Nige’s Nurburgring trackday report.It’s 2 trips in one post!
Discussion
I’ve had a few people tell me these reports are sometimes a bit too long to read in a single sitting and would I either make them smaller or post them over a couple of days.
I don't really want to make them smaller so I'll post them in stages. If you guys don't like that, tell me and I won't do it again
Donington Park last week was a complete success with zero car issues. My back to back testing of the closed and centrally vented bumper, showed a huge benefit in terms of oil and air cooling efficiency. Last weeks job was to cut out the middle of my bumper and try and do a neat job of it. I ran a closed bumper at last years Ringmeisters event but when we were chasing an overheating issue, we did a very rough and ready job of chopping a hole in that one. What made it worse, was the thermostat that had failed closed which was causing the overheating issue.
This bumper was sourced to replace that one and so I wanted to make sure the cut out was done as neatly as possible. Made a stainless surround with integrated mesh, this is before painting.
Only Matt, Cat and myself were able to attend this event as Lou is a key worker and was unable to get time off. Due to social distancing measures, we were unable to bring anyone else outside the household so Gav had to sit this one out
Finished work on the Tuesday, drove straight across to Hull and were on board the boat with 15 minutes to spare before the official gate closing time.
Our plan was to go onto the top deck for a beer, then as soon as the ship set sail we'd grab a pizza from Starbucks, go back to the room and watch a film.
The bar on the lower decks was closed to minimise people gathering.
On the sundeck we spotted Chris and Rob and so we joined them for a beer and a natter.
At around 20:30 we headed down to Starbucks with Chris and Rob to get some pizzas. When we were given the receipts to wait at the table, we saw that we were the only people who had ordered pizzas that evening. It was the emptiest I've ever seen the ferry and apart from us 5, there was only one other person in Starbucks.
Jonathan from Edinburgh Watch Company is a sponsor of the DN events and his son Connor joined us for an hours conversation before we called it a night and went to bed.
After getting showered we went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and heard repeated messages that wearing face masks whilst walking about the boat is compulsory. We were all very surprised at the number of people not wearing masks, the vast majority appeared to be freight drivers. Nobody wants to go around wearing a face mask, but in the current environment it has been decided that if everyone wears one, there is probably a reduced chance of catching/passing on Covid19. I really don't think it's such an onerous thing to do but apparently some people don't feel the same.
We had the quickest disembarkation I've ever had at Rotterdam and were on the motorway 30 minutes after docking.
Even though we've been coming to Germany several times a year since 2005, I still follow the satnav, especially as the current one has excellent real time traffic reporting. The satnav hadn't reported any traffic delays but I commented we didn't seem to be going the usual route. This was confirmed when going around the Antwerp ring-road and we arrived at a toll booth
After quickly scrabbling around for some loose change, we were off on our voyage of discovery along this new route which took us past Zolder.
The next hour passed pretty uneventfully and then we entered Germany and were onto the derestricted autobahns. As I am towing, that doesn't make any difference but we saw a bright red UK plated Porsche GT3 who went absolutely flying past. 20 minutes later the satnav popped up informing us of a delay on the route and asked if we wanted to take the suggested diversion. This was on a clear single track B road and about 25 minutes later we were back on the autobahn. I 'd loved to have heard the reaction of the red Porsche driver as he shot past us at well over 100mph for the second time
. He had obviously stayed on the autobahn stuck in the traffic whilst we had followed the diversion and probably didn`t understand how we were ahead.
Filled up at the ARAL with 102 RON as usual. Then dropped off the trailer at the guest house. Rather than having a face to face briefing as usual, Darren created an online version for people to complete before arriving. That meant all they needed to do was pick up their wrist bands and car numbers. This streamlining of the signing on process meant Darren didn't need our assistance this time so we just turned up, picked up our pack and spent the next hour chatting instead
After dropping the car off at the guesthouse, we walked up to the Pistonklause to join the others for a meal.
This was the first time I'd been out for a meal or a drink since March and I will be quite honest, it felt a bit weird being so close to so many people even though everyone was following the social distancing protocols.
Day One
Woke and looked out of the window to see a very wet driveway. The sky was very overcast and forecast of rain all day looked accurate. After breakfast I unloaded the trailer in the car park and we set up a couple of gazebos. One for the gate staff and the other one for whoever was going to be checking wristbands before people went out on circuit. We expected this to be for protection from the sun, but it turned out to be just as effective at keeping off the rain.
We still had a quick word with all the drivers going out for their sighting lap, reminding them of no overtaking until the green flags were waved, the only difference this time was we stood a couple of steps back from the car and spoke quite loudly whilst wearing masks and trying to drink a cuppa
These days are very quiet but I don't recall ever seeing so few people going out for sighting laps on a trackday. Quite a few of the drivers simply didn't bother driving today as the forecast was for sunshine tomorrow and they didn't fancy going out in the wet.
Cat came out with me for my sighting lap.
It only took a couple of corners to realise the circuit was VERY slippy. No big deal as I have driven enough laps in the wet to know to take it steady until you have a good understanding of the conditions. There was no rain falling and only a little bit of water on the track which meant my worn Direzzas were absolutely fine but I was ready to switch to the wets as soon as conditions worsened. The sighting laps don't really get the tyres warm so as soon as the circuit went green, I did a couple of laps on the bounce and then came in to adjust tyre pressures and soften the dampers a few clicks.
Matt came out for a couple of laps and even though I offered to let him have a drive, he declined explaining he has zero desire to drive a FWD car in these conditions as all it would do is make him wish he was in his E36 where he could have drifted a little bit instead.
Cat was my passenger for the next two laps and after a while, I saw a car in the distance which we were slowly catching. It turned out it was the R8 Ring Taxi and once we caught him, I sat back so I could watch his wet lines and hopefully learn a few tips. When following someone I don't know I always leave a decent sized gap, as usually they move over thinking you want to pass if you close up too much. Even though I've done a lot of wet laps I picked up a couple of very useful tips and lines that I have never tried myself which actually worked extremely well. In particular the exit of Weirseifen and the approach to the Karussel. I'd been struggling with braking zone for the Karussel and when I saw the line the Ring Taxi took, I commented to Cat that I would try that myself next time. Sure enough, there was far more grip and I didn't lock up at that point for the rest of the day once I switched to that entry. The rain was falling by now and I knew this would be the last lap on Direzzas before switching to the Toyos.
Later on that day, I saw the R8 driver and mentioned what a thoroughly enjoyable lap that had been and how useful I had found it following his wet lines. His immediate reply was, "What tyres were you running?". I am pretty sure he expected me to say full race wets, when I replied, "Just some old Direzzas", his face actually fell for a moment and he replied, "Oh"....
That lap was definitely one of the most enjoyable of the morning and also very informative.
Swapped over to the wets, which are actually soft compound 888's with a deeper tread cut into them. They are pretty good at clearing the water but aren't the grippiest wet weather tyre I've ever run. They are definitely a step up from the Direzzas but not as good as the full Pirelli race wets I ran a few years ago. It probably doesn`t help that they are from 2015 and are getting past their best now
We were just starting to get some heat into them when both Matt and I agreed it was time for a bite to eat so we broke for lunch.
As always, on the Ringmeister Prime events, food and drink is included free from the Devils Diner. I am never particularly hungry when on a track day and even less so on a day like today when the circuit doesn't actually stop for a lunch break.
Both Cat and Matt spent quite a bit of time checking wrist bands at the barrier and as it was so quiet were making note of the order in which the cars went out and then trying to guess who would have overtaken who on the lap. Even though I often say these events are quiet, I don't think people reading can fully understand just how quiet it can be.
Perhaps when I tell you a one point there were only seven cars on track and the most out at any one time during the day was 35 you may appreciate just how quiet it was!
I've known Simon Hart for quite a few years now and despite being on several trackdays together we've never made a conscious effort to go out together. This was something we wanted to address on this trip. We agreed that I'd follow for the first lap and then we'd switch and Simon would then follow me. The reason we had this discussion was so that the lead driver knew that even if the chase car positioned itself for what looked like an overtake, it was actually just a different line and in conditions like this it was simply for visibility.
