Ok, so I'm in Copenhagen on business. I couldn't resist taking a weekend off to fly to Germany.

Unfortunately, I started coming down with a horrible cold/flu on Thursday that plagued me the entire trip.

I had a BMW Factory tour lined up in Munich on Friday, but my early morning flight was canceled... and the next one didn't get me there on time.

Oh well. I arrived and picked up an E46 320dT from SixT rentacar. It's good to jump in a car and feel right at home. It had non-sport cloth seats, 3-spoke multifunction steering wheel, cassette player with text-based navigation, auto climate control, auto dimming rear-view, park distance control... good times.

I stayed Friday night at the Renaissance in Munich. Got the room on priceline.com for $65 + tax. Great deal.

Saturday morning I found an Apotheke (German Pharmacy) that hooked me up with some throat lozenges and soothing lemon powder mix stuff, then headed on the 5 hour drive to the 'ring. I got stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes around Stuttgart, but it was an uneventful trip otherwise. The oil burner got 5.9l/100km (39.8mpg!) on the trip including more than a few kilometers at 200km/h (124mph) on the unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. I checked into the Dorint Novotel Nürburgring, a hotel that sits on the start/finish line of the GP section of the track. There was a race going on (VLN 6-hour), and my room's balcony overlooked the track. I could have thrown stuff at the cars. It was frickin awesome.

I drove around the area for a bit before retiring.

Sunday morning I got up early and arrived at the Nordschleife just before 8AM opening. The Nordschleife is the "north loop" - 13 mile long section of the track that is open for anyone to drive on certain days. I bought a 5 lap ticket for 60 Euro.

I found Ben Lovejoy's 'ring web site (http://www.nurburgring.org.uk) and joined his mailing list. There I found a few "ringers" from the UK that would be there that morning. I met up with them and took my first lap as a passenger. We were in a 2003 Renault Clio 172 cup, which has 172hp and only weighs 2250lbs. VERY fun car - it's actually the guy's girlfriend's daily driver. Supposedly he pulls a low to mid 9 minute run around the 'ring.. it was a blast. For additional reference, I hear Sabine runs a mid-8 minute lap in the M5 Ring Taxi (P.S., Sabine, will you marry me?).

Time for me to give it a whirl. I did a total of 3 laps before my body and it's sickness told me it was done. I was passing cars and motorcycles on my first lap.. and I timed my third lap as 10:30. Not too shabby. Another 20-30 laps to actually learn the course and I'm sure I could be down in the 9s, even in the oil burner rental. Remember, this track is over 13 miles long and has one hundred and fourty-something corners. It'll take you a lot of laps to even memorize which way it turns over the crest ahead...

I had lunch at the restaurant in the carpark and then met up with Herr Baumann the Supermod himself. We had some coffee, checked out all of the cars in the carpark, and then drove around to some spots to snap some pictures. Thanks for driving down to hang out, Alex!

I headed back to the 'ring store to pick up a 'ring jacket, then back to the Cologne-Bonn airport for my flight back to Copenhagen, where I am posting from right now.









Ford GTs, anyone?



They were in the lot of a company called "Capricorn." Speculation is that they were converting them to RHD.. or federalizing them for use in Germany or something.





Good times!!