- 683
Hello guys, just thought to share my first ever ring experience with you 
So this guy with the car is a real petrol head. He drives his M5 everywhere, drift competitions, Ring days and so on. It's always kept in good shape, not a scratch. It's (or was, you'll see later why) one of the nicest (IMHO) E34 on the road.
So he picks me up on friday at 2.PM from Munich, where I live, to go to the Ring, on which yesterday morning (Saturday) was a ....I don't know how it's called, it's "Gleichmäßigkeitsprüfung" in German, a competition with road legal cars where you have to lap a over 10-minute lap and the next 11 laps yu have to time as close as possible as your second lap (first one was a formation lap).
So on the way to the ring he drove really carefully, mostly because of traffic and secondly because the guy had 10 "penalty" points on his drivers licence. We only let loose on some un-restricted areas and reached 260 kmh. It may sound like a lot, it also is a lot, but in such a big car you don't REALLY notice it, other than the wind noise. It's so good put together that 260 feels as stable as 120-140 in other cars.
Anyway, we got to the hotel (which was dirt cheap and really nice, but 50 km from the ring) on Friday evening and changed the tires for saturay's competition. Tires are Yokohama Advan A048, 235 front and 255 rear.
In the morning on the way to the Ring we geeeeently warmed up the tires and engine (it was freezing cold, 6 AM in the Eifel, go figure
) After some pictures taken, the competition finally got underway. We gathered at the New-Entrance parking and over-filled it with cars. After that we were guided to the start (T13, old start/finish) by an oficial car. There we were let loose one by one in the formation lap. There were lots of awsome cars, a RHD AC-Cobra, some race-tuned E36 M3s, lots of Mk2 Golf GTIs and BMW 318 is, a Subaru WRX STi, and so on. Pictures as well as our M5's specs, at the end of the post
Before the first lap I'd like to confess that I'm a huge ring fan, I got lots and lots of Ring videos on my HDD, as well as hundreds (sounds like a lot really, well, let's say 200) of laps in GT4. I love it to death and now it's time for the real life experience. The first couple of laps were incredible, just awsome, you can't really feel the elevation changes in GT4 and neither in the videos so it's really a shock going that uphill at Tiergarten
On lap 5 i think i started to feel a little sick (please don't laugh, my first laps were done in a 340 hp car with semi-slicks on, pretty shocking) but after turning on the heater on cold air and adjusting my helmet, all was well. Our pattern was one lap quick on the track and slow on the Döttinger Höhe, one lap the other way round. It was incredibly fun and we both had a good time. Oh, on the "Fast-at-DöttingerHöhe laps we hat to experience braking from about 240 to suddenly going uphill and doing 80-90 just before T13 turn.
EDIT: AP Racing breaks have quite a remarcable stopping power, feel very smooth but after you get out of the car they kinda stink.....what would'ya expect them to do after 6 hard laps, act as if nothing happened ? Guess not 
On 6'th lap we came in at T13 in the pits for a very quick re-fuel and brake ( Time for laps 6+7 was min 20 min and max 40 min so it didn't really cound how long the refuel was). Then we left T13 on the 7th lap and were the absolute first in the race, ahead of the Impreza and ahead of the Cobra. Then, at the top of Fuchsröhre, just before the 3rd gear right turn into Adenauer Forst, the back slightly came round. He corrected, just a bit over corrected, the back came round again (you have to have pretty good reflexes with those semi slick-255 tires at the back) and suddenly we were going like just under 100 kmh backwards towards the armco. We hit the armco with the rear-left, the car spun round and hit the armco again with the front-left just enough to brake the fog lights, front grille and indicators. My seat was deformed and looked a bit like a screw, the base was ok but the upper part was facing left. Anyway, my back hurt just a bit, my neck also just a bit because of the helmet being thrown back into the (fantastically- designed) headrest. We got out to slightly look at the car and move it a little closer to the Armco. Note: Immediately after the crash, the car stood on the "pretty big" grass runoff area on the left hand side, so the danger was pretty low. The rear-left was really bent, exhaust almost torn off, that sort of stuff, the chassis was slightly bent, the trunk was no longer closing properly. The central locking wasn't working anymore, as well as my seatbelt, which after removal locked itself into the right pillar (was this ment to be or not??) The amazing thing is that the CD-changer was absolutely intact, despite of being 10 cm away from the impact point.
