Cologne Germany and a trip to The Ring

[Randy Chase]

Not sure this really qualifies as a roadtrip, but in a way it was.

The story starts with Michael (ms355) on this forum. Michael had joined the EliseTalk to UK trip in 2007. One difference though was he drove his Elise to meet our group and tagged along the bus. Michael has an orange Elise S, which to many of is confusing, because the S means it is a 1ZZ engined Elise. Michael offered to let me drive his car in the UK and a big regret of mine was never finding the right time to do that in our busy schedule.

So fast forward to 2008. ChaseCam has a booth (through our UK distributor) at the Professional World of Motorsports (PWM) show in Cologne Germany. We plan on attending with three of us from the US. Michael finds out we are going to be in Cologne and starts the wheels turning.... would I like to drive on Nurburgring? Turns out Michael lives very close to The Ring and weather willing, will let me drive his car. Wow. What an opportunity.

[Randy Chase]

We arrived in Cologne during day 1 of some kind of local carnival celebration. The crowds were all in costume, which contrasted with what seemed to be a very industrial city in dreary weather. A lot of gray.

There was partying everywhere and good spirits. When we were not working the trade show, we toured the town, seeing the famous cathedral, and heading off to local pubs for beer and german foods. It was not easy for me to eat and drink in these places as I am on a bit of a strict diet (no red meats, no sausage, no beer), but I managed. The beer I sampled was very good.

The first pic shows the cathedral. We took a walk to the very top of it, which was quite cool to do. The second pic shows the trade center in the background across the river. We had to walk across this river on a bridge each day.

There were some cool cars at the show...including the X-Bow which I really want to own.

[Randy Chase]

ack... pics are way big. I will shrink them down.

Anyway... here we are walking up some hundreds of steps. Which is not a problem... except you are constantly turning in this small radius.
View from the top of the Cathedral looking over Cologne.

On Thursday we went took a train back to the Cologne airport and rented a car. A little silver Mercedes. Michael came to Cologne in his Alfa and we took both cars back to his town of Bad Ems. Michael took us on a wonderful tour to a local museum of German history post WWII which was fascniating and then we went to a great hotel in Bad Ems.

You can some pics from the hotel room. Bad Ems is like something out of a puzzle or postcard. Absolutely beautiful and reminded me why I like the smaller villages to stay in as compared to larger cities like Cologne.

[Randy Chase]

Michael was the ultimate host, showing us places around that were historical, and taking us to a wonderful restaurant, and also allowing us to tour his factory.

Below is a pic showing Michael and ChaseCam employee Randall walking out to the rental Mercedes.

Michale's Alfa, and then Michael's incredibly charming girlfriend in front of his house.

Michael and I getting ready for me to drive the Elise S to get a feel for it. Now I must say with the 1ZZ engine, it was quite nice. More power down low and less of a need to feel like I had to be above 6000rpm. The clutch and shifter was a little different but I quickly got used to it and felt right at home.

The last pic is me with only 1 hour of sleep the night before, looking nervous about driving Nurburgring. AT this point, the track was closed due to weather and we were not sure we were going to be able to drive it all.

[Randy Chase]

We talked to the track guys and they said it may open a bit later. Argh... so the three of us went around to other parts of the area, watching some teams get ready, sipping coffee and eating bisquits in the bar.

About 45 minutes later, they do open the track up. Yay! But it is very cold and wet. We hope the track dries up, but our schedule means we need to get out there now. I get a few tickets and we head out.

[DNA]

You're confusing me, Randy...

Edit: Ooh, now the pictures are coming...

[Cardinal]

Ahh, Cologne... been there several times. You took the first couple of pictures from the Hohenzollernbrucke, right? That first statue is right near the Hyatt on the East side of the Rhine. Is that show at Koelnmesse? What a huge place, and a great place to visit a show. If you spend any time in Cologne, be sure to go check out the Dom and also be sure to sample some Gilden Kölsch. Everyone there likes the Fruh and Gaffel brands of beers, but I think Gilden is tastiest.

I'm jealous! Oh yeah, the 'ring opportunity is cool,too.

EDIT: Oops, I didn't scroll over and see the Dom in that first pic. That's the West side.

[Randy Chase]

Now the track....First let me say I do not play videogames so I never drove the track in X-Box. I also have not watched any videos of the track, though I meant to. So I had ZERO idea where this track went. Randall who was with us, had some experience with his X-BOX. And of course Michael was the local expert. Which turned out to be very lucky for us.

Another Yellow Elise was there from the UK and he told us it was pretty bad, since he was mostly lost on the track and if you don't know where the track goes, it is a bit intimidating. We had Michael.

Our first time out was in the Mercedes with Michael telling Randall (who was driving) where to be on the line. I was in the backseat. We took it easy and tried to see where the track went. But there are many blind turns and blind crests... it was a bit nuts.

Then I went out in the Elise with Michael in the passenger seat giving me instructions. Parts of the track were very wet. Weather changes from one section to the next and the elevation changes were a lot more than I expected. Still, I could not really keep my foot in it, even with Michael telling me to, when we approaching a blind turn or crest. I just did not feel comfortable with the idea of this. One reason was... I was not used to the idea of no helmet of safety gear on a track at high speed. It felt a bit nuts.

