The next morning we awoke to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary with the crew before hugs all round and farewells, we were heading for a date with the Nurburgring, a present from Kim, on arrival at 10am they told us that the track isn't open till 5.15pm for laps, 7 hours to kill, so we toured the musuem and chilled in the camper

Formula Vee racer in the 'Ring museum

Yes thats a go-kart, yes thats 8 wheels and yes thats 4 engines

with the hour approaching we hunted out the toll booth at the start of the track, I wandered in to see the guy on the gate and asked if the van would be allowed.......his response

"Is it legal to drive it on the road in Germany? does it leak? does anything fall off?"

With a yes, no, no I handed over 20Euros and got my ticket, with roofrack straps tightened and everything bolted down we made for the gate, like a carpark barrier we slipped the ticket in and the barrier rose, to the astonished looks of all the super car drivers and bikers and gathered crowd we edged on circuit

One of many hanglooses we got

The Dodge Viper Taxi heading into the Karussell, we couldn't get in being a bit too low at the front

V-Max up the straight almost 80mph, the big boys were hitting 150+

I was careful to keep right all the time and slowed to let a few Porsches past so my time was a little slower than possible....

Radical SR8 6mins 55sec (360hp V8)
Porsche GT3 7mins 47sec (400hp flat six)
Dodge Viper 8mins 10sec (460hp V10)
1971 Early Bay Camper van 19min 45sec(50hp flat four)

What a rush, an amazing experience and now Leonard wears his new sticker with pride

With the day almost gone and us about 6 hours behind we pointed the van (brakes cooled after the run) towards the port and headed off, through the forest for a few hours before reaching the autoroute we put some big miles and long runs on the van, hitting Dunkerque at about 1am and crashed in a hotel by the harbour as we couldn't find a campsite

We stopped in the hypermarket to grab plenty of goodies and then hopped on a ferry for the crossing, the happy campers still smiling

landing in Dover at 5.30pm we hit the motorway remembering to drive on the left and by 8pm parked up, Leonard covered 1785 almost fault free miles and didn't grumble, we had the most amazing time, saw some amazing sights and met up with some great friends.

Huge thanks to:

Roy - For your expert sat nav use
Laura - For being great company and humouring a car buff at Le Mans and Reims
Oscar - For keeping a smile and wearing us out chasing round catching him
Pete & Hector, Jo, Jack & Charlie - For being great company in Germany and all the laughs, what was said on the tour, stays on the tour
Stu - For all your spares and awning, didn't need to raid them at all

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Page last updated July 1st 2007
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