Did you "take" the busstop chicane BTW? ;-)
Road signs in this country are indeed crap. Consider yourself lucky you
didn't happen on a detour. Signs for those dissapate after a while and you
might have found yourself in France before finding another roadsign (as I
did once in the Bastogne area). ;-)
Jan.
=---
You have that in Eau Rouge and nowhere at the Ring? My heart nearly stopped
when I drove down the hill from Antoniusbuche the first time, and that's not
even a big drop! (My heart stopped several times that first lap ;) Even
the drop leading into Hatzenbach looks flat in GPL and is almost steep in
real life.
Well, little was lost when they abandoned Nivelles (and bear in mind they
raced there _instead_ of Spa!). Its only charm is that it's an abandoned
racetrack. And in a way it's a good thing some of these tracks are
abandoned. No serious racing at the Nordschleife gives us more track days
there!
-Laurens de Jong, The Netherlands.
(Ducking)
Andre
I didn't take the busstop, there was a race going on so it was closed
for public.
While searching for the entrance, we were lost a certain point. This
was strange, since we clearly followed the signs to the entrance.
We looked for a sign, and when we found a sign, it was pointing in the
direction were we came from!
This couldn't be right, so we continued (in the opposite direction of
the sign) and after ten minutes we arrived at the entrance...
Those Belgium signs really are strange :)
Andre
On Sun, 07 May 2000 09:52:55 GMT, "Jan Verschueren"
>Did you "take" the busstop chicane BTW? ;-)
>Road signs in this country are indeed crap. Consider yourself lucky you
>didn't happen on a detour. Signs for those dissapate after a while and you
>might have found yourself in France before finding another roadsign (as I
>did once in the Bastogne area). ;-)
>Jan.
>=---
>Andre Warringa wrote...
>> <snip>
>> At a certain point, while searching for the entrance for Spa (the
>> signs to the track were driving us crazy, there really was no logic
>> there!) we drove on the Masta. I allready saw some Stavelot signs, so
>> I knew we were in the vicinity of the old track, but when we drove on
>> Masta I immediately reckognized the track.
>> On one side it felt great, driving on the old track again, on the
>> other hand I felt sad that the old track is public road now, and that
>> many people who drive there haven't got a clue that they are driving
>> on Holy Ground :)
>> <snip>
>> I hope I'll find out in 3 weeks when we go again :)
>What date is that precisely? My next trip up there will probably be June 1
>or June 3. We could possibly hook up somewhere.
Uh, Laurens, the Nordschleife was closed... I feel bad enough about
this allready without you telling me how great the track is :)))
Never thought about that... you're right! Bernie, close down
Hockenheim, Monza and Zandvoort, so we can drive there! :)
Andre
Okay, but take this tip from me: all the May dates (as far as I recall)
coincided with _some_ track event at the Sudschleife. These are not the
best dates to tour the Nordschleife, plenty of (possibly drunk) wannabe
racers and some guaranteed closures to clear up crashes.
Sounds good to me. Currently, the English and German pages show different
open dates, noticeably the June 2 and 3 hours are not obvious. I thought
you might like not to go there again and find a track closed sign...
Yeah I did forget it was you until after I posted. But, uh, if it helps...
the Nordschleife is a ton of fun to drive! It's a real shame the track was
closed when you were there! Every time I go, it's open! And I have a ball!
He can keep Hockenheim, but I have a friend who has driven on the Monza
banking, much to my envy.
-Laurens de Jong, The Netherlands.
Your... your friend drove on the Banking? Is Monza also open for
public, even the banking?
Andre
On the plus side, she hasn't driven the Karrussel at full speed. So nyah
nyah.
-Laurens de Jong, The Netherlands.
Does she have some in-car pics? If so, it would be great if you could
scan them...
How's driving full speed on the Karrussel? I heard you really feel the
gravity forces when doing this?
Andre
On Tue, 9 May 2000 09:38:29 +0200, "Laurens de Jong"
>> Your... your friend drove on the Banking? Is Monza also open for
>> public, even the banking?
>I believe she used some, err, Italian persuading techniques, but quite
>frankly I didn't want to hear about it. But you can see on
>http://wkweb5.cableinet.co.uk/ferrari/monza_camp.htm
>that in 1998 it had become a rarity to open the banking for cars. My friend
>went there in 1996. Sometimes I think I should scan in the pictures because
>if nothing else, an old beat up Volvo 440 on the banking in Monza just
>doesn't look right! But then I quickly become sick of envy again and forget
>about it.
>On the plus side, she hasn't driven the Karrussel at full speed. So nyah
>nyah.
>-Laurens de Jong, The Netherlands.
I haven't seen any in-car pics, but I'll ask.
Oh, only the most gratifying driving experience I have ever felt.
Seriously, I only nailed that Karrussel on the third lap (being distracted
once by a Porsche going by me so fast the Karrussel was over before I had
collected myself; and once by having just passed some bikers and wondering
how I was going to hang on) but Lord what a feeling! I wasn't expecting it
but when I stomped the accelerator I was pressed into my seat and it was
just a glorious feeling. It may not sound like much but it was 1.5 G, which
I know because it felt exactly like flying steep turns in an airplane and
that is also 1.5 G. Without consciously trying, I exited the turn precisely
where you're supposed to and, I'm embarrassed to admit, let out a mighty
whoop!whoop! although I'm perfectly aware that when you're alone in your
car, it's sufficient to _think_ whoop!whoop!
I can never get the Karrussel right in GPL, no matter how slowly I go. In
real life, it's easily the most enjoyable corner of the Ring for me. But
uh, why don't you try it out for yourself? Pick a day they're open, for a
change. (Boy, am I gonna enjoy rubbing that in for the remainder of this
thread)
-Laurens de Jong, The Netherlands.
