Oldtimer GP

[HRSTR5]

Having pulled out of the Silverstone Classic partly due to 'excessive authoritarian-ism' ... you may find it extraordinary that I have signed up to return to the Oldtimer in a couple of weeks ... we've entered the well travelled TR5 into the Nurburgring Trophy which is run concurrently within the Historic Marathon on the Combined GP + Nordschleife, but for half an hour less at 3.5 hours. Very excited. Plus, Brother David and I get all of our activity out of the way on Friday and can watch/drink beer/eat chips/lie in sun(hide from rain) whilst our hero third driver loses weight running from car to car over the Sat/Sun, he's not exactly aiming to do a Roger Wills, but 3 other races should keep him plenty busy!

Who else is going to be out there...?

James

[Rudernst]

Originally Posted by HRSTR5

Having pulled out of the Silverstone Classic partly due to 'excessive authoritarian-ism' ... you may find it extraordinary that I have signed up to return to the Oldtimer in a couple of weeks ... we've entered the well travelled TR5 into the Nurburgring Trophy which is run concurrently within the Historic Marathon on the Combined GP + Nordschleife, but for half an hour less at 3.5 hours. Very excited. Plus, Brother David and I get all of our activity out of the way on Friday and can watch/drink beer/eat chips/lie in sun(hide from rain) whilst our hero third driver loses weight running from car to car over the Sat/Sun, he's not exactly aiming to do a Roger Wills, but 3 other races should keep him plenty busy!

Who else is going to be out there...?

James

I have done it exactly the other way round and scratched my March out of GPM at the OGP and done the Silverstone Classic.
I dread the weather there in the Eifel.

Rudernst

[terence]

If all goes to plan,I'll see you there.

[HRSTR5]

Well Terry, it looks like it's just you/us then - best we make the most of it! Can't help thinking that there will turn out to be a few more faces we recognise once we get there...

James

[delta]

Dont worry James,I will be at the Nurburgring.I can taste the apple strudle's even now.And thats after the Lancashire hot pot this weekend. Good job im on a diet

[jminsh]

See you all there

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Dont worry James,I will be at the Nurburgring.I can taste the apple strudle's even now.And thats after the Lancashire hot pot this weekend. Good job im on a diet

But what sort of diet?

[terence]

Originally Posted by HRSTR5

Well Terry, it looks like it's just you/us then - best we make the most of it! Can't help thinking that there will turn out to be a few more faces we recognise once we get there...

James

Looks like there will be a few more 'faces' there,new 'slim line' Delta?[Not before time ]
Can't wait to drive straight past junc 10 E42,just to try out the new road car!

[delta]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Looks like there will be a few more 'faces' there,new 'slim line' Delta?[Not before time ]
Can't wait to drive straight past junc 10 E42,just to try out the new road car!

Do you allways go the long way then Tel

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Do you allways go the long way then Tel

He's got a new car Iain. I thought everyone tried the equivalent of home to local supermarket via Scotland when they get a new car. (Or, if you live in Scotland, via somewhere in the North West Highlands ...)

[SAMD]

Originally Posted by grantp

He's got a new car Iain. I thought everyone tried the equivalent of home to local supermarket via Scotland when they get a new car. (Or, if you live in Scotland, via somewhere in the North West Highlands ...)

or Donegal lol

[terence]

Originally Posted by delta

Do you allways go the long way then Tel

Got to call in on some friends first Iain,10 mins off of the E42.

[johngee]

I'll be there, primarily clerking the Masters races. Looking forward to it.

[1800TISA]

Originally Posted by terence bower

If all goes to plan,I'll see you there.

Hi Terry, would be nice to see you at the Ring. I will be there all weekend. If I shouldn't run into you, just give me a shout on my mobile (number send by PM).

Starter lists have been published on the OGP website. If I have counted it right, 6(!) Birdcage Maserati are entered for the 60ies sportscar race. World record?

Weather forecast looks promising too. I am looking forward to a great weekend.

Kind regards, Stephan

[terence]

Forced change of plans Stephan. PM sent. Speak soon.

[HRSTR5]

Sounds rather like we are about to lose Delta too - he was down to one possible car to transport when we spoke yesterday - and that was in a thousand pieces.

Could be a lonely old place after all!

[terence]

Originally Posted by HRSTR5

Sounds rather like we are about to lose Delta too - he was down to one possible car to transport when we spoke yesterday - and that was in a thousand pieces.

Could be a lonely old place after all!

I would rather be there than doing what I will be! Hope all goes well for everyone going.

[delta]

I had a message from our one and only car that went to the Nurburgring that they finnished the 500K race.Can someone post a link on here to find the results please.

[HRSTR5]

Iain, results here http://www.avd.de/ogpracing/english/news.html - scroll down the left side in the 'red bar' to find "results", for the Marathon you need "Race 7/11/12". They amalgamated 'Youngtimers' (Race 7), together with Marathon (Race 11) and our event Nurburgring Trophy (Race 12). Something like 160 cars started the event ... rather less finished, and quite a lot of those that did were 'less pristine' by the finish, the conditions were treacherous...

Report to follow a bit later.

James

[Paulaweybridge]

Like the music and racing sounds on their website.