As soon as we reached T13, both Matt and I commented that we were going to be soaked by the end of the laps. The roof scoop is incredibly efficient at feeding nice cool air into the cabin and it made a huge difference to driver and passenger comfort when I first installed it a few years ago. What it is also very good at is catching spray from the car ahead and dumping it into your lap
Simon has a couple of boost maps and can activate them from steering wheel mounted buttons just like me. I knew he wouldn't be using his 700 HP map in these conditions and both of us were surprised that on 1Bar the performance of our cars was almost identical. The downside to following close is reduced visibility and I certainly wouldn't do this with someone whose ability I wasn't as confident in. The amount of spray thrown up from the car ahead means even on full, the wipers sometimes struggle. Matt even commented going up Kesselshion how racing in these conditions must be very difficult at times. I always look well into the distance to identify deep water running across the circuit but when following close that is impossible and you end up reacting rather than anticipating. This was evident by a small moment exiting Flugplatz and a much bigger moment approaching the Pflangzaten jump where I ended up with a third of a turn of steering lock whilst going in a straight line! 9:14 on the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWehg8vAmYw
A few people had asked how the Golf was performing throughout the day and I had been delighted to be able to respond that it was going extremely well. What Matt and I noticed was a significant increase in oil consumption. This was quite strange as I certainly wasn't losing any externally which meant it had to be burning it instead but there was no visible smoke from the exhaust and even when I asked Simon to make note of it he said there was no oil vapour or smoke and if I hadn't told him it was burning oil he would have never known. Little did I know that these were the first signs of a developing engine issue.
The penultimate lap was going well until I braked for Metzgesfeld 2. There is a small bump in the braking zone and I must have caught it slightly different to the rest of the rest of the laps that day as the front wheels locked as soon as I touched the brake pedal. I don't have ABS and instinctively know to cadence brake when the front wheels lock. I release the brakes, press the pedal again and they locked for the second time. Hmmmmm... This was not ideal.
I started rapidly pumping the brake pedal but with less force than before and whilst it did slow the car, I had run out of tarmac. I am still not quite sure how I managed to keep the car out of the armco but I did! I noticed the curb dropping away sharply on the left so rather than immediately rejoining the circuit I aimed for the end of the curb where the grass was at the same level as the tarmac. The problem was this piece of grass I was driving along became too narrow and the rear left wheel dropped off the curb causing the car to slew sideways. This resulted in much arm twirling and me still managing to keep it out of the barrier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cvZShoqiZI
Martin from Frozenspeed was taking photos on the approach to Kallenhard but sadly didn't manage to catch my heroics.
Even though I knew that we'd had quite a big moment I was able to carry on driving as we quickly recognised and understood what had caused the near miss. I was particularly keen to do another lap so I didn't finish the day on a negative. The next time round I did brake a little earlier
The only signs of my off was some grass still stuck to the splitter and a slightly bent strake on the diffuser.
The forecast for tomorrow was drier so we switched back to the Direzzas before putting the Golf back on the trailer
.
As often happens at the Ring, the sun came out just as the driving finished, I've had this happen many many times during TF although in the past it usually started raining just as the track opened after being sunny all day. That did mean it was quite pleasant when we were giving the car a once over after the day.
Thursday night and we all met up in the Comfy Corner. Its become something of a tradition that we eat here at last once every trip. Not only because the food is excellent, but because Jorg is a good friend and it's always good to see him again.
tbc.
I don't really want to make them smaller so I'll post them in stages. If you guys don't like that, tell me and I won't do it again
July 2020. Ringmeisters Prime.
Part 1.
Donington Park last week was a complete success with zero car issues. My back to back testing of the closed and centrally vented bumper, showed a huge benefit in terms of oil and air cooling efficiency. Last weeks job was to cut out the middle of my bumper and try and do a neat job of it. I ran a closed bumper at last years Ringmeisters event but when we were chasing an overheating issue, we did a very rough and ready job of chopping a hole in that one. What made it worse, was the thermostat that had failed closed which was causing the overheating issue.
This bumper was sourced to replace that one and so I wanted to make sure the cut out was done as neatly as possible. Made a stainless surround with integrated mesh, this is before painting.
Only Matt, Cat and myself were able to attend this event as Lou is a key worker and was unable to get time off. Due to social distancing measures, we were unable to bring anyone else outside the household so Gav had to sit this one out
Finished work on the Tuesday, drove straight across to Hull and were on board the boat with 15 minutes to spare before the official gate closing time.
Our plan was to go onto the top deck for a beer, then as soon as the ship set sail we'd grab a pizza from Starbucks, go back to the room and watch a film.
The bar on the lower decks was closed to minimise people gathering.
On the sundeck we spotted Chris and Rob and so we joined them for a beer and a natter.
At around 20:30 we headed down to Starbucks with Chris and Rob to get some pizzas. When we were given the receipts to wait at the table, we saw that we were the only people who had ordered pizzas that evening. It was the emptiest I've ever seen the ferry and apart from us 5, there was only one other person in Starbucks.
Jonathan from Edinburgh Watch Company is a sponsor of the DN events and his son Connor joined us for an hours conversation before we called it a night and went to bed.
After getting showered we went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and heard repeated messages that wearing face masks whilst walking about the boat is compulsory. We were all very surprised at the number of people not wearing masks, the vast majority appeared to be freight drivers. Nobody wants to go around wearing a face mask, but in the current environment it has been decided that if everyone wears one, there is probably a reduced chance of catching/passing on Covid19. I really don't think it's such an onerous thing to do but apparently some people don't feel the same.
We had the quickest disembarkation I've ever had at Rotterdam and were on the motorway 30 minutes after docking.
Even though we've been coming to Germany several times a year since 2005, I still follow the satnav, especially as the current one has excellent real time traffic reporting. The satnav hadn't reported any traffic delays but I commented we didn't seem to be going the usual route. This was confirmed when going around the Antwerp ring-road and we arrived at a toll booth
After quickly scrabbling around for some loose change, we were off on our voyage of discovery along this new route which took us past Zolder.
The next hour passed pretty uneventfully and then we entered Germany and were onto the derestricted autobahns. As I am towing, that doesn't make any difference but we saw a bright red UK plated Porsche GT3 who went absolutely flying past. 20 minutes later the satnav popped up informing us of a delay on the route and asked if we wanted to take the suggested diversion. This was on a clear single track B road and about 25 minutes later we were back on the autobahn. I 'd loved to have heard the reaction of the red Porsche driver as he shot past us at well over 100mph for the second time
. He had obviously stayed on the autobahn stuck in the traffic whilst we had followed the diversion and probably didn`t understand how we were ahead.Filled up at the ARAL with 102 RON as usual. Then dropped off the trailer at the guest house. Rather than having a face to face briefing as usual, Darren created an online version for people to complete before arriving. That meant all they needed to do was pick up their wrist bands and car numbers. This streamlining of the signing on process meant Darren didn't need our assistance this time so we just turned up, picked up our pack and spent the next hour chatting instead
After dropping the car off at the guesthouse, we walked up to the Pistonklause to join the others for a meal.
This was the first time I'd been out for a meal or a drink since March and I will be quite honest, it felt a bit weird being so close to so many people even though everyone was following the social distancing protocols.
Day One
Woke and looked out of the window to see a very wet driveway. The sky was very overcast and forecast of rain all day looked accurate. After breakfast I unloaded the trailer in the car park and we set up a couple of gazebos. One for the gate staff and the other one for whoever was going to be checking wristbands before people went out on circuit. We expected this to be for protection from the sun, but it turned out to be just as effective at keeping off the rain.
We still had a quick word with all the drivers going out for their sighting lap, reminding them of no overtaking until the green flags were waved, the only difference this time was we stood a couple of steps back from the car and spoke quite loudly whilst wearing masks and trying to drink a cuppa
These days are very quiet but I don't recall ever seeing so few people going out for sighting laps on a trackday. Quite a few of the drivers simply didn't bother driving today as the forecast was for sunshine tomorrow and they didn't fancy going out in the wet.
Cat came out with me for my sighting lap.
It only took a couple of corners to realise the circuit was VERY slippy. No big deal as I have driven enough laps in the wet to know to take it steady until you have a good understanding of the conditions. There was no rain falling and only a little bit of water on the track which meant my worn Direzzas were absolutely fine but I was ready to switch to the wets as soon as conditions worsened. The sighting laps don't really get the tyres warm so as soon as the circuit went green, I did a couple of laps on the bounce and then came in to adjust tyre pressures and soften the dampers a few clicks.
Matt came out for a couple of laps and even though I offered to let him have a drive, he declined explaining he has zero desire to drive a FWD car in these conditions as all it would do is make him wish he was in his E36 where he could have drifted a little bit instead.
Cat was my passenger for the next two laps and after a while, I saw a car in the distance which we were slowly catching. It turned out it was the R8 Ring Taxi and once we caught him, I sat back so I could watch his wet lines and hopefully learn a few tips. When following someone I don't know I always leave a decent sized gap, as usually they move over thinking you want to pass if you close up too much. Even though I've done a lot of wet laps I picked up a couple of very useful tips and lines that I have never tried myself which actually worked extremely well. In particular the exit of Weirseifen and the approach to the Karussel. I'd been struggling with braking zone for the Karussel and when I saw the line the Ring Taxi took, I commented to Cat that I would try that myself next time. Sure enough, there was far more grip and I didn't lock up at that point for the rest of the day once I switched to that entry. The rain was falling by now and I knew this would be the last lap on Direzzas before switching to the Toyos.
