44th BMW Driver Training at the Nurburgring

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Saturday 12^th
August 2006

A smooth
enough sailing from Dublin
to Holyhead brought us to the start of our journey. Mick and I decided we would
follow the person in front as both of us had GPS, all went well and I took the
lead after 50 miles into the journey. Suddenly I get a call, it was Mick. 

Mick -
�Kin, my engine has just blew up�

Kin � �Very
funny dude, where are you�

Mick � �No
seriously, I have just turned off the motorway�

Kin � �Ah
*&^%$�

No idea
what was wrong and because I had a dinner date with friends at 7pm we decided
to see if we could limp into London
and call up the AA or BMW assist. We arrive in London at 7.30pm, being the caring friend
that I am I proceeded to go to dinner. O.K. it was a bit selfish of me but there
was a hottie and Mick understands so don�t be judging. 
Mick went to the Hotel and frantically called around to see what could be done,
in the end BMW assist agreed to come and have a look at the car in the morning.
At that time Mick needed a drink bad and I drove back to collect him and headed
to a club with a few fiends.

Sunday 13^th
August 2006

BMW assist
arrived an hour early at 9am, at around 10am all was sorted, all free I might
add.
We had a bit of breakfast and were on our way. The journey all the way to Germany was a smooth
one, weather was not great at points but there was no major hold ups. Actually
I lie, there was a overturned car with a man laying on the ground covered with
blood being put on a stretcher in Belgium, other than that though
there was nothing out of the ordinary. Somewhere in Belgium after the accident I
decided to go well into the triple digits to make use of the open road,
unfortunately at the same time Mick got held up being another car and within a
minute I was just but a distant memory. At this time Mick�s GPS asked him to
turn right, not knowing if I had taken the turn he decided he better follow
instructions. From then on we were going different routes, Mick the scenic B
road route and I was sticking to the motorways. We arrived just before the sun
went down and headed over to registration and dinner. At dinner most of the
welcome speech was in German, all the English speaking people only getting a
translation after each paragraph. To our surprise after a sentence everyone
started standing up. Our group all looked around wondering what was happening.
The English translator then says �Thank you all for listening, please enjoy
your dinner�. Doh! At this point the queues for the buffet was huge, ah well we
know for the next time.

Monday 14^th
August 2006

It was a
cold enough morning and after a quick munch we headed off to the Ring straight
where all the cars lined up in groups. The track was covered in mist and I was
wondering how we were going to drive in this conditions. Our Coach was Peter
Han a 40 year veteran coach of the BMW driver training and was 74 years young.
He is a remarkable man being so fit and able to drive at such precision and
speeds even at his age. Our group was made up of an Alpina B7, 5 M3s, 2  CSLs, 4 M5s, 911 GT3, 911 C4s, 190E Cosworth,
SLK and a Z3M Coupe. Our training are broke up into sections, we started at the
Kesselchen section and went forward during the duration of the next 2 days.
Being able to drive up the sections backwards and forwards several time really
helped familiarise oneself with the bends of the ring. We ended training around
noon and had an hour of free lapping before lunch. Being novices we did not
refuel and with a little than half a tank of petrol I was only able to do 2
laps before having to go in. Mick managed another lap before having to come in
himself. Oh and I had an off road excursion as well at Adenauer Forst, no video
footage unfortunately. After lunch and a visit to the petrol station we headed
out for another section. We then headed out of the track and entered another
part of the ring. Woo hoo! Skid pan! I have never done this before and it was a
treat. You head toward a surface which randomly chucks your car to either side
inducing a skid, you then have to apply opposite lock to correct the car. The
first time caught me out, after that I have to say I got the hang of it. After
this we headed back and out for dinner at the Lindenhoff and then back to the
hotel for an early night.

Tuesday 15^th
August 2006

Today
started off pretty much the same, more sections were covered in a similar way.
We also happened to cover the corner Adenauer Forst which I had the off
yesterday. The group was split in two and which one group watched with the
coach the rest went one by one through the corner. I did ok on the first run
taking it easy, second run I though �lets have some fun!� and pretty much
drifted very badly through the corners. Took the 3^rd one easy again
and was told later by the coach �much much better than the last one ya�. After
lessons we headed off to Lunch before heading out on our free laps, unlike
yesterday. Yes we refuelled before going out this time. We also heard at this
point that a CSL was written off the day before and a bike had crashed earlier
in the day. The CSL driver walked away while the biker had to be airlifted to
hospital. Hope he was ok. After a good 6 or so laps we came back in and headed
off to finish the sections. Dinner tonight was at the famous Pistenklause, we all had the steak on the stone for
the main which was yummy. Everyone was cooking their steak while I was almost
eating my raw. All the conversation was on how to drive on the judged lap
tomorrow. Mick was going to take it nice and slow, I was just� well going to
drive like a mad man like I always do.