EDIT: I nearly missed the classic: going through the Carussel in the M5 WHILE ON THE RECOVERY TRUCK))) Crazy ADAC Driver !!! Funny as hell !!!
Then he called ADAC to pick the car up, and to make a long story short, we got a free rental and the M5 would be in South-Bavaria at Matthes Racing in a couple of days, all cost-free. That's what I call service Too bad I didn't take any picture with the dented M5, anyway it wasn't that interesting.
We took the rental Opel Astra 1.7 CDTI from Avis to get home (700+km). He dropped me home at Munich at about 11pm. on saturday and I went straight to bed , still fantasizing about the incredible experiences that day
My first Ring trip? Roughly anything that could happen on the ring in a 2-hour pill They say you have to wreck a car on the Ring to actually know the limits, they were right The crash didn't put me off loving the Ring, you just have to treat it with respect and you'll have a fantastic time
Specs:
BMW E34 ///M5, MY late 1994,Avus blue with white leather interior. 3.8L and 340 hp straight-6 engine. AP-Racing 6-pot brakes front, 4-pot in the rear, heavy duty clutch, Yoohama ADVAN A048 tires on BMW E38 750 rims, M5 aerodinamic package, black front and rear lights, EDC Sport Adaptive Suspension.
EDIT2: Even with the somewhat unpleasent "Armco dance" experience, I still think the BMW E34 ///M5 is one of the best cars on the road today and nothing has put me off of dreaming of owning one
Some Pics:
Yeah, the car was full of stuff, including jack, 4 wheels, our luggage, some oil, and lots of other stuff
So this guy with the car is a real petrol head. He drives his M5 everywhere, drift competitions, Ring days and so on. It's always kept in good shape, not a scratch. It's (or was, you'll see later why) one of the nicest (IMHO) E34 on the road.
So he picks me up on friday at 2.PM from Munich, where I live, to go to the Ring, on which yesterday morning (Saturday) was a ....I don't know how it's called, it's "Gleichmäßigkeitsprüfung" in German, a competition with road legal cars where you have to lap a over 10-minute lap and the next 11 laps yu have to time as close as possible as your second lap (first one was a formation lap).
So on the way to the ring he drove really carefully, mostly because of traffic and secondly because the guy had 10 "penalty" points on his drivers licence. We only let loose on some un-restricted areas and reached 260 kmh. It may sound like a lot, it also is a lot, but in such a big car you don't REALLY notice it, other than the wind noise. It's so good put together that 260 feels as stable as 120-140 in other cars.
Anyway, we got to the hotel (which was dirt cheap and really nice, but 50 km from the ring) on Friday evening and changed the tires for saturay's competition. Tires are Yokohama Advan A048, 235 front and 255 rear.
