Jochie
16-11-2005, 21:52
Heb dit uitgetypt naar aanleiding van een "leuk taxiritje" vorige Donderdag.
Ik hoop dat het geen probleem is om in het Engels te posten ...
Approaching SX, the speed feels huge, why was it again that we want to go this fast?
Over the first crest, the car stays very composed, suprisingly but very necessary.
Some braking and the speedo shows 185 as we go through, the car and driver dont break a sweat, I try to follow suit.
Actually we were still being cautious because of the oil trail that had been bugging us since T13.
A damn right spoil sport that was for my first (and hopefully not last) Nordschleife lap in a GT3 cupcar on slicks.
But the racecar experience started had started way before SX, it started by opening the door, lightest I have ever "felt" by far.
Getting into the car was easier than expected and I even fit the seat easily.
Sonja offered to take my helmet bag but I said I preferred to hold onto it to channel out my fear.
As the engine came alive the stationary growling was much louder than I expected.
Some tricky carpark manouvring with a tricky clutch and we were off.
The growl now got loud with a reason and the acceleration was obviously very good.
During the lap we encountered some seemingly well driven GT3s and outaccelerating those was as easy for us as it was for them to blast by Wolfsbergs finest.
But acceleration was not what I was concentrating my experience on, I wanted to feel some of the better cornering work.
Hohenrain was like on rails and the right kink did not feel so thight.
Braking for T13 was a bit ackward and actually not as hard as I had expected, actually it was so "not hard" that we went a bit straight and off the line, at the same time also leaving the oil trail that was on it!
The same oil was spoiling most of Hatzenbach and Hocheichen (I had seen a S7 stranded at Schwalbenschwanz just before I went to the carpark ...
surely that could not be true), things looked to be clear by QH, but Flugplatz is not the first place you want to be testing.
Regardless the understandeable reserve of the driver the grip was very obvious, its not easy to describe but the car really felt like a package, a very grippy smooth shifting hard braking package that just wants you to push and play.
Going through AF showed the most grip of the lap so far, just carving through, felt a bit like cheating.
I did not bother trying talking so just gave a big thumbs up.
Sure enough by the time we arrived at Mattzgesfeld speed was considerable and very likely the fastest I have gone to and through there.
Wehrseifen was just some more carving and Bergwerk was lots of G's.
We went through Klostertal just below 180 and the front of the car jumped
as we came over the kink, VERY impressive.
Steilstrecke was the highest G's until then, I know for sure because it made me lose my helmet bag.
Not a problem for channeling my fear, but a problem for another purpose.
Because as of Tiergarten it had served as a cushion between helmet and rollcage.
I tried to grab for where I thought it must be but that did not work for obvious reasons, but I did need something to cushion so just ended up using my hand.
Very necessary at Hohe Acht.
Every driver seems to have his more impressive sections (for Stuck that section is called Nordschleife) and as we exited Wipperman the bump of the curb was as good as ignored because I was thinking a few hundred meters ahead.
And indeed, the entry into Eschbach was nothing short of BRUTAL, it requires a lot of practice or risk taking to find those limits!
The Brunnchen area completely deserted, it felt weird to be with a driver and in a car that committed during a time as "free" as that, like using Tom Boonens bike to go get the newspaper, not that I was planning to complain.
The brow of PG1 was taken over 180, all of this effortlesly.
An interesting thing happened at Schalbenschwanz when we outbraked a car that suddenly moved to leave only a doubtfull amount of space.
So the front wheel went on the rather high curb and then hit the road hard causing the whole car to jump (not that it needs a lot of provocation for that http://jvc.pingus.be/fotos/VLN_2005_11_05/602/photos/PICT2017_PR.jpg), reviving the old days of Schalbenschwanz.
Dont make the mistake of thinking this would cause problems, the grip was back INSTANTLY.
A small sprint on DH and that was it, highly recommended! :-)
As a reward for reading through all this you can find all my pictures of the car here :)
http://jvc.pingus.be/fotos/VLN_2005_11_05/602/index.html
Jochen
Ik hoop dat het geen probleem is om in het Engels te posten ...
