Nurburgring trackday saga
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 6:20 pm
I did make it to the Ring on Thursday for DN14 (DN are by far the best trackdays and well worth the many pounds btw) after a 1700 mile trip from Russia which involved breaking 2 of my wheels as per another topic.
I had to find some wheels and quick. 2 days isn't enough to order new ones as nobody has stuff in stock these days and certainly not wheels that can be specced a hundred different ways. A few options for used OEM but I wasn't too keen on using them on track for obvious reasons. Bloke in Germany was selling a set of OZ Ultraleggeras and I fired him an email while I was waiting in Poland for my left front wheel to be welded. He answered almost right away but for some reason (and unbeknownst to me) my phone didn't get emails all day as I drove right past his village next to the Autobahn near Hanover. Later that night I saw his email but the wheels were 4 hours one way driving from me at that point. Ended up paying one of the seller's buddies an embarrassingly large amount of money to drive the set to the Ring.
I know a guy and Ring Garage so the wheels went there and I brought the tires in the back of my car (not too big these B7s are they). They were busy but the wheels would be ready by 8AM the next morning just as the trackday was kicking off. A problem surfaced immediately as they tried to put on the first wheel: the center bore was way larger and there was no centering ring present. The guys weren't confident of centering it on the bolts and hope for the best, the Ring doesn't take kindly to mechanical insufficiencies and safety comes first. It wasn't looking good. They made a few calls but no rings could be found. A racing team did tell them that it should be OK to at least give it a try without, so that was a lifeline.
Then, my wheel bolts were too short for the new wheels. As luck would have it I bought a set of H&R spacers ages ago which I never used, but I had them with me. With longer bolts. Success! Then, as they went to put on the wheels they found that 3 out of 4 wheels DID have the proper centering rings in them. So we swapped the good wheels to the front and the dubious one to the right rear where it has the least amount of work to do. (Later I found out the seller had given the 4th ring separately to the driver who had plain forgotten about it)
Finally good to go then, nearly 9 o'clock already. Oh wait there's a small puddle of oil under the car. Companies that rent cars for lapping the Ring don't have a sense of humour when it comes to random cars losing oil on track. S**t. Quick look..the sump plug wasn't tight at all. Courtesy of my mechanic not doing a great job the day before when we changed to oil that could take more abuse on track. Another bullet dodged, let's go to the track. 10 minute drive, park in the car park...track's still closed due to ice in a few spots. At least I didn't miss any track time then. Sighting laps start an hour and a half or so behind schedule. I do 2 very slow laps and tried bedding in the new Tarox discs I put on the front together with Carbotech XP10 pads. For some reason the brakes feel like crap. Huge amount of pedal pressure is needed and there is no bite to speak of. Another round of brake bleeding when we get back to the car park. Slight improvement but the first 1/3rd of pedal travel is very very soft and there isn't much bite from the brakes at all. A lap at higher speed did improve that to a large degree but the pedal feel remained atrocious for the whole day and I often took 2 stabs at it with the feel being a bit better on the second application. Braking points were quite early as a result. I have stainless lines all around and used fresh Motul RBF660. Somehow it feels like there is some air in there somewhere but it ain't coming out.
It was the first time I drove the car on track at all so there was a lot to get used to. It had been on winter tires for the past 6 months including the trip there so the new Michelin semi slicks were quite different. But in a good way. Overall I found the car to be quite capable, the stock suspension wasn't stellar but it's not terrible either. Just too soft. My stock comfort seats are severely lacking in support, no surprise there. Their weight isn't helping either. Other than that the engine felt strong and consistent and didn't miss a beat. Got some good feedback on the exhaust sound. The brakes, for all their lack of pedal feel, were totally up to the job with the proper vented discs and good pads. Even doing 2 laps in a row they were entirely consistent with no fade. Cool ambient temps were nice, not for grip on track but temps stayed good with oil hitting 126-127C which was totally fine with 5w40 Motul 300V.
In the end I did 8 quick laps after which I was pretty spent from holding myself in place in the car and the concentration required. On the Ring 8 laps is like 100 miles so not too bad. These trackdays are low traffic but I still came across slow cars in the wrong places all the time for a good lap time. I really wanted to get below 8 BTG but failed. I did an 8:06 with a pretty heavy passenger in the car, and a few 8:11s with bigger hold ups. Over the 8 laps the optimal sector times added together came to 7:53 so just below 8 would have been pretty easy. If I could get the brakes sorted that would be another 5 seconds off easy. Not bad for an old 1,7 ton family sedan I think.
I had a GoPro on my helmet for some footage.
First lap at speed 8:11s BTG
2 laps with a passenger, second one was fastest of the day 8:06 and includes an amusing high speed run on the main straight
This is what it sounded like from the outside at Breidscheid plus a 160 mph pass on the straight.
No pics on track yet, just a couple in the car park. I think I'll get the wheels redone in anthracite in winter. I do like Ultraleggeras.
Wee bit of brake dust.
