Hér er smá report frá Jochen sem er bílaljósmyndari. Hann fékk að
sitja einn hring í þessu tæki:
"Today was the day.
I had been hoping to get a chance for a passenger lap for a few races and this was the practice session were it all came together.
I decided to drive over between GP track only practice and the proper NS practice session to check up if all was well or if some late action was needed.
The ride was confirmed and I was allowed to go try the passenger seat.
It was quite tough getting into the car, the passenger footwell space is almost completely taken up by some metal square shape that shouts "Racecar dont even try and sit on this side"
So with having no good space to put your leg, a quite forward seat and a low rollcage I tried to wrestle myself into it (people who know me must already be chuckling).
Once I managed to get in a position which came close to allowing me to try and push myself into the seat I didnt get there, not enough legspace to get my knees below the dash.
Inspiration hit me and I took of my shoes, that did it ... only to be confronted with a seat that was never going to fit me.
The guy who was helping also took about 0.2 seconds to see this.
While I was already seeing the opportunity go up in smoke he suggested we try the other 120D that had a larger seat.
Yes please!
With a natural grace caused by routine I quickly got in this car.
The seat was also tight, but not that tight.
Pushing my legs against the footwell helped me to squeeze in and get in kind of a position that would allow to fasten the harness, after which its all good.
If I was ok like that? Never been better, honest.
Kudoos to the team for scheduling me in in the other car.
Returned half an hour before practice.
Got the guest nomex suit which fit more or less ok, phew.
Had reminded myself to bring the camera.
Met up with Jim C as I was about to get into the car which was parked in pitlane, close to pitexit.
Jim was a good help, although I should probably best await to see what happens with all the pictures he took of the struggle to give a final judgement.
Managed to get in a little better with the nomex suit compared to jeans and jumper.
Once I was more or less in the seat I just pushed back hard and squeezed myself in, it hurt but I was not complaining
With a few minutes to go we managed to set up the camera in what seemed a perfect spot, excellent.
This was not easy because of limited possible anchor points, need for stability, huge sunvisor strip and need for me to operate it from the seat (max 15mins per take).
In the meantime the engine had been started.
Its quite loud and because the engine is on metal mounts and my feet were wedged together in the small space between the metal box and the side I got quite a lot of vibration through there.
As the session was started we were going to be one of the first cars out.
Stian was also there in the 120D close behind us and I was looking forward to getting some footage of him in front of us.
We nudged our way out, moving close to the Zakspeed Viper.
Rolled to the exit where were going to be checked for wrist band.
Erhm, wrist band, right.
Yes, well, where is it then.
Hum.
Idiot.
We were asked to park to the side.
Driver instructed me to run back for wrist band.
Managed to get out and get back to teambox which was very close.
Wristband was quickly arranged but by then Peter had apparently set of for a lap.
No worries, I was supposed to get in soon.
Sure enough he was back quickly and I got in again, pushed back into the seat which worked again, could see this becoming a routine.
This time we were properly off.
Acceleration out of pit was nothing special but the feeling to be out on track during VLN practice was good.
Recognised some photographers at the hairpin and gave them a thumbs up, curious to see those snaps.
The Mercedes Arena was not interesting but did give an initial feel for the grip.
As we were approaching kurzanbindung a car indicated and stayed to the outside.
Just as we were about to turn in the back went loose and we were momentarily pointing at the car instead of the corner but all was quickly corrected.
The tires were obviously still cold, somthing that Peter had warned me of.
We caught some slower cars through the faster final section of the GP track, a nice and clear run through the chicane and then did Coca Cola kurve for the first time, felt steeper than I thought.
The approach line does also not feel intuitive.
Before T13 Peter moved the car around a bit, tires were still cold.
Had a good quick run through Hatzenbachbogen, car twitched on the entry to Hatzenbach, an enjoyable run through Hocheichen and clean exit for a rocket blast to QH with huge takeoff, not.
Although the car is pretty light <300Hp is not getting me exited anymore.
