Ausfahrt!
Just got home from Germany and what a cracking trip that was! Covered 1,280 effortless miles through the top of France into Belgium then into Germany. First stop was Frankfurt on Friday night then the next morning we headed down to Hockenheim to catch the qualifying sessions. Straight after quallie we cruised to Manheim-Heidelburg and at the same time whilst we were there happened to see Bernie and the Mrs taking a walk in town! By the looks of it also, quite a few of the Redbull team were out as well transported around in their Infinity 4x4's.
From Manheim that evening we hit the road straight to Stuttgart - Saturday night was a Mercedes playground. Infact it was car heaven. Checked out the Mercedes Museum while we were there but only from outside as it was closed by the time we got there. Stuttgart has a massive Merc Dealership. A glass building and my gosh they have a lot of vehicles in it.
We saw all sorts of top end cars from Ferrari's, Lambo's, American Muscle to subtle modified VW's and Audi's, but never have i seen (or heard) so many AMG's bliping it around. It was a musical sitting outside of the bar we were in - Stuttgart really is the home of Mercedes! All sorts of models and one absolute gem was an AMG black SEC, some lovely pre facelift R129's were rolling about and of course lot's and lot's of 55's and 63's from C's to CL's to SL's to E's to S's
I think Stuttgart on a Saturday night is the place to be!
Left Stuttgart the same night and headed back to Hockenheim for the race. Fantastic race it was. LH did a blinding job and Nico was solid.
As for the drive, the car never put a foot wrong. Driving in 35 degrees heat all the way to Germany once we restarted from Calais with the windows/sunroof open was fantastic. No overheating and no oil leaks i can see. The car performed really well and on road surfaces like the Autobhan its even better, smooth as you like and of course built for you to go fast - really fast! I pushed the car hard i couldn't help myself!
The Poly bushes in my opinion work really well the whole car is composed at speed and the steering is sharp. The suspension was damping the weight of the car + a boot full of stuff including a heavy low profile jack. I had to take it just in case as the car is too low for anything else to go under there. Even when storming it down over dips, it didn't bottom out. At that speed the car stuck to the ground and was able to steer the car straight. I mean there were points where my bum was off the seat but the car stuck to the tarmac like a magnet. Wheel Alignment is spot on.
...only one niggle. At 135 -140 mph (no frowning please its allowed) the ABS light illuminates
Turn the car off and on it goes away. Must be the pinion gear in the diff spinning really fast that the magnetic sensor can't read it!!!
..Not that it effected braking as the thing stops pretty well and you do need to be careful as you track down cars rather quickly in front. However they are quite good at moving out of your way. Especially if Mr TDI Audi is coming from a distance like a tracer!! Those things move i tell ya. Bahn Stormers!
Unfortunately we got hit by heavy rain In Germany this morning. looks like i'm going to have to get Terry to borrow me his ramp for an hour clean up session!! Tbh it's not that dirty surprisingly underneath as i've just had a butchers all it needs is a wipe down.
Some pics to follow..