Approaching SX, the speed feels huge, why was it again that we want to go this fast?
Over the first crest, the car stays very composed, suprisingly but very necessary.
Some braking and the speedo shows 185 as we go through, the car and driver dont break a sweat, I try to follow suit.
Actually we were still being cautious because of the oil trail that had been bugging us since T13.
A damn right spoil sport that was for my first (and hopefully not last) Nordschleife lap in a GT3 cupcar on slicks.
But the racecar experience started had started way before SX, it started by opening the door, lightest I have ever "felt" by far.
Getting into the car was easier than expected and I even fit the seat easily.
Sonja offered to take my helmet bag but I said I preferred to hold onto it to channel out my fear.
As the engine came alive the stationary growling was much louder than I expected.
Some tricky carpark manouvring with a tricky clutch and we were off.
The growl now got loud with a reason and the acceleration was obviously very good.
During the lap we encountered some seemingly well driven GT3s and outaccelerating those was as easy for us as it was for them to blast by Wolfsbergs finest.
But acceleration was not what I was concentrating my experience on, I wanted to feel some of the better cornering work.
Hohenrain was like on rails and the right kink did not feel so thight.
Braking for T13 was a bit ackward and actually not as hard as I had expected, actually it was so "not hard" that we went a bit straight and off the line, at the same time also leaving the oil trail that was on it!
The same oil was spoiling most of Hatzenbach and Hocheichen (I had seen a S7 stranded at Schwalbenschwanz just before I went to the carpark ...
surely that could not be true), things looked to be clear by QH, but Flugplatz is not the first place you want to be testing.
Regardless the understandeable reserve of the driver the grip was very obvious, its not easy to describe but the car really felt like a package, a very grippy smooth shifting hard braking package that just wants you to push and play.
Going through AF showed the most grip of the lap so far, just carving through, felt a bit like cheating.
I did not bother trying talking so just gave a big thumbs up.
Sure enough by the time we arrived at Mattzgesfeld speed was considerable and very likely the fastest I have gone to and through there.
Wehrseifen was just some more carving and Bergwerk was lots of G's.
We went through Klostertal just below 180 and the front of the car jumped
as we came over the kink, VERY impressive.
Steilstrecke was the highest G's until then, I know for sure because it made me lose my helmet bag.
Not a problem for channeling my fear, but a problem for another purpose.
Because as of Tiergarten it had served as a cushion between helmet and rollcage.
I tried to grab for where I thought it must be but that did not work for obvious reasons, but I did need something to cushion so just ended up using my hand.
Very necessary at Hohe Acht.
Every driver seems to have his more impressive sections (for Stuck that section is called Nordschleife) and as we exited Wipperman the bump of the curb was as good as ignored because I was thinking a few hundred meters ahead.
And indeed, the entry into Eschbach was nothing short of BRUTAL, it requires a lot of practice or risk taking to find those limits!
The Brunnchen area completely deserted, it felt weird to be with a driver and in a car that committed during a time as "free" as that, like using Tom Boonens bike to go get the newspaper, not that I was planning to complain.
The brow of PG1 was taken over 180, all of this effortlesly.
An interesting thing happened at Schalbenschwanz when we outbraked a car that suddenly moved to leave only a doubtfull amount of space.
So the front wheel went on the rather high curb and then hit the road hard causing the whole car to jump (not that it needs a lot of provocation for that http://jvc.pingus.be/fotos/VLN_2005_11_05/602/photos/PICT2017_PR.jpg), reviving the old days of Schalbenschwanz.
Dont make the mistake of thinking this would cause problems, the grip was back INSTANTLY.
A small sprint on DH and that was it, highly recommended! :-)
As a reward for reading through all this you can find all my pictures of the car here :)
http://jvc.pingus.be/fotos/VLN_2005_11_05/602/index.html
Jochen