Later on that day, I saw the R8 driver and mentioned what a thoroughly enjoyable lap that had been and how useful I had found it following his wet lines. His immediate reply was, "What tyres were you running?". I am pretty sure he expected me to say full race wets, when I replied, "Just some old Direzzas", his face actually fell for a moment and he replied, "Oh"....
That lap was definitely one of the most enjoyable of the morning and also very informative.
Swapped over to the wets, which are actually soft compound 888's with a deeper tread cut into them. They are pretty good at clearing the water but aren't the grippiest wet weather tyre I've ever run. They are definitely a step up from the Direzzas but not as good as the full Pirelli race wets I ran a few years ago. It probably doesn`t help that they are from 2015 and are getting past their best now
We were just starting to get some heat into them when both Matt and I agreed it was time for a bite to eat so we broke for lunch.
As always, on the Ringmeister Prime events, food and drink is included free from the Devils Diner. I am never particularly hungry when on a track day and even less so on a day like today when the circuit doesn't actually stop for a lunch break.
Both Cat and Matt spent quite a bit of time checking wrist bands at the barrier and as it was so quiet were making note of the order in which the cars went out and then trying to guess who would have overtaken who on the lap. Even though I often say these events are quiet, I don't think people reading can fully understand just how quiet it can be.
Perhaps when I tell you a one point there were only seven cars on track and the most out at any one time during the day was 35 you may appreciate just how quiet it was!
I've known Simon Hart for quite a few years now and despite being on several trackdays together we've never made a conscious effort to go out together. This was something we wanted to address on this trip. We agreed that I'd follow for the first lap and then we'd switch and Simon would then follow me. The reason we had this discussion was so that the lead driver knew that even if the chase car positioned itself for what looked like an overtake, it was actually just a different line and in conditions like this it was simply for visibility.
As soon as we reached T13, both Matt and I commented that we were going to be soaked by the end of the laps. The roof scoop is incredibly efficient at feeding nice cool air into the cabin and it made a huge difference to driver and passenger comfort when I first installed it a few years ago. What it is also very good at is catching spray from the car ahead and dumping it into your lap
Simon has a couple of boost maps and can activate them from steering wheel mounted buttons just like me. I knew he wouldn't be using his 700 HP map in these conditions and both of us were surprised that on 1Bar the performance of our cars was almost identical. The downside to following close is reduced visibility and I certainly wouldn't do this with someone whose ability I wasn't as confident in. The amount of spray thrown up from the car ahead means even on full, the wipers sometimes struggle. Matt even commented going up Kesselshion how racing in these conditions must be very difficult at times. I always look well into the distance to identify deep water running across the circuit but when following close that is impossible and you end up reacting rather than anticipating. This was evident by a small moment exiting Flugplatz and a much bigger moment approaching the Pflangzaten jump where I ended up with a third of a turn of steering lock whilst going in a straight line! 9:14 on the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWehg8vAmYw
A few people had asked how the Golf was performing throughout the day and I had been delighted to be able to respond that it was going extremely well. What Matt and I noticed was a significant increase in oil consumption. This was quite strange as I certainly wasn't losing any externally which meant it had to be burning it instead but there was no visible smoke from the exhaust and even when I asked Simon to make note of it he said there was no oil vapour or smoke and if I hadn't told him it was burning oil he would have never known. Little did I know that these were the first signs of a developing engine issue.
The penultimate lap was going well until I braked for Metzgesfeld 2. There is a small bump in the braking zone and I must have caught it slightly different to the rest of the rest of the laps that day as the front wheels locked as soon as I touched the brake pedal. I don't have ABS and instinctively know to cadence brake when the front wheels lock. I release the brakes, press the pedal again and they locked for the second time. Hmmmmm... This was not ideal.
I started rapidly pumping the brake pedal but with less force than before and whilst it did slow the car, I had run out of tarmac. I am still not quite sure how I managed to keep the car out of the armco but I did! I noticed the curb dropping away sharply on the left so rather than immediately rejoining the circuit I aimed for the end of the curb where the grass was at the same level as the tarmac. The problem was this piece of grass I was driving along became too narrow and the rear left wheel dropped off the curb causing the car to slew sideways. This resulted in much arm twirling and me still managing to keep it out of the barrier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cvZShoqiZI
Martin from Frozenspeed was taking photos on the approach to Kallenhard but sadly didn't manage to catch my heroics.
Even though I knew that we'd had quite a big moment I was able to carry on driving as we quickly recognised and understood what had caused the near miss. I was particularly keen to do another lap so I didn't finish the day on a negative. The next time round I did brake a little earlier
The only signs of my off was some grass still stuck to the splitter and a slightly bent strake on the diffuser.
The forecast for tomorrow was drier so we switched back to the Direzzas before putting the Golf back on the trailer
.
As often happens at the Ring, the sun came out just as the driving finished, I've had this happen many many times during TF although in the past it usually started raining just as the track opened after being sunny all day. That did mean it was quite pleasant when we were giving the car a once over after the day.
Thursday night and we all met up in the Comfy Corner. Its become something of a tradition that we eat here at last once every trip. Not only because the food is excellent, but because Jorg is a good friend and it's always good to see him again.
tbc.
I always enjoy these reports, long or short. Please do keep them coming. I especially love the fact that you get to share these experiences with your kids. Those grins can't be faked.
I'm disappointed not to make it this year, but I have a suspicion that the restrictions would make it much less enjoyable.
I'm disappointed not to make it this year, but I have a suspicion that the restrictions would make it much less enjoyable.
Edited by C70R on Monday 5th October 18:56
C70R said:
I always enjoy these reports, long or short. Please do keep them coming. I especially love the fact that you get to share these experiences with your kids. Those grins can't be faked.
I'm disappointed not to make it this year, but I have a suspicion that the restrictions would make it much less enjoyable.
I've said it several times in many of my reports, a big part of trackdays for me is the social side. yes of course I go to actually drive but being able to do it with friends is a bonus and the fact all my family enjoy the days as much as me is something I'm incredibly thankful for.I'm disappointed not to make it this year, but I have a suspicion that the restrictions would make it much less enjoyable.
Whilst it's different this year, I`m still glad I made the visit. I still had a very enjoyable time but I do know what you mean.
NWMark said:
Much prefer the long epic posts - great to read with a brew!
but as long as they keep coming i dont mind tbh
Hmm. Now I'm not sure which way to go.but as long as they keep coming i dont mind tbh
Tell you what, I'll put part 2 here then tomorrow DN24.
If people have a preference, please let me know. I'm only splitting it after a few people mentioned some of them were a bit long and they'd prefer it over a few days. I knew I'd end up with people asking for one long post instead
Day Two
Friday morning saw light cloud with a forecast of much better weather to come. This is more like it.
Cat helped take the Golf off the trailer, but decided that was as far as she wanted to drive it!
Sighting laps with Matt and we both agreed that within an hour it would be suitable conditions to fit the slicks when the tarmac finished drying.
The next two laps with Cat showed that we would probably have to revise our plan as the surface was drying really quickly.
The idea was to get up to speed on slicks and then do another chase/follow session with Simon. Joining the circuit he went past so I took the opportunity to tag onto the back of him. I knew we were both on Direzzas which meant neither car had a tyre advantage. Same as yesterday, the cars were very similar in performance on the 1Bar boost setting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXxgMasSNK4
We agreed to do a flying lap and then come back into the car park. Flat out down the main straight saw a gps speed of 159.6mph, this meant 165mph was definitely achievable when I turned up the power.
Braking for Aremberg and I thought I heard the engine note change but accelerating down the Foxhole and checking the gauges didn't show anything amiss and the acceleration seemed okay.
As I slowed for Adenau Forest, Matt asked, "Did you hear the engine note change?".
I responded, "Yes. I don't know what it is though, lets see how it accelerates towards Metgestsfeld". It seemed to pull okay in third and fourth but it just didn't feel quite right so we drove the rest of the lap on part throttle to make sure we didn't make it worse.
The trailer was in the overflow car park along with all my tools. First we checked the data log but that didn't show anything and apart from a slightly richer fuel mixture everything seemed ok. I noticed when reviewing the logs last night that the AFR had been dropping through the day, this is strange as it is usually rock solid. I suspected it was due to the massive increase in oil consumption yesterday. No connectors were loose so we removed the plugs and fitted the compression tester.
Cylinder 1, 2 & 3 were all within 0.25Bar of each other
cylinder 4 was at Zero !
