already?

This week flew by fast!

Saturday (July 2nd) a couple friends from Braunschweig came to visit München and we went touristy shopping and hanging out at the Chinesischer Turm in the Englischer Garten. Beer, laughter, good times ensued. Amanda even bought a Dirndl.

Sunday (July 3rd) we went to the Neuburger Schlossfest. Think of a Rennaisance festival, but german, in the middle of a cobblestoned town, and a palace. In any event it was fun seeing everyone in costume, and the food was excellent. There was Käsespätzle (kindof a german mac n' cheese), and Rahmbrot...kinda like a flat bread with melted creamcheese and bacon all over it. It was great.

Monday/Tuesday: Amanda was able to navigate through the Ubahn on her own and saw a lot of sights. We went to Tollwood Festival in the Olympia park and saw many other places around town.

Wednesday: We went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to visit the Zugspitze. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We had a beer at Germany's highest Biergarten and got a quick bite to eat. I had Spaghetti (though it was fantastic) and she had Käse-Spinat Knödel and it was also delicious. We took the Cog-train (Zahnrad Bahn) up the mountain, followed by a short Cable Car to the summit. But we took the longer Cable Car down towards the Eibsee which was deep blue with a turquoise tint around shallow areas. Excellent view of the mountains. Went back but and prepared for thursday.

Thursday: We took a train to Salzburg and went on the Sound of Music Tour. The tourguide was absolutely hilarious! Unbelievably fun. We saw so many cool places in the Austrian country side, I just wish we had more time to stop and take it all in. But man, I thought Bavaria was gourgous....Austria is amazing in it's own right. My new favorite soft drink is called Almdudler; it's and austrian beverage that tastes like a not so carbonated ginger ale type thing that is a tad bit sweeter. No way to describe it, but it was nice. We ended up back in Salzburg and walked around the city a bit. There was a footpath across a river, and what seemed to be a boat launch area. We walked down it, took our shoes/flip flops off and stood in the crystal blue water. The water was so clear, so clean, so COLD because it was ice melt from the mountains. The water felt quite soft (as in low mineral content) and almost slippery (but not in a contaminated kind of way). They had water fountains of this glacial water in several areas. We filled out water bottles up and it tasted more neutral than any water i've ever had before.

Friday: we just hung around munich, did some shopping and had some good meals. Nice relaxing day.

Saturday: was a sad day, amanda had to fly back to the states . After seeing her off to the airport, I took my camera and some gear over to BMW FIZ and took a 50 minute time lapse. It's my second attempt at a time lapse (the first being Nürburgring, but wasnt really good).

Sunday: I did a lot of nothing. I walked around the city, went to Olympia Park and took yet another time lapse...then headed off for the weekly Sunday German Stammtisch. It started to rain heavily but it was a nice storm. Lots of thunder and lightning. It cooled the air down quite a bit.

Will update with pictures later today...

edit:

Epic beard man

Neuburger Schlossfest

i dont know whats going on here, but i leave it to you to decide

Tollwood festival

Zugspitze:
Kirche „Maria Heimsuchung"

Amanda looking at the hills

lens envy

Austria:


Maribellaplatz

Schloss Leopoldskron

Sankt Gilgen

Michael Jackson?

Burg Salzburg

Stiftskirche zum Heiligen Michael, Mondsee 

work was pretty slow this week. I have been in contact with a couple wheel manufacturers like Rays Engineering/Volk Racing, BBS, and Team Dynamics to find a set of wheels. Rays seems to have a great selection of products that might fit the bill.

Other than that, not much to really report. BMW M3 GT #1 was ripping around by the Mobile Tradition, and it sounded beautiful. Surely celebrating it's pole position victory from Nürburgring.

I visited the research side of BMW ///M today in Garching while carrying out an assignment. The contact there who I had to speak with was very very friendly and it was amazing to see the garage with so many beautiful ///M cars. When i retire, I will buy a 1-series M.

thats about it!

My girlfriend is coming today to visit for a week! I am excited to show her this beautiful city during the summer season. I have to work Monday and Tuesday,and my supervisor was nice to let me take wednesday through friday off. I am not sure what we will do as i'm a bit strapped on cash, but day trips here and there might fit the bill. Or just relax in the city as Amanda's been under some pressure lately. either way, it's going to be great spending time with her with so many festivities that go on in München on a weekly basis. There's the open air theater at the olympic park, concert at BMW Museum, and more.

__________________

I have SO many photos to go through, I will try to update the old posts with the appropriate pictures, but feel free to visit the flickr album as well

Click here for Flickr album of 24hr Rennen Nürburgring 2011

Here are some pictures taken during the MINI Challenge Qualifying laps and some other misc.

out of focus, Jörg Weidinger, my boss driving the Team BOCK Sport MINI Challenge Car

My boss and I

Calm before the storm. It was a quiet morning, took the opportunity to walk along the legendary race track at 6:30 in the morning.

