First of all, your eyes are not deceiving you, the thread title really does say 2004, this may be a record for a delayed trip report! I had always had a fascination with the Nürburgring, having seen old films of the 1930s Silver Arrows racing on the Nordschleife, right up to 1993 when the DTM had its final race on the old circuit. It was definitely on my to do list. The internet brought the dream to reality, back in 2004 the BMW Car Club of Great Britain had quite a good forum, which brought together a few like minded E30 M3 owners, when we heard the Germans were organising a meeting of our cars at the Nürburgring, we had no hesitation in creating a British invasion! Although some of us had never actually met, we arranged to meet up at the Euro Tunnel in Folkestone. I decided to stop off at my Uncle's place on the way down. My Aunty had this rather nice Honda on the drive My Uncle decided to show off the neat folding roof!
The following day we all met up as planned, there were six of us in total. G948 EAF belonged to Steve from Scotland, this car was a limited edition Cecotto model, although back in 2004, a Cecotto was not worth any more than a standard M3, this particular car was a bit special though, having once belonged to the legendary BMW engine designer Paul Rosche. The other cars in line belonged to Uwe, Brian, Toby and myself… …not forgetting Dave Euro Tunnel was a new experience for me We stopped off in France for fuel, and we lined up ready to go 1-2-3-4-5… …6 And off we went, my first road trip into mainland Europe. At least our steering wheels were now on the right side, err, I mean left side! Oh, you know what I mean!!
I guess the drive through France, Belgium and into the Eifel region of Germany took about 5 hours, none of us had a sat-nav back then, so we followed a couple of the guys who had been there before (I took my trusty European road atlas, in case we got split up). Finally, we were getting close Arriving in Nürburg, one of the first places we stopped at was the BMW M Testcenter, this is where all M cars were (and still are) tested and approved, there is no better piece of road than the mighty Nordschleife to test a car. A lovely sight for an E30 M3 owner - An S14 lump The BMW Ring Taxi was already very popular back in 2004, the E39 version Diesel power was coming to the fore, in fact BMW had already won the Nürburgring 24 Hours outright in 1998 with this car Stone sculpture (which I think has since now moved a little further down the village)
Next day, we were keen to sample a lap of the Nordschleife in our own cars Me concentrating at low speed, and getting all the lines wrong! Remember, back in 2004, YouTube didn't exist, I didn't have a Sony Playstation, or even a video of In-Car 956, so I basically had no idea where I was going! But what a track, there is nothing to compare to a lap of the Ring. Brian was doing somewhat better, he had been going to the Ring for a few years already I decided to jump in with Brian and work out where the track went, we followed Uwe. Uwe claimed he didn't know where he was going either, although he had raced motorbikes on the Nordschleife back in 1988, which he said he didn't like at all! My first ever walk round the tourist car park, I still enjoy this experience just as much today, there's always something different to see Dodge Viper Taxi, an alternative to the BMW Ring Taxi, only one passenger allowed (for obvious reasons!) E36 M3 GT - You may have already worked that out! Some things never change, the Ring Mini is still lapping to this day The M3 boys were starting to roll into town… …Talking of rolling, these were some seriously rolled arches!
Down at the industrial estate the 'S14 Treffen' was well and truly underway. Back then, the industrial estate was fairly undeveloped, compared to the one we know nowadays, hence the guys were granted permission to hold the meet, I doubt you would be allