I'd give a kidney.

Big Poof !!!!

;-)

-- Stuart

I can do that.

I'd prefer to be able to drive like this guy. Quicker, tidier, making it look almost easy. :-) What is the top speed of those things?

That is impressive but he wouldn't have got any kudos. lol.

The man is ex-Formule 1 and now official BMW-driver with the best equipement.

There are other, more scary things on the Ring: locals -all barking mad but knowing the Ring blindely- are driving around in slightly upgraded Golfs and Kadett/Astra's... teasing everybody with a fast car.

Slightly upgraded because you are driving around at 250 kph on the straights (and there are a few), minding your own business and keeping something of a safety margin and they buss you by at 300 kph.

It's an experience. I know somebody with a big ego (and at the time a Ferrari Berlinetta) who was stupid enough to engage in a race (strictly forbidden during normal driving on the Ring). He totalled the 355 and was lucky to escape semi-unhurt.

Paid 100 Eur (and a case of beer) to a German (Golf II/ VR6 turbo/ 400 HP) for a drive around (me in the passengerseat): unbelievable noisy in the car and a datalogged 290kph as max speed... in a car which didn't inspire a great deal on confidence.

There are "Ring Meisters" and sure the BWM official drivers are among the best. The Ring Taxi (driven by a lady) is nice... but I have major respect for those freaking lunatics whose put all their earnings in battered Opel Kadett and then engage BWM/Porsche/etc-drivers. It's like flying: errors will bite you, kill you is a definite possibility. There are the telltale bumps in the safety barriers...

Treat the Ring with caution, with respect and enjoy with measure. The bloody thing is addictif. Have never taken drugs but I suspect the Ring can turn out more viscious and harder to get rid off while providing equal amounts of good and bad trips.

If you are in the neighbourghood, even when you driven a rented Diesel: do a lap. It's ... special :)

Tom De Moor

PS Don't tell the rentcompany. For some reason they don't like it. ;-)

Theres discussions on here at the moment between me and mate to visit a GP next year - i'm pushing the Nurburgring event so I can drive the old circuit whilst she goes shopping or something ;-)

She?

Aren't you making assumptions that you'll have time between shagging sessions? ;-)

Well.... ;-)

Nah it's just a odd scenario that the only mate I have here that likes F1 happens to be a bird.

He'll need /some/ time to recuperate between. The 206 will take what,

12 mins to get round? With a bit of forethought and planning, it could all turn out rather neatly. That'd be a hell of a weekend :-D

snipped-for-privacy@nottoday.> >

I know. Although he was't a very successful F1 driver. I was merely expressing envy of his driving ability. Mike.

Any F1-driver, it may be extended to any competiondriver who earns a decent living driving, is in that league. In Formula 1 the difference between the best and the worst driver on pure speed is less than 0.5%.

I was rather close around professional motorsport from 1988-1995. At Spa I remember very clearly a team owner stating to his futur world championshipwinner: "You are good, very good indeed but you ask a lot of money. For that kind of money we'll make a better car which won't need such a good driver."

The guy won the WC and the following year he was as good as out of a job.

On a similar note: when a single-seater-racer goes into touring cars or even prototype-cars, they are complaining that the car is bog slow but most of the time they are either very very hard to beat in those machines or they wreck a lot of cars.

Any F16-pilot can fly a Cessna, most Cessna-pilots kill themselves if thrown into something twice the speed, let alone jets...

Tom De Moor

As far as the 'ring' goes, I imagine Sabine Scmidt who drives a ring 'taxi' would give Hans a good run for his money. I know she has won at least 1 of the full circuit races, but I've never seen a video of her driving a lap competitively against the clock, as Hans was apparently doing. Sabine obviously doesn't drive on the limit when she has passengers, which are the only videos of her that I've seen. Mike.