Some from the drive home, and some examples of how beautiful south Germany is:

All good things must come to an end

Sunday


We woke up, made breakfast and quickly broke down camp. We packed all our belongings into the car and cleaned the campsite better than we found it. I tallied up what everyone owed and spent for groceries, cars and gas so we could split the cost (i kept all recipts). Then we split up and a group of us went to Nürburg. The other went straight to the Grand Prix circuit to watch the last 3 hours of the race.


Burg Nürburg is a castle built in the middle ages and stands on the second highest hill in Eifel. It is a major landmark of the area next to the Nürburgring itself and is visible from many spots on the east side of the track. It cost about 2,50€ to get in to the ruins with student I.D. It was an absolutely beautiful view. The spiral staircase to the top of the main tower was dark and cooler than the outside temperature. Once to the top however, there were so many flies, bees and other bugs! We were running around flailing, barely could take a picture. It was a grand view of the beautiful landscape which is by far one of the best I've seen in Germany so far (other than the mountains down south of course).


We head back to the Grand Prix track and I set off to meet up with, once again, Mrs. Hürtgen. But alas, no one could tell me where I could find her, and the team mates at the Paddocks were very very busy. I called Jörg and he was kind enough to meet up with me again so I headed over to the Dörr Motorsport tent.


He invited me in and I asked him if he could take the map [which he himself had signed] and ask for Claudia's autograph the next time he saw her (following monday or tuesday). I saw another BMW colleague, Frank Weishar, whom I met from BMW Driver Training a couple weeks ago, and asked for his autograph. He was also a driver of the 1-series Diesel (#195) that Jörg was also piloting. After that two more colleagues of theres, other established drivers, just wandered in and they got them to sign the map as well! I was getting a lot more than I was expecting. Hanging out in the Dörr Motorsport tent was really neat; there was a Z4 GT3 and a pallete with an M3 motor on it. Next to the pallete was a brand new white e92 M3....without a motor. Where they using this brandy new car as a parts car?  the world may never know  ;)
Unforunately, the 1 series diesel that was being driven encountered catastrophic failure on the rear axle so they were forced to retire.


After I said my goodbyes to the racers, I headed back to the Stands to see the last hour of the race. It was a clear beautiful day, a treat after the 3 days of drizzle and constant weather changes. The race ended with a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (#18) winning first, BMW M3 GT2 (#1) winning second, and an Audi R8 LMS winning third. However, really everyone who finished claimed a victory for a successful 24hour race which challenged the drivers, the cars and the teams to work harder and longer encountering all types of weather conditions. It was a great race.... I was glad to have the opportunity to view it in person.


 Dörr Motorsport tent with drivers Jörg Weidinger and Frank Weishar

Motor sitting from donor e92 M3

Visiting Burg Nürburg

Final hour of the 24H Race

1st place, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

2nd place car, BMW Motorsport M3 GT3

ferrari

Mini Coupe

this puppy supports Porsche

Click here for Flickr album for 24Hr Rennen Nürburgring 2011

Slippery when wet

Saturday

I woke up at 6:30am. It was quiet, no music, no fireworks, everyone was resting up for the big day; the day the 24hr Race at Nürburgring started. In this silence, I took a walk on the track itself from Schwalbenschwanz through Sprunghügel and into Pflanzgarten. There is a lot of history on this course. It is the longest and most challenging course known in Motorsports. I heard it takes 1000 hours of driving to understand and almost master it; but the Grüne Hölle is unforgiving and always has it's surprises; one can almost experience three seasons worth of road conditions in a single lap around the ring. One has to be able to adapt their driving style, knowing when to take it slow can be the difference between a fast time, and ending up in a wall.

People have left their mark on the track with paint. Messages ranging from advertisements, names, simple hello to parents and memorials in places people have died when driving on the track. I wish I had some paint to leave my impression. The stillness in the air with the sun casting an orange-white glow made the legendary track seem surreal.

We head out to Wehrseifen which is a very sharp left hairpin coming off a downhill followed by an uphill right-hander. We setup and it starts to rain (re-occuring theme). I fashioned a rainjacket for my camera by putting a hole in a plastic bag for the lens. I was able to catch the tail end of the MINI Challenge and saw Jörg drive by... but I wasn't able to take any pictures in time. Jörg placed 4th overall during the race due to some complications. But he did place 2nd in qualifying which is also an achievement in of itself. I hope there will be more successes in the future.

The Porsche World Cup started with a driver parade (like all the other races) where all 100 cars from 25 different countries drove through putting on a display before they battled eachother and the elements. Once the race was underway, in the FIRST lap, there were so many crashes and cars spinning out due to the wet weather conditions. It was such an amazing race, one could see the drivers taking different lines through the corner. Some were more experienced than others, and it showed.

We moved location to Brünnchen and waited for the 24hr Rennen Nürburgring to start. During the wait there were several parades and events taking place. They set up a large ramp and 3 motorcyclists jumped and did tricks while a cold and wet crowd cheered and clapped. There was a lap of small kids in what seemed like hundreds of go-karts driving around the track in a large group. It was really fun to watch. Next came a parade of Audi R8's, then there was Volkswagens XL1 concept car.