Wednesday
16^th August 2006

We had a
bit of a later start today as another group was out before us for their free
lapping. Each group had their 1 hour allocated before we went out on our judged
laps. The lap was judged on the line that was taken on the track, not as much
on speed but you had to carry the right amount of speed as well otherwise the
corners do not flow into each other. Drivers were sent out in our groups and
the first ones out were the fastest so as the ones behind was less likely to
catch the one in front. I think they made a mistake as they had a CSL a few
cars behind me, and for some reason Mick was in front. 

The lap
went well enough so I thought, the only major error was when I went into the
hairpin at Wehseifen too quickly and understeered into the curb. When I hit the
main straight Mick was in my sights, see I was right I am faster than Mick.
Only later did I find out that Mick was driving miss daisy during his lap
thinking that it was better to hit all the corners correct (which he did), only
to find out later he was judged as going too slow.

After our
laps we went and spectated at a corner for while before heading back to the
track for the public day later on. We had 2 laps each and Mick and I took turns
driving while the other was a passenger. Before this though I went out on a lap
in Steve�s CSL, it was at this time I realised what a pussy I was. Steve was
right out to the edge on every corner and really using the entire road, I
really did not have the confidence in myself or my car to do that. I then went
as a passenger with Mick, at this point I was filled with jealousy as Mick had
obviously learned the track and had more confidence than I did. Mick was
placing the car where he wanted and at all the right places, all this resulted
in a very enjoyable lap with a �novice� ring driver. After that Mick had to
endure a lap in my car, suffice to say all though the lap we were both
laughing. It would be fine but the laughter was at all my missed apexes and my
tyre squealing everywhere. Ah well.

Dinner time
soon came and it was the awards ceremony. I won�t bore you with the details but
the best driver in our group was in an E39 M5, unmodified. As Mick and I were
the only 2 people that had never done the driver training before, I came last
and Mick came in front of me.

Thursday 17^th
August 2006

After
deciding last evening we would leave Germany
early thus arriving in London
earlier and having more time to relax and go out. The trip back was seamless,
it took us 3hr 30min to get from the Nurburgring to Calais and we were not even pushing the
limits of our cars either. Arriving in London
we found our hotel, Hilton Waldorf how swish. I stepped out to ask the doorman
where the closest car park was, he said we could get our car valeted as we were
residents, to which I replied �Sorry no one get to drive my car but me�. After
relaxing in the hotel for a few hours we proceeded to Christopher�s for very
nice dinner, thanks to Mick for the meal.  After eating too much we headed
out�

Friday 18^th
August 2006

Waking up with
rather tired but with a clear head I met up with Mick, to say he looked rough
was an understatement, that is what you get for drinking. We had a nice hearty
lunch at a pub and started our journey to catch out boat in Holyhead which was
leaving at 6.30pm. Thinking that 12.30pm was easily enough time to get there
since I did the journey once in 3hr 30min we took it easy, more for Mick�s sake
really. It was about halfway through the journey that we realised we are in
trouble, after terrible traffic caused by a crash by a Ferrari Challenge Stradale
and a Jag S Type into the barriers we hit yet another jam. It was at this point
we through maybe it would be a good idea to follow my GPS instead of Mick�s. My
GPS brought me toward the M6 which was just about the worst thing that could
happen. There was an oil spill just after junction 16 which caused a tailback
from junction 11. Now we were just dreading the idea of having to stay in
Holyhead for the night but it was inevitable that we were going to have to.

Arriving in
Holyhead at 8.30pm we headed over to the Stena office, we were given two
options, one was to go on standby for the 2.30am boat or take the 9.30am boat.
After some thought and consulting with Mick�s ever understanding wife we
decided to find a Hotel and get the morning boat. God forbid if we went on the
waitlist and did not get a boat and was stuck without a room for the night.

Saturday 19^th
August 2006

We awake
and head straight to the boat, it was raining heavily but the sailing was very
smooth. As we munched on a Burger King breakfast Mick and I discussed more
about our cars and how it handled at the ring. I commented how I really needed
a M3 and Mick how he needed a CSL, truth be told all we really need is to drive
what we have better. After a surprising quick sail we arrived back in Ireland,
farewells were exchanged and no doubt we will be at it again this time next
year.

Big thanks
to Mick for sharing this journey with me and his wife Maeve for letting him come and play. 

Edited by Kin Mak