Destination Nürburgring!
Setra Motorsport went to the Nürburgring and took part of the ninth edition of Destination Nürburgring trackdays. Here you'll find a write up of the lovely trip.
The trip down:
We left saturday afternoon. The car was shining after a good clean, and it was rigged up on the trailer. the Mitshi was loaded with spares that we thought we could need over the next few days. we felt good prepared for the trip and everything was going great on the trip down. Right up until the point were we should enter the long bridge between sweden and Denmark. I looked in the morror, and saw a flat tire on the trailer. The clock was almost nine in the afternoon, on a Saturday, and we didn't have a spare tire for the trailer. Things didn't look good....
Luckily we were abel to get in touch with a rescue guy. He had a mate that ran a tire shop just a few minutes away, and he was willing to open it up for us so that we could get a new tire. One destroyed tire off, one new tire on and life was smiling at us once again.
After a long stint we arrived at Nürburgring We checked in at Hotel AM Tiergarten, had some lunch and watched Touristenfahrt in beautiful weather.
Monday:
We registered, rigged the car down from the trailer, had a driver briefing and we were ready to go. We had the circuit from 13 to 17. The first lap was a slow one, just to get to know the circuit. After the instalation lap we drove into the pit and had a look at the car. After a few minutes in the pit, we heard on the speaker that the circuit was closed due to a car that was on fire. Look at the video to see the burning Ferrari F430 Scuderia.
This took long time to clear, and the circuit didn't go green before 3 o'clock. We drove out but after pushing hard the water temp went red and I had to back off the gas. I drove into the pit and had a new look at the car. I found out that the radiator was loose, letting air past it instead of forcing it trough.
After reinstalling the loose radiator, and putting on some cover to force the air go through the right places, we went out again. The car felt great and we were very fast. We only managed one lap until the session was over. A little frustrating with that little tracktime the first day, but that's how it is sometimes. The positive thing was that the car was working great, so tomorrow we were hoping for some good lap times.
We spent the evening at the resturant Pistenklause. Great food and service.
Tuesday:
New day new possibilities. The weather was still great and we head out to the track early in the morning. The driving started 0900, and due to the little seat time yesterday we were eager to get out as soon as the track opened. On the first stint I was out to set a good time. Leaving my wife in the pit, I deared to push a little harder. I drove two fast laps. On the first lap i was held up with slow traffic. On the second lap everything went much better, and I had good flow in my driving. I knew i had set a good time, but I didn't know the lap time until a saw the video later in the afternoon. Turned out that I managed 7:30 Bridge to Gantry, and 7,58 on the whole lap. New personal record with over 25 second. I was delighted! Here's a video of the lap.
After the fast laps I had to change out the rear pads. The wife took her place in the passanger seat, and we drove several fast laps after we had bedded in the new pads.
We had a great time up until the front tires were shot. With the asphalt beeing over 65 degrees celsius I understand they had a though time..
We didn't have new slicks, so we put on rain tires in hope that the weather would change. We got a few strange looks when we put on rain tires while the sun was out and it was 30 degrees celsius.
After two hours though the weather changed completly and the sky opened. We drove out as soon as the track went wet, and had a geat time up until the session was red flagged due to a Porsche crashing hard into the barriers.
We were finished with a great day. The kind you dream about while driving the long trip down from Norway. We got the car rigged up on the trailer, and went back to the hotel to relax a bit before driving the long way home.