In the morning on the way to the Ring we geeeeently warmed up the tires and engine (it was freezing cold, 6 AM in the Eifel, go figure
) After some pictures taken, the competition finally got underway. We gathered at the New-Entrance parking and over-filled it with cars. After that we were guided to the start (T13, old start/finish) by an oficial car. There we were let loose one by one in the formation lap. There were lots of awsome cars, a RHD AC-Cobra, some race-tuned E36 M3s, lots of Mk2 Golf GTIs and BMW 318 is, a Subaru WRX STi, and so on. Pictures as well as our M5's specs, at the end of the post Before the first lap I'd like to confess that I'm a huge ring fan, I got lots and lots of Ring videos on my HDD, as well as hundreds (sounds like a lot really, well, let's say 200) of laps in GT4. I love it to death and now it's time for the real life experience. The first couple of laps were incredible, just awsome, you can't really feel the elevation changes in GT4 and neither in the videos so it's really a shock going that uphill at Tiergarten
On lap 5 i think i started to feel a little sick (please don't laugh, my first laps were done in a 340 hp car with semi-slicks on, pretty shocking) but after turning on the heater on cold air and adjusting my helmet, all was well. Our pattern was one lap quick on the track and slow on the Döttinger Höhe, one lap the other way round. It was incredibly fun and we both had a good time. Oh, on the "Fast-at-DöttingerHöhe laps we hat to experience braking from about 240 to suddenly going uphill and doing 80-90 just before T13 turn. EDIT: AP Racing breaks have quite a remarcable stopping power, feel very smooth but after you get out of the car they kinda stink.....what would'ya expect them to do after 6 hard laps, act as if nothing happened
? Guess not On 6'th lap we came in at T13 in the pits for a very quick re-fuel and brake ( Time for laps 6+7 was min 20 min and max 40 min so it didn't really cound how long the refuel was). Then we left T13 on the 7th lap and were the absolute first in the race, ahead of the Impreza and ahead of the Cobra. Then, at the top of Fuchsröhre, just before the 3rd gear right turn into Adenauer Forst, the back slightly came round. He corrected, just a bit over corrected, the back came round again (you have to have pretty good reflexes with those semi slick-255 tires at the back) and suddenly we were going like just under 100 kmh backwards towards the armco. We hit the armco with the rear-left, the car spun round and hit the armco again with the front-left just enough to brake the fog lights, front grille and indicators. My seat was deformed and looked a bit like a screw, the base was ok but the upper part was facing left. Anyway, my back hurt just a bit, my neck also just a bit because of the helmet being thrown back into the (fantastically- designed) headrest. We got out to slightly look at the car and move it a little closer to the Armco. Note: Immediately after the crash, the car stood on the "pretty big" grass runoff area on the left hand side, so the danger was pretty low. The rear-left was really bent, exhaust almost torn off, that sort of stuff, the chassis was slightly bent, the trunk was no longer closing properly. The central locking wasn't working anymore, as well as my seatbelt, which after removal locked itself into the right pillar (was this ment to be or not??) The amazing thing is that the CD-changer was absolutely intact, despite of being 10 cm away from the impact point.
EDIT: I nearly missed the classic: going through the Carussel in the M5 WHILE ON THE RECOVERY TRUCK
))) Crazy ADAC Driver !!! Funny as hell !!!Then he called ADAC to pick the car up, and to make a long story short, we got a free rental and the M5 would be in South-Bavaria at Matthes Racing in a couple of days, all cost-free. That's what I call service
Too bad I didn't take any picture with the dented M5, anyway it wasn't that interesting.We took the rental Opel Astra 1.7 CDTI from Avis to get home (700+km). He dropped me home at Munich at about 11pm. on saturday and I went straight to bed , still fantasizing about the incredible experiences that day
My first Ring trip? Roughly anything that could happen on the ring in a 2-hour pill
They say you have to wreck a car on the Ring to actually know the limits, they were right The crash didn't put me off loving the Ring, you just have to treat it with respect and you'll have a fantastic time Specs:
BMW E34 ///M5, MY late 1994,Avus blue with white leather interior. 3.8L and 340 hp straight-6 engine. AP-Racing 6-pot brakes front, 4-pot in the rear, heavy duty clutch, Yoohama ADVAN A048 tires on BMW E38 750 rims, M5 aerodinamic package, black front and rear lights, EDC Sport Adaptive Suspension.
EDIT2: Even with the somewhat unpleasent "Armco dance" experience, I still think the BMW E34 ///M5 is one of the best cars on the road today and nothing has put me off of dreaming of owning one
Some Pics:
Yeah, the car was full of stuff, including jack, 4 wheels, our luggage, some oil, and lots of other stuff