On the whole I went home pretty satisfied, happy that it all came together when it counted. Next time, I do need to crack that time though.
I had to find some wheels and quick. 2 days isn't enough to order new ones as nobody has stuff in stock these days and certainly not wheels that can be specced a hundred different ways. A few options for used OEM but I wasn't too keen on using them on track for obvious reasons. Bloke in Germany was selling a set of OZ Ultraleggeras and I fired him an email while I was waiting in Poland for my left front wheel to be welded. He answered almost right away but for some reason (and unbeknownst to me) my phone didn't get emails all day as I drove right past his village next to the Autobahn near Hanover. Later that night I saw his email but the wheels were 4 hours one way driving from me at that point. Ended up paying one of the seller's buddies an embarrassingly large amount of money to drive the set to the Ring.
I know a guy and Ring Garage so the wheels went there and I brought the tires in the back of my car (not too big these B7s are they). They were busy but the wheels would be ready by 8AM the next morning just as the trackday was kicking off. A problem surfaced immediately as they tried to put on the first wheel: the center bore was way larger and there was no centering ring present. The guys weren't confident of centering it on the bolts and hope for the best, the Ring doesn't take kindly to mechanical insufficiencies and safety comes first. It wasn't looking good. They made a few calls but no rings could be found. A racing team did tell them that it should be OK to at least give it a try without, so that was a lifeline.
Then, my wheel bolts were too short for the new wheels. As luck would have it I bought a set of H&R spacers ages ago which I never used, but I had them with me. With longer bolts. Success! Then, as they went to put on the wheels they found that 3 out of 4 wheels DID have the proper centering rings in them. So we swapped the good wheels to the front and the dubious one to the right rear where it has the least amount of work to do. (Later I found out the seller had given the 4th ring separately to the driver who had plain forgotten about it)
Finally good to go then, nearly 9 o'clock already. Oh wait there's a small puddle of oil under the car. Companies that rent cars for lapping the Ring don't have a sense of humour when it comes to random cars losing oil on track. S**t. Quick look..the sump plug wasn't tight at all. Courtesy of my mechanic not doing a great job the day before when we changed to oil that could take more abuse on track. Another bullet dodged, let's go to the track. 10 minute drive, park in the car park...track's still closed due to ice in a few spots. At least I didn't miss any track time then. Sighting laps start an hour and a half or so behind schedule. I do 2 very slow laps and tried bedding in the new Tarox discs I put on the front together with Carbotech XP10 pads. For some reason the brakes feel like crap. Huge amount of pedal pressure is needed and there is no bite to speak of. Another round of brake bleeding when we get back to the car park. Slight improvement but the first 1/3rd of pedal travel is very very soft and there isn't much bite from the brakes at all. A lap at higher speed did improve that to a large degree but the pedal feel remained atrocious for the whole day and I often took 2 stabs at it with the feel being a bit better on the second application. Braking points were quite early as a result. I have stainless lines all around and used fresh Motul RBF660. Somehow it feels like there is some air in there somewhere but it ain't coming out.
It was the first time I drove the car on track at all so there was a lot to get used to. It had been on winter tires for the past 6 months including the trip there so the new Michelin semi slicks were quite different. But in a good way. Overall I found the car to be quite capable, the stock suspension wasn't stellar but it's not terrible either. Just too soft. My stock comfort seats are severely lacking in support, no surprise there. Their weight isn't helping either. Other than that the engine felt strong and consistent and didn't miss a beat. Got some good feedback on the exhaust sound. The brakes, for all their lack of pedal feel, were totally up to the job with the proper vented discs and good pads. Even doing 2 laps in a row they were entirely consistent with no fade. Cool ambient temps were nice, not for grip on track but temps stayed good with oil hitting 126-127C which was totally fine with 5w40 Motul 300V.
In the end I did 8 quick laps after which I was pretty spent from holding myself in place in the car and the concentration required. On the Ring 8 laps is like 100 miles so not too bad. These trackdays are low traffic but I still came across slow cars in the wrong places all the time for a good lap time. I really wanted to get below 8 BTG but failed. I did an 8:06 with a pretty heavy passenger in the car, and a few 8:11s with bigger hold ups. Over the 8 laps the optimal sector times added together came to 7:53 so just below 8 would have been pretty easy. If I could get the brakes sorted that would be another 5 seconds off easy. Not bad for an old 1,7 ton family sedan I think.
I had a GoPro on my helmet for some footage.
First lap at speed 8:11s BTG
2 laps with a passenger, second one was fastest of the day 8:06 and includes an amusing high speed run on the main straight
This is what it sounded like from the outside at Breidscheid plus a 160 mph pass on the straight.
No pics on track yet, just a couple in the car park. I think I'll get the wheels redone in anthracite in winter. I do like Ultraleggeras.
Wee bit of brake dust.
On the whole I went home pretty satisfied, happy that it all came together when it counted. Next time, I do need to crack that time though.
i love the sound of that exhaust