Horse power corrupts.
An ok price to pay for passenger laps in a Carrera GT or Ultima on slicks at Spa I suppose.
The digital speedo came close to 230 before Schwedenkreuz, a sensible approach was taken, tires were still cold.
But the turn in into Aremberg was impressive and then the car just stuck.
By then I was getting convinced again of the fact that slicks are the best human invention ever, a feeling I also had during GT3 cup lap I had sometime ago.
Its not like they are better than sport tires, they simply change the rules of the game, hurray for slicks.
We did 230 through the compression and had a good run through Adenauer Forst complex.
I enjoyed noticing Peters approach and lines were identical to mine here.
Both Metzgesfelds seemed to be hampered by cold tires but then Kallenhard was impressive and generated a lot of lateral G's.
Acceleration down the hill felt a bit more impressive and car was very good through Dreifach Rechts.
Good grip through Breidscheid and we caught up with someone after Ex Muhle, the guy was obviously lost as he indicated left.
Peter went for the right hand side overtake and by then my brain had realised this was perfectly ok here.
We caught up with another car through Bergwerk, more or less screwing up the exit.
Kesselchen and Mutkurve were pretty boring but Klostertal was good fun.
The car definitely got a lot of air there, at least one side did.
A quick run through Steilstrecke saw us having a bit of a drift.
98km/h through Karussel and the car felt very composed and peacefull, a big surprise there.
All in all the car feels very well engineered and composed.
The ease with which it caught and overtook other cars through the twisty bits made it seem like they were not trying.
A quick run up to Hedwigs Hohe where we caught up with a Leon that had just caught up with an E36 M3.
Peter went up the inside of the Leon at the final right Wippermann curb.
The Leon was indicating to this side as this was the side he wanted to overtake the M3, Peter then cut across in front of him to pass the BMW, I want to race too
140km/h through Eschbach saw a good approach to Brunnchen, which turned into a problematic approach as the car was unstable at turnin so Peter turned in on a wide line.
The slicks held their grip and we just ended up on the rumble strips.
This moment is even clearly visible on video, contrary to all the other things you think are huge and then review afterwards.
I wasnt sure but to me it felt like the tires were still not working optimally.
Afterwards Peter acknowledged this and said the car needed 2 laps to get the tires properly working.
Some more photographers I recognised at the inside of Brunnchen 2 and then a grippy run through Eiskurve.
Definitely got some air at Pflanzgarten 1 and even some more at Pflanzgarten 2
I was disappointed not to see any photographers at Schwalbenschwanz, lazy bunch!
Small Karussell felt as smooth as the Karussell and so we were through Galgenkopf and catching a new Civic.
Slipstreamed him to 225 and were getting close to the bridge when Peter seemed to hesitate to overtake.
Surely it was ok to overtake here?
*WHOOSH*
That will be the yellow Manthey Porsche then.
It was a real pleasure to be on track and see this car come fly by, makes you appreciate much more what of a phenomenal car it is.
As we approached Hohenrain I saw it on the curb with lots of sparks coming of (unfortunately the sparks are not visible on video)
The back of the car got loose as we braked for Hohenrain and then an abrupt brake and entry into pitlane to finish my lap.
Peter commented I should try and see if I could get in again at the end of the session when the tires were proper hot so he could push a bit.
Unfortunately that chance did not come because of a long closure caused by a crash at Schwedenkreuz.
All together an excellent experience, but it did not blow me away like I hoped it would.
The relative lack of horsepower and cold tires were probably the main culprits, besides me being spoiled to behind my ears.
Because of track layout and 1 lap working out the timing is rather difficult.
Assuming its 5 seconds between where GP leaves and joins NS we did a 8.10 full NS lap.
Quite impressive taking into account the tire temperature and the fact that we never went above 230.
Hope you enjoyed the write up, I am hoping to post video fragments of the most interesting moments soon."
by bimmer » Fri 12. Oct 2007 09:11 
