Nürburgring Trip 2015

[murdock]

I am in the process of organising a run to the Nürburgring for the middle of next year; to benefit a local charity (details TBC) so I thought I would open it up to RR’ers as well to see if there’s any interest.

Organised over three days, the proposed schedule is currently:

Day 1 – Arrive and assemble at Dover, cross channel and re-assemble. Drive to Brussels. Overnight 1
Day 2 – Continue journey through to the Nürburgring. Overnight 2
Day 3 – At the Nürburgring, complete as many laps until your heart’s content! Group disperses back to home at their own pace.

The relaxed pace of the trip is so that we can add in and explore other sights of interest as the trip develops and options are added. Also, we can fix any problems with our vehicles on the way too. The trip is very much ‘team’ orientated, travelling in convey etc.

Any and all vehicles/participants are welcome.

I intend that participants will organise their own accommodation and food, as well as transport across the channel, so that it can be suited to their budget, and have a morning meeting place for each start.
Other aspects/recommendations will be organised by myself.

I would like to gauge interest from people on here, before I commit to fully organising it.
Places will be a £20 donation to the charity, which would be paid directly to them.

I intend to have prizes for those taking part as well, for a variety of categories, from ‘best’ lap of the ring, through to most unusual car.

What more could you need out of a road trip? Comradeship, foreign shores, beer in enormous steins, cars, ‘the ring’, prizes, and all for a good cause.

The reason for the local charity not yet being named, is I’m at early stages of planning this and would like to have a ‘green light’ that it’s going ahead, before I put their name to it, to avoid their disappointment in case it doesn’t go ahead.

Absolutely no money is being made on this event, hence why donations will be made directly to the charity.

Thanks and interest please… :-)

[RetroWarwicK]

I'd recommend ditching the Brussels overnight stay. It's much better to hoof it straight to the ring. Get an early ferry and you'll be in the pistenclause by 5pm for frothy beers.

[georgeb]

Oct 25, 2014 10:08:16 GMT RetroWarwicK said:

I'd recommend ditching the Brussels overnight stay. It's much better to hoof it straight to the ring. Get an early ferry and you'll be in the pistenclause by 5pm for frothy beers.

I'm the opposite. If I was on this I'd probably never get beyond Belgium. Top food and more beers than you can shake a 5hitty stick at!

[ChasR]

Oct 25, 2014 10:08:16 GMT RetroWarwicK said:

I'd recommend ditching the Brussels overnight stay. It's much better to hoof it straight to the ring. Get an early ferry and you'll be in the pistenclause by 5pm for frothy beers.

I'd disagree but agree with avoiding Brussels altogether (although Bruges was nice) . Maybe I went at the wrong time, but pleasant would not a word I would use to describe Brussels! OTOH I possibly did it wrong when I went.

The first year I went we took an overnight ferry and drove straight to the 'ring. To say that all of us were shattered by the time we hit Nurburg was an understatement.

The second time (when we went to Spa) we simply kipped in a cheapo hotel in France. That was alot better if I am honest .

[murdock]

Always open to amending details of the route/time spent with fellow RR's. We want to enjoy this trip after all :-)

Ian

[netstable]

I might be up for this. Will ask the wife but might be a nice trip for the Corrado

[RetroWarwicK]

if its group thing, you may want to consider breaking cars into small groups. big convoys are dangerous and no fun. Also helps if there is a group discount on the ferry

[murdock]

Smaller groups will be the way ahead if there's that many interested, however from past experience of organising these things, we will probably set off with a small manageable group anyway.

I will work for a discount on the ferry/anything else when I have definite people committed.

Any more welcome! :-)

Ian

[robw210]

I am interested in this trip , Have dates been decided upon yet or have I missed them ?.

Rob

[tdk]

Have fun. I've done this trip many times and FWIW I also suggest avoiding Brusselles, it's expensive, dirty, crowded and not much fun.

[Hillmanjames]

Could anyone who has done this in the past give a rough idea of how much they spent in total and roughly what they did (accommodation, laps of the ring, days driving and what car ect?)

I'm real interested, but also buying a house within the next 3 months!

James

[thewindscreenman]

I used to go every August until I bought my house. Ferry crossing prices varied a lot I found depending on time of year, car, bike, van etc. Last time I drove was about 6 years ago. People in old cars feel safer sticking together. Breaking down in a group is far more pleasant than doing it alone. On that note, breakdown cover is a must. My classic car insurance used to include it but best to check. Make sure it covers you in Europe, not just the UK too. Travel insurance from post office was about 30-40 quid last time I bought it. Laps are around 20 Euros each I believe but don't quote me.
Always stay at Sliders guest house. www.slidersguesthouse.com/ Ran by an English bloke called Brendan who has done more laps of the Nurburgring in cars & on bikes than anyone I have ever met. Nice drive from there to the ring (about 20 mins).
From memory I cover roughly 500 miles getting from my home to the guest house, 200 of those being in England. If you know what your cars mpg is then you should be able to work out fuel cost. 1 lap is 13 miles but your fuel consumption will/should be slightly higher than average for those 13 miles! lol
You buy a credit type card at the track which can be used for food & drink as well as laps. My advice for a first time visit would be 100 Euro card which will get you 3-4 laps + a meal there.
There are some useful links on this site, bridgetogantry.com/
In my opinion, timing yourself is a bad idea as A, your time will probably be slow unless you have an Ariel Atom, Porsche GT3 etc & B, trying to better your last lap time is an accident waiting to happen.
If marshals see cameras in your car you will not be allowed on track until it is removed. Crashing is expensive on there. Armco damage, a marshal attending the scene, recovery from the track to a gravel car park just outside the gates is all very costly & that's before you look at the damage to your pride & joy. On that note it is well worth remembering how far from home you are & that the car you are thrashing around in will be required to get you home when you've finished enjoying yourself.
I would love to go again but I have a wife now & she is really not keen on the idea. I'm also trying to run a house, 2 cars, a van & 2 bikes so it doesn't look likely for a while.

[smurph323]

in my experience 1 day on the ring just is not enough, due to accidents and unforseen mechanical gremlins etc you could end up getting one lap in for the whole day. thats worst case. and some days are bikes only, others are morning bikes then open to cars in day. others are all open days, worth checking on thier website before to see.
i bought a 4 lap ticket (100 euros) and spread it out over 3 days 1 a day until last day. and the day we arrived we just spent admiring our local town and taking in the german hospitality.


massivelly recomend visting the local eateries, such as pinnocio's for a great pizza (6 euro for my calzone)and beer the size of your head




or adenau cafe for a sit down with some chips and watch the ring go by.


the castle is worth a trip for the view but it is very small and wouldnt recomend unless you have loads of spare time.

as for the course itself, i wouldnt advise trying to set hot laps give the ring respect and youll walk away with your car and wallet intact.

heres some more pics.. the corner dubbed "showoff corner"






also after your trip hit up this website www.ringportal.nl/en/photography and see if any of the photographers have snapped you. you can buy prints etc form their page. i just borrowed this image and if it wasnt for the mini id have it printed. also i was skint after the trip cost me near 500 in fuel alone. :/ so soo worth it.

fuel £450
accomodation (really nice guesthouse) 280 euros. (£200ish)
ring ticket 100 euros. (£80ish)
eurotunnel £100 5o each way.
and probs spent near £200 out there.
and thats when everything went perfect the 7 ran flawlessly, all be it keeping up with some fast cars who thought 100+ was cruising.

not to mention making sure the car is ready for that kind of trip and taking any spares for what may go wrong, although the locals in our street were more than helpfull allowing one of our elises to use his post lift to repair his car using all his tools unsupervised (his throttle pedal broke, drove all way from reading with a rope tied to throttle cable pulling to accel) the chimeara had a rad leak which a garage helped with even though they were closed (sunday).