Really enjoyed looking at these pics - Thanks for sharing them.
Looks like a great trip through superb locations.
The standard brakes hold up very well on track. I did 2 x 20 minute sessions at Brands last week, one was straight after the other (came in, checked tyres and went straight back out). So 40 minutes of EXTREMELY hard driving and they were fine.
How did you get on on the Nordschleife? I absolutely MUST do it some time?
The Nordschleife was really good fun. Having read all the reports, seen the carnage, heard of the bills etc i was very apprehensive about going around. I went with the intention of having a look and making a decision about whether to go round when we were there.
We planned our trip so we were at the Nordschleife on a Wednesday and Thursday. Touristfahren was the evenings only. First evening was bone dry so we did 3 laps and second evening was wet/damp and we did 2 laps.
Impressions - The track (don't kid yourself that it is a road) is very narrow, very long, very bumpy with lots of odd camber changes, very little runoff (2m of grass then armco! in most places).... I did not read up about it or play the xbox to "learn" the route. I drove it steadily and treated it like a country road i hadn't driven down before. I would not want to try and drive it fast without completing 10's if not 100's of laps. By lap 2 or 3 you thought you knew where the next corner was but several times i would have got it wrong if going fast.... it just isn't worth pushing hard on a narrow road you don't know. Lots of corners tightened deceptively so caution was the best approach.
I found the standard of driving in general very good. I don't think it was any more dangerous than a track day. Most people only went past after indicating to let them through, HOWEVER, being mid week it was very quiet. Had it been a busy weekend i think the experience would have been very different and i would certainly only go back mid week when it was quiet.
The difference between people who knew where to go and people out for a country drive like me was astonishing. An astra diesel estate went past like we were stood still at one point! To be fair the little abarth performed well. Brakes stood up well and the power was consistent. Bikes were obviously going quick and at one point a new 911 GT3 went past properly quickly!! Very impressive.
Based on my experience i would definitely go back but i would only do it when quiet.