I suspected this was day over
I was going to just put the car on the trailer. However Matt pointed out I wouldn't be able to take any passenger laps so it was worth spending a bit more time trying to diagnose the issue. First off we removed the inlet manifold as it is pretty easy to do and both inlet valves were opening and closing with no visible problems. Now the exhaust manifold had cooled, we could remove the turbo and manifold. Looking into the exhaust ports didn't reveal anything obvious. Next step was to remove the cylinder head and by this point we knew it wasn't going to be a simple fix.
With the head off we first looked at the pistons and didn't see anything obvious apart from looking quite oily.
Both camshafts removed so we could manually push onto the tappet to open and close each valve. None appeared to be sticking and all operated freely. Turning over the cylinder head and the problem was immediately obvious.
I had a melted exhaust valve in cylinder 4
. My spare 'ready to fit' cylinder head was on a shelf in the garage at home, so no quick fix today. When I say my spare head, I mean one of them...
I suspect the oil hugely affected the combustion process and caused build up on the exhaust valve seat. As the majority of valve cooling takes place when the valve is closed through the valve seat the valve apparently overheated on the flat out run from Flugplatz to Schredenkreutz.
This shows the high spots where only part of the valve was touching the seat metal to metal instead of the full diameter.
That's what you call a burned exhaust valve !
Incredibly the Turbine was undamaged.
Strangely I wasn't as depressed as Ringmeisters 2019. That was simply me not understanding the freshly installed accusump. This appears to have been an internal engine failure and not something I could have avoided. We'd already agred that we would strip the engine upon our return to get to the bottom of the oil usage so it wasn't as if I didn't plan to fix whatever the issue was, but as the engine felt to be running as normal there was no indication of a need to stop driving any sooner.
There were two steps to address this failure.
No.1 to fix the oil usage which would stop the build up on the valve seat.
No.2 to replace the standard exhaust valves with some uprated Inconel ones, so even if this issue happened again the valves wouldn't melt before I had time to fix the problem.
Whenever I have an issue or failure not only do I fix it, but I try to improve the build to stop a reoccurrence. I am well aware that I will get the odd weird issue,but I try really hard to ensure I never get the same fault twice.
Whilst Matt and I were pulling the Golf engine to bits Cat had been womaning the barrier. Roy took over for a while so she could bring us some chips and nuggets for lunch.
We were just about to push the Golf onto the trailer when we spotted a Dutch guy getting his trailer stuck. He was trying to tow uphill on the loose surface, the front wheels were spinning and the van and trailer slid sideways, wedging the back of the trailer against a large boulder. Grabbing a strap I drove across in the X5 and towed the van and trailer up the hill. As I was pulling away I could feel the individual wheels scrabbling for grip as the car shuffled the torque around.
What made this failure particularly frustrating was by now the temperature was in the high 20's and track conditions were amazing.
Over the years I have realised I am quite pragmatic about these sort of things. I understand there is a risk of failure with a highly developed car, but damn, why are the worst ones on the best events
Chatting to people in the car park for the last few hours was enjoyable, although standing by the barrier watching people lapping in what turned out to be perfect conditions was irritating.
Cat and I met cars leaving the circuit at the end of the day to collect Transponders as people often forget and have to be chased after the event.
After packing up, had a quick shower and walked up to Zur Nurburg. We've started going here on the last night, its good food and within walking distance so I can have a couple of beers just to chill at the end of the event.
Had a very enjoyable evening together. This group have been going to the Ring together since 2005, some even earlier and it became one of those evenings of sharing tales from years ago. The Ring is a large part of all our lives and evenings like this, having a laugh with good friends is not something I can see ending any time soon
After a leisurely start the next morning we loaded up the Golf, called in Lidl for our usual restocking of wine for Lou and had one of the best drives across Europe to Rotterdam I can recall having. It's weird how some trips seem to have delays from road works and traffic and others like this one, where its completely delay free.
Rather than eat in the bar, we ordered pizzas and ate them in the room whilst having a beer.
We had downloaded the F1 and watched that whilst eating.
Thats two Ringmeister Prime events in a row where I've had engine issues
.What makes it doubly frustrating is I've had none at any other time in the last two years. I know the long straights at the Ring stress the engine more than anywhere else but I've done plenty other Ring track days without a problem. I know we can't choose when things break and I do all I can to avoid failures but it is bloody upsetting when they happen on the best track days. As I mentioned earlier I wasn't as upset as you'd think about this. Something broke in what has been a very reliable engine and has been seriously abused over many 1,000's of track miles. I still haven't been able to pinpoint what broke, but the new engine seems to be spot on at the moment.
I often get comments about the Golf, "always breaking" and reports like this are the ones that stick in peoples minds but since Ringmeisters last year I have done 9 track days with zero engine issues. By that I mean absolutely no problems at all apart from adding a bit of oil and fuel. Those reports have no issues and people quickly forget them. Of course I would like 100% reliability but do understand like anyone who runs a track car, that sometimes things just break despite all your efforts.
This was still a very enjoyable trip and spending time with good friends is a huge part of why I do these events, those good memories are what I choose to remember rather than the issues.
Engine rebuild
Shortly after the engine build in 2015, I replaced the OEM pistons and twin head gaskets with some Wossner low compression pistons. Since then, I've heard nothing but bad things about them from the 1.8T guys. It's so bad that most engine builders refuse to fit them
. I wasn't aware of any issues until I ran the engine low on oil at Ringmeisters in 2019, when upon disassembly and inspection I noticed severe wear to the Gudgeon pins.
I put this down to the low oil pressure even though I was surprised that the hardened pins had worn and not the bronze insert in the conrod.
I ordered four genuine replacements from Wossner and fitted those during the rebuild.
This week, when inspecting the engine trying to find the source of the oil consumption, I found that yet again, pins had worn!
This was completely unexpected. I run rifle-drilled conrods with under piston oil squirters. Since this engine was built, it has never run on low oil pressure. There is no way these should be wearing and if there was an issue in this area, I would expect the bronze bush in the conrod to wear first not the hardened pin.
This left me with no faith in the materials used during construction. Unfortunately, I didn't accurately measure the pistons before 1st assembly so I am unaware if they have shrunk like they do in the 1.8T.
Rather than buy another set of pins which I fully expect to wear in a year and need replacing yet again, I bit the bullet, after plenty of research I bought a set of pistons by Wiseco which have a very good reputation. I bought 0.5mm oversize which would allow a machine shop to rebore the spare engine block allowing for a perfect hone finish.
The new pistons are the FSR designed piston skirt, whether I will actually notice any difference whatsoever is debatable.
The spare block was cleaned and then rebored to Wiseco specifications of exactly 83.00mm.
The cylinder head was inspected and I found light pitting on the exhaust valve seats. I spoke to the machine shop and they said that would easily cut out without removing as much material as I feared.
The cylinder head required 8 new exhaust valve guides but the inlets had almost no wear and the machine shop did not recommend changing them. The head was checked for level and was found to have no distortion and did not require a skim so after a light recut of the exhaust valve seats it was ready for a very light valve lap with fine paste to get the perfect seal. Even though the inlets were matched the the corresponding port, they needed a tiny bit of lapping.
The big end bearings I fitted last year showed almost no wear. Checking this with plasti gauge confirmed this so they were reused. The accusump is used before starting and this ensures the engine always has oil pressure when turning, either being started or when on track. The condition of the bearings backs up the low oil pressure on starting or in use causes bearing wear which is what you'd expect
Piston ring gaps were set to 'Blown Race Only' taking dimensions from the supplied paperwork.
83mm converted to inches then multiplied by the ring gap per inch from the table above gives 0.022"
I used a Dremel with a cutting disk cable tied to a board to grind the piston ring. The pins you can see were used to ensure it stayed square to the disk. I practiced on an old ring to get a gauge of how much pressure was required to take material off the piston ring. Its one of those jobs that just takes patience and a little bit at a time rather than trying to take it all off n one go.
The piston ring was squared in the bore by using an old piston with a ring in the corresponding groove to the new ring being measured. This ensures the new ring sits square in the bore.
Matt bought a great set of feeler gauges when we were setting the valve clearances on his solid lifter S54 engine. One half is even, the other is odd. This is the even side going up in 0.002" increments. Not having to stack feeler gauges to get the required thickness makes life much easier.
Piston ring gapped, adjustment only made on one end ensuring the finished gap is parallel.
A set of inconel exhaust valves were sourced from SuperTech. I don't believe these are critical but as I mentioned in the trip report, I wanted to fix the oil consumption cause which I am doing with the new bottom end using a new block and pistons. I am also putting measures in place to ensure that even if I have the same failure in the future, the uprated exhaust valves won't melt by fitting the inconel ones.
The Supertech valves are the same length as the original valves, but the seat is closer to the edge. As I would soon find out, this is a problem.
The valve on the left is from an ABF head and uses a 3-groove collet. The middle one is from a KR head and uses a single groove collet as does the Supertech valve
The seat is definitely closer to the edge on the Supertech.
