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Reports - July 21st -23rd 2006


	Gallery of this visit can be found HERE
Friday Dave picked Gary up from his brothers House at 6.15am, so in effect a pretty decent lie-in for Gary for a change. It was the Porsches first trip of the year and Dave was looking forward to getting the old girl back to the hallowed ground.Gary’s work colleague, Ross was joining the guys with his girlfriend Gemma and their friends Andy and Liz. Dave and Gary made good time and would have made the early crossing but as the kids were breaking up from school, all trains were full, so we had to wait around for an hour for our 8.30 tunnel crossing. Ross / Andy / Gemma / Liz had to wait around and catch the later ferry due to over booking, now this was not good as Gary’s gearbox was in the back of Ross’s VR6 and the likelihood of it being fitted Friday started to reduce! Around Brussels Gary got a text from Ross saying he was delayed again and stuck in the channel waiting to dock, the chances of the 205 being roadworthy for the weekend were dwindling fast. The 944 finally arrived at ring around 2pm and immediately took Gary’s new clutch to the garage for them to at least be able to start work on that. Dave goes to start lapping for the first time with his new suspension fitted, but complained that the car seems to be under steering more than normal, something to work on there. Gary picked up Rob’s M3 which had been fully resprayed and looks stunning. A large bill, but a great job.


	Ross and the others finally arrive at 4.30 and the gearbox is taken direct to the garage while Gary is already testing the local speciality.

Unfortunately 5mins was not enough time to fit a gearbox so Gary’s plan to drive at the weekend was out of the window. To aid Gary's dissapointment Dave bought enough beer for everyone and some nice glasses to drink it from! Something Dave does well is beer.
The weather was stunning without a cloud in the sky and with the track pretty quiet, most people got about getting some laps in. Gary met up with Oola and friends in his lovely M3 GT.

Gary met V8guitar in the car park, who explained that he really fancied a Skyline (Jap clutter). Dave took Gary out in the 944 and then Dave kindly gave the keys to Gary to have a drive. The first track closure of the weekend happened just before 7pm so the team called it a day and went for an ealry refreshing cold beer Unfortunately Ross didn’t make it to the track as he stayed at the apartment with Andy changing his tyres and brakes. When they had finished the brakes they both stood up sweaty and dirty and were congratulating themselfs on a job well done, but Andy heard a clicking sound under his foot. Looking down he saw the pad retainer from one of the callipers was stuck to the bottom of his shoe so the wheel had to come off again. Quiet evening in the apartment where Andy came into his own by not letting anyone go to sleep until they had drink at least one full crate. The Team retired around 1am very tired and a bit wobbly! Sunday A 7.30 start to get a quick shower and be at the track for 8am. Andy and Liz decided on a lie-in……….No comment. Ross put in his first lap trying to remember which way the track went and commented that is was not as easy as he remembered. His very stripped VR6 with around 200bhp providing a pretty good basis for a ring toy. The comical part is that it has no dashboard but a stereo strapped to the floor with a speaker mounted in a tool box which is sprayed and bolted to the floor also. 100% for effort. For some reason the fan started constantly working on the 944 so the battery had to be disconnected to stop it draining. German clutter.
Gorisan26 made an appearance and seemed to be going very well in his Subaru STi jap clutter edition.

	Gary went out for a lap with the Brewski boys in the mad caterham. Getting his 6ft frame in and being comfy were not going to happen so he just went for getting his frame in. If you imagine the foetal position while wearing a helmet it’s close to it. An excellent lap with the caterham performing well, as did the driver

