Greetings from Germany to everyone.

Been ok so far.

All got here safe even though most of the Europeons on the road tried to make sure we didn't.

Maneesh had a small off on the track and scraped his back bumper today and Bazza went off in the Starlet but no damage.
Was raining on and off today so the track was a bit slippery so most people took it reasonably easy. Also it was closed for a bit cause of an accident but nobody seriously injured as far as we know.

Back again tomorrow and hopefully a bit drier and more fun.
But i'm sure everyone will tell their full stories when we get back.

Stav

Hey there Stav, glad to hear all is well, depsite the pimp ride receiving a bit of damage! Looking forward to hearing about the dry sessions

All the best,
Jamie

Hi Guys, got back from Germany in the early hours of this morning (took 11 1/2 hours!!!!!) Nice to meet all of LOC members over there and hopefully will see you a JAP, if i can sweet talk the misses! Here are a couple of pictures below taken over the week. Here is just a selection, Enjoy

Weather looks good so hope you all had a blast round the track. Good photos too.

The weather was brillant for the first 4 days, upto 32c, then if was mainly raining on and off. Here a couple more pictures!

Been back a while...just uploading a few pics............

Great time as ever and aside from maneesh's small scrape all people & cars in one poice piece even

Some ace pics there

Hope a good weekend was had by all, can't wait to see the rest of the pics!

we have in car videos and videos of all cars from various points round the ring

also videos of the trip up and gords car doing 145 mph @ 45 mpg !!

That's it, I'm getting a diesel

Can't wait to see all the stuff mate, sounds like it'll be good

http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=barrierg3.jpg

barrie away

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barrie

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car park

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paul sanj et al

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as above but first

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http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whatok3.jpg

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

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ring taxi

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sam

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raj rear

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car park

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raj lee

PMSL at the ring taxi, that wasn't what I was expecting to see, thought you'd got a photo of Sabine

got some video of the proiper ring taxi drifting !

so what went on..............

barrie/jane sam/anna went by ferry and were in situ at the hotel when we arrived........

we all met up (maneesh/sanj/paul/bubba/nassar/lee/stav/gord/raj/Kami) at maidstone services at 1pm

made our way to the eurotunnel terminal with no mishaps got to france (met Yemqui @ terminal !!)

Drove thru france belgium holland germany at illogical speeds

Maneesh (or Jonah) had to do a tyre change as he had a screw stuck in the side wall in belgium

weather was pooh

got to Koln........

had the normal subway meal and adjourned to the bar...................didnt get to bed until 4.30am which was a first for me

up for 8 and left for the ring ...arrived at 10.30

peeing down

stooped......................stopped even..........


went out but found the inconsistant track conditions a worry (wet/damp/dry)

Raj was flying

the East London crew were doing well

maneesh has left early and had an off (scraped rear bumper not badly)

Sam was also going well as was barrie

went out PM and had a good lap (dry)

sat night we all went into Koln and had a good meal (outside) in historic Koln

Sunday maneesh & raj keft at 7am as maneeesh had a hire race BMW

we joined them at 10.30 ish with barrie/sam et al arriving at 1pm

we took in turns to go to viewing point to video each other (will be posted soon)

Suinday PM a few of us went into Koln to a brewary for a meal...then to an irish pub....................meet a guy working with the toyota F1 team...

as ever a great weekend meeting old friends and some new ones !

Roll on the next one !

just got home !

fantastic weekend .......as usual
ended up on the ferry for 2 1/2 hours in a force 6 gale head is still spinning

weather was a bit of a disapointment, but didnt stop anyone having a go or enjoying the weekend

the starlet was a nightmare!..... too much power not enough grip, on a dry track it was absolutely flying, but even the slightest bit of damp was causing a lot of handling problems, only one "off" and luckily only a bit of pride damaged, and a lot woosy driving afterwards
and now with a few seals blowing, it looks like engine rebuild time will be here soon

raj surprised us all by doing so many runs and in turn getting some great times
paul and the crew didnt surprise us in getting a golf diesel to be one of the fastest round....
maneesh...............well maneesh was maneesh....thats why we love him so much



to
anna
bubs
dave
gord
kami
lee
maneesh
nasa
paul
stav
sam
sanj
raj
and of course janey

thanks for a great weekend, it wouldnt have been the same without each and everyone one of you

