Another 15 minutes » Car

Nurburgring roadtrip

Draupner — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:17:14 +0000

Me and a friend of mine decided to make a roadtrip to Nurburgring in Germany, a world (in)famous racetrack and do a couple of laps with our own cars, my Dodge Charger and his Golf GTI. This post is about the 5200 km roadtrip and the Nordschleife experience.

The drive

Since it’s a 1500 km drive from Stockholm to Nurburg we decided to do the trip in two stages and try to get a good sleep before the race day. We were travelling in separate cars but used walkie-talkies and headsets to talk to eachother, which helped to both kill time and keep the level of concentration up. We also had regular stops along the way to stretch our legs, have fresh air, eat and drink.

On the way down we decided to take the ferry from Rödby, Denmark (B), to Puttgarten, Germany. This would save us a few hours drive even though the price on the ferry and fuel would be pretty much the same, the ferry takes only 45 minutes to cross. Once in Germany, after about 10 hours of driving, we stayed in Lubeck (C) at Hotel Ibis, it was about 50 euros per person including garage space and breakfast. The next day we headed for Nurburg (D) on the autobahn and about 6 hours later we were there. The same evening we decided to go home, and not stay in Nurburg for the night. So starting with some awesome mountain roads and amazing scenery we drove for Denmark once again, this time not the ferry since it would be in the middle of the night once we got there anyway. We arrived in Aabenraa (E), Denmark, in the middle of the night and got a few hours of sleep in the cars behind a gas station (we were not alone doing the exact same thing). Then we spent most of the next day driving back to Stockholm (F), Sweden. 5200 kilometers of driving in 58 hours.

Nurburgring – the green hell

Nurburgring is one of the most famous tracks in the world, many cars use it to test their performance and it has become a benchmark-track all over the world. The big part of Nurburgring, the Nordschleife (Nothern circuit), is open to the public for a fee. Since it’s open for everyone normal road laws apply and there are actually speeds limits and there might be roadworks on the track, and racing is prohibited.

When we got to Nurburgring, there was some event going on with alot of luxury sports cars driving in groups. Most of them Porches, but also Audi, Ferrari, Lambos, Nissan GTRs, Aston Martins and Jaguars. There were also plenty of other Swedes there.

I have seen footage and videos of the Nurburgring Nordschleife racetrack on the internet and on TV so I knew alittle about how it looks like and what the dangers are, it demands respect and I didn’t want to spin off so we decided to go very carefully, it’s easy to get hubris and think you remember all 147 corners. Since normal road laws applies on the track you are only allowed to pass on the left, so you have to spend alot of time concentrating not only on the road ahead, but also on the rearview mirror. But I’m happy to say I did manage to do a few overtakes also. This was my first track experience and keeping that in mind, and also the fact that my Dodge Charger is very heavy, and could use better brakes, the laptimes were pretty good.

I would imagine that not having to worry about being overtaken, cutting more corners, and a few more laps of practise and no 30 km/h speedlimit due to roadworks on one part in the way, I would be able to shave a minute or two more off the 20.8 km lap. We did only two laps, but it was so much fun I really hope I’ll be back soon again and then maybe use the rent-a-racecar service and really give it the beans.

There are always people watching on viewpoints around the track, some of them are photographers taking pictures of all cars, then posting them online so you can buy them. Since the track was only open for 2 hours that day, we didn’t have time to take photos of eachother ourselves, but I managed to find myself on http://www.nordschleifenbilder.de/ and bought a couple, below is one of them.

I can’t wait to go back, it was a really good time and I’d love to do more laps.

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Summer tyres is on!

Draupner — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:17:06 +0000

The summer tyres are now on! Also I have washed the car thorough so it’s all shiny, but there will probably be some rain soon enough to change that. Here is a new picture, with the new rear wing spoiler on too.

Vanessas 2011 spring pimping

Vanessas 2011 spring pimping

Draupner — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:34:08 +0000

For this years pimping of my car I’ve decided to go for a wing spoiler. I ordered it from the states a few weeks ago, all painted and ready to be mounted, much cheaper than getting it from a dealer here in Sweden, atleast half the price (even with paint and shipping). Next step is just to get the summer tyres on, within a few weeks probably, and get cruising :). I will also probably spend some money on polishing this year again. Winter, salt and sand really put some annoying scratches on the body. Anyway, here is a picture of the new wing spoiler on my ride, enjoy…

Summer tyres is on!

Long time no post

Draupner — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:49:47 +0000

It was a long time since I posted something here now, but I have had nothing to post really and just forgot about it. Here’s a recent picture, one of my favorites of my ride, can’t wait until summer!

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Wheels Classic Cars

Draupner — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:30:50 +0000

I visited the Wheels magazine Classic Car show at Barkarby Airport last weekend to look at some muscle cars. There were ofcourse most classic cars, but also some nice modern cars. Here are some pictures, ofcourse my Dodge Charger was also there :).

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Ride ready for 2010

Draupner — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:06:12 +0000

Today I put went to a tyre dealership and had them replace the tyres on my 22″ chrome rims for my brand new ones and put the on the car. With this, pimping my ride for the 2010 season is complete :). This is what I have done with it during the winter:

Exhaust: New Flowmaster Force II kit with Super 44 mufflers and 4″ tips, stainless steel catback system.
Airfilter: K&N Cold Air Intake (CAI) filter.
Tyres: Dunlop Sport SP Maxx 265/35R22 tyres with nitrogen.
Tune: Tuned with DiabloSport Predator (U7135). Currently using 91 octane* performance CAI tune. (*91 US octane is equal to 95 EU octane).

Please let it be a very good summer coming up! I’m on a horse.

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Custom Carshow with Chip Foose

Draupner — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:28:03 +0000

Yesterday I visited the Performance and Custom carshow at Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden. Special guest at the show was car designer and builder Chip Foose. I was hoping to get his autograph on some part from my car, or atleast some t-shirt, but he was only signing posters so I didn’t bother staying in the huge line for that. There were some very nice cars though, alot to see, but also alot of cars that just don’t float my boat at all. But here are just a few of my favourites, including a car that I hope to be my next one in a couple of years or so, the Chevrolet Camaro 2010 :).

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Dodge Charger pimping

Draupner — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:06:14 +0000

I’ve been pimping my ride a bit (Dodge Charger R/T 2006 5.7l). I have my new summer tyres ready to go on the 22″ rims, Dunlop SP Sport Maxx (265/35R22), can’t wait for the winter to finally be over. Last week I also fitted my new exhaust and cold air intake filter, just to get a better sound. After doing much research online I decided that Flowmaster exhausts had the best sound and I ordered a complete catback-system with super-44 mufflers. I also ordered a K&N cold air intake-filter and had it installed. Here are some pictures and also a video I made to let you hear the sound of my ride before and after. Let me tell you, it’s worth it :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqxg2LEV2Yk

Ride ready for 2010

Street Cars Fest

Draupner — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:40:18 +0000

Tonight I was at the Street Cars Fest in Stockholm, a car show for custom cars. I was abit dissapointed at the size of the show, there were only about 25-30 cars there, and some were not that hot anyway, if I had joined with my Vanessa (Dodge Charger 2006) I sure as hell would have beat a couple of them. There were some hot cars there though, these cars with alot of TV-monitors and huge speakers I really don’t see the beauty of, but some of them were very clean in style and looked good. Here are some pictures from the show…

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More pictures of Vanessa

Draupner — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:17:03 +0000

Here are some more pictures of my Dodge Charger, now named “Vanessa” after the movie “Gone in 60 seconds” which featured another type of Charger with this codename.

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