Finally it was time for the 24hr Rennen Parade. The cars drive around in groupings and people cheered, waved flags enthusiastically, and blasted airhorns for their favorite drivers, cars and teams. The cars, sometimes weaving to warm up tires responded with engine revs, and waves from drivers. The race was underway, and the fastest pack screamed through the large sweeping right and up-hill at Brünnchen.

After a while, I walked along the track to get a different vantage point. I took pictures and video at the Caraciolla-Carousel, Klostertal, Mutkurve and walked through a path in the woods along the second fastest straight at Kesselchen (where cars achieve up to 256km/h). Finally, after 8 km of wandering I arrived near Wehrseifen again. I took a shuttle-bus to Flugplatz where the others were. Flugplatz is a fast portion of track with an area that cars sometimes jump over a crest. It's really neat to see high powered race cars leap into the air at 230km/h.

I took the bus back to the welcome center/grand prix circuit to try to catch Claudia Hürtgen again. She was already gone for the day, but it's understandable, there was a LOT going on. Jörg was driving at the time, so I ended up going back to the camp site. BBQ, and more socializing with cars screaming around corners in the background. It was a pleasant evening!

Click here for Flickr of 24hr Rennen Nürburgring

Claudia Hürtgen

Germans are some of the friendliest people I've ever met.

Friday

First thing in the morning was the Classics Race. Many old vintage cars were present and was even a [very very loud] BMW M1! It was interesting to see all these old cars having a go around the Nordschleife as if re-living their hay-day in motorsports. It never ceases to amaze me how many coveted BMW e30 M3(1986-1992) were being used for racing. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to find spare parts (body or otherwise) if one were to crash. But the same goes for any of these classic vehicles. After the Classics Race, there were more qualifying rounds for the MINI Challenge, 24hr and Porsche World Cup.

We visited the Paddocks (Fahrerlager) by teh Grand Prix circuit and welcome center. We saw many of the cars being worked on, tuned and lots of merchandise. I made my way through the different staging areas and met up with Jörg Weidinger as he was coming back from qualifying in the MINI Challenge. He placed 2nd! I had a map of the Nürburgring and I was finally able to ask him for his autograph, not as my boss, but as a racecar driver. I asked him to sign by his favorite curve/corner/place on the ring. He is quite awesome and enthusiastic about motorsports, I introduced my friends to him and they were all excited to talk to him. I took his picture, and asked him where I could find Claudia Hürtgen, whom I picked up a couple weeks ago from the airport. Claudia Hürtgen is a very skilled and respected driver of the Schubert Motorsport Z4 GT3. I got the Paddock/Garage numbers and headed off to try to catch her before the 24hr qualifying run. I spotted her shortly in the booth but she was off to the staging area and I couldn't pass through the massive crowd in time to catch up with her. She was quite busy anyhow, so I will try again the next day.

There were some really high end race cars and some oddballs as well. The Artega GT was a strange looking car no one could initially identify. The Ferrari's were loud and very fast. There was a Lamborgini and a Dodge Viper. Sprinkle many Volkswagens, Renault, MINI, Peugot, Audi, BMW and Porsches into the mix and there is a well rounded grouping of cars. It rained a little bit more and there was so much slippery mud, it was as though you risk your shoe being stuck with every step.

There was a massive party at Campground Brünnchen, we were told good thing we didn't stay there if we wanted to sleep. I contemplated going, but I had a headache and was quite tired from catching less than 5 hours of sleep for the day. We sat around a fire and talked to friendly Germans about everything under the sun. Making jokes, laughing about cultural differences, and comparing life and travel in different countries. The people there were so friendly and open, we all felt like old friends even though we may have only met eachother the day, hour or minute before. It was epic.

Photos from Fahrerlager:

Porsche World Cup Paddocks

Click here for the Flickr Album for Nürburgring

The scent of lingering race fuel in the air is intoxicating

Thursday

After going to bed at 4am, I woke up at 9am to the sound of engines screaming through Schwalbenschwanz as they entered the “Small Carousel.” Today there was mostly Qualifying Rounds for the Classics Race, MINI Challenge, 24hours and other series. It was nice seeing all the cars of all makes and models. The most distinguishing sound came from the Mercedes SLS. We grilled and talked with our camp neighbors and I explored a bit of the track. The weather was strange, switching intermittently between rain and sun.  It started to get muddy, but it didn’t matter. The lingering smell of race fuel was in the air, and it was oh so sweet.

One does not appreciate the technical difficulty of a track until you see it with your own eyes. Tracking the cars as they come around bends and what you think is a straight away, offers a switching camber shifting the cars right and left; ultimately making some lose their line or even snuffing it into the grass. The hills were extremely steep. You cannot appreciate the gradient by merely playing video games. The "Small Carousel" is a tight hairpin turn with a steep bank. A lot of cars scrape as they dip in, and one can often see sparks of parts of the underbody being ripped off the car. It was very difficult taking pictures as there were fences everywhere, albeit for good safety reasons.

The Camp

The only Subaru!

Claudia Hürtgen!

Click here for the Flickr Album for Nürburgring