Around mid-day Gary had to nip to the garage to pay some of Jonah’s M3 bill. When he arrived he heard a familiar sounding engine note. 10 seconds later his car pulled out of the garage. The mechanic who was not supposed to be working Saturday came in especially to fit his gearbox. Could you imagine them doing that in the UK? There was a huge storm around 1pm with the 205 having only gotten one lap in. Sitting in the car with the rain hammering down Gary thought ‘what the heck’ and went for a 50mph lap. It was the first time he had not seen another car or another person on a lap. A phone call from Dave saying he had spun on the exit of Brunchen 2, apparantly Bren was to blame he was pushing Dave to get the back end out. He sure managed it! He also managed to get a stone between the disc and backing plate, meaning a wheel had to be taken off in the car park…he managed to borrow some tools off someone and he repaid him by taking (scarring) his wife out for a lap. Later a fun lap with the 205 and the Brewski boys Caterham. With one of their customers in the passenger seats being treated to a little horse play as Gary and Darren overtook each other constantly through the lap. Great fun and very safe. The 205 for some reason was running like a bag of nails and unable to tick over. It was fine to drive once it passed 3K revs, so Gary kept on lapping in it.
Chatting with Ben Lovejoy Ed and Thorleif it became clear that Ed had been in an incident when the FTO he was passenger in, had an accident on the entry to Adenau Forst. Ed was lucky to escape with nothing more than a small cut, the FTO was written off. Proof if needed that helmets are a good idea!

	The guys decided to have a BBQ at the apartment. The food they bought was brilliant with German style steaks being the order of the day. The only problem was by the time it was cooking they had to use VR6 light to cook under.

The carnival was also in town in the form of the German Truck grand prix. At around midnight the fireworks started and the guys were treated to a great display while drinking copious amounts of beer. A 3.30am finish to the day. Sunday Another early start to the day. The track was quieter than expected for a mad Sunday which was nice. Infact the guys commented that it had been much quieter than last year for sure. Maybe to do with accomodationg being tough to get due to the truck GP. If the DTM weekend is quiet we might have an idea!
	Met Robert with his nice Alfa 147GTA

Gary and Dave went to Quiddelbach Hohe with Robert to take pictures for a couple of hours. These guys nipped onto the track during a closure and zapped up the road motorcross style playing to Gary with his camera.

	A picture of Bren on the back wheel of his R1, the first one he had seen apparently?

Back at the car park, Thorleif’s tyres looked like they had seen better days so another set was obtained quickly. Why isn’t it surprising that he kills tyres and brakes so quickly? Some nice laps with Porsche 944 and the 205 with both passenger seats being busy as usual. One lap wirth remembering was a nice lap with Robert in the GTA following Gary. Dave was the nervous passenger in the Alfa st the speed SX was higher than he was used to! Dave took Ross out for a great lap with Adam who was driving one of his groups Boxster S, although there were lots of crashes around Stilestreke and Carrousel. Dave had to let the ring taxi past up Hohe acht and then by Mini Karoussel was still about 1 meter off its rear bumper. One of the best laps of the weekend for him. Karl Rowntree had manage to blow the Nova up. While waiting for his car to cool down Dave grabbed a few laps in a tricked up CJ Slaters tricked up Nova, and Alans lovely looking e30 M3. Gary helped (not sure about this!!) Ross, by making hm follow the 205 in his VR6 golf. On Dave's last lap of the day he managed to spin for the 2nd time, this time at Pflantzgarten and luckily staying on the black stuff, phew. He blamed it on just touching the kerb near the jump while taking a peak in his rear view mirror. Thorleif summed it up well, when he said "what the fk are you looking behind you for, look forward for fks sake". A meal in the Pistenklause with new and old friends is always a good way to end the weekend. We were joined by Brewski bros, Steven and his wife with the quick diesel beemer, Ross, Andy, Liz, Gemma, James with the 968, Lali with the Seat and of course Thorleif. A good few beers were sampled and the guys endlessly taking the piss out of each other ''Jesus its all about having fun for f**s sake'' WHO AM I??? Monday A quick (ish) and easy trip home with the guys very tired. On getting home they learned of the tragic events which claimed the life of a young German biker Monday afternoon. The thoughts of all on Northloop are with his family…………Its important to remember that while we are all addicted to the place we must be sensible and stay safe. Gary and Dave