I thought i should write a little about my Nurburg Trip which i went on around a week ago.

Every year a group of people from the loughborough university motor club (LSUMC.org.uk) make the trip in a collection of cars, eat, drink, camp, and be merry for a week or so.
This year also saw one of the members stag do incorporated into the trip.


The trip began with a pre-ring trackday day anglesey the week before hand organised by myself with a number of the cars going for a bit of a shake down due to them either being recent purchases or recently returned to the road from a rebuild.







The first group met up on the evening of the 7th in north London where we kipped over before the ferry the following day for which go up bright and early at 5am!! for the 8am ferry.


The trip over wasnt to eventful, one of our party managed to overrun into a curb at the service station and for a brief moment we all thought he was loosing coolent, but as soon as we worked out it was just a weep from the intercooler rad we we're far less bothered and it nipped up anyway.


My car was loosing a little oil from what appeared to the crankshaft seal but it only lost around a pint every 100miles i just put back what came out and made a note to look at it when we got there!

We definatly didnt get lost once we left the E40 either...


But eventually we got to Camp am Nurburgring, all five of us, and three working cars, and got some tents up. Got down to Adenau to Pinocchios and had a beer and some Pizza.


We defiantly didnt send photo msgs of our pints back home for a cheap rise....


[Edited on 21/7/2010 by dhutch]

The following morning we drove to Adenau again fro b.fast at the cafe just by the adenau bridge and exit where we had curry sausage and sent more texts and photo msgs back home to those not yet there!





On the way home as well my oil pressure started to surge under braking and it became clear the leak was now quite significant as the moment i pulled over an stopped it produced a pint just front the valleys of the bodywork. Error!



Turned out it wasnt the crankshaft seal at all, but the sump was falling off!

I must admit that i hadnt check the tightness of that, but visually it looked fine, and when you see oil on the fly wheel and a thin film over the engine bay you fear the worse. But in the 300miles from Dunkirk to Nurburg it had loosesnt the whole of one side enough that two bolt where missing, two about 6 turns off, and the rest loose enough to allow the oil to just pour out as soon as the engine turned on! Nothing that my 1/4inch halfords pro set that i keep in the car wouldnt sort. I even had two m6 bolts the right lenght to replace the missing ones. Sorted!

We then sort of mooched about all day looking at bits of the ring like proper tourists, there was an AMG day on which hadnt been published online and we met a group of english bikers who had made a detour on there trek of europe to do the ring but couldnt.

Then we picked up some Beer from rewe in Adenau and head back to the campsite to make fire.





I didnt bring a chair due to space but instead a small £2 stool from the services on the m1 on the way down. This was a mistake because i then mainly ended up sitting on the floor because it was more comfortable. But it was better than paying 12 euro for a folding chair from rewe which then broke on the first night, i think, atlease thats what i told the person who bought a overpriced and rubbish chair that then broke.


The following morning



The next day the ring was still occupied by said AMG day(s) so we went to the nurburg complex and looked at cars for a bit.

Very odd place, whole shops dedicated to Yoko tyres on display, or to uvex, or porsche, not that im complaining, mind!



Theres also a indoor climbing frame

Rollercoaster

and 35m wide led tv


Good times!

[Edited on 21/7/2010 by dhutch]

Photos are now mainly taken with my phone, because midway though that day my camera packed up which was a bit of an arse. Mind you, its been groaning for a while, and its is two years old and taken 12,000 which isnt too bad for a £90 nikon compact.


That evening however, the ring was open!!

I had bought only four laps, which i intended to use sparingly. So i kicked off with two laps passenger with others, first in Toms Supra-Boat. Tom has been before, so gave a bit of a commentary also which was nice.

I then went out my the Westfield with Alex, another ring veteran as passenger and co-driver. And had a cracking lap. I dont know the time, and im happy not too!! Maybe 11minutes?

Alex with the westfield and Supra-boat in the overflow carpark (which we had to ourselves)
[img]http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6738/image033m.jpg[img]

Another of our group however, also new to the ring, took the other approach. He bought 8 laps, and had been on the playstation 'learning' the ring for the fortnight before hand. He also had a twitchy poorly setup MR2 turbo and limited driving ability.

He did three laps the first day, which where to be his only three and on the third he failed to recognise the end of flatsgarden and tried to do the next corner flat. Followed by much breaking and spinning into the armco. FAIL!!



None of us where that surprised, infact, we had thought of placing a sweep stake on which lap it would occur.

The remainder of the party (another 6 people and four cars) also rocked up about then intime for the stag do, laughed at dans miss-fortune and got a lap each in before the evenings events.

The only sadness was Alex in the passenger seat had for some reason, still largly unknown, gone out without a helmet on. odd, as only a moment before he had advised Tom who passengered before him to wear a helmet as there where sharp edges on the striped out interior. So he gashed a 4inch slice in his scalp and ended up looking like this an hour before he was meant to be at the stag do.



Always wear a helmet kids!

We also saw this crashed cossy recovered too.



[Edited on 21/7/2010 by dhutch]

However fortunately nobody was seriously hurt, and although i dont really get on with him that much, notleast because he didnt really seem at all sorry to have hurt alex and generally been a d ick, i spent the day with mr2 boy setting about finding his car and what to do with it next.

I'll cut a long story short, but it end up at the bon-gart (scrap yard) in Adenau where it had been taken and place within a concealed showroom.

While i would never wish anyone to have to go there, its a great place to look round, they clearly have a lot of trade, and i counted non-less than eight recovery trucks, all no more than a year or so old, all in mint condition, all getting a lot of use. Its dripping with it, they have the contract for servicing the local ambulances too its seems.





There was also a very nice Opel there, which the lady owner clearly loved very much.



At this point i got bored of taking low quality phone pictures so stopped.

But in summary i then did the rest of my three laps a few days later, enjoyed them a lot, turning out apparently around 10min a lap which puts me in a 1900 westfield on a par with sabine in a transit!

We also saw sabine doing her ring taxi job very well. Eat a few nice steaks, and had more beer.

We also saw a certain NMR of great fame


Dan finally convinced them the mr2 wasnt a write off even tho it proberbly was so ADAC agreed to recover it back to the Uk in a fortnights time on his adac cover (which also covered ring recovery) with the nhs footing the xray to alex's head, and no armco charges yet.

I then had to head back somewhat earlier than some with those only able to make it for the weekend as i had my graduation ceremony to attend the following week.

However i got to trip back with a different set of people which was nice anyway.


Whole party shot (minus yellow mr2)


Also saw some marco on the ferry.


[Edited on 21/7/2010 by dhutch]

Enjoyable write up thanks

Neverrt new about the scrap yard or the shops etc..

Interesting

Only losing a pint of oil every 100 miles!

You should be a PR exec for BP!

I'm not sure it is wise to go on the Ring knowing your car is losing that much oil. I'd hate to have a Biker go down on my oil and potentially be killed.

quote:

---

Originally posted by jeffw
I'm not sure it is wise to go on the Ring knowing your car is losing that much oil. I'd hate to have a Biker go down on my oil and potentially be killed.

---

nice write up ..... most enjoyable

quote:

---

Originally posted by iankAs I read it he'd fixed the sump back on before going on the ring.

---

Sorry, miss-understood then.

I'm off to the Ring again on the 22nd August for a private trackday on the 23rd.