Euro Trip 2012 (R8 Factory & Ring) - April

[HYFR]

In the R8 factory they had a stunning matte Sepang facelift R8 V8 totally undisguised bar some tape on the lights

But the R8 LMS tour was insane! €400k per car with all the panels made of CF! This is a place where they don't have organised tours, but had the Head of the Facility show us round and talk through the R8 LMS

Oh, they also had the mental TTRS DTM thingy bobby in prep which we got talked through

[Mr V10]

That was a good morning, just wish I could've been stage 3. I got walked by the V10 boys.

If it makes you feel any better, I had my foot to the floor, and you were pulling away from me. Which means the V8 R8s would piss all over me too. Heavy biachh my plus, but the acceleration in fourth gear around 100+ is bloody awesome.

[P_G]

Did you manage to stuff any R8 LMS cf body panels down your pants for ASBO without anyone noticing then? And why is he in Belgium still?

[bam_bam]

That was a good morning, just wish I could've been stage 3. I got walked by the V10 boys.

If it makes you feel any better, I had my foot to the floor, and you were pulling away from me. Which means the V8 R8s would piss all over me too. Heavy biachh my plus, but the acceleration in fourth gear around 100+ is bloody awesome.

Strange to hear as I have no idea what state of tune it is in, plus I had MAF issues.

[Mr Footlong]

Did anybody else find themselves sticking their middle fingers up at their monitors when the Vulva came flying up flashing their lights or was it just me?

[HYFR]

I tried to nab one of the LMS front grills as they have modded them with mesh behind them to protect them from collisions

This is exactly why ASBO is still in Belgium

He was disabled less than 1hr into the continent by a flying piece of debris, smashed the grill and pierced the rads, spat his coolant out and was done for

2nd time this thing has happened (debris\smashed grill)

£1k repair and he's still at Brugge Audi til I can rescue him

[chunky79]

that is <beep> news. your motor really doesnt like its coolant does it?

[Mr V10]

That was a good morning, just wish I could've been stage 3. I got walked by the V10 boys.

If it makes you feel any better, I had my foot to the floor, and you were pulling away from me. Which means the V8 R8s would piss all over me too. Heavy biachh my plus, but the acceleration in fourth gear around 100+ is bloody awesome.

Strange to hear as I have no idea what state of tune it is in, plus I had MAF issues.

It wasn't by much, but you were pulling away.
BTW, if you thought 'what a fecktard' when I didn't pull out at that roundabout then went about 2mph it's because I put the front window demister on and it fogged my whole front screen up, then I heard you scream past. Darth looked great.

Forgot to say, we all got pulled by the police in Belgium after being reported by members of the pubic, they couldn't prove it so let us go. I felt like I was at school again when they got all the drivers in a circle and gave us a telling off, they took photos of our cars though and gave us all a warning. Still didn't stop the guys coming back through Belgium yesterday at more then autobahn speeds.

[HYFR]

LOL

His 3rd tank of coolant in as many weeks

And now onto his 3rd grill

its to do with the vortext created by the R8's airflow was both times its happened, its been another R8 that has whipped up the debris and I've been on the receiving end!

So word of advice, don't follow R8's too closely!

[Mr Footlong]

The photo looks like a "Blind parkers anonymous" meeting. Did Panda park first so everyone else parked accordingly in line with her?

[Mr V10]

I knew someone would bring parking up, it really doesn't matter in an empty car park with loads of free spaces, where we didn't even leave our cars and were parked there for only about 10 minutes.

[Nudenut]

Nudenut’s Diary: A fantastic trip that surpassed my expectations!!

Biggest issue in the preceding weeks was the ugly weather forecast, but this may have worked for us as both days we were at The ‘Ring the place was next to empty, an absolute dream for all of us at all levels of experience to have the track so quiet after the chaos of the previous bank holiday weekend. And as it turned out, a damp/wet session on Monday and a damp to dry day on Tuesday gave everybody all the track time they could want with no stress to get out before the next closure.

The track did not close once in the time we were there!

The run down was slightly soured by the unfortunate loss of ASBO to a punctured rad (debris thrown up from car in front) with Dave and Pete having to recover ASBO to Bruges and travel down in a hired Leon. As luck would have it, Bank Holiday not withstanding they managed to get to Nurburg “just” 3 1/2hrs after the convoy of big powered Audi exotica and went on to prove time again “there’s no car faster than a Hire Car” and to arrive in good time for beers and Steak on Stone lifted the mood and a great night ensued.

As it happens I not sure ASBO would have been welcome on track, when I first pulled up to the barrier my ‘ring card seemed not to work, my German is non existent so couldn’t read the gate saying something like “noise issue” and the marshal was directed by the controller to come over and tell be to keep below 4.5k revs and turn my Sport button off... luckily showed him the remote, closed the valves and all was good. Did 5 laps in the R8, was slippery but consistent all round and really enjoyed taking the time to feel my way in and learn the track some more (only ever done 10 laps before this), started to push on a bit but after 5 laps and some fun with IR8V8 the rain came down, we were tired and we went back to freshen up, eat and drink.

