Yes I can imagine Dan , from the day we left the uk till we came home it never stopped raining, put a downer on it as it's such a long way and expensive trip.
What a bummer. Can't predict the weather though. I'll be giving the 265 a hard time over the week and Easter weekend, few of us going so will be a good laugh. Will be my 4th trip.
I'm planning on the easter weekend for my 30th with a couple of others, I'm not in a Megane anymore mind. You have any recommendations for accomodation etc for a 1st time trip? I'm not going lairy, just want the experience to be honest!
Cool what you running now? We always stay at the lindner ferien park nurburg because there's a few of us. Self catering house that you rent, sleeps 6. You can find it on booking.com. Give it a look. I wouldn't wait to long for booking accommodation because a lot of it is fully booked already
Bank holiday weekends are mental on track, with lots of stoppages likely. Great atmosphere and loads of cars, but not the best for driving. We now go when it is quiet but did do CarFreitag last year and it was not so bad. I want to do DN11 which is earlier in that week, so likely to stay for weekend too, if I can. funds permitting.
It's all down to luck really, can be the same gamble on any TF day. I looked at DN11 aswel but with €1200 entry fee there's no way it's worth the money. Be aswel spending that money on the car as you get nothing out of it on a DN day.
Lol, DN days are well worth the money. Full VLN layout, Proper insurance coverage( some of us have that on TF anyway) Driving standards much higher, No bikes, No buses. I could go on and on. Well you actually break it down they are not that expensive at all, Even more so when you add in the VLN layout. Alas, DN are no longer going to allow novices though due to issues on previous days. I would take the "expensive" cost over the risk of TF in my own car anyway and is exactly why i am driving DN13 and probably going out for the social for either 11/12 or both. Ps, They must be doing something right because pretty much every event Darren has ran has sold out months in advance and he could sell it twice over but chooses not to, He could also charge a lot more and people would still pay and sell it out months in advance as they are fast becoming the premium trackday but again chooses not to.
VLN is the endurance race series that happens through the year, 4 hour races but they have a 6hour one once a year DN = Destination Nurburgring, Part of Circuit days. The numbers correspond to what trackday TF = Touristenfahrten, Or Terroristfahrten as its known
I wonder how it's going to work with the no novice thing as there isn't anything that defines a novice some one with a 60k Porsche that's done 3 track days and has the ego of a house thinks they are no longer a novice.
I worded that wrong, Unattractive is what i should of used. The experience, skills and speeds on a DN day are very, very high so i can see why they want to discourage novice drivers tbh, Im fully with them and it goes to show how successful they have become in that they can pick and choose who they allow on the event.
I've stay at Hotel an der Nordschleife. Its pretty basic but nice. Get a nice breakfast and theres loads of other places for food near by. Sliders Guesthouse is where i'll be staying next though. Met Brendon (the owner) in the Nurburgring car park whilst looking at his mx5, He offered to take me round as a passenger just because I had a chat with him. The he took all my friends round for a lap. Lovely guy.
Burgstube or Fuchsohre for me. Martin adn Heidi at the B'tube are brilliant as is Michaela at the Fuchsohre
That a good point well made. I still class myself as a novice even though I have been going for years. How would they police it?
Regardless of all the 'good' points to DN days I've spoken to a few people who have done them and wouldn't do them again. All your getting is a relatively empty track and some technical support. Oh and lunch. Bargain. People I've spoken that have done it over my trips across felt ripped off/cheated due to not getting anything out of it apart from having less traffic. But each to their own.
Ripped off/Cheated, Im really unsure how to reply to that. You find that the people that do DN now are returning customers. Cant be that bad then.... On a DN day you should be able to get 25+ laps in if you properly hammer it, Thats about £500+ on TF lap tickets. Break it down and it doesn't actually cost that much more than doing TF and you have the major bonus IMO, Of being able to get full insurance cover. Then you get the much better standards of driving, Skill levels and essentially no shite cars causing issues. As you say each to their own. My money would go on DN days in my own car than TF. Thats not to say that TF doesn't have a certain charm, Which it does. You just need to be sensible about it. Maybe i look at it differently as 95% of my friends that go out to the Ring year in, year out do DN days and we have the social side of it which plays just as big a part as the actual TD. Not driven a DN day in my own car, I have attended though and done laps in friends cars.
2 or 3 people can split the price of a year lap ticket and just share it so you can do as many laps as you like and it's a lot cheaper.
It's a cracking track just a shame it's such a long way, big fines to pay if you come off and a ball ache to get home if you have any car problems
I am not sure if you have tried this successfully, but the Jarhrecard(?!?) is for a single user and I think they frown on it being shared. Considering how tightly the track is run, I would be surprised if sharing it was possible. I now see DN11 is the full VLN circuit, inc F1 track. Does this mean you HAVE to lap the F1 each time around or is it "optional" to jump off at T13? Adding the F1 track would not add to my enjoyment to be honest. I am only interested in the old track.
We shared one no problem last trip, just means your not on track at the same time. We just did stints, went out in one car while the other was taking a break etc. As for the gp circuit being added to the ns and skipping it at T13 I'm not sure, Jamie might know.
I did DN10 last year and wouldn't rush back. I'm by no means a Ring novice (circa 50 laps before DN10) and was surprised by how busy the track was ALL day. With that in mind, the level of machinery on the track was at times, pretty scary. The advantage with TF is that I'm normally doing the over taking, and thus get plenty of opportunity to move across for any quicker cars. At DN10 I was being overtaken by full blown race cars, in inappropriate places, on both sides, without much time to see them coming. In fact, the same cars were in competition in the VLN event 2 days later. There's no insurance, to my knowledge, if a £250,000+ race car ploughs into you. - I also had a GT3RS exploded coolant all over me whilst on Dottinger Hohe doing 130MPH leaving me with a car which was very reluctant to brake. But that's obviously no fault to the DN organisers.
