Vroooom!

So a couple of weekends ago I met up with Peach and friends at the Nürburgring in Germany. An ex Formula 1 racetrack with lots of history. Now it opens up the 20km north loop track to punters for ragging their own cars around.

As you can see from a previous post, I was advised that any laps undertaken in my own car would be at my own risk. So I was more than happy just to be a spectator. Yeah right!

When I arrived there was a VLN race in progress that happens every few weeks. Here's some video footage:



I've never watched a car race live before and it certainly fired me up for having a spin around the track myself - against the advice of my insurance company. After the race, Nick Heidfeld, took his BMW F1 car around for a few laps. Apparently a big deal cos that's not happened in something like 30 years.

Then we all jumped in our cars to the tracks entry toll gates. I was really fired up for a spin but it was probably a good thing that the track was closed for the day. That evening was an evening of steak frites, many German weissbier's and stupid tired laughter after a long day of travelling. The conversation soon deteriorated into developing a business plan for creating Nurburg's first stripclub to be called "Driveshaft". Helmet and ring gags were a plenty. World domination was contemplated by opening Bangors Driveshaft for the Angelsey race track punters. It was time to go to bed when special guests Ruth Maddock and Sue Pollard were brought to the table... But I guess you had to be there.



We awoke to the sound of another GT3 purring down the street to the track. Helmets polished and at the ready we headed for the track. Sorry, I'll try not to mention helmets any more!

I was certainly more nervous in the morning. The amount of traffic was crazy, Ferraris, Audis, Mercs, BMW's, Bentleys and the ringtool of choice a Porsche. And after the previous nights conversation of crashes and costs of barrier repairs and S2000 avoidance had put me off. So to get the adrenaline pumping I went out with Tom and his Clio Cup. Awesome, the track is long and sooo hilly. There is not much vision in front of you because there are so many blind corners and crests. Then add the crazy other drivers and motorbike riders, it is easy to see how you spend more time looking in your mirrors than forwards!


Returning to the entry/exit point, wild horses could not have stopped me from having a spin in my own car. And I was glad to see there was a VW Sharan people carrier in the queue! So off I trotted to get my wagon - aircon off, passensgers airbag off, engine warmed up, seat adjusted, steering wheel adjusted and set to "sports" mode (WTF?), radio off - didn't think I was going to need the Firestarter to get me going. And off I went.


Unfortunately for 50% of the way round the track I was stuck behind a 206CC. I was going faster but the bastard would not let me pass. Yet I was not going fast enough to overtake quickly enough to be safe before some supercar spanked into the back of me. But we came to the infamous Karoussel corner and the 206CC wuss went high so I dumped it down a notch and took the banked apex. Such a sweet feeling going around the banked corner overtaking hanging on for dear life. I felt like a world champion! Here's a few pics including Bod flying round the Karussell ->


Once I was free I zoomed around the next few corners only to slam the anchors behind a full sized 55 seater coach. Where the hell did that come from?! Apparently, you can take a bus round as a tourist! I joined the queue of maybe 6 cars behind the bus until the car behind me booted it past them all. So I followed. Yay more overtaking! Just called me Schumacher.

However, at the end of the run I was most glad that I had not bought three laps. 1 was definitely enough, the chance of spanking it was high, the cost of such scary high. I heard it was about €15,000 to €20,000 to repair barriers and get towed off, add the cost of my own car repairs as I was uninsured, the cost of maybe other car repairs (I bet replacing a Ferrari wing costs a few bob) and running over a biker can't be cheap either!

So I chilled out for the rest of the day, checking out the car porn in the car park and eating ice cream. But I did manage a spin as a passenger in Bods Mini which was class.

Cheers gents for a top weekend, here's the pics - watch out for the sticker I now have on my number plate!

click here to view photo slideshow in Flickr

And some video footage I found whilst browsing around. Here's a selection of vids that show how busy it can be and a good on board video footage of the whole track.

1913km to Austria just for a weekend in the snow

Last weekend I went snowboarding in Austria. Not often that you get to say that but hey! I summarised the trip in a previous blog post but here's a little more waffle, the photos and a short video clip.

I drove all the way from Amsterdam and picked up Peach along the way at Frankfurt Hahn airport. It had been snowing the most of the week but we didn't firm plans until Thursday. I searched on Couchsurfing for a host for Friday, whilst Peach got a last minute flight out of Stansted and boy did we land on our feet. Denise and her family put us up for the whole weekend and we could not have found a nicer host.

