A few of us just returned from a week long trip to Germany. Mar 28-April 4, 2013 Myself William Chen (bellwilliam) Sonny Watanasirisuk (vagaxt) Zhong Cheung (evoix)
The shirts read: "That is how I drive.. Flat out"
Sort of a motto for Team 949 Racing and trackhq.com forum
The original plan was to rent a Suzuki Swift GT from rent4ring.de and do the Tourist course for 4 days. When we arrived the track was close to remove snow and do some frost repair. So we decided to visit nearby Belgium and get some waffles. On the way there we decided Spa wasn't too far from the border so we would go check it out. Arrived at Spa in snowy, drizzly weather and saw there was a track day going on. Our UK distributor MOT Motorsport, Nick Dougill was there doing trackside tire service with his Rotrex supercharged Miata in tow.
Of course we signed up for the track day and drove the rest of the afternoon in our rental BMW 320D (diesel). Nick was nice enough to let me drive his NB on the track for a few laps. Video from that hoonage Me: http://youtu.be/Z1ysXSdrF2A Sonny: http://youtu.be/zpTUcmVd8hQ Sonny Spa BMW 320D
The ring was closed the next day until 2pm so we went back to Spa and rented a Lotuse Exige S (240bhp). Video Me: http://youtu.be/EFXhCbJB9SU Sonny: http://youtu.be/01N-ov27VHE
The next day the organizers gave us access to a shortened version of the Nurburgring GP course while they finished repairing the Nordscheife and clearing snow. We drove all day then decided to have a Swift Challenge Time Attack. 2 flying laps, best lap wins. Sonny schooled us with this lap. GP course in the Suzuki Swift GT http://youtu.be/VTRKODVafUI
The last day we were pretty pumped to drive the ring having been there for three days. We were rewarded with a clean but very cold track. A few laps in the morning on a drying track with warm R888 GG's. Mid day, someone blew an engine just after the karussell so the track was closed for about 30 minutes. Tires got stone cold and it started snowing lightly. The track now had a light dusting of frozen snow. It was snowing lightly as Sonny and I head out for a lap battle with the two swifts. Ice cold race tires and a coating of frost means it was slicker than snot. Perfect!
Driving the Nordschleife is a must do for any serious track junkie. Absolutely fantastic experience.
Video from the first lap battle. 2nd lap we started to get a little heat and dry line but it was still very slick. Video Me: http://youtu.be/RtAyj4Q0hR0 Sonny's blue swift: http://youtu.be/a2OMKMra5hg
My best lap as the track dried out later in the day http://youtu.be/f6jilx0Pijg
We all managed to get about 7-8 laps a piece in the swifts. While we were there we drove some karts, visited the Porsche and Mercedes museums at the factories in Stuttgart, ate, drank, bought Nurbugring t shirts, stickers and had a blast. I have not taken a vacation since starting 949 Racing 7 years ago. This trip made up for that.