Had an absolutely fantastic weekend people as usual. As bazza said,it would be hopeless without the great people that go on this trip. I was amazed this time at how quick some of these cars go. I was getting 9:31 in the M3 with two passengers,which was fairly slow considering many were getting 8:10's and some below that,although they were CSLs and had no passengers.Dave drove his car beautifully as usual and Maneesh shocked me in the race car he hired with his skill.The best part was going up with Maneesh at 7am,we were just going for it,no fear.Ive got a few vids of my laps from start to finish. the journey on the way back was a little tiring,but we got back in good time considering the weather. I have some great pics too. Thanks once again to Bazza for sorting this,when is the next one? I feel like going soon.Paul was awesome in the GT golf,he never gave a **** which is probably the best way to drive the ring.I was getting a bit cocky towards the end and nearly stacked it into a GT3RS,which would have been a bit costly if i didnt correct it.All that went take care and see you again at JAE.

WOW, this weekend at the ring has left me speechless (which is rare for me!).

One of the BEST feelings of these Ring trips is the feeling of community, and it showed when Paul pointed out the screw in my tyre, as well as helping me get the wheel nuts off in Belgium, and the convoy waiting for me to change the tyre before moving on. Thanks guys! You are the stars of this trip, not the cars..

Saturday morning I decided to head out for 8am track opening to get some laps on an empty track in the GS. The track was pretty empty, but it was wet Ended up with the back end swinging round and straddling across the track after just scraping the rear bumper. I'm very lucky it wasn't busy, didn't have to worry about other cars hitting my stationary car.

Highlights:
My missing Biernacker
The Snickers ice cream in Koln
Reversing on the track itself (ask Lee that story!)
Lee looking for a sick bag halfway through our lap in the race BMW
In the back of Raj's M3, and seeing the Golf diesel keeping up with us
Spending 4 hours with Stav driving around and around looking for the spectator points
An englightening passenger ride with Sam, he is a skilled driver, and his car can GRIP!
7 laps in the BMW 320Si that I rented (I highly recommend this to "learn" the track in a safe way)

Driving the 320 made me realise that you don't have to have an ultra powerful car to enjoy "learning to drive" on the ring, you just need a car that can hold it well through the corners, and allows you to correct your mistakes.

It's still sad to see the flags out and bikers that have come off on the next bend. Bikers and some of the cars too can be quite reckless in their desire to overtake you.

P.S Just one suggestion for the future, that perhaps we can save a bob or two by all putting our money together and buying "multiple lap tickets", rather than individual or 4 lap tickets!

My very light scrape on the armco


The infamous Golf diesel


Eismann car - nice






Hands up for the Ford KA!


This geezer in the Ferrari had his mum and dad in the back seats!

Yes, they let coaches go round the ring




This guy was flying round




OUCH!


All of us at the hotel!


Big beer, little beer!


Go Stav!


Theo and me (he's the owner of the racecar rental shop)


Front view of my rental (it even had twin cold air intakes for ducting directly to the brakes)

Wow! Looks like a great weekend!:D

Some very nice cars there and it seems like everyone enjoyed themselves.

I like Maneesh's idea of hiring a car - at least you don't have to worry about damaging your own car! Was it expensive?

Did Gord's car go on the ring too? His remapped oil burner (with the torque) would have been interesting.

Rental for half day was 330 euros, which is around 235 quid, could have had it for the whole day for 380 quid, but I had to shoot off early.

Errr, one thing to remember is that excess was 5,000 quid on the car. If they had a really low excess, people would take stupid risks and wouldn't care about stacking it.

You do get 100 million euros insurance, in terms of if you hit another car or the armco, all those costs are covered. Those are the really big costs, especially if track closure is involved.

The car was brand new and set up perfectly for the ring, so you can push it towards the limits knowing that it's not your own suspension or brakes that will be getting harsh treatment.

guys when are we going again.August perhaps?Me and Maneesh are up for it,he told me he's suffering withdrawl symptoms already,i feel the same.

Had a fantastic weekend, thanks to all for making it so

Nice to see some new faces on the trip to, must have more next time.

