Saturday 21st April 2007

Gids and I were in convoy with Harry and Jeremy in the Black Ferrari 430, Brett and Chris in a Porsche 997 GT3, Nigel and Arnon in the Red Ferrari 430, David and Sarah in the Mercedes SL55 AMG and Tim and Ian in the Mercedes Mclaren SLR behind. What a fantastic site, having so many stunning cars cruising together!

The pace was building and different fuel capacities meant that certain cars were splicing off the motorway at different times for fuel. This also meant meeting up with other cars that we had not seen all day.

After around 150 miles most people were running low on petrol, so fuel stops were done en masse. And keeping in the spirit of the event, the car that got filled up first generally waited for the last cars to fill up.

It was much more fun travelling in a group, especially with all the cars having two-way radios. At one point Gary and David (the cameraman) in a Jaguar S Type R rejoined the motorway alongside us and then tucked up closely behind, as we picked our way through the traffic. As this cleared it was a great excuse for a good old drag race! I’d like to be able to report that my AMV8 smoked Gary’s Jaguar but that was not the case, embarassingly the Jaguar had the edge!

By this time stories from the Rabbit were starting to filter through, and then just as it seemed Tony and John in the Mercedes E55 AMG were within striking distance they got lost in Brussels!

Quickly, t he call came through that Adam and Matt in the Audi RS6 and Mike and Jeremy in the Blue Ferari 430 had passed the Rabbit. Lee and Joachim in the Aston Martin Vanquish and Chris and Steve in a Blue Audi RS6 had also decided to follow the detour to Brussels! Carl and Ian were out to prove that their pocket rocket Audi S3, one of the lowest powered cars on the event, was holding its own with the big boys.

As we all neared the Nurburgring on two or three different routes, it became apparent that most of the cars on the second train had been on a real charge and were now mixing it with cars from the first. Gids and I were 15 miles from the Nurburgring as the first guys started to arrive.

Amazingly Brett and Chris in the Porsche GT3 who were on the second train made it in 5th place.

As Gids and I arrived I saw a very disappointed looking Mike (blue Ferrari 430) “how did you get on?" I asked, “great” he said “we came 2nd, but look....” and pointed at the back of his Ferrari. Instead of four exhaust pipes there was only three, it would seem the pressure had taken its toll on the blue beast.

We parked in the secure car park and walked over to the karting circuit. With a few heats and then a grand final great fun was had by all, wel....nearly all! With only around 10 laps to go, David had to pit early. Unfortunately, whilst nailing it around the circuit he was sick, yes sick in this helmet, nice David, nice, I bet Sarah was well impressed.

After the karting, it was back to the hotel for a few beers on the sun kissed terrace and time to exchange stories of the day, followed by a quick change of clothes and then dinner, where David was sporting his newly washed fluffy clean hair!

After dinner the results of the day were displayed and then with a little help from our sponsors, names were pulled from a hat for the ring pairing at the infamous Nordschleife for the morning (the pairs would go out on the circuit together and the first to complete that lap wins further points). We then went to the bar and I can safely say Brett drank enough for everyone! So a bit of a late night that saw most of us retire between 2 and 3am.

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