All lifters were stripped and cleaned before reuse
Head ready for assembly with Standard inlet valves, Supertech Inconel exhaust valves and Supertech uprated inlet and exhaust stem seals
Head assembled, you can see the top spring retainers are different on the single collet exhaust valves
Ready to fit !
The single collet spring top platform sits lower down the valve stem so I measured the springs to ensure they weren't coil-bound. The spring preload increased by 2mm. The KR heads run the same springs but as the valve sits further into the combustion chamber and that adds more preload. I took this photo back in August when I was measuring up before the actual build to check. I'm comfortable that mine are fine as they are compressed less than the KR and more than the ABF, both of which use the same springs from VW
The oil squirter had to be modified to clear the piston skirt and the conrod. By grinding a corner off the base the whole squirter could be rotated slightly, then carefully bent to ensure it fit between the conrod and piston skirt whilst still aiming in the right place.
All pistons fitted. Crank was plastigauged before assembly and showed absolutely no wear from when it was fitted in 2019.
The standard MLS Head gasket is still suitable, you can see the oversize bore is still a smaller diameter than the head gasket.
Engine was fully assembled and refitted. Refilled with running in oil and turned over to get oil pressure with the plugs removed and injectors disconnected. This allows the engine to turn with no load on the bearings whilst oil pressure is built up.
When it finally started it ran badly. I mean really badly. They always sound bad when the lifters have been stripped but this was worse than ever
After a LOT of investigation I found the issue.
Some of these photos have been exaggerated to highlight what the problem was.
The valves are all exactly the same length
From measuring valve stem to deck clearance I found the new exhaust valves were sitting higher than the stock ones.
Remember the photo of the new valve and the seat being closer to the head of the valve ? This means it sits lower in the head, which in turn lifts the end of the stem higher !
With the valve seat aligned, the issue at the other end is clear.
The problem was, the valve was sitting so tall that even when fully compressed the piston in the centre of the hydraulic lifter wouldn't compress enough to allow the valve to fully close ! If I had been using solid tappets that wouldn't have been an issue as I'd have just fitted thinner shims but with hydraulic tappets that wasn't an option.
When the cam was rotated so the base circle was touching the tappet, the valve was held open just under 0.8mm. I hadn`t noticed this when building the head as the valve visually appeared to be seated when looking into the combustion chamber. It looked just like a standard exhaust valve.
After a lot of head scratching I came up with a solution. The piston in the centre of the tappet is split into 3 major components.
The outer tappet, piston, spring and the bucket. The piston actually has a removeable cap and ball bearing but that doesn't need splitting
When compressed, the piston doesn`t fully insert into the bucket The end is still polished as can be seen on this photo, that`s the bit that never goes inside the bucket as the internal spring is coil-bound.
As an expermient I manually ground down a piston by 2.5mm.
The smaller piston ready to fit into the bucket.
I also reduced the bucket height by 0.8mm. No point making the piston shorter if the bucket becomes the limiting issue
That was assembled and fitted into a tappet. Cams refitted and I could now further compress the tappet when the cam base-circle was touching the housing. Basically, the valve wasn't being held open by the tappet and the piston could compress into the bucket sufficiently.
Took a handful of tappet-pistons to a local machine shop and they turned them down by 2.2mm
Assembled the 8 tappets, refitted into the head and the engine started and after the initial noise whilst the tappets filled it ran smoothly. What a relief !
This was far more work than I expected. After speaking to a friend who has just built a head with supertech valves, he measured the lash and found exactly the same issue. His seats had only been cut once and the valve was only held open by 0.4mm, but that's obviously unacceptable and he's going to modify the tappets the same way I did.
We could get the valve stem machined down but that would move the collet closer to the end and I don't want to introduce a possible failure point.
I`ve been in touch with Supertech about this and it's something they are looking into for the next batch of valve they manufacture. As I mentioned earlier, most people who fit these go for the full supertech top end which is titanium retainers, new springs and most importantly solid lifters. All they do it fit thinner shims so this isn't an issue. I don't need all that extra stuff, it's just if you are chasing high revs which I'm not, hence sticking with the hydraulic ones.
The engine was run in over a week when I had chance, the oil was drained and refilled with 10W40 synthetic and I have since completed several trackdays where oil consumption is back to the miniscule levels I expect. A much more involved rebuild that expected but for the abuse the engine gets, it was necessary.
Next. Back to the ring for DN24...
Edited by Wh00sher on Tuesday 6th October 06:28
Keep them coming. The more I read, the less I feel like I missed out this year! Thank you for taking the time to write this up - although I suspect you get some pleasure from it too.
That update was a roller coaster, as many of your more 'interesting' reports tend to be. I think your mechanical failures tend to stick in most people's minds because of the level of detail that you go into. As with many things in life, nobody remembers when it all went to plan. Either way, we'd all be much the poorer if you didn't share in this level of detail.
I've joked before about your "and it was a good job I had a spare to hand" in the past, but 7 cylinder heads is excellent prep!
That update was a roller coaster, as many of your more 'interesting' reports tend to be. I think your mechanical failures tend to stick in most people's minds because of the level of detail that you go into. As with many things in life, nobody remembers when it all went to plan. Either way, we'd all be much the poorer if you didn't share in this level of detail.
I've joked before about your "and it was a good job I had a spare to hand" in the past, but 7 cylinder heads is excellent prep!
C70R said:
Keep them coming. The more I read, the less I feel like I missed out this year! Thank you for taking the time to write this up - although I suspect you get some pleasure from it too.
That update was a roller coaster, as many of your more 'interesting' reports tend to be. I think your mechanical failures tend to stick in most people's minds because of the level of detail that you go into. As with many things in life, nobody remembers when it all went to plan. Either way, we'd all be much the poorer if you didn't share in this level of detail.
I've joked before about your "and it was a good job I had a spare to hand" in the past, but 7 cylinder heads is excellent prep!
Mate, it`s always great to hear people actually enjoy reading these ! I`ve written trip reports since I bought the first Golf back in 2005 and I shared my build details ever since. I occasionally read back some of the old trip reports and it usually brings a smile to my face remembering some detail I`d forgotten.That update was a roller coaster, as many of your more 'interesting' reports tend to be. I think your mechanical failures tend to stick in most people's minds because of the level of detail that you go into. As with many things in life, nobody remembers when it all went to plan. Either way, we'd all be much the poorer if you didn't share in this level of detail.
I've joked before about your "and it was a good job I had a spare to hand" in the past, but 7 cylinder heads is excellent prep!
They take ages to write up but the majority of this next part was written up on the way back from the trip. Cat was typing it up as I dictated and drove back to the UK
You are absolutely right about people remembering the problems, it`s human nature I guess. I still get people saying "This is the golf that had the blowout at 130mph !" That was in 2016 but it`s still the first thing they remember
.PGNSagaris said:
Really enjoy the single long posts Nige.
Whomever said it is too much is a fool.
Love reading these and appreciate the time you take to put pen to paper so to speak.
Thanks. They are time consuming and a quick "I enjoyed that" is always nice to read Whomever said it is too much is a fool.
Love reading these and appreciate the time you take to put pen to paper so to speak.
Destination Nurburgring 24
September 2020
Covid-19 meant this trip almost didn't happen. UK government kept adding countries to the none exempt list which meant I'd have to quarantine for 14 days upon my return if Germany was added to that list. That's not possible for me or Lou. Our usual crossing is via the Hull > Rotterdam overnight ferry but as that disembarks in the Netherlands, that would trigger a return quarantine. After reading all the guidelines I found that if I crossed via the EuroTunnel, drove through France and Belgium into Germany without stopping, we would not need to quarantine upon our return.
The Hull crossing was cancelled and added to my ever growing list of credited crossing for 2021. Booked the EuroTunnel and I could finally look forward to the trip.
Left home at 06:00 ready for the drive to Dover.
Cat brought snacks !
It only took around 5 hours to get to Folkestone. We stretched our legs and had a break in the tunnel terminal before boarding the train.
The actual crossing itself was the usual 30 minutes, a guy was walking down the carriage decontaminating whilst we stayed in the car. This pandemic has obviously had an effect on everyone and even though the Euro Tunnel is the only cross channel route people can take without a quarantine, there were only 6 vehicles on the train!
The drive through France seemed to be over in the blink of an eye, but as always, Belgium seemed to go on forever and it was a relief to cross the border into Germany and stop at a McDonalds for a drink and a short break after not stopping or getting out of the car since Dover.
The last leg of the drive was just over an hour to Nurburg via the ARAL where we filled up the golf and fuel containers with the 102ron fuel. I've been asked several times if the Golf makes more power on this, but I only use it for the increased knock resistance it gives. I could map it with more aggressive timing for use when on 102, but I am not chasing a few extra horsepower. It's much easier to be able to fill up 98, 99 or 102 and just drive it. The flat out sections at the Ring are much longer than anywhere in the UK and these put more strained stress on the engine so this extra safety from the better fuel is worth the extra cost to me.
