[V8] Germany Trip

[S_Matus]

I was in Germany from April 27 to May 6th.  It was an interesting experience.

The long Lufthansa flight from Denver to Frankfurt was 10+ hours and I loose 8 hours from this flight.  Weather in Frankfurt was 19 degrees C and clear/sunny.  Frankfurt Airport is under construction which means a lot of confusion for a first timer in a strange land.  Discoverd the toiletten and its (un-)pleasantries.  Herman and Deman is quickly understood, for I know few words of Dueuch.  My next leg to my final home of Stuttgart was a ride on the S6 (DB railway) into the Haupbahnhof (Main station).  I stayed at the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin Hotel 200m from the Haupbahnhof.  This was a very central location to downtown Stuttgart.

THis is my first opportunity to see any of the german cars in real life.  I see every make you can think of sold in europe - 
Mercedes Benz, Citeroen, BMW, VW, Fiat, Audi, Seat, Peugot, Opel, Volvo, Saab, Cadillac, Lancia, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Smart, Jaguar, Porsche, Ford, Mazda, Renault, MG, Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, Hummer, Dahatsu, Dawoo, Hyundai and Rover.  The majority are M-B, Audi, VW, BMW, and Opel (65%). There are not many Japanese say <1%.  


Wow, for a car guy this is heaven.  While crossing the strasse to the hotel what do I see, but a fully camoflauged M-B sedan.  Damn, I just got off the train and had my camera still packed.  Oh, well I guess we will see that model on the showroom floor this fall.  This is Friday at 1500 Uhr (Hour) actually 6 AM back home.  Eurpoe goes by 24 uhr time.                                   ]

The car I had for the 9 days in Germany was a 2006 BMW 325d.  My wife rented it from Eurocar agencey.  I think they are affiliated with Enterprise in the states.  It was outfitted with NAv System that did not show a map.  Only arrow by arrow directions and the voice prompts.  This is the similar system like my wife has in her 2002 allroad.  I quickly discovered how to change the language to UK English.

I'll stick to Auto (Audi) related content.  Spent many hours on the Autobahn roadways are called tHe A6, A8, A2, A4, A-etc . . .  Later I thought about the connection of the Autobahn numbering to the models that Audi sells.  What a coincidence.  What do you think? 

The car I had was 2.5l diesel so it had plenty of torque to get it moving.  Most vehicles are Diesel, and I was enjoying the lack of diesel odor.  The BMW did do well on the Autobahn roads.  My max speed was at 240km/H. This was the fastest that I could get out of it.  The tires were only 225/55-16 H-Rated so I did not want to push too hard.  You see signs for 120 or 130 speeds.  In these areas you are allowed to exceed that limit, but once the speed is posted below 120, you got to shut it down schnell (fast).  There are the welcome "Unlimited" sections of the Autobahn which I took full advantage of.  Germany have a strange laws that the US should adopt.  Pass Only on the left! And Slower Trafic Keep Right!  Oh, yea, we do have these laws, but Germans follow it!  It makes the high speeds on the Autobahn possible.  Usually you can only travel at high speed for short segments of 5 to 10 km.  Speeds are lower at major interchanges and they are building more of them every year.

By talking to locals, I understand that just outside Stuttgart in the middle of the night, you can see Porsches performing tuning runs on the Autobahn.  Stuttgart is the only place the 911 will ever be made.  There were a few camoflagued 911 shaped cars on their factory lot.  I did not spend a lot of time at that town called, Zuffenhausen.  The only real exotic I saw was at the factory lot at Necarsulm.  More about Neckarsulm later.

I did visit a number of historic cities in south Germany.  Stuttgart is the perfect city to use as a homebase in the south.  It is 1-2 hours away from many sites.  Lets see, Fussen has the castle that Disney copied to create the castle in the theme parks. Amazing what slave labor and money can accomplish.  Nurnberg was a place that has great  history from WWII.  Munich (Munchin in german) is a great world class city with all the amenities.  I saw a '80s VW Transporter Diesel Synchro Westfailia that was lifted (rare Im sure) and was almost run over by the Polizei.  Visited the Haufbrau House, with music and men in Lederhosen.  Lots of drinking and singing.  Salzburg (Mozart's home) offered a lot of historic picture taking and there was a m arathos being run the day we were there.  Saw the Gazeebo from the movie "Sound of Music" along with beautiful gartens.  Ans Strausburg in France has the Cathedral with a plaque thanking the US solders for not bombing it in WWII.  France
 smells and so do their people.  Dogs are allowed everywhere people go. French do not clean up after their dog's business. 

Nurbergring - Awesome.
This is an auto enthusiasts dream.  Anyone, I mean anyone can "drive what they brought" to the track and run.  There were sightings of A4, RS4 Sedan & Avant, S4 Cabrio, BMW Z8s, plenty Porsches, Vipers, and Motorcycles galore.  Guys from all over europe were there, GB, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy.  There were a lot of serious dudes in fully stripped, lowered, flared, rollcaged, well heavily modified vehicles. We felt out of place not wearing helmets.  I even think I saw a Porsche that had Nitrous.  

I ran the ring three times in the rental BMW 325d.  This car felt like a newly discovered late model Audi purchased from the original owner with low miles and loose suspension, because he has not put any money into it for the last 4 years.  Enough about that.  I paid my 14 Euros for each run, actually bought a 4 pass.  We got there early about 9:30.  The previous 2 days was raining so everyone at the track was jacked for a beautiful sunny day.

