DaveL485
Staff member
On the 4th day of the jaunt, and we have made it to the Nurburgring.
The Spa Classic was fantastic, see below for gratuitous pictures. The Group C's were sublime, and there is so much utterly mental kit it just frazzles every petrolhead nerve you have. The weather was good, we had pit lane access and a hospitality suite by Eau Rouge. I was ferried to and from the track in a mixture of ridiculous cars, Noble M12 GTO R3, KTM XBOW, Porsche 996 twin turbo, alongside a supercharged Evora LF1 and a V8 Ultima Can-Am. I didnt want a go in the Ultima....yet. I've been in it before but its since had a load of handling upgrades and a cam/remap, as if 500bhp wasn't enough! They are all quick cars, they all sound fantastic, but the way the XBOW just dug in a launched away in 2nd gear was stunning.
Monday rolls around. It's overcast. We are rolling back to a now almost-empty Spa for track sessions. I am not normally nervous about track, but that fecking corner, Eau Rouge and Radillon on to Kemmel has me rattled. I've been watching, plotting, planning, analysing for two days to try and maximise my two 25min sessions. I even walked around the circuit over the weekend. We are all a bit twitchy as a lot of local nutters in Porsches and M-series BMW's are milling about.
So I get out on the 9
0 session and some clown stacks in the warm up lap and we get red flagged. We get back out fairly quick and then all fucking hell breaks loose, everyone gets out the pit lane on to Kemmel straight and nails it. I'm getting jumped by some pretty serious weaponry so I try and settle down and pretty quicky all the mental machines have flashed by and i'm left in a series of more evenly matched cars. My first fast run into Eau Rouge was a 120mph approach, heavy kerb on the left, swing right and it digs in as you hit the steep incline. About 80mph at the Radillon apex, nailed the throttle and kept it pinned all the way over. It was pretty stable. "I'll go faster next time" I thought.
Then it rained. Hard.
My passenger was videoing on a Go-Pro.
I started reeling in some of the other cars, 4wd in the wet...see ya! We hit Eau Rouge again at just over 120mph, in the wet, in a 25 year old Renault 21 Quadra. I was petrified, buzzing, I skimmed the apex of Radillon at over 85, in the wet, nailed the throttle and exited over the top with a real big 4 wheel wriggle and raced off down Kemmel. As the rain got harder I kept pushing, had a few entertaining slides, caught a lot of struggling 2wd kit and generally had a ball, though I had traffic through Eau Rouge for the remaining laps. Will get the video up. What a circuit. It really does have the best corner in the world.
Second session was still wet, so I took Mark's session (Ultima) and gave him my afternoon slot in the hope he would get a dry run. I took to the track and again was making good progress in the wet for several laps, and managed to take Eau Rouge and Radillon even faster as it dried....in at 120, apex at 85 on the power and exiting at just about 100mph. Frightening. But as I was chasing a (badly driven) GT3, my temps started to creep up. I started pulling out of the GT3's slipstream to cool the car but it didnt work, I backed off and coasted a bit and got the dreaded smell of coolant. I coasted back to the pits and it was very hot, but not overheated, so I parked up and broke out the tools. Turns out one of the oil cooler hoses had degraded through from the inside and given up with a small split, spilling my coolant off slowly. I carry a few trinkets for incidents like this so I repaired it, but opted not to go out again, to be on the safe side. As it turns out it was just the hose giving out and not something more sinister.
The afternoon saw brighter weather, and I got a passenger ride in the Ultima..... (TBC)
The Spa Classic was fantastic, see below for gratuitous pictures. The Group C's were sublime, and there is so much utterly mental kit it just frazzles every petrolhead nerve you have. The weather was good, we had pit lane access and a hospitality suite by Eau Rouge. I was ferried to and from the track in a mixture of ridiculous cars, Noble M12 GTO R3, KTM XBOW, Porsche 996 twin turbo, alongside a supercharged Evora LF1 and a V8 Ultima Can-Am. I didnt want a go in the Ultima....yet. I've been in it before but its since had a load of handling upgrades and a cam/remap, as if 500bhp wasn't enough! They are all quick cars, they all sound fantastic, but the way the XBOW just dug in a launched away in 2nd gear was stunning.
Monday rolls around. It's overcast. We are rolling back to a now almost-empty Spa for track sessions. I am not normally nervous about track, but that fecking corner, Eau Rouge and Radillon on to Kemmel has me rattled. I've been watching, plotting, planning, analysing for two days to try and maximise my two 25min sessions. I even walked around the circuit over the weekend. We are all a bit twitchy as a lot of local nutters in Porsches and M-series BMW's are milling about.
So I get out on the 9
0 session and some clown stacks in the warm up lap and we get red flagged. We get back out fairly quick and then all fucking hell breaks loose, everyone gets out the pit lane on to Kemmel straight and nails it. I'm getting jumped by some pretty serious weaponry so I try and settle down and pretty quicky all the mental machines have flashed by and i'm left in a series of more evenly matched cars. My first fast run into Eau Rouge was a 120mph approach, heavy kerb on the left, swing right and it digs in as you hit the steep incline. About 80mph at the Radillon apex, nailed the throttle and kept it pinned all the way over. It was pretty stable. "I'll go faster next time" I thought.Then it rained. Hard.
My passenger was videoing on a Go-Pro.
I started reeling in some of the other cars, 4wd in the wet...see ya! We hit Eau Rouge again at just over 120mph, in the wet, in a 25 year old Renault 21 Quadra. I was petrified, buzzing, I skimmed the apex of Radillon at over 85, in the wet, nailed the throttle and exited over the top with a real big 4 wheel wriggle and raced off down Kemmel. As the rain got harder I kept pushing, had a few entertaining slides, caught a lot of struggling 2wd kit and generally had a ball, though I had traffic through Eau Rouge for the remaining laps. Will get the video up. What a circuit. It really does have the best corner in the world.
Second session was still wet, so I took Mark's session (Ultima) and gave him my afternoon slot in the hope he would get a dry run. I took to the track and again was making good progress in the wet for several laps, and managed to take Eau Rouge and Radillon even faster as it dried....in at 120, apex at 85 on the power and exiting at just about 100mph. Frightening. But as I was chasing a (badly driven) GT3, my temps started to creep up. I started pulling out of the GT3's slipstream to cool the car but it didnt work, I backed off and coasted a bit and got the dreaded smell of coolant. I coasted back to the pits and it was very hot, but not overheated, so I parked up and broke out the tools. Turns out one of the oil cooler hoses had degraded through from the inside and given up with a small split, spilling my coolant off slowly. I carry a few trinkets for incidents like this so I repaired it, but opted not to go out again, to be on the safe side. As it turns out it was just the hose giving out and not something more sinister.
The afternoon saw brighter weather, and I got a passenger ride in the Ultima..... (TBC)