After a quick shower we walked up into Nurburg and met Ian and Jude for a meal in Mama Mia. We were all tired after the drive so after a catch up and a nice meal, we called it a night around 10pm.
Tuesday was a free day so we did some sightseeing, had a pleasant drive down to the Geierlay Suspension Bridge. It was a perfect day to visit, nice and warm with great visibility.
The actual crossing itself was operating under a 1 way system with it open for one hour travel in each direction which meant a bit of queueing before you could actually cross but it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday evening we met up with Karl, Claire and Darren for a meal at the Blau Ecke. Since the renovations its a lot nicer and the food is excellent. It was a great way to end a pretty relaxing day.
Wednesday morning was the highlight of Lou's trip. A friend breeds retrievers and is only an hour away from the Ring.
We then had 2 hours of, "aaaaaah" and "can we have one please?".
I must admit, that they are rather cute, but whilst we are all working its simply not fair to have a dog left in the house all day. When we retire, I'm pretty certain it won't be long before a puppy joins our household.
This was the first de restricted autobahn I'd driven without a trailer since buying this X5 a couple of years ago. The temptation to put my foot down was too much to resist. Didn't manage to get a long enough straight to get it to fully max out, the highest we saw on the speedo was 149mph and still slowly accelerating. You could definitely feel the buffeting from passing other cars or lorries. Its not really surprising when you consider how big the X5 actually is.
The sign-on was held at the E-Sports bar again and this is turning out to be the best venue we've used. The huge carpark makes things a lot less stressful for people arriving to sign on. The briefing is done electronically before the event so all people need to do is turn up and collect their briefing pack and transponder.
The bar owner explained we could only have a maximum of 30 people inside at any one time so at times, there was a little bit of a queue outside. I stood and chatted to the people whilst they were queueing as its always good to catch up with people I haven't seen since the last event and to also meet new attendees, some of whom have only driven on TF before. I spoke to Wilson, one of those drivers at the end of the second day and he said that the quality of laps he'd been able to drive was far better than the TF laps he was used to and although he enjoyed the variety of TF, he felt it would be difficult to go back to only driving that after having had such a good track day experience.
Paul had driven across his GT3 replacement, the new Aston. I saw more people taking photos of that than ever did of the GT3.
After a couple of hours the sign on was finished, so we packed up, got changed and went down to Pinocchios for a meal. We don't come every year as the pizzas are ok but nothing amazing but it's still a good night out at sensible prices with enough leftover for lunch tomorrow.
Day One
The alarm was set for 06:00 but I was awake and in the shower well before then. After the issues on the previous trip, I thought I'd be nervous but after the trouble free shake down at Anglesey, I was excited rather than apprehensive.
The weather forecast had been for two dry and sunny days and the sun was just starting to show itself as I unloaded the Golf from the trailer.
One of the biggest thing that Darren keeps mentioning is to ensure that everyone had a safe event and the biggest way to help achieve this aim is to ensure all drivers understand the overtaking rules. The sighting laps run from 08:00 to 09:00 and we stop every car before they go out for the first time and give them a very quick 15 second reminder that once the track goes green at 09:00, its overtaking, by consent, on the left hand side only. Most drivers are happy to have this little chat, but a few look at you with disdain, I simply explain to them that whilst this reminder isn't aimed at them specifically, it is at those who may be tempted to overtake the wrong side or without consent and once they realise that every driver is getting the same chat, they understand and accept it. I usually take the Golf out for the last 10 minutes so I can get a clear lap in before the track goes green, just to make sure there are no issues.
I wore out the Direzzas at Anglesey, we fitted some Pilot Sport 2's that Matt had picked up cheaply.
The plan was to run them for a couple of sessions just to see what they were like and to decide if I was keeping them or swapping for something else. They worked well, got up to operating temperature very quickly and offered good grip and feel. They certainly squeal more than the Direzzas but they are perfectly adequate to run when it's too wet or cold for slicks. Rather than wear these out, we fitted a set of slicks once we had some data for the Cup 2's. I buy the slicks from the Mini challenge cars, they are used and passed their best but I really don't care. They are cheap, in plentiful supply and are as grippy as a new set of Direzzas. The main benefit is I can do several laps without stopping and the front tyres don't overheat, but treaded tyres only seem to last 2 and a half laps before getting too warm and start to understeer a little.
Even though I knew they were cold and needed a good few miles to warm up, the ease at which the rear tyres let go as I turned into T13, requiring quite a lot of opposite lock caught me off guard.
After each session I downloaded the ECU data log so I could tweak the fueling. I have a dyno session booked in a few weeks but he couldn't fit me in before this event. The new engine is a slightly different compression ratio and needed some tweaks to the fueling. The easiest way to do this is with some pulls from 3,000rph to red line in 4th or 5th gear, collect the data, adjust the fueling and repeat. Each session allowed me to further optimise the fuel table and by the end of the day, the fuel AFR trace was just how I wanted it.
I have known Neil for a number of years and we've each had passenger laps with each other and know how each other drives. Coming down the main straight I closed up behind him and when he moved to the right to let me past I also moved to the right, signalling that I wanted to follow instead of overtake. Once he understood I then closed up to him to make sure he was happy with the distance between us and after he gave a wave of acknowledgement, we were off. I don't recall ever following someone as close for as long as I did this lap. You really have to concentrate, not only on driving the lap, but also watching the car ahead to ensure you don't get even closer or fall back too far. We both enjoyed the lap and Neil said it would be useful for him to look back and critique his lines. When reviewing the footage that evening, I found the camera was vibrating inside the case mount so the footage wasn't something we'd be able to use. Oh well, we'll have to do it again tomorrow!
Matt and I pulled out of the car park behind the R8 Ring Taxi. It was the same one I'd chased in the wet at Ringmeisters. At Adenau Forest I commented to Matt that I probably needed to refuel after this lap. I didn't follow too closely as I don't want someone who has paid for a lap in an R8, to look in the mirror and see a MK2 Golf hassling them all the time so I kept a respectful distance from him, deploying high boost when he started to pull away on some straights. We were just exiting the Kaussel when the engine missfired and hesitated. A glance at the digital dash showed I had low fuel pressure. This meant the swirl pot was almost empty. What followed was a very pedestrian crawl back to the pits saving as much fuel as possible. It was a shame as that was one of the more enjoyable laps of the morning.
Whilst refueling there was a red flag whilst a car was recovered that they were unable to collect when the circuit was live. Unfortunately it also started to rain but only lightly. The track was reopened a few minutes later and it was time for more lapping. The circuit was wet in places but there was no standing water and slicks were already up to temperature so I was able to continue driving at a good pace.
The problem was that I was unable to keep the rear tyres warm. They simply don't get worked hard enough and after 4 laps they were so cold that I had to stop and change to something more suitable.
The difficult decision was what tyres to fit. The R1R's are more suited to standing water and were a softer compound. They are 5 years old now and it takes a while to get them warm but once they are up to temperature they work well. The Cup 2's are better on a drying track or with less water so I elected to fit the R1R's on the rear and the Cup 2's on the front. Even if it started to dry, this wouldn't burn up the rears but I would be able to get them warm enough in the wet.
It rained heavier later on in the day but this combination proved to work very well and I never changed it. I caught up with Freddie and tucked in behind to follow but he kept his indicator on making it clear he didn't want me behind. That's fine, sometimes I feel the same and just want to drive my own lap without anyone else being involved.
The wet seems to put off a lot of drivers and quite a few called it a day and left the circuit. This meant those of us who continued to lap had an almost empty Nurburgring.
At Snetterton I'd recorded a lap for a friend who was going there for the first time and asked if I could give him some pointers. The lap consisted of me talking to camera explaining my braking points, lines through corners and anything else I thought he may find useful. I said I would try and do one for the Ring. Cat was my passenger and we were doing 3 laps in this session.
I told her the next lap would be one where I tried to talk throughout the lap. You may read this and think thats easy, we all do that to some degree anyway whilst driving but the thing I found particularly tricky was saying the words out loud and trying to say them whilst things were happening in the corner rather than waiting till afterwards. Things take a lot longer when you have to speak out loud rather than just thinking to yourself.
The first few corners struggle to pick up my talking but after that it`s just loud enough. Needs a better microphone obviously.
http://youtu.be/uFktCz37knA
I saw a photographer on the exit of Adenau Forest and decided to have a little play. His full video is here.
http://youtu.be/QNjyXJWih8I
Turning into the left hander, a quick pull on the hand break brought the back end round in a nice slide.