First run-
My wife in the back seat holding the video camera on a tripod.  The official turned me away because he said no Videotape camera and that it must go to the trunk before I run.  2 minutes later, wife in the front, we are back in line.  Enter your ticket into the parking lot style reader and the gate opens.  You initially are limited to 30 km/H until you are on the straight away.  Then You are free to run thr track in all its dangers.  After I calmed my wife down so I could concentrate, I finally realized detail about the track.  The Bimer was a Tip style Automatic.  I left it in Manual mode the whole time.  It offered full redline shifts.  I'm sure I was passed by 2 Porsches, A few Bimers and a handful of motorcycles.  At one turn a motorcycle lost it (identified by the horizontal bike), because there were 6 cars on the trackside offering medical assistance.  After this run we drove into the Finish under Yellow.  It took 45 minutes to get all the blood & skin off the pavement.
Laptime - Over 15 minutes.

The second run was done by a couple that we were touring along with.  It was my wife's co-worker.  He considered himself a car-guy, but I knew he wasn't.  I think his lap time with his wife was over 20 minutes.  He discovered that what I said earlier was true.  THere was a damn Tour Bus running the course.  I'm surprised that we did not see Gunther driving his Duetz tractor.

Third Run - 
Ran this one alone, for it was way too much excitement for my wife. Blood returned to her knuckles.  I learned the course a little better, driving closer to the line. I discoverd a combination of track features I never encounterd before. Before a long sweeping turn there was this deep hollow. Braking in the hollow had no effect until you weighted the suspension again. So before you approached the turn you had to brake before the hollow, fly over the hollow and then power out of the turn.  Cool!  Overshot a Hairpin turn and ended up with major braking and discovered the DTC was still on.  With the DTC off (last 4km) it was much easier to stay in the groove.  I think I was passed by 2 BMW Z8s, some porsches and a pink BMW 320i w/rollcage which had 2 women in it.
Laptime - Just over 13 minutes 13:05

Fourth Lap - 
After an extensive delay sequence of 2 yellows we waited over 1.5 uhrs to get driving again.  Maybe the tour bus overturned?  Just kidding.  I was psyched, I understood the track, the DTC off, and the Trans in Manual mode; I planned to better the previous times.  I realized that all the screechin tires on the previous runs was because the traction control was trying to keep the car straight.  This time I was able to get the backend sliding out on the tightest turns.  The trans in manual mode required repeated downshifting before the corners.  I was constantly removing my hand from the wheel to downshift.  I know know why paddle shifters on the wheel are used in my RS6.  Two of the turns have deep banked turns and did not run it the first time. But this last lap I negotiated the entrance and exit on one turn perfectly.  The second I only had a good exit from the turn.  At the last few turns I was pacing a silber Porsche (yea right), blue Escort w/rollcage, and the pink 320i.
  I held my own in these turns until in intermediate straight where I could let them pass. I was not going to let my time suffer because of them.
Laptime - 10:31

Neckarsulm is the home of the A6 & A8 as well as Quattro Gmbh. the plant is nestled along the Neckar River. The town is dominated by Audi.  As you drive closer and closer to the city you start seeing Audi signs pointing the way.  They built the "Audi Forum" which is where people can design their car and pick it up from the factory.  Not just the Neckarsulm production is deliverd here.  We saw a number of historic NSU cars & motorcycles and older Audis, including the DTM S4. Not a sewing machine in sight.  Wife and I walked into the Nuvolari Restaurant to eat.  Appearantly people that have their cars delivered there receive a 3 course meal from this restaurant.   We somehow get the treatment, but when they learned we were not picking up a car, hospitality went out the window.  We ate some kind of "Monkey Brain Salad", for we could not distinguish the meat in our salad.

We took the Factory tour at 1200 - 1400 Uhr.  We told them we only spoke English, so the tour guide got his boss Hans Grossman to personally speak to the 2 of us.  They now produce the C6 A6 in record 4:20 uhrs, down from 8:25 uhrs for the C5 A6.  Wow, their production line is impressive.  I stood next to pallets of V8 and V10 engines and some V6s too.  We learned that Neckarsulm paints All Lambo bodies and ships them to Italy for assembly via rail.  There we saw a Lamo Guliardo in the parking lot.  The whole Audi Experience at the Forum was a great must see attraction.

The remainder of the time is Neckarsulm was with 2 dear friends.  They grew up in Neckarsulm and are married high school sweethearts.  We talked and drank until 2300 uhr last Friday.  He actually works for Audi in thier Repair/troubleshooting department.  I learned a lot about the plant, the labor union, and inside Audi tidbits.  Learmed that because of the customer "customization preferences" a lot of cars can be purchased without badging. So many cars I saw did not have model or engine badges on the rear.  I guess you cannot be a labeled for owning a lesser equipped vehicle.  It adds some mistique about their cars.

In Germany they have emissions which are in 2 catagories 55 and 80 Euros.  They do not perform a Dynomometer run during the inspection.  They just run up the RPMs and complete a safety inspection.  The yearly license fees you would pay are based upon the car and engine combination.  My friend has a 2006 A4 Cabrio (1 month old, life is rough) pays 1000 Euro a year with a 1.8T engine.  Employees may purchase 1 car every 9 months before they can sell it.  Their cost to buy a car is 18% discount.  So many cars can be purchased with small displacement engines to save money on licensing.  I hate to see the yearly fees on a W12 Phaeton.  Maybe 3200 Euro/year?

I took over 1500 High-res photos on the trip and intend to post them with a hosting service.  I just have not decided which one to use.

Scott.
Please ask any questions about my trip offline.  It was a great experience of a lifetime and hope you learned a little more about the cars we care for.  Yea, I guess some of us treat them like children.
		
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