44th BMW Driver Training at the Nurburgring |
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Kin Mak
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 09-April-2005 Location: Dublin, Ireland Status: Offline Points: 1691 |
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Posted: 22-August-2006 at 20:32 |
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Saturday 12th
August 2006 A smooth
enough sailing from 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 Sunday 13th
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 Monday 14th
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 15th
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 3rd 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
16th 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 17th
August 2006 After
deciding last evening we would leave 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 19th
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 Big thanks to Mick for sharing this journey with me and his wife Maeve for letting him come and play.
Edited by Kin Mak |
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b7 eater
Senior Member II BMW anoraks Joined: 16-November-2003 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 163 |
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Great photos and write up It was good to meet you and Mick.
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lukeduke
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 22-March-2006 Location: dublin Status: Offline Points: 1848 |
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great write up kin!, sounds like a big success and good fun.. the pictures are good also!! glad you both enjoyed it and i'm gonna start saving my 4k for a trip over next year
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flyingalexf68
Really Senior Member II Joined: 01-April-2006 Location: 53°19’59,6°14’56 Status: Offline Points: 2581 |
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Well done Kin, nice write up. I look forward to doing that whem I'm older and richer like you and Mick. I bet the most expensive part of the whole trip was the Burger King breakfast on the boat though.
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1995 e36 3.0 M3 Coupe, Daytona Violet, AP Racing BBK, CCFL Angel Eyes, M3 Spoiler, M-Tec 3 Steering Wheel.
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///M3Mick
Really Senior Member I Joined: 12-August-2005 Location: Dublin Status: Offline Points: 457 |
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Lol nice one Kin. Glad you posted that pic of the ferrari. It may have saved my bacon.
Some of my own pics. I took loads of pics of the same cars as Kin which I won't repeat. Waiting for the ferry; The cars on the chunnel; Lol my own car wasn't the only one in pieces. Kin was trying his best to put a brave face on the fact that his cd player mysteriously stopped working under the English Channel and he was facing a 5 hour drive across Belgium with no music! Another of that terrible accident in Belgium. The cars lined up on the main straight on Monday morning Our first section was actually the famous carousel. We lined the cars up around the outside and then Peter Hahn showed us how it was done at implausible speed. Every time we went to fill up there was exotic machinery at the pumps. I thought this Alpina B6 was gorgeous. The famous RingHaus Cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ben Lovejoy was supposed to be driving this Silva Stryker which is kept at the Ringhaus but an engine transplant of a Fiesta Zetec was taking longer than expected. This Rare Ferrari Superamerica was tasty enough. hatzenbach on a rainy morning Kin was laughing being the only wussy in the group with the foresight to bring an umbrella "uuuuhhh uuuuuuhh hey Beavis, were we like supposed to go through that field, uuuhhhhh uuuuhh uuuh" The cars lined up waiting for the evaluation lap |
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Fey!
Bavarian-Board Contributor Funs over, Scotty; beam down my clothes! Joined: 28-February-2005 Location: Galway Status: Offline Points: 4161 |
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Looks like fun. What was the least powerful car in your group?
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Kin Mak
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 09-April-2005 Location: Dublin, Ireland Status: Offline Points: 1691 |
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The SLK 200 that Ben rented, it has 160bph. I remeber seeing a Peugeot 206 in another group as well. Not sure which variant though.
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US M3
Really Senior Member II Joined: 28-June-2005 Location: Ireland Status: Offline Points: 542 |
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Great pics and write up lads, it really is a great place, how did the E30 M3's get on? It looks weird all the car facing the wrong direction on the main straight and karasel, there is no shortage of exotic motors over there, did you lads buy any model cars in the petrol station? They have some collection in there. |
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1990 E30 M3 (US MODEL)
2008 BMW 520D M SPORT |
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Aidan316i
Really Senior Member II Joined: 10-April-2005 Location: Derry, N.I Status: Offline Points: 606 |
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Kin you should learn to stop playing with your knob! You'll do it damage!
made me laugh Excellent Photos you guys, kin was that M3 a GTR Replica? Glad one of you guys snapped the E92 Coupe, a sort of spy photo! I'm deffo gonig to the nurenburg 1 year! |
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Kin Mak
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 09-April-2005 Location: Dublin, Ireland Status: Offline Points: 1691 |
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It was a modified CSL I think, still had the CSL engine in it. The driver sure could drive and all those mods really did do the trick.
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Aidan316i
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Its got the arches aswell, looks the dogs dangelies anyway!
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///M3Mick
Really Senior Member I Joined: 12-August-2005 Location: Dublin Status: Offline Points: 457 |
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The car is a modded CSL with a widebody kit and from the sound of it, a full replacement exhaust system from headers back. It was ahead of me at the petrol station and when he turned on the engine, I could feel my whole car vibrate. And while I feel it looks like a dogs dinner (you should see the diffuser and bootlid from directly behind) it is definitely for Go not show and the guy was flying. Mick |
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Steve Gill
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Great report, and some super pics. I was too lazy to take pics That CSL was a good friend of Thorleifs, agreed it looks a bit rough but he could definitely drive. Clearly the secret to getting a better mark next year is to fit a large spoiler on the back |
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Kin Mak
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 09-April-2005 Location: Dublin, Ireland Status: Offline Points: 1691 |
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More like Thorleifs nemesis...
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///M3Mick
Really Senior Member I Joined: 12-August-2005 Location: Dublin Status: Offline Points: 457 |
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Steve Based on that passenger lap, I don't think you needed any extra grip or downforce :) Maybe being positioned closer to the front might do it Mick |
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KenM
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Great write up, great pics... looking forward to the stories on Saturday.... talk to you then!
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digweed
Bavarian-Board Contributor I’m SOOO cut out for world domination!!! Joined: 21-February-2005 Location: Galway Status: Offline Points: 504 |
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guy's thats a really good write up, don't know if this is a naught suject any more, but have you considered sending it in to the mag??? (it'll beat most of the other stuff printed anyway) D. |
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Dermot O Rourke, used to be '99 520 black metallic
Now '01 525 M-Sport, cosmos black, sports half leather seats, upgraded lights and a kick like a mule!!! |
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Kin Mak
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 09-April-2005 Location: Dublin, Ireland Status: Offline Points: 1691 |
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Well i it is going into the mag Mick might have to correct my engleesh I am sure.
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lukeduke
Bavarian-Board Contributor Joined: 22-March-2006 Location: dublin Status: Offline Points: 1848 |
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more good photo's lads!!! great to look at, must try and get there some day!!! Kin & Mick... will this be an annual event for you guys??????
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///M3Mick
Really Senior Member I Joined: 12-August-2005 Location: Dublin Status: Offline Points: 457 |
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Luke I am definitely going again next year. The dates for next year will be out in November. I think if you plan in advance and pay the fee early etc it helps to spread the pain of the cost. It might be necessary to book early in any event, because I heard that this year they were pretty much full up in terms of places and the course is getting more and more recognition. Lots of the people were repeats (as Kin said, in our group of 15, we were the only 2 who hadnt done the course before). Also, Peppernick of evotechnik is going which will probably mean the whole EvoTechnik crew will be going :) Also, stuff like ferries etc are much cheaper when booked in advance. Mick |
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