Rather than flying, we (me and the Bro) thought we'd give give his e60 520i a bit of a run... 2100 miles and 7 days later, we were back home.
Below is a sample of were we went and what we did
Hope you enjoy it!Back seat driving at is best- Satnav on the passenger rear window FTW!
End of day 1- A boring slog down the m74/m6/m1/m25 and m20
Day 2 started with a short Jolly down the m20 to the Channel tunnel- first time any of us had been on it- so lots of pictures were taken
carriages were made by the same lot that make the Glasgow Subway trains..they must be fans of tunnels or something!
We popped out the other side 35 mins later..and decided we should head somwhere good for dinner:
Can you guess where we went?
Yup, the Pistenklaus in Nurburg
Here's the 5er in the carpark
the old boy took enough of a shine to the Warsteiner that we were able to convince him to let my brother take him for a lap of the 'ring..handy how it was open on that day, eh?
This is the car looking moody in the carpark after its run- We've got pics of it heading out on track, but I dont have them here-will try to get them uploaded
Suffice to say, we learned 2 things:
1. The autobox doesnt like the back end of the lap (4km flat out uphill confuses it!)
2. m54b22 + e60 does not a fast car make
however, it was a good time, and there were lots of nice cars to drool over in the carpark..
A nice sedate run to the hotel in Karlsruhe was on the cards- the de-restricted autobahn suits the e60 down to the ground-so easy to lap up the miles..
Splitty!
End of day 2_ greeted by police escorting hundreds of rollerbladers down the streets of Karlsruhe- only mildly surreal after lots of driving
Day 3- Wake up and find this in the lobby- whole load of corporate folks staying there- not to mention pirelli girls
A reminder to the Girlfriend that I'm not the only person who keeps car parts in the flat
We were sitting in the innertribune, at the SachsKurve- an awesome view of several corners, and seemed to be a natural place for action
Day 4- stumble down to the garage to discover that someone has parked next to us to give their car some Kudos..
Rain and cars..Jagermeister and Warsteiner keep you warm!
Qualifying!
Day 5- Race Day!
the noise of 24 cars coming along as one train was EPIC! proper good old fashioned screaming, thundering, spitting, popping awesomeness
After the race, time for some track invasion..
the shuttle busses were great on the way into the track, but on the way out the traffic meant that they were going nowhere..so we elected to walk the 4km back to the car- 26 degrees, brilliant sunshine and the sound of the GP ringing in our ears..fantastic!
The fastest lotus there
The stands you can see from the autobahn
de-restricted autobahns are not always fast..
this sign cracked me up- very German, not 1500m, but 1450m
The view from our dinner table
The local brew in Karlsruhe was Hoepfner- available both filtered and unfiltered..an extremely pleasant pint and well worth trying!
Day 6- Running for the train!
We spent some time wandering the city, just to see what we could find..
Time to get a running
Pushing the range as far as we dared on the backroads to Luxembourg
A small cola
Blasting back through Belgium..the only place on the trip that made UK roads seem ok
Oldskool french!
The Joy of British Border Control..such a bunch of uncheery souls!
End of Day 6- Met my mate Gareth and headed to the Diner in Ashford- 50's style dinner at a garden centre surrounded by sheds and hotubs..food were guid!
Day 7- more m20/26/1/6/74 rubbish before arriving home..
A well earned rest for the e60