And Michael mentioned that crashes are pretty common... maybe one an hour on a busy day... maybe one bad crash each day. In fact, we lost one of our employees from the trade show in Cologne because that person's brother was in a Lambo that went off the Ring into a tree and 120mph... causing a broken neck (he is recovering). So anyway... yeah... I might have been able to go faster...but my goal was to get to the finish without any major drama. I did slide the car at one point in the track, a very slippery corner... but caught it. Michael did not seem too worried, just calmly giving me instructions to floor it, or brake here... or point out the dry line. I finished in about 12 minutes. Passed some cars. Got passed by some others. But not bad.

Randall also took the car out amidst more traffic and managed to not ball it up either. He moonlights as a prof driving instructor, so I was not worried.

We left The Ring to drive the Autobahn over to Amsterdam where we were going to spend a few days, see a concert and hang out. But The Ring was the highlight of the trip and I want to thank Michael for all he did.

Michael, when you make it back to the US, the Noble is here to drive on the track.

[Randy Chase]

Video of Michael driving. I just used a crappy handheld cam... so sorry about that. I want to get a proper video later from Michael, but cameras are technically not allowed on the track.

I don't think the video really captures what it was like with Michael driving. I could feel the slip of the tires and how often he was on the edge. It was truly scary.

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2621545&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2621545&amp;server=vimeo.com &amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portr ait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/2621545">Nurburgring in a Lotus Elise S</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user299121">Randy Chase</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

[Randy Chase]

Later we did Amsterdam. Quite an interesting city. Apparently "coffee shop" means something else there.


I enjoyed the Van Gogh museum. Highlight for me was the Anne Frank house.

[Randy Chase]

Video from a spectator. Elise is from 5.59 to 6.07

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[Randy Chase]

Another one from the inside of a Peugeot 306. In the first minute you see Michael in the Elise pass him.

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[Chili Red]

Originally Posted by Randy Chase

Video of Michael driving. I just used a crappy handheld cam... so sorry about that. I want to get a proper video later from Michael, but cameras are technically not allowed on the track.

The owner of Chasecam not having anything but a hand held camera is just funny to me..

Glad you had fun on the trip Randy, I hope to do the same one day.

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by Chili Red

The owner of Chasecam not having anything but a hand held camera is just funny to me..

Glad you had fun on the trip Randy, I hope to do the same one day.

The irony was not lost on me. But we figured we could use it to show how not to make a video.

Might be fun someday to organize a LT Does The Ring trip.

[ms355]

Originally Posted by Randy Chase

Michael, when you make it back to the US, the Noble is here to drive on the track.

Definitely the best line I ever read on Lotustalk.

Thank you Randy for your kind words, for posting the pics and a very special 'thank you' for the video. It is by far better than I had expected and better than most of the Nürburgring videos that you can watch on youtube.

Not surprisingly, the owner of a business involved in manufacturing/distributing of advanced camera systems is a fine camerman himself; steady, not shivering.

Anja says 'hi' and both we wish all of you a merry Christmas.

[Nawambo]

Very nice Randy, congrats on the opportunity. I'm kinda near you right now - well, same continent- I'm in southeastern France visiting the in-laws. Cheers bud.

Nawambo

[Bavarian Motorist]

Sweet... Sounds awesome!!! Get some practice on the Xbox! It helps! lol


Hohenzollernbrucke, eh? Something I learned from my German history class finally became useful

[tesprit]

Thanks for that video Randy. It really brings back memories of the two times I drove the "ring" as a participant in the annual BMW driving school through BMW clubs of Europe. BMW gave us brand new 3 series BMWs (at no charge) to drive from the factory to the "ring", supplied us with BMW factory test drivers to instruct us on the best lines around the track....err one way street as the Germans would always correct me, and then allowed us to beat the cars to death around the track for a week! BMW rented the "ring" for us from dawn to dusk so there were no other people allowed and we drove each day with only a break for lunch. Talk about being tired at the end of the day!

[38bfast]

The Ring is heaven. I spent a year over there and used up lots of my rental cars on that track. Best track in the world!

If you are into driving I would call it Meca for us car guys. You have to do it at least once in your liftime. Put it on your list of things to do.

For a added bonus the beer overthere is fantastic.

The food is so so. Its always brown and has a sauce.

[mx1]

I sure do envy you, Randy. I made it to the Ring about 15 times while I was over there for 3 yrs. It is an amazing experience that you will unfortunately never get here because of our litigious society. There are no safety checks, or anything. You buys your ticket and you takes your chances!

I was extremely intimidated on my first trip from everything I had read about the Ring and how deadly it could be. I was extremely slow. Fortunately, I had a good friend whose wife bought him a season pass. I rode with him many times and he rode with me. It was a bit unnerving to have him tell me, as we were going around one of the blind curves, floor it, it opens up, trust me...I did and sure enough it did. With his coaching, I got down to a 9:42. Not bad for an amateur.

You do see all kinds of stuff on the Ring. People drive around with kids in car seats. Tour buses are the most scary thing I saw. Yes, tour buses! I saw a little white vehicle with a flashing yellow light and thought what the heck is that. Soon after, there was the tour bus, right at the carousel. Fortunately, they stayed off the carousel! Those things do slow you down a lot, though.

It is incredible going there on a busy weekend and seeing all the cars from all over. I really do miss being in GE. Driving to the Ring, doing 3 or 4 laps and driving home at 130, I still got 25 MPG and I've got 7500 miles on my tires. That's hard to beat.

Congrats on making it around and experiencing the Ring. It is amazing what 19 euro into a ticket machine will give you.

Rob