Some great fotos by Tom Linke too: http://www.avd.de/ogpracing/fotos/Fr...ent/index.html

[HRSTR5]

Back from Nurburgring early this morning, where we had been racing the TR5 in the Oldtimer GP. Along with my brother David (HFF racer and former owner of the TR), and our friend Matthew Newman (Guards Trophy and E-Type Challenge racer), we had entered the car in the Nurburgring Trophy which is a slightly shortened race for 66-72 cars held within the Historic Marathon which is Pre-66. This race is on the Combined GP and Nordschleife circuit (26km total). We’d never done an endurance race before, had no real idea of race fuel consumption, nor driver strategy, nor pitstops etc., you get the point! Two of us had driven the ‘Ring before as tourists but neither of us had ever done a quick lap, Matthew had only seen it on YouTube. In short we were merely going for a finish, and for fun!

The race was amalgamated with the Youngtimers too, so there were about 140 cars starting, of which Youngtimers would do one hour, we would do 3.5hrs and Marathon would complete 4hours. 210 cars could have started, so I guess this was a ‘small’ entry, but for us, a few less cars on track wouldn’t be a bad thing. There were 40 for the Trophy and 3 in our GTS16 Class.

Qualifying was 100 mins, and with all 3 drivers needing to drive that meant we were only going to get 2 laps each (little chance to learn the circuit then!), coupled to that it was an early start, had rained overnight and rain was in the air again, and having sought advice we elected to run the road Yokos, rather than the A048rs. Matthew and David completed their two laps, and handed over to me, by which time a dry line was fairly consistent all the way round (but not everywhere, so enough to make you think about it!) The tyres had overheated anyway, so we were now sliding about much as we would have done on the 48s in the wet! Best lap was a 13mins 14sec, which gave us fastest time in Class. Significant gearbox heat caused concern, so we changed the oil, but could do little more.

We very nearly missed the start, they’d not mentioned the early closure of the pitlane during the briefing so we were blissfully unaware, and thought we had plenty of time; we were actually going for lunch when they first called the race, but according the schedule we had a good hour left, so we ate … then a late decision to start on the 48s for the potentially drying track very nearly did for us, but we crept under the barrier as it was closing and down the pitlane and started from there – all a bit more stressful than it needed to be!

The track was sodden for the start, but there were places where it was drier, lots of spray though and very very slippery, at times I thought the pace of the green flag lap was fast enough! I had a good dice for a couple of laps with the other two GTS16 cars, with several passes, but with drying line in places it was treacherous to go offline, and when the MGBGT got away I just didn’t have the confidence to chase. It was horrendously slippery where wet, and with showers moved over the circuit, some heavy, each corner was different every time, but then there was a breeze and patches of sunshine, so equally a section you slid round one lap could easily be dry a quarter of an hour later. A lot of bent cars, everyone was having ‘moments’. Our times were well off qualifying, despite now knowing which way the corners went. After 5 laps (1hr15) I handed over to David and we put 30 ltrs of fuel in (in the dry I suspect we might have struggled to go an hour on the 55ltr tank), David drove sensibly in a car that wasn’t his own (not to say he didn’t have ‘moments’ of his own though!). The showers became less frequent. An hour later he handed over to Matt (and we found a few seconds to make the in-car camera work), a ‘splash and dash’ 10ltr top-up (which turned out to be completely unnecessary) and Matt was off, again Matt was also concerned about racing a borrowed car and drove well within himself. 3 laps later he appeared unexpectedly in the pitlane to generously offer the car back to me for the finish, but with this not planned I wasn’t even there at the time, so he did another lap and then came back in again, I still didn’t know this change to the plan was I so was unprepared, but he climbed out and eventually I got back in for one final lap and the cooling down lap. All a bit of a giggle really, but it’s not as if we were going to win anything!

We came for a finish only, to experience the Nordschleife and get a taste endurance racing. We got what we came for, and are delighted to bring home a straight car. Fair to say that in the conditions we didn’t stress the car much, the drivers were taking all the stress. We had a great weekend, after the Friday finish David and I set about drinking too much, and Matt raced his 23b and E-Type, bringing both those cars home undamaged in ‘challenging’ conditions. Great fun, great weekend, we’d like to do it again, and I think I can see several areas where we could improve our actual performance …

Thanks to Steve and Darren from Wren Classics, there to run Matt’s other cars, who cheerfully stepped in to help us out when we were in danger of making fools of ourselves!

Photos courtesy of Vividot.

[grantp]

Lovely report James. Thanks.

Sounds like the mission was well and truly accomplished in some trying conditions. Well done.

[klaus]

a nice report, HRSTR5, well done!!

we watched the race at pflanzgarten section, seeing some hairy drifts in the wet by nearly all the competitors, even walter röhrl in the porsche needed several inches of the gravel outside .
unfortunately some cars got bad deformation, very unlucky was the team of the alfa giulietta roundtail, which got a complete flat nose in the very last lap. best team from uk was tice/conolly in the marcos 1800, doing a wonderfull job in this year´s rainy conditions.

[terence]

Excellent report James,glad you both finished without leaving any signatures around the circuit.
You will get to know where to brake and where not to over time

[pedro917]

My pictures of the 39th Nürburgring Oldtimer GP are now uploaded to my Jalbum webspace.
You can find them here : http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/1028961