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Nurburgring trip report



Hi St'ers
Just got back from a fun 3-days touring along the Mosel valley, from Trier to Koblenz and the wonderful 'mini-passes' up from the sides of the river valley.   This ended yesterday with a run around the famous Nurburgring.
By coincidence I met Jim Gillespie on his black ST at the garage near the track. I spotted Jim straight away and walked over to shake hands - we had met last Jan. on one of John Fitzwater's famous tours of the South Is. NZ.  Meanwhile my friend Rob was busy introducing himself to Diane, Jim's friend.  He casually dismounted his shiny, red VTR (Superhawk) and in his finest german asked "Sprechen Sie Englisch?". The response "Ich bin Englisch!" came back, at which point Rob dived in...
D: "So, how do we get to the Nordschliefe entrance (the 23km section of the Ring)
R: "Ahh, just follow me!"
D: "Err, drive slow, I'm not sure I'll keep up...."
Rob at this point (thinking she must be on a 250!) started to ask what bike she was on, and looked around the gas station.... It slowly dawned on him that the beautiful Red 916 just over by the pump must be hers!   Jim and Diane wanted to try the track soon after 12.15 when it opened, before it got crowded, so off they shot.

The sound of screaming engines as you get near the track, and bikes shooting up the straight at 250kph+ is enough to scare even hardened track day riders.   The track is huge, and only the long straight and two corners visible from the Nordschliefe entrance.  The GP circuit section is closed off and a short and bumpy bypass detours onto the 15 miles of the Nordschliefe.

We were warned of the one frightening, blind bend at the top of Adenauer Forst, where you come over the crest and it looks like the track bends right, when in fact it enters a left sharp bend!  No idea how this optical illusion comes about, but everyone noticed it :)

The ST was great, even with loaded luggage boxes - it pulled like a train and reached 240kph down the straight.  I was really nervous of going out, never having been on a track - but it was a great experience - I had a section of 10km all to myself, but overall got passed by 6 bikes a Ferrari 355 GTS and a Porsche Carrera 4.  There were probably less than 20 vehicles out on the total 23km track at any time, and with lights on it was easy to see faster bikes/cars coming up behind and pull in or indicate to let them pass.  If you are there on a weekday GO AND DO IT!
Jim G. is there for 3 days of training and full day track sessions, with 120 other riders from the UK Nurburgring riders club.  If the rain lets up they will have a great time!
A great web page, with braking markers for each bend, hazards (!) and photos of track sections:
http://cbsgi1.bu.edu/bmw/fuchsrohre.html

cheers
Jonathan



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