It took my Bmw 330d Msport, Well i must say it did really well on the mpg, just over 44mpg on the round trip, and at times well over 100mph (German m/ways)

Took it out on the ring, was very very wet, and Dave's face when we was keeping up with the M5

Raj, thanks for the ride in yours mate, 8.30mins, well what can i say about that, FANTASTIC AND WELL DONE Raj

To the next time.

What a great weekend.

Was great meeting everyone and i had a great time.
The laps in the M3 were awesome but Paul and Sanj you guys were insane in that Golf but i loved every minute of it.

Nassa (sp?) must win some sort of award for managing crying like a baby every lap in the car LOL

Was a really good friendly group and i can't wait to go again! Hopefully taking my car next time to experience the Ring first hand!

Once again thanks to everyone for making it such a good weekend.

Stav

Looks like Gord wins the economy prize for this trip! 44mpg with "spirited driving".

Is the speed limt on the restricted parts of the German motorways 100mph then?

I hope not, or we will all be in the deep end

By the way Anees, the re-map takes the speed limiter off

I hope I will be able to come next time. Unfortunately I had to go back to France this week-end that's a shame I did not realise you went through the tunnel otherwise I would have booked it with you

Yer was nice to see you again mate for one min, i thought you was coming with us

have uploaded some video

sounds like you all had a great time, and great pics too.

I really hope i can make it with you all next year.

ahhh playing with the big boys !!



discrimination against trailers i say !!



sam in action






raj in action




paul in action






drift it !!

That RING driver training DVD that I got given with the rental car is really good. It's got full commentary by a professional driver, showing you the best line to take as well as tips for each corner. Will have to lend it to each of ya, if ya want!

maneesh i need a copy of that mate!

random cars and scenery
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a few more


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the proper ring taxi
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I'd love a copy of that off you as well please mate.

Stav

Here's a few of my pics,
Mainly of some of the nice motors about.
Not great because i took them on my phone and i'm also no David Bailey but here goes:



Common as muck these things were!




RUF 911 Turbo

Carrera Engined camper van







Stav

This guy was killing it round, using the full kerbs and everything.

Loud bike!









Look at the size of that wing!

Looks like a good weekend was had by all.

Any lap times ??? or was the weather a bit off to get any good ones in

Raj did 8.31 lap

no gord wish i did an 8:31.My fastest time with 2 pssengers was 9:31 without interuption(stav timed it),alone was 9:06 with an accident slowing me down for which id knock off another 5 secs max.so when i go in august im looking for anything sub 9 minutes.The official ring time for an E46 M3 is 8:19,and a csl 7:50.So i defo was not as quick as some of the e46 that were doing 8:20's like the yellow one that passed me several times on various laps.

Hi guys,

Got back from Amsterdam late last nite.

There is not alot I can say about this trip, other than what a great time we all had yet again,

Some realy magic moments

Thanks to everyone for making it so special, im off back to bed now.

Paul

As the full main straight cannot be driven at speed due to the modern exit/entrance there, these laps are usually timed "bridge to gantry", which is only 19.1 km and thus about 30 seconds shorter.

The ring times for the M3 and M3 CSL were done on the full 20.8km circuit, add 30 seconds on so, to compare like with like.

any more pics or videos

In that case Raj you're only 10 seconds off the best that BMW did, quality

Have loads of pics,

all on Sanj's camera tho, will have to wait for him to pull his finger out

Have some wicked pics, some good ones in Dam too

Such a shame you couldnt make it Aido

no, you have to add 30 seconds to our laptimes to make them comparable with times done on the full circuit!

Ah right sorry fella, got it muddled up

@ Paul, yeah couldn't get the day off work, as things worked out found out Thursday night I had a funeral to go to anyway Monday so wouldn't have been able to make it anyway.

How was the Dam anyway, that place is great, I like the fish and chips the sell there, Bazza knows all about it

I had never been to Dam before, Had been told what to expect, but the place has to be seen to be belived.

Its an amazing city, We had a great time.

my vid will be up tonight...........u-fube said it was too big

Dave,

when Sanj sorts the pics, I will email the ones you wanted over, what addy shall I send them to?

That was funny sat night Paul, when you was singing Jerrrry jerrrry jerrrry