It doesn't do it for you either, Steve? You saw my thread yesterday right?

 

The route I'm going is to keep the Mistress and make her awesome. I've already invested this much time and money into her that I wouldn't be happy otherwise. No Burton, they don't do it for me at all. I'm glad I got the best version of the Mustang.

 

Yeah I'm so glad test drove that one yesterday. Now I know and definitively say I prefer mine.

I'm also really glad you are keeping her.

 

Now I can't wait for warmer weather so I can change to the summer tires and hit the Ring again.

 

I thought you were coming back over here?

 

Congrats on your great choice Steve!

 

I am but not until August. I will ship my car after 4th of July. Rjng season starts in April. Woohoo!!!

 

Thanks. I'm relieved.

 

Well this week I took my car to the paint shop to get my rear bumper fixed since it was backed into something which caused a pretty nice crease vertically just above my passenger side exhaust outlet. I just picked my car up this morning and it's perfect, just as it was the day after Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that the responsible parties had enough integrity to pay for the repair out of pocket. Now that she's back to normal all is right in the world.

So this weekend I'm possible heading to the famous Hockenheimring here in Germany to do some tourist day lapping. The problem is that it's still winter tire season here and I have my all seasons on the car. They were also on the car last year when I went to the Nurburgring and faired pretty well. I do plan on swapping them out for the Pirelli's when the time comes though. I'm really one of those people who don't have a huge problem with them once they are hot. New summer tires will go on when I get new wheels. Who knows when that may be.

 

So this weekend I'm heading to the Hockenheimring here in Germany for some tourist lap action. Hopefully I can get some good video with Harry's Lap Timer to see how the car does. I am going with some buddies that have some great cars so there should be some pictures mixed in for good measure. I haven't posted a road trip in a while so this should be fun.

We are leaving here around 6ish in the morning and getting there around 9 so that we can be a little early. Lapping starts at 10 and goes till 4PM. I don't plan on staying all day since it's a good opportunity to see some more of ancient German stuff with the family before we leave this summer. I may just take a trip to the Air Force base and get some Cinnabon since we don't get that stuff where I live. Cheers.

 

Lucky guy, have fun and take lots of pictures.
Looking forward to hearing about it.

 

I will. This will be the first trip to the track with the new brakes.

 

So it's been a dream of mine to do some laps around the Hockenheimring since I have been here in Europe. It's a little less than 3 hours from where I live and work. The first tourist day of the season this year was posted on the Book of Faces by all the car guys in the area that are members of the groups for gearheads. I had just upgraded my front brake pads to HP+ pads and put Super Blue fluid in. I jumped at the chance.

We left here and headed off onto the autobahn towards Hockenheim. It took us less than 3 hours even with stopping for fuel just before getting there. I had gone through a half tank. Even while cruising at 100-110MPH the whole time minus a couple places where there was construction going on and the normal speed of 80mph in the large city areas.

Overall I had a great time and it was pretty organized. 40 people on the course at once was almost too many for me because of slow and fast traffic either holding you up or zooming by you. German road rules were supposed to be followed which prohibits passing on the right but that went out the window the first lap. I took around 60 pictures or so which you can find on my Flikr page which has a link in my Sig. Here are the videos of the first session which lasted 15ish minutes. I did two more sessions and the traffic got worse throughout the day. I taped the second session but being that my computer is slow and the internet here in Germany is slower the others must wait. I did manage to find the grip threshold of the tires and that the brakes worked really well. Here are the vids. Enjoy.





Waiting at the entrance to the paddock by steveinfante, on Flickr

On the lot at the Hockenheimring by steveinfante, on Flickr

paddock 1 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Paddock 2 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Best Hockenheim time by steveinfante, on Flickr

Catteram2 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Catteram3 no fat chicks by steveinfante, on Flickr

Charlie coming off the track by steveinfante, on Flickr

 

Chucma E90 all blue by steveinfante, on Flickr

Chuma coming off the track by steveinfante, on Flickr
This is what happens when you slide sideways in your Shelby at 120mph with no brakes.

Dave's tire by steveinfante, on Flickr

E90 Gold wheels by steveinfante, on Flickr
Real frozen gray M3

Frozen Gray E92 M3 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Matte bronze SLS AMG 2 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Matte bronze SLS AMG front by steveinfante, on Flickr

Matte bronze SLS AMG by steveinfante, on Flickr

Mistress coming off the track by steveinfante, on Flickr

Mistress front straight Z06 close by steveinfante, on Flickr

Mistress turn 1 with the Z06 by steveinfante, on Flickr

Waiting at the gate Charlie's group by steveinfante, on Flickr

 

white 911 GT3 front by steveinfante, on Flickr

Race_prepped E36 M3 by steveinfante, on Flickr

R8 vert by steveinfante, on Flickr

Porsche everywhere by steveinfante, on Flickr

Porsche 911Turbo nice wheels2 by steveinfante, on Flickr

 

Great pictures........love the SLS and the GT3.
M3's are like Kia's over there? Looks like everyone has one.lol

 

Actually they aren't. Not many Germans actually buy them because of the added expense and upkeep. Track days are like a swarm though. I'm trying to work on my picture taking skills as well. I loved that SLS. It was probably my favorite car there. The GT3 RS and CS were favorites as well.

 

Great pictures and video's. I think that yellow evo was in my garage last week.
Have you seen the in car vid of the shelby save?

 

Did your mustang get any love from the other drivers there?
It is a sweet car, can't be a high number of them around.

 

The yellow Evo was in the group I was with. The owner actually rode with me for my last session and walked away quite impressed. I can't tell if it was the car or my driving. If you see him let him know that I'm still waiting for him to post the video he took of the laps he was riding for.

I have seen the vid. He's in my car club and we have been giving him grief since he got out of his car and every German in the place wanted to know what the dumb American did to his priceless Shelby. His tires were two weeks old and turns out he flat spotted all of them. LOL