Tuesday morning off to Rent4Ring, DK, Adam and Myself rented race prep Suzuki swifts for the day and whilst Sonny was the absolute 1st car out on track we weren’t far behind and “Swift Wars” commenced. Again starting on a damp track kept the pace down a little which was likely not a bad thing plus gave Adam the chance to learn the track and by mid morning the track was drying well and we had some seriously close lapping and LOL fun... I don’t think many “races” (not!) I mean laps were completed with more than a matter of car lengths between us making it so important to concentrate on lines, corner exit speeds etc.

So after 11 laps in the swift I decided to do the last hour in the R8... OMG now things started to liven up, I had tracked the car at Snetts on 888’s but had my road wheels with Michelin Pilot Super Sports on and the grip was nout short of phenomenal. Took DK out for a warm up (not slow) then Pete (fantastic lap with Sonny on a mission, he has fantastic car control and nads of steel, big respect for staying in front of an R8 V10 in the B7 also on road rubber!!) and finally took a German friend of Amanda’s round who knows the place very well and he was very complimentary... he actually jumped out to look and ask what tyres I was running, was shocked at the grip I had.

So 10 laps completed in the Swift and 8 in the R8 without incident, now done 28 in total and the one playing with Sonny about 8min 30s BTG... not unhappy with that.

Track closed at 14:00hrs to continue filming the movie RUSH about Lauder and Hunts duelling days http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=25512 so we set off for a Beer/Burger and Karting session where Sonny and I got a grounding and our rears kicked by DK and Pete, back to Hotel, Steak on Stone and another good night.

Yesterday... A LONG day but what a day, up early convoy down to Audi AG Neckarsulm (were we caught up to DK in the Leaon) for a tour of the R8 factory and the added bonus of seeing the first face lifted R8’s rolling off the line... these are the pre-production cars for publicity/testing and shows etc... all very top secret, no camera and phones off!! Then a 4 course lunch which was in keeping with the quality of the tour and facility before a short drive down the road to the Audi customer racing facility where they assemble the R8 LMS cars for those private teams and individuals lucky enough... I have never seen so much Carbon fibre!! We were taken round by the facility manager who had full knowledge of the set-up rater than a suit/guide, we were allowed to get up close, touch and ask questions at will, there was no rush and I felt very privileged to have attended!! We even got to see the new TTRS car near completion for what I think is VLN race in May at the ‘Ring... may well go take a look at that this year!!

Then a mahooosive blast across Germany, Belgium and France to Calais (were we caught up withDK, in the Leon) and found our way safely home!!

Again: A fantastic trip that surpassed my expectations!!

Special thanks to DK for the organisation, the Factory trip, plus food and LMS part (NOT bookable) was all paid for / Audi courtesy due to DK putting himself out... good work!!

And thanks to my fellow trippers, hope you all enjoyed it as much a s I did!!... the fastest car... the 1.2L Leon of course!!

[P_G]

LOL

His 3rd tank of coolant in as many weeks

And now onto his 3rd grill

its to do with the vortext created by the R8's airflow was both times its happened, its been another R8 that has whipped up the debris and I've been on the receiving end!

So word of advice, don't follow R8's too closely!

Sorry to here that DK, that is crap. And from experience Audi Belgium are not the best given our Eurotour and the issues one of the guys had in getting their RS4 back after a broken steering column. I sincerely hope the same does not apply to you.

[Mr Footlong]

So after 11 laps in the swift I decided to do the last hour in the R8... OMG now things started to liven up, I had tracked the car at Snetts on 888’s but had my road wheels with Michelin Pilot Super Sports on and the grip was nout short of phenomenal. Took DK out for a warm up (not slow) then Pete (fantastic lap with Sonny on a mission, he has fantastic car control and nads of steel, big respect for staying in front of an R8 V10 in the B7 also on road rubber!!) and finally took a German friend of Amanda’s round who knows the place very well and he was very complimentary... he actually jumped out to look and ask what tyres I was running, was shocked at the grip I had.

Thank god, somebody else knows the score with these tyres! I am running them in 275/30/19 form on mine and I have been preaching to the others about the rude levels of grip on them. Chunky however, will swallow his own tongue before stating that there might actually be something better out there that his Goodyears lol.

I have been really ragging these tyres over the last few weeks (especially now with the XP10 pads in) and they are nothing short of sensational in my experience of a lot of different tyres over the years. They are bloody good in the wet too imo, did a few esp-off damp/wet powerslide runs at the weekend around a roundabout at the bottom of the A331 and again, perfectly controlled. Madam was in the car at the time too and felt perfectly safe.

[HYFR]

Sorry to here that DK, that is crap. And from experience Audi Belgium are not the best given our Eurotour and the issues one of the guys had in getting their RS4 back after a broken steering column. I sincerely hope the same does not apply to you.

cheers P_G

this is why im not having it repatriated ... jumping on a Eurostar to go an collect it !