We have finally ticked off a bucket list item and done the Nordschleife.
People have joked that it took us longer to get to Anglesey from Essex than it would to get to the Nurburgring and they were right. We got the Chunnel across to Calais and drove the Clio through Belgium to get to Nurburg on Saturday. The journey was painless and used less than one tank of petrol.
After getting to the hotel (thanks for the recommendation
@R20BTG) we unpacked the Clio and then went out to watch some TF laps. There was a strong urge to get out and do some TF laps so that I could try and get my head around the circuit layout as watching countless YouTube videos and doing laps of the Nurburgring on Forza Motorsport had not given me any confidence that I could remember much of the track.
This part of the world is like a Mecca for cars. Our hotel was conveniently in Nurburg and from our window you could see part of the track. The track entrance was probably no more than a 5 minute drive from the hotel. Most of the day you could hear cars roaring around the track. At the weekend in the evenings you saw cars cruising up and down the "strip" outside the GP circuit. There is certainly a buzz about this place which I like.
On Sunday we saw
@RSRowe at breakfast at the hotel and watched the fog and grey clouds outside thinking that we might have terrible weather for the track day. We had no pans on Sunday so thought sod it and
@EthanMenace did a TF lap. After watching some more TF laps I did a TF lap. Then we watched some more TF laps. Most of Sunday was spent soaking up the ambience of the Nurburgring including going to the museum.
I was a bit worried about doing a few TF laps as it was basically driving without any insurance with the possibility of being liable for for hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage if I caused an accident. My TF lap was slow and steady and during it we saw three cars with substantial damage including this Porsche.
We went to the Nurburgring E-Sports car on Sunday evening to sign on for the track day and collect our wristbands. The queue was long and it took about 45 minutes to sign on. During that time I had seen a procession of expensive cars come and go. This was when it really dawned on me that the Clio was going to be one of least powerful cars lapping the Nurburgring the following day. After completing the sign on we were given numbers to put on the Clio which gave it a "race car" look.
The track day was today. I woke up bright and early and looked out the window and saw that it had rained. The sky was grey and the car had rain droplets all over it. But, after breakfast some sunshine broke through and the weather looked like it could be alright. The weather forecast for weeks had said that it would rain heavily on Sunday, rain early on Monday and probably rain during the track day. The weather was actually really good today. It rained for about 10 minutes today, but as quick as the rain arrived it disappeared. It was generally a dry and warm day.
The schedule today was sighting laps between 8.00 am and 8.30 am, then the track was due to open at 9.00 am and would stay open right through until 4.30 pm.
@EthanMenace started the sighting laps about 8.20 am and by his second lap the track was open so he was able to push on. I sat in the passenger seat for the first session thinking that I had absolutely no idea how I was going to get round the track without a guide. After each session we would park at the Devil's Diner and let the Clio cool down before heading out again.
Ethan set a first session BTG lap time of 9m 57s.
I then went out for the second session and tried not to kill myself or anyone else on the track. Ethan acted as an instructor telling me when to slow down, when to floor the car, and when to brake hard. The system worked well throughout the day. My first session BTG was a slow 10m 18s.
The Nurburgring is am amazing circuit. The elevation in the track is staggering, the views from the track are pretty good, it has some excellent corners like the Karussell, but the speed that you can get round the track is just off the scale. I sat as a passenger when
@EthanMenace was driving the car watching the car come close the rev limiter in fifth gear forcing a change in to sixth gear when the car was going through a fast part of the circuit and not even on the main straight. The car managed to get up to 125 mph on the main straight.
As the day went on
@EthanMenace's lap times tumbled as he grew in confidence. My lap times got better as my driving became smoother and I was more confident to carry more speed through corners. I was far too hesitant and often broke too hard before corners when I could have just slowed the car slightly to control it though the corner better.
We had completed 17 laps by 1.00 pm and took a break to get some food and download the video footage from the GoPro cameras to make sure there was space for seasons we were going to do after some food.
We managed to squeeze in another 8 laps after we had some lunch. The day came to an end about 4.15 pm when there was a red flag.
By the end of the day
@EthanMenace had managed to reduce his BTG lap time to 8m 40s - but to be fair to him he had slowed down at the end of the lap due to red flags being waived.
My best lap time was stunning sub 10 minute lap of 9m 44s! I think that during every single one of my sessions I was too keen to yield to faster cars coming up behind me and should have been more selfish to let them pass at points that were more convenient to me.
The Direzza tyres made a massive difference to the Clio today. The MRFs we had Donington two weeks ago were bloody awful and were clearly past their best - MRFS are a good tyre but the set we used had seen too many heat cycles. The Direzzas were grippy all day and helped the Clio stay stuck to the circuit all day long.
In the four years that we have had the Clio we have never had a track day photo where the Clio has cocked a wheel but today the Clio got some air.
The Clio ran all day today without any mechanical problems. The only issue that we had is that the drivers side front wheel has rubbed on our relocated smaller wash bottle and managed to put a hole in it. The Nurburgring is a bumpy circuit so the suspension was fairly soft today. The extra compression through places like Pflanzgarten and Karussell has resulted in a bit more destruction of the front parts of the front arch liners.
There were three other Clio 197/200s at the track day today. The other two stopped working and were dragged off the track. The Clio did well to survive the day.
I have had a really good time coming to the Nurburgring and will definitely be back.
Tomorrow we are travelling back to Essex. We have time on our hands so may take a detour to Reims to have a look at the abandoned circuit.