Next time round I was getting a bit cocky, an even harder pull resulted in an better drift but when I let go of the steering wheel to allow it to self-centre I lost track of where it was pointing and when I thought it was straight it was actually still pointing left. Not my finest moment
I saw Jochen at Weirsifen and induced a small slide for the camera. Sadly he didn`t get the pic. Spending a day driving in the wet at Ringmeisters had helped me with my wet-lines. There are still a few sections where no matter what I try, there doesn't seem to be any grip but others where I am really happy and do the same each lap.
Lou had been on barrier duty all day where she had made it her and Cat's mission to try and get every driver to give them a wave and a smile. Its not the most exciting job but they really try to make the most of it whilst remaining cheerful. Since Darren bought the extra gazebo we've started bringing a chair for use whilst on this duty. Its fine standing for the first hour or two but they are both very thankful by the end of the day that they've been able to sit for a break every now and then. The staff in the office joined in with the trying to make people smile and played some music over the tannoy which Lou, Cat and Jude were laughing and dancing too.
Ian was out in his Elise and wanted to try some things without a passenger which meant Jude was able to spend a lot of time with Lou and Cat.
I had spoken to Martin from Frozenspeed at the start of the day and explained I'd give him a wave whenever I saw him. A couple of times he'd move positions and it took a lap to spot him but when I spoke to him the next morning, I was pleased when he told me I had waved at him at every single point he'd been taking photos from.
A few laps before the end of the day I noticed the unpleasant smell of gearbox oil in the cabin. Checking under the bonnet showed the top of the gearbox had a light coating of gearbox oil with more around the breather. The splitter ensures no oil ever drips onto the circuit unless I have a catastrophic leak but I was still surprised to see any oil. The oil cooler was cool to the touch but the actual gearbox was extremely hot. The gearbox pump was running but after removing the filter we found it blocked with fine particles. I only use a small in line filter but the mesh is simply too fine with insufficient surface area . After cleaning the filter and wiping the oil from the gearbox I lapped until the chequered flag with no issues, completing 21 laps during the day.
After packing up the DN gazebo, Lou and Cat went back to the guest house whilst Matt and I checked over the Golf. The forecast for tomorrow was dry and sunny so rather than lose time in the morning, it made sense to fit the slicks today so it was ready to go.
When back in the UK I will be replacing the gearbox cooler filter with a much larger one, but for tomorrow I wanted to ensure that even if it blocked and the gearbox ran too hot, it wouldn't leak any oil mist out of the breather.
By removing the shifter tower I was able to fit a hose in place of the OEM breather cap.
This was fed to a small bottle which was vented through some oil absorbing matting. Any oil coming out of the breather would condense in the pipe and drain back into the gearbox whilst any vapours were captured in the bottle. The engine needed 1/4 litres of oil which is much more acceptable compared to the excessive use experienced before the engine failure. This temporary setup worked perfectly on the second day with no misting on top of the gearbox at all
After completing 21 laps I was delighted the car was running rouble free.
The gearbox breather was misting the top of the gearbox and I could have left it alone, but I`m acutely aware of the dangers of putting oil on circuit and it took under 30 minutes to make up the breather so it was worth the effort.No trip to the Nurburgring is complete without a visit to the Comfy Corner. Not wanting to break this tradition, 30 of us enjoyed an evening of good food and great company at the CC.
Back at the guesthouse and it was looking promising for tomorrow !
Excellent write up as always Nigel didn't make DN24 but was at Ringmeisters this time (thankful it went ahead). Was my first time on a trackday with overtaking on both sides and it worked v well and I actually thought it is a better format than overtaking on left only. I'd say it's just about worth the extra ticket price given there are fewer cars, alot of fast machinery knocking about tho. Now if only we could get two back to back days with good weather! My fav pic from Prime below.
Adenauer said:
I really must lose some weight.
RSbandit said:
Excellent write up as always Nigel didn't make DN24 but was at Ringmeisters this time (thankful it went ahead). Was my first time on a trackday with overtaking on both sides and it worked v well and I actually thought it is a better format than overtaking on left only. I'd say it's just about worth the extra ticket price given there are fewer cars, alot of fast machinery knocking about tho. Now if only we could get two back to back days with good weather!
I agree, the overtaking on both sides works really well on the Prime events. Low numbers, experienced drivers and as much clear track time as you can handle seems to reduce the stress and reluctance to let people past. I'm not so sure on a busier trackday with a lot more cars that it would work so well.This year has had a mixture of weather, 2019 was far sunnier
Kawasicki said:
Also enjoyed the reports! Thanks!
Thank youTR4man said:
I thoroughly enjoy reading your reports and as a previous poster has stated, they are extra special because most of the time they are with your family.
That`s a big plus for me too. Being able to shared this with my family, so much so my son now has his own E36 S54 track car and goes on days with me is just brilliant.leontdi said:
Always enjoy these trip reports, very in depth and informative, reminds me of reading the Ben lovejoy nurburg trips in the early 2000s.
I read all of Ben`s reports and I enjoyed them too. Whilst I'm not trying to copy them, knowing I found the detail he went into useful made me think that if I did, I can't be the only one !But never mind that. 11 years you've been a member and that's your first post ! I'm honoured
Finally. The last part. From the comments so far, I'm not going to split it in the future as it seems people prefer one big post. Those who mentioned it to me, sorry, but you seem to be in the minority
Day Two
The forecast for today was for no rain temperatures in the low to mid 20's and a little cloud. Pretty much perfect conditions for driving around the Nurburgring
One of the biggest attractions when switching to the DTA ECU was boost-by-gear. Quite simply, it allows the ECU to control the boost the turbo is producing depending on which gear you are in. I have never been able to get it to work properly before as my wheel speed sensor wasn't good enough. I've since switched to a far higher resolution trigger wheel so I decided it was time to give boost-by-gear another go.
I can't simply run 1.5Bar all the time. Not only would the car be pretty much undriveable in the lower gears, the chance of breaking a CV or even the gearbox in the lower gears was far too high to risk it. This is why I have the steering wheel mounted buttons enabling instant changes between the three boost maps. What boost-by-gear allows is for me to set different level of boost for each gear. To aid traction this can be kept low at 0.6Bar in 1st gear and slightly higher at 0.7Bar in 2nd. Once in 3rd gear, traction isn't so much of an issue but drive train integrity is. Whenever I have broken a CV or driveshaft it was in 3rd gear at over 0.9Bar and full throttle. To reduce the changes of future failures I set the 3rd gear limit to 0.8Bar, 4th gear was 1.1Bar, 5th gear 1.2Bar and 6th 1.3Bar. All of them could still be overridden to an instant 1.55Bar for overtaking, although I limited this to 1.3Bar in 3rd.
Even on the sighting lap, when I accelerated in 3rd the boost peaked at 0.8Bar and when I changed to 4th, it was showing 1.1Bar.
The difference in acceleration was immediately noticeable. When going from 3rd to 4th, or 4th to 5th, the acceleration dropped off as you would expect, but by running it this way it felt like it was accelerating harder in some of the taller gears!
Red trace is RPM, Green trace is boost, this is 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th down the main straight. You can clearly see the boost rising with each gearchange
Out of all the recent changes , this has turned out to be one of the best. It makes the car feel quick in every gear and best of all, it just works. No messing around, once set the DTA ECU does everything automatically. I'll discuss it in more detail in an upcoming dyno post.
Matt drove for a lap as he wanted to see what the car felt like. It's been a while since he's driven the Golf but most of the things he'd complained about are now fixed. He felt very comfortable pressing on and from the passenger seat I was very relaxed. I'm much better letting people drive the car now than I was a few years ago !
Before you ask, no, it isn't a glowing exhaust or undercar lighting, it's simply the reflection of the headlights of the X-Bow behind
I ran without traction controlled enabled on this trip as I had realised I was relying on it in certain conditions. The only real difference was I could easily spin up the wheels in 3rd or 4th if I pressed the overtake button when traction was marginal.
After a few laps of making sure everything was ok on the slicks and that the gearbox was no longer breathing, I found Neil and asked if he wanted to try the chase lap again.
Cat was his passenger and Terry came out with me in the Golf. I've followed people close for short sections before, but I have never followed anyone this close for an entire lap. As always, the camera makes it look like you are much further away than you actually are, there's nothing I can do about that, its down to the 110 degree viewing angle of the camera and the fact its positioned high up on the windscreen.
http://youtu.be/aClwuBKnxEc
We caught a UK plated GT3 approaching the yellow flag one through Hatzenbach and we expected him to move over on the exit of Adenau Forest. Unfortunately he didn't and we stayed sat behind him until after the Pflanzgaten jump. As I mention in the video, if it was me and the car was obviously faster in the corners, I'd let him past, follow and try to pick up some tips but he never did. He actually came across to talk to me later in the day and apologised for not moving over. He thought there was no way an MX5 could be quicker, especially after it pulled away towards Schwedenkreuz. He agreed that it would have been better for him to let us past and try tag onto the back of us instead of watching his mirrors all the lap.
