Ring piece

Seems a suitable opening post - our first pilgrimage to petrolhead mecca: the Nurburgring in June 2008. Once we got over speaking no German and showing up in the rain during a massively crowded race weekend, we found that the 'Ring is like no other place on Earth.


It had taken me 5 or 6 years to make the trip, and once we were there I wished I hadn't put it off by spending money on other things, but hindsight's a bitch and all that. Stunning scenery and location, more excellent cars than any show, and probably the best 13 miles of tarmac anywhere in the world. Epic is an overused word these days, but it's a fitting adjective for the Nordschleife.


996 in the Ring carpark:

Banana:

Brokeback:

Ben's FC, my 5, Luke's Saxo, Sam's Coupe and Kyle's Corrado - getting fuel in France just before the Gendarmes showed up:

Wankel:

Spazzo:

Panzer:

Nice 964 outside the Grune Holle:

So much awesome machinery:



Being camp:




This Lotus Sunbeam is running 270bhp, I got a pax in it - sounds great and quick pedalling:


Aston DBS test car:

Nice E30 M3, one of the "Northern Monkeys" cars - we lost you guys' contact details somewhere between Nurburg and home. If you read this or know them, drop us an email on brodrive1 at gmail.com:


Nurburg Castle Tower:

Views from the top were mental. You can see the Dottinger-Hohe straight and the gantry if you squint:

Development and testing going on during the Industry sessions. This is the fantastic Aston Martin V12 Vantage, looked bloody fast:

Corvette ZR1:

We also caught the new Honda NSX. This also looked quick, sounded brilliant too, real shame they cancelled it, bunch of fags:









Not just supercars and sports saloons, we even saw a pickup truck - everything seems to get tested at the Ring:

Porsche Panamera:

To punish and enslave...


Barriers up! Wouldn't mind following this lap:

You can see my power steering belt there, dropped off at T13, luckily got caught in the undertray and fell out in the carpark:


Luke wasn't so lucky unfortunately, we had to leave the car in Germany to be scrapped:

Services on the way home:

No roof means comedians can take the handbrake off....


And queuing up to get the boat home. What an eventful trip, both good and bad. We all loved it. I went back a few weeks later, and should be there now except the car is off the road. Ben did make it though, and I'm jealous. Might have to head over in few weeks to make up for it...

Rambling by Rich
Photos by Ash >: )