[Rich911E]

I spent three days at the 'Ring with the BMW club with the BMW high performance driving school and from my view, I think she was driving pretty well and not really pushing too hard at all. I didn't see the car get airborne at all which my instructor managed to do 3.5 times (all four wheels three times, just two wheels the other time) in one lap in a rental Mercedes. An M5 should be able to do it at least as many.

Some moves were not perfect (the white car missed the apex by three feet and turned in too early at Hatzenbach 2 because that is a late apex to a single arc line to get both corners -- that's why the dust), Hoheichen is really slippery but got back on line pretty well, and I thought the move at the bottom of Fuchsrohe was great to get around the biker and get back on line was great. That whole section is steeply downhill and really fast -- to pull off that move at the bottom of the hill to make that corner was really nice. The M5 got off-line in Adenauer Forest to get around the bikers but that is a really slow second gear corner. The exit to that corner leads onto a long straight so if she waited she would have screwed up the exit -- notice the following car pulled right up at the exit. Plus the bike was way off line -- the line on the first of the two corners is very late and the M5 tried to pinch it.

Anyhow, I thought it was pretty good and not reckless at all by Ring standards. Trying to keep 14.5 miles of track and 171 corners per lap straight in your mind is not easy. You can get lost on this track unless you really memorize it (Hmm, does the next one go left or right??? Yipes, left!)

I would never feel bad for the bikers at the Ring -- those guys are far more crazy than any other group. They swarm all over you if you are going anything less than flat out so be careful if you are just going for a lap in the Hertz-mobile. When you pay for your ticket (about $10), they let everyone out at the same time (Fiats, BMWs, Ferraris, tour buses etc.) so you just have to dial back a bit. Many of the corners are blind and fast (especially the one at the bottom of Fuchsrohe, and the one leading onto the section up to Klostertal) andyou can come flying out of a corner to find a tour bus going 25MPH sitting in the middle of the road. The rule about not lifting is particularly important because there is no room for error on this track. The turn in early at Kallenhard and that outside guardrail comes up very quickly (lift and your dead here) as it is only about three feet from the track out point (ask me how I know).

After three days, we didn't blow up the car or crash. I wish I could say the same for some of our classmates. It was a great experience and I am going back as soon as finances permit and I can talk KeithO64 into it.

Rich