After ragging it through Germany on Friday night with the foot to the floor we arrived in Austria at about midnight to be greeted by Denise and two options. 1) A house party at a mates place or 2) hit the town. Our idea of a decent nights kip went out the window as the thought of a cold one after the long drive became the preference!

So off we trotted into town to find that all Austrian bars close their doors at 1am for noise polution or sommat. So Denise suggested a place she called a "Drum and Bass" club, intrigued we followed her into an underground car park where there was a burly guy standing by a door in the corner. A smile got us through the door and we found our way to the bar greeted by the Chemical Brothers and Block Rocking Beats. It was like a scene from a music video and from that point onwards I knew we were in for a cracking weekend.

Not content on the one nightclub we left and caught a minibus that wound it's way up a mountain valley to another nightclub. I guess up there they can be as loud as they like. More drinking, a little head bobbing and we thought we'd better call it a night at 4am.

Alarms were on for 8am but it was actually Denise that got us up cos we ignored the alarm clock! Feeling dog rough we made it to Silvretta Nova to be greeted by bluebird conditions and some fresh to be had after the weeks snowing. Friday would've been the best day cos come the end of the day everywhere was pretty tracked out. The adrenaline rush of the first snowboarding of the season that kept us alive but come lunch time we were bogged. A huge feed was ordered but hardly touched it and Denise got a round of schnapps in to see if that would help. It didn't help Peach who made a swift exit to the toilet ;-)

A full afternoon of some speedy descents and the fastest I have ever been off piste was had but come 4pm we were ready to hit the car park. We agreed that we'd go a little easier that night so not to feel like we did now for the journey home.

Mmmm Steak-frites followed with great beer in Denises home town Dornbirn and thankfully Denise was also worn out so the evening was spent chilling at home. Although not without plenty of visitors, more beer, nuts, chocolates and conversations about pubs (parbs!) and the Queen.

Sunday we went to another resort called Damuls - one of the resorts Denise has a season pass for. She wasn't too happy about the conditions as it was wet, well the bottom half of the mountain was in rain whilst the top was snowing. Except for the low visibility, I loved the conditions as the snow was soft and forgiving, albeit a little slower. So Peach and I were more confident about leaping about the place and trying some new tricks - especially Peach on his new freestyle board. I had a superb day landing way more 180's, both regular and switch, than I have ever done in my whole life. I also bagged a 360 (well more like a hard carved 270) of a mogul and attempted a crazy roof drop.

So checkout the photos below and the video at the end of the roof drop ->

Flash Slideshow

Austria is not so far...

1913 km
€90 diesel
About 10 beers
2 x ski resorts
1 x minibus ride to middle of nowhere banging nightclub
Sun, rain, fog and snow
1 x cracking host family
1 x awesome house with own guest bed/smoking/drinking/music/dvd room
No understanding of lots of people
1 x banging hungover headache
1 x well appreciated and shared camelback
1 x dodgy underground carpark entrance to drum and bass nightclub
1 x mate not seen in a while
1 x 4am bedtime
1 x 1am
2 x 8am rises
1 x middle of nowhere German airport
Several F'king Germans
182kmph
Multiple faceplants
0 x roadmaps
1 x GPS system
1 x return route somehow different to outbound route?!
1 x way out of control off piste descent
2 x shots of snaps
Several backside and switch frontside 180's
1 x "I'm sure we've got time for one more run" quote
1 x 2hr early flight checkin and a "Could've had loads more runs" quote
1 x backside 360
1 x bottled not fast enough attempt at jumping over a railing then off a roof
1 x scary too fast successful attempt at clearing said railing by too far and landing on the flat :-(
2 x sore knees
1 x repacking and weight distribution of wet baggage session
1 x rigged weigh in of wet gear bag
Several packs of jaffa cakes, bananas, and litres of water to stay awake on journey
0 x piste maps
2 x lift tickets
1 x fantastically cool chick for future "Has it been snowing this week?" contact

= an unbelievably amazing weekend!!!

Pictures and video of the over the railing roof drop to follow but thought I'd better let the mother know I am still alive after my mad idea to see if I could get to Austria to snowboard for just a weekend. But busy the next few nights so probably no write up till the weekend. ttfn