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OK, it's that time again. Ina and I are back in the USA and we have good internet access and a little more time to write.
Day 11 started in Haren, Ina's hometown in the far Northwest of the country. We had about 3 hours of driving ahead of us before we would reach Koblenz, home of the Nurburgring. The A-31 cuts through the Northwest of Germany, stretching from the North Sea down to to the West Central area of Essen. It's also a great place to do some high speed runs. Long, straight, flat, low traffic.
Once the car was well warmed up, I started pushing it. Getting up to 230 km/h (~145 mph) is pretty easy. The car rushes up to that speed and the visibility and traffic in the area can easily handle it. Beyond that gets a little interesting.
Gentle bends in the road limit forward visibility and groups of cars make higher speed runs a little stressful. Trucks are limited to traveling at 100 km/h on the autobahn and the A-31 is a two lane road. Even if they push it to 110, they are still doing only about 68 mph versus my already 143. When you catch up to them, they go by so fast it's almost as if they are oncoming traffic. Cars typically travel at about 160-180 km/h, so they're also catching up to those trucks and frequently moving into the left lane to get around them. At speeds above 230 km/h, I'm coming up on them real quick.
Eventually, the road opened up and straightened out. I could see long and far and there were no cars for as far as I could see. I dropped the right pedal and off we went. 230, 235, 240, 245, 250 then things start slowing down. You can feel that the car is pushing real hard against the wind and it's accelerating pretty slowly, but still definitely accelerating. 255, 258, 261, 264, 265 and then we come up on a group of cars and I decide to let off. The car was absolutely flying and still accelerating. Then I had Ina do the math. She grabbed my phone, accessed the calculator, divided 265 km/h by 1.6 and revealed that we had just been doing 165+ mph. WOW.....! That's freaking fast man. A new record for me (previously 162 mph in my 944 Turbo).
I let the car cool down and dropped it back down to a cool 220 km/h (138 mph). Still fast enough to lose your license anywhere in America, but it now felt slow. Nice..... After an hour of that, I turned the wheel over to Ina who kept it rolling at about 180 km/h (113 mph). The car really likes that speed. That's the speed that I mentioned was boring in an earlier post. That's because the car just really likes that speed. It's like a walk in the park. I took a little nap and Ina woke me up when she saw this:
The roads leading to the ring are very nice. Winding country roads through hills and valleys, with lots of high performance cars obviously coming from the track. Lot's of boy racers, a few really nice cars. I had to take a picture of this one:
Once we got there, we realized we were at the wrong Nurburgring. We were looking for the Nordschleife (the North Loop). A nice guy pointed us in the right direction. We were only off by about 2-3 km. When we got there, I instantly recognized a rotary that's right in front. Anyone else here seen that You-Tube video of the guy beating the snot out of his guards red Cayman? Well, I did and when I entered that rotary I felt an amazing déjà vu. It's literally right outside the entrance of the Nordschleife.
The entrance and parking area are pretty small. There were dozens of motorcycles there, and lots of cool cars.
Great read, glad you were able to run upto high speed and cruise at high speed, the few times I have touched upto 140mph it has been amazing, just steady and refined, no drama.
Great pictures, I guess even with the few problems at the start, overall you had a great time.
You can purchase your ticket from an automated machine. One lap costs 19 euros. Four laps costs 64 euros. I went for four (but didn't complete them all, read on). After paying, the machine spits out a little paper tag with a magnetic strip, sort of like a parking garage ticket.
We spoke to a nice guy in the information center. He could tell that we were newbs. He was real friendly. He just told me, "Remember, keep it on the right. All passing is on the left. People are going to pass you. Don't try to do what they do. It's a nice day. Watch the scenery. Take it easy and enjoy it." I asked him, "Is there somewhere I can leave my luggage? I'd rather not have it in the car for this." He told me that I couldn't leave it with them. Ina said, "Leave it here with me." Then the guy says, "No, you have to go with him. It'll be fun. You can't stay here......" Ina was really nervous about this whole thing. He parents tried to talk me out of doing this, telling us horror stories of the many who have crashed on the track.
Before we went, I decided we should both use the bathroom (good idea, because even so, Ina told me she almost peed her pants on the first lap ). There was a restaurant right across the parking lot. We went over there looking for the bathrooms, and as luck would have it, there was a sign there that said something about "Luggage Storage". Upon a little investigation, we found that the restaurant would hold our luggage for us for 2 euros per hour per piece. We dropped off our two large bags and off we went. Now Ina had no excuse. We approached the entrance, which looks like this.
See that guy in the left of the picture looking at us? Well, he came rushing over to us to tell us that photographs are strictly prohibited. That was the end of our picture taking for a while.
We inserted our ticket, it spit it back out, and the gate in front of us lifted. We were off.
At first, there is a real tight path marked with cones to guide you out onto the track, then it's all up to you. We raced down the first straight and into a left hand turn. I was trying to take it easy for many reasons.
I don't want to scare Ina into a heart attack
I don't want to ruin or beat my car
I am very rusty and haven't been on a track in a long time
After the first turn, we went into a series of very simple esses. I shot the Cayman right through them like a pro, which was bad. This made me feel a little overqualified and that is not a good thing on this track. After that initial really easy area, the track becomes brutal. There are several spots that are completely blind. Turns you can't see through, hills you can't see over, followed by brutal turns. This track is down right spooky and way too big to easily memorize. Add a swarm of highly skilled motorcycle riders and some incredible cars driven by pros, and I was clearly the slowest guy out there. Well, not the slowest. I did pass a vehicle or two, but I was in the bottom 5%. These guys knew the track and how to work it. I clearly did not.
Never the less, the Cayman did a great job and we had a lot of fun. The first lap was real slow. I didn't even time it, mostly because I had forgotten to. On the second lap, I started the sport Chrono stop watch. I wish I could tell you guys that I cracked the 10 minute mark, but I wasn't even close. I did that second lap in 12:38. But there is one areas of the track that is under construction and does have speed limits ranging from 50-70 km/h between km 17 and 19.
More about lap 2. At one point I did something really bad. We were moving well and chasing a couple of motorcycles that I probably shouldn't have been trying to keep up with. Then three bikes came up on me and I moved off line to let them by. This sent me into a series of esses too fast and off line. I early apexed the first right which messed me up big time into the next left. This sent me hurling way too fast into a 90 degree left hand hair pin turn. I tried to dial in some steering and experienced some severe under steer. I was plowing straight for the grass, screeching and smoke coming off the front tires. I jumped on the brakes and as the car slowed, the front wheels bit again, gently and predictably. I assume that PSM was going ballistic, but I couldn't say for sure because I was looking straight ahead to where I thought I would be, in the grass. Phew.....
After that was over, I was shaken a little, and so was Ina. But the truth is the car never even came close to the curb. The under-steer and screeching were terrifying, but the car recovered so well that we regained control very long before leaving the track. I played it off knowing that Ina had already realized that what just happened was not cool. I said something like, "Duh Mike.... Way off line man. Slow it down and let's not repeat that....."
OK, so into lap 3. I'm far from memorizing the track, but I have successfully memorized sections. The really scary sections that is, and the blind areas. So I am feeling better and cooking faster. We weren't 2 km into the third lap when we caught up with a bike that was not as comfortable. This bike was holding us up big time and I wasn't comfortable passing. We were stuck behind it for at least 25% of the lap when we were waived by and passed. Then we tore it up. I pretty much aced the rest of the lap and brought it back in. This time, 11:28. A drastic improvement over the last lap, where I hadn't been held up by any traffic.
After that lap, Ina had enough. She said, "Why don't you run the last one without me?" She was a trooper, and definitely left her comfort zone joining me in the first place. I decided to call it quits. If I ran that last lap, she would be worrying about me the whole time. I had enough, and I kind of felt bad for my car. This was the hardest I had pushed it so far.
After we stopped, we got our luggage back and took some more pictures. First of my partially melted front tire, then of my car at the ring.
Sport Chrono and Chrono Plus
This optional package is a valuable addition for trackday use. Available in conjunction with the CDR-24 CD radio, it includes a swivel-mounted analog and digital timer unit which is centrally located on the dashboard. All functions are easily accessible via the control stalk for the on-board computer. Analog dials measure hours, minutes and seconds, while a separate digital field displays whole seconds, tenths and one hundredths of a second. A second digital display runs in parallel in the instrument cluster. Click this Link to visit the FAQ entry for Sport Chrono.
PSM - Porsche Stability Management
While it can’t overcome the laws of physics, the revolutionary Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system does lend an added degree of balance and control to the Cayman’s mid-engine driving dynamics, inspiring surefooted confidence in corners and extreme situations.
