A video of the course (along with some other info I posted) is in Ernie's thread: http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=80610

As promised in that thread, I included pics. I did this trip last month but have been lazy to post.

For those that aren't aware, this course is in a beautiful portion of western Germany. The original course was built around 1917, I think. I read that it was used for Formula One races up until '73(?) when Nicky Lauda had a nasty crash. They then built a newer course right next to the old one and that's where the F1 races are run now. The old course is what we ran on that day.

As I mentioned in that thread above, I found it was insane that they allowed a track newbie like me, with no experience, no safety equipment, no knowledge of the course or signing of waivers to run on the track. Originally, I wanted to visit the track just because it has such a history in racing and I was planning on just taking a bunch of pics. My ears perked up when a counter guy said they were having an open track later that day. I would've rented a different car had I known we were going racing that day.

There were a lot of very nice cars waiting around to do runs. I saw several Lotus Elises, M3s, many Porsches and a lot of motorcycles. Basically, you buy a ticket for about $12, pull your car up to one of four gates to enter the track, put the ticket in the machine to lift the gate and then take off. It was a huge rush but I didn't push the car too hard since I didn't know the course and there were a bunch of others drivers/riders all around. I read later that fatalities happen there on a regular basis. Mostly motorcyclists. The course is about 20km (12mi) long and has some very tight, sneaky turns and a couple spots to really catch some speed.

I posted a bunch of pics at the site below. I only had three days in Germany. The other 12 days were spent on both Ibiza and Mallorca. I tried to time our arrival in Ibiza so I could see Oakenfold at Pachas but I f'ed things up by one day and missed him. We did see Carl Cox DJ at Space. It was his birthday and the first night of his residency so he was pumped. Ibiza clubs are not cheap. I paid $12 for 22 ounces of water at Space, but you really don't have a choice. I included pics from all portions of the trip, including a few of myself (uh oh...) After the pics open, you can click at the bottom to get the original size.

http://imageevent.com/128934/esde?n=...&c=3&m=18&p=36

 

Beautiful pics man! Mallorca looks like a cool place. where exactly is it/what country is it in?

The view from your hotel room in Ibiza is spectacular.

Also, cool track pics, but the pics from the rest of your vacation are the best. I looked at every single one.

Makes me want to go to Europe...

 

thanks. Mallorca and Ibiza are Spanish islands in the Mediterranean. Michael Douglas and Claudia Schiffer both have homes on Mallorca. It was the most beautiful place I've visited yet. Ibiza was great also.

here's where they're at:

 

nice pics, looks like much fun. what was it like in ibiza? i'm interested in going to spain in 03.

 

Nice pics. Sounds like a great vacation.

 

I really want to go to drive the Nurburgring.

The BMWCCA puts on (with other European BMW clubs) a Nurburgring driivng school every August. You fly over ther, have a car, instructor for sevaral days learning the line on the Nurburgring. They strongly recommend prior track experience. BMW AG used to provide new 328i sport package cars, but too many got crashed I think now they might use E46 318i's now. Not too fast, but power will get you in trouble.

The track is sooo dangerous. They average one fatality a week...

 

tinman....

that sounds like MY dream vacation! Go party it up in the best clubs in the world (Ibiza) then race a car around one of Europe's most famous tracks. I'm sooooo jealous....

One of these days...

If you don't mind me asking how did you get this trip together? Through an agency or did you just plan this out by yourself? PM me if you would like. Thanks.

 

About the safety stuff, Europeans are not litigation happy as Americans so if you hurt/kill yourself because your own stupidity so be it.

 

Thanks for sharing your wonderful vacation with us. Looks better than Jersey Shore

 

I wanna go to Ibiza soo bad..
Did you go to Manumition Mondays at Privlige?
How did Cox Spin?

I got to meet him and Teisto at Area 2 tour.

Nice guys!

 

do it! Everybody I met there just seemed so relaxed and happy (and no, it wasn't just chemically induced). I had the feeling I could easily spend the entire summer there and love every day of it.

Here are some sites I found useful for info before I made the trip:
http://www.beachbeats.com
http://www.ibiza-bangkok.com/ibiza_e/index.htm
http://www.ibiza-spotlight.com/
http://www.ibizaholidays.com/


That would be fun. I read where veterans of the track say it takes at least 40 laps before you start to know the course. Some rental car places rent Porsches and of course, BMWs are easy to rent. Instead of waiting for BMWCCA, you could also just go there in a rental on a open track day and do it yourself. Either way, it would be fun.


A friend lives in Germany and she wanted to go to Mallorca (and I wanted to go to Ibiza) so she lined up a package through an agency (TUI). I had a couple extra days in Germany following our planned trip and after a few failed ideas (drive to Prague [floods], tour Mercedes or Porsche factories [closed for some holiday], and since we'd already toured the BMW factory, we just decided to drive out to Nürburg to check out the track. It was a totally spur of the moment decision.

Yes, but it still seems so weird from an American perspective... Just about everywhere I went, I'm thinking "no way would that be allowed in the US" or "I can't believe they allow an obvious safety hazard like that in public". But I do like that the attitude there seems to be "you're an adult, and we'll allow you to make your own decisions, instead of dumbing-down everything for the masses".


We were planning to go to Privilege the first night but things got a bit out of hand before we even left the hotel so we never made it.

Cox was pumped! There must have been at least 2 or 3 thousand people at Space that night since it was the first night of his residency (and his b-day). We managed to get about 20 feet from the DJ booth while he was spinning so it was fun to see him having such a great time behind the decks.

That would be really cool to meet him and Tiesto. Actually, Tiesto was at Amnesia that very same night and was originally my first choice to see but I was told what a special event the Cox show was going to be and we went there instead.

I was so f'ing pissed that I missed Oakenfold at Pachas by one f'ing night. The whole Ibiza trip was centered around seeing him and somehow I f'ed up the date. Oh well... It's still a great place to visit regardless.

 

I know, I'm familiar with the open track day

It would me more fun with professional instuctors showing you the proper line on a day closed to the public

http://c311.c3biz.com/c3racing/index.html

 

Awesome pics dude, thanks for the tour

 

Awesome pics...thanks for letting us all go albeit via Proxy

 

dude that yacht and the sl55 are sick. nice pics i've been wanting to go to spain and germany sometime soon. i want to see a couple soccer games in spain and then check out ibiza. but i definitely want to be in germany for the 2006 world cup where its probably gonna be out of hand nasty style.