Roo...look familiar

[truth]

a lap at the ring right click save as

[bad_roo]

Can't get that Ringtaxi link to function.

Have got a great section of video from this weekend. I'm driving the 350Z getting held up by a 911 GT2 through Hatzenbach. I move aside to let the M5 V10 Ringtaxi through and latch onto its tail as the 911 moves aside and we burn past the Porsche out of Hocheichen. I stick with the M5 up to Schwedenkreuz whereupon a biker bins it right in front of us onto the grass. An all-action 25 seconds. Unfortunately my PC with firewire and editing software is in pieces in Bournemouth, so I don't know when I can get it onto the net.

I stuck with the Ringtaxi all the way to Karusell - not bad given I had a 210bhp horspower deficit! - before another biker got between us and held me up. After that I couldn't catch the Ringtaxi up the hill. Damn, that thing has some torque. Got to do some data logging overlays from the VBOX comparing my laps with Nissan works driver Dirk Schoysmann. That made me look like I have some work to do...

On Tuesday I got to go to Millbrook test track and finally got my hands on the Evo IX FQ-320. Gave it a good blasting around the Hill Route and also got to give a few Maseratis and a Ferrari some death too. Laid the mother of all wheelspins on the high-speed bowl with a Monaro VXR.

Here's a few pics I snapped with my cameraphone:


New Evo IX at Millbrook test facility.


Photo session at the Karusell before the track opens for business.


Me driving the chase car with snapper firing pictures off by remote control.


My bud Steve chauffeurs me around the Hill Route at Milbrook in a Maserati Quattroporte.


Two old giffers in a Mustang about to get blown away by us in an M3 CS on Millbrook's high speed banked bowl.

[truth]

Sounds like fun. I'll see about fixing the link.

Try this link...

http://www.jwhubbers.nl/ring/sabine/taxi_vid.php

[bad_roo]

Sabine's good fun. She's running about an 8:38 bridge to gantry in that clip which is good pedalling given that there was an incident coming out of the Foxhole that caused her to slow down. I was running 8:40 BTG in the Nissan 350Z which is comparable. She was four up, I was two up with 110bhp less.

I don't have a race contract with BMW though...

Saw the Ringrtaxi pulled to the side of the track at one point this weekend and thought it had crashed. When I got nearer I realised one of the occupants was doubled over barfing on the verge.

[truth]

The thing that gets me is that her 8:38 with 4 up is also while talking, joking and gesturing...she's wicked smoove with that M5, really amazing touch in some of the double apex drifts. That spot where you shot the yellow Z pre-oprening looked rough as all hell in her lap...is it?

Is the Qauttroporte as lame as it seems? Seems they really missed the boat with it. I'd take an M5 over it in a heartbeat. The interior is ford parts bin cheap looking.

[bad_roo]

She laps pretty much all day on public days, so she probably has several thousand laps under her belt so she damn well ought to be good! On any objective measure you choose to take, she certainly cuts the mustard as a Ringtaxi driver. She'll even put her back end out if you ask nicely.

The Karusell is really bony. If you're sitting in the back of a car that really gives it some, it feels as if the rear suspension is trying to twist the ass off your car. It sounds utterly destructive. I've seen some old shots of the Karusell from the F1 era and it looks butter smooth. It really needs to be resurfaced but it's certainly dramatic. It's actually one of the easiest corners on the track, but it's the iconic bend that everyone who goes there for the first time wants to drive. The Foxhole is the corner that'll really fold you in half with big g-force and the exit of the Pflanzgarten is just astonishing. The boss just let me know that we've got a couple of days at Continental tyres' 'Contidrome' test track in Hannover booked before we head out to Spa for our Performance Car of the Year event in July. That should be ill.

That Quattroporte? Meh. It's OK, but I wouldn't trust a flaky Maser. I've run a few and they all wank their crank in pretty short order. An M5 would eat it for breakfast. Even an E55 AMG would have its measure.

[Z]

good read. I envy you, roo.

[snowsprite]

Me too!

Sprite

[Tippster]

No helmets required at the 'Ring, eh?

The racetracks around here aren't so forgiving.

[str8line]

Jesus Christ, somehow I ended up on page 101 of the Padded Room and the whole time(read through a few posts) I thought I was on page 1...time warp to 2005.

Stumbled onto this gem though.

fuck you Roo.

[AbsolutStoli]

good lord! roo, what do you do and how did you snag that job??