A standard feature on the Cayman and Cayman S, PSM continuously monitors steering input, road speed, yaw velocity and lateral acceleration to calculate the actual direction of travel. If the car begins to steer off line, PSM instantly intervenes with precision brake inputs on individual wheels to help bring the car back onto the driver’s intended path.
If braking alone isn’t enough to correct the vehicle’s cornering line, PSM then calls on the Cayman’s engine management system, adjusting engine output as needed to help stabilize handling. PSM can also compensate in an instant for mid-corner changes in load resulting from deceleration or braking. When Sport mode is selected with the optional Sport Chrono Package, PSM’s threshold for intervention is raised, allowing for greater driver involvement. If you prefer driving without automatic PSM assistance, the system can be set to standby at any time. In this case, it will only intervene under heavy braking, where both front wheels exceed the ABS threshold.
For all of its technical ability, PSM goes virtually unnoticed in everyday driving situations, preserving the Cayman’s natural agility.
After the ring we pointed the car south to our next destination, Strasbourg France, the third country we had visited in the car.
A word about Bi-Xenons. This was the first time I spent any long time behind the wheel at night. All I can say is, WOW....! Those things are so bright that I am left questioning their legality. The low beams are not overly bright. They are OK. But the high beams, oh-my-god.... They are so damn bright it's amazing. And the light pattern is so well diffused. No hot spots. Just a wall of daylight in front of your car. I haven't experienced the halogens, but I simply can't imagine that they are anywhere near as bright. These things are incredible and worth every penny of the $1,090 that I paid for them. The only thing I can complain about is that if you use the high beams when there is a reflective sign in front of you, prepare to be blinded. If you are on the fence about this option, don't hesitate for another second. Get them. You won't regret it.
The fog lights are also surprisingly effective. But honestly, I found it easier to see with them off. They add so much light right smack in front of the car, that your eye focus is pulled there making the horizon look darker. In dry weather, leave them off. But I can definitely see that these are truly functional fog lights, not decorative fogs like you find on most cars. Nice job Porsche.
While were talking about lighting. I don't like the dash illumination. I know it's got a light sensor and it automatically adjusts, but in low light dusk like conditions I find the instruments under illuminated. OK, enough on lighting.
Ina and I drove for about 3 hours to get to Strasbourg, an hour or so of it in France. There were speed limits there, ranging from 100 - 130 km/h (60 - 80 mph) and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that even at those 'USA' like highway speeds, the car was still fun to drive and not boring like I had previously feared. Northern France was nice. Pretty and scenic. But no better than Southern Germany really.
This is what signs look like from the passenger seat of a Cayman
We arrived at the Hilton in Strasbourg and checked in. They had a nice private parking lot, which made me feel better. We had a beer at the bar and went to bed. The end to a long day.
Thanks for the continued write-up. This part reminds me of my trip to the 'Ring almost exactly 3 years ago. Three buddies and I rented 2 BMW's and spent a total of 7 days on track, including the 3-day International BMW Club School. Lots of great memories.
For anyone on Cayman Club considering a visit to that part of the world, a trip to the Nurburgring is essential. Before you go, spend time on a videogame version to learn where the track goes; you'll get more out of your actual track time that way.
A few of us here have been talking about a future trip to possibly include attending the Le Mans 24 hours along with some track time at the 'Ring. It could happen....
Thanks for the continued write-up. This part reminds me of my trip to the 'Ring almost exactly 3 years ago. Three buddies and I rented 2 BMW's and spent a total of 7 days on track, including the 3-day International BMW Club School. Lots of great memories.
For anyone on Cayman Club considering a visit to that part of the world, a trip to the Nurburgring is essential. Before you go, spend time on a videogame version to learn where the track goes; you'll get more out of your actual track time that way.
A few of us here have been talking about a future trip to possibly include attending the Le Mans 24 hours along with some track time at the 'Ring. It could happen....
). There was a restaurant right across the parking lot. We went over there looking for the bathrooms, and as luck would have it, there was a sign there that said something about "Luggage Storage". Upon a little investigation, we found that the restaurant would hold our luggage for us for 2 euros per hour per piece. We dropped off our two large bags and off we went. Now Ina had no excuse. We approached the entrance, which looks like this. 