Cat was telling me afterwards, that all she and Neil could see in the mirrors was a Mk2 Golf which was the idea!
Cat had been chatting to Oskar, one of the Nurburgring Instructors and he had offered to take her out for a lap to check the gearbox was working. Coming back in she said it was a great lap and he was a very quick driver, he was super smooth and chatting all the time but in full control. What you`ve expect of an instructor really !
To try and keep EGT's a little bit lower, I'd tweaked the overrun fueling settings. I didn't realise that I'd adjusted it too much. Several people told me at the end of the day that the Golf was spitting out flames when I lifted off after a straight. I don't know if anyone has any video of it, but it must have been quite noticeable as the orange reflection was clearly visible on the rear wing out of the corner of my eye.
I first took Misha out for a lap in the Golf back in 2016. He'd seen a few videos of it and was quite interested in having a lap in a quick MK2 Golf.
We did a longer video back in 2018 where he asked me to give more technical details about the Golf.
He dropped me a line last week asking if I fancied doing another lap but we both agreed that yesterday in the rain wouldn't make for a particularly exciting video. He's been doing this a long time and this time he knew exactly what he was after. Initially he asked me a few questions about the Golf and asked if I wouldn't mind talking to camera with the technical details of the car. What he forgot to do was tell me to keep it brief. Once I get talking about the car, I can get a little bit carried away as Misha pointed out when we finished recording almost 10 minutes of me walking around the car and explaining in detail all the various things he asked about. I assumed he`d just pick a few points and have around 30 seconds worth, he said he'd use it all. I hope he`s joking
As we were setting off on the lap, we were behind a Swiss GT3 RS. He accelerated away up to T13 and I thought that was the last we'd see of him. He slowed down a little to allow us to keep up, although, I'm not sure if Misha thought that was such a good idea when for the first time in years I hit the curb on the left hand side. Through most sections we were pretty close to each other, but as you would expect, out of some of the slower sections he easily pulled away. The lap was very enjoyable and Misha was videoing not only the view out of the cockpit, but the digital dash at the same time. I turned in far too late into ExMuhle and ran on the curb on the exit. No particular drama, but not something I'd done before, I did notice that the slicks were getting very hot on the session before and thought I'd allowed them to cool down enough but obviously not. Just before the Karossuelle the Porsche pulled over and followed me for the rest of the lap.
I'll put the link to the video here once Misha uploads it
I spoke to the drove later that evening when he came over to talk about how much he'd enjoyed the lap. When I asked why he'd moved over to let me past, he replied that he hadn't seen a MK2 Golf driven so quickly before and wanted to see how much the car was moving around when following.
He was very complimentary about the lap and both Misha and I agreed it was a good lap.
Freddie was out in his E36 and Matt had given him some pointers earlier in the day to help fine tune his lines. We agreed to go out for a chase lap and I sat behind him so I could video the lap for him to look at and learn from afterwards. I noticed the same issue as we had on Matt's E36 and that was the rear wing bowing in the middle at high speed. It was a good lap and clear for most of it.
http://youtu.be/KwKkS8stZhg
When we caught an E36 race car later in the lap, Freddie dropped his pace and sat behind him rather than making it obvious he was quicker and wanted to get past. One particular point to note was that Freddie was only just touching the curb at the top of the Foxhole. This was bouncing the car across to the right. Matt explained its better to either take no curb, or a lot more than he was doing.
Freddie took that literally and the roof vent meant Cat and I were showered in dust.
Al Clark had some rotten luck. His clutch release bearing failed and at the start of yesterday. He dropped the car off for repair but a problem at the supplier meant the wrong clutch was shipped. I asked him if he fancied a couple of laps in the Golf as its been several years since he last came out with me. He jumped at the chance and we went out for two quick but smooth laps. I recon we spent half the lap chatting about the Golf, the development and future changes I may make. At one point he asked if the Golf was more demanding to drive than it was before, I explained you had to be alert at all times due to the speeds I was now travelling but it didn't take all my mental capacity, as I pointed out seeing as we had been talking for the last 10 minutes.
Matt came out with me for a lap and I commented that doing 6 laps pretty much back to back with only a quick pause for passenger changing was working the front left tyre quite hard but apart from that, there were no problems with the car.
That's the difference between doing a lap or two, then having a break and driving for almost an hour. If I was in an endurance race I'd obviously modify my driving style to protect the tyres but there was no need to do that today.
Cat was my passenger as we caught this Mercedes AMG GT-S. Early on in the lap I was using high boost to catch him on the straights as his traction was amazing and he left me out of the slower corners, but I quickly realised that was making it too easy as he was obviously still learning parts of the circuit. Catching in the corners is more fun so I left it on the middle Boost-By-Gear map and chased him. On the previous lap I'd seen the photographer at the Pflanzgarten jump so as we approached Eis kurve I dropped back to ensure I had a gap by the time we reached the jump. You can see that within a few corners I'd caught him back up again. Still a quick lap though and very enjoyable.
The photo made dropping back worth it !
Kim had been working in the office most of the day and had offers for several passenger laps. She politely declined them all saying she wanted another lap in the Golf as it was a few years since she'd been out. I told Cat to make sure Kim was ready by the barrier with her helmet after my lap with Matt and I would take her out. I always ask if my passengers are ok at several points throughout the lap. Her double thumbs up in response told me all I needed to know.
Around Bergwerk I felt the front really starting to slide and suspected the tyre was getting close to the canvas. The rest of the lap was still pretty quick, but I just took it that little bit easier on right handers to protect the tyre. As we pulled into the car park I asked Kim if she enjoyed that lap, and I was pleased to hear her tell me it was worth the wait.
Before we got out of the Golf I said I thought the front left tyre was worn out. She asked how I knew, as I hadn't even looked at it yet. She was quite shocked when she saw just how worn it was as she hadn't been able to detect a significant drop in speed. I don`t mind that. Last lap of the day and a tyre that had simply worn out. Yeah, that'll do
. I had spares on the trailer if necessary so if there had been another day tomorrow I'd have been fine
Whilst on her lap with Oskar earlier in the day, he told Cat he may be able to get her another lap. Just before I took Kim out for a lap, Cat's ride arrived. Oskar had got her a lap in the AMG with Andy!
To say she was pleased was an understatement. She came back in grinning from ear to ear and couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day saying how amazing the lap was!
That was a great way for me to end the trip. The car was still running and only having to stop 5 minutes before the chequered flag as two out of the four tyres were showing canvas.
Apart from that, the Golf was in tip top condition and I'd have happily done another day tomorrow. What a relief that was after the last trip !Over 40 laps completed in the last 2 days which was a big relief after the last trip was cut short !
The end of the day was the usual chasing drivers for transponders and then loading up all the equipment into Darren's van. Several drivers made a point of telling us just what a great 2 days they'd had on the event. One guy did complain a little about a couple of cars that wouldn't let him past. When asked if he'd told someone during the event, he said he hadn't bothered. It is always frustrating to hear this as there is nothing we could do about it after the event and experience has shown that a quick chat to the driver as he is going out onto the track to remind him about the overtaking rules and letting faster cars past almost always resolves the issue.
I'd booked a table at the Zur Nurburg but due to my not fully reading the booking page I'd left the date as it was which meant I had booked a table for the previous week. It turned out not to be an issue as they had availability for us outside on the terrace. We spent a very enjoyable evening sharing stories of the last 2 days and although the service was disappointingly slow we all agreed it was a great way to finish what had been a fantastic week in Nurburg.
After a well deserved sleep in and breakfast, we packed the Golf ready for the 12 1/2 hour drive back home. Once again we stopped just inside the German border where we had lunch before making the drive to the tunnel, which after a short wait, saw us boarding the train back to the UK. A quick stop at the first services and we were back on our way. We stopped again at the Cambridge services for something to eat before the final drive back home.
2020 has been a very unusual year and resulted in the cancellation of DN23. Ringmeisters saw the first engine failure caused by the turbo that I still haven't fully understood. The preventative work I carried out when building the new engine should hopefully ensure I have several more years without engine issues. I am absolutely delighted that all the steps I've taken to control temperatures and improve reliability appear to be working and the lack of anything going wrong this trip seems to confirm this.
People always ask what's next and at the moment I can't really think of anything else I will be fundamentally changing on the car. Thing is, I've been saying that since 2015
. All being well I will be back at the Ring in 2021.PGNSagaris said:
Great read, thank you Nige.
Thanks As I mentioned in my post, Misha did another video of the Golf, a walkround where I talk to camera and then a lap. It`s now online.
If the link above doesn`t work....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l47hKqnA-lc
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