this car but would meet with us when he got back. We told him no problem and we sat down to wait out the twenty-ish minutes it would take for him to complete a full lap and then drive back to Apex.

As we wait for him to complete his lap, let me briefly give some background. Misha Charoudin is perhaps the most famous youtuber of the Nordschleife scene. He backstory is one of starting from little and growing his brand, working with Apex Nuerberg, and building his business into a fairly substantial affair, and is now branching out into different areas. If you are at all into "car"-ish videos or car-racing videos, track videos, then you've undoubtably come across Misha's videos. He is very prolific. You can view his channel here. As of the writing of this report, his channel has more than 1.6 million subscribers and has contains more than 3,300 videos.

Meeting Misha

Misha soon appeared in the classic BMW and pulled back into the Apex parking lot. We stayed a respectful distance away as he smoothly brought out his camera gear and filmed a portion of the footage that would go into the "lap video" with the BMW. We could faintly hear him recording his typical "Good day carmrades! Today we have ... " intro. When he was finished recording, I offered my services as a photographer for a final group photo with the owner of the classic BMW.

Misha then wandered over to us, smiling and friendly, and greeted us. We introduced ourselves and asked him about lap he had just done, the old classic E30 BMW, then a bit about our own trip so far. In general, just a bit of light conversation.

In the back of my mind, I wondered about whether or not we should somehow engage him about doing something lap-wise and our GTSes. I wasn't sure what the particular angle would be for us, since I was sure that he had driven many models like ours before. I suppose something to do with the buddy-buddy twin nature of our two cars ... maybe a challenge where Luke goes out in the Boxster with a two-minute lead, and then Misha in my Cayman ... would he be able to catch up before the end of the lap? or some such thing. But I don't think we were in the right headspace at that time to volunteer our cars for something like that, so it remained only as an unvoiced thought in my mind.

Our chat with Misha only lasted a few minutes. That was fine - he was nice enough to correspond with us over email during the time leading up to our allocations, and then to coordinate with us to meet and chat today. Many thanks, Misha!

Evening Castle-light

By the time our meet with Misha had ended, it was well after 7pm. Since the Touristenfahrten session ended at 7:30pm, it didn't make any sense to try and get another lap in. Instead, we decided to head out for dinner. We chose a decent-looking Italian place near our room - a place called Ventisette. It was Italian, but also - since it was near the hallowed Nordschleife - it had lots of little nods to racing and sports cars and such - and also, there were a lot of really nice sports cars in the parking lot. Including many high-end Porsches.

Toast at 27

Another round of toasts, another excellent meal, and the end to another fine day at the Nordschleife. And our set of laps in the dry only lit a desire for additional runs around the 'ring. Fortunately, we still had another day to satisfy that desire.....

Interactive trackmap with photo points - August 7 - click map to view

Interactive trackmap with photo points - August 7 - click to view

weather

August 7 - Cycling Data

Start Time: 10:59a.m.

End Time: 3:31p.m.

Duration: 4h31m

Distance: 24.94 km (15.5 mi)

Average Speed: 5.5 km/hr (3.4 mph)

Start Elevation: 1130ft (344m) *

Max Elevation: 2092ft (638m) *

Min Elevation: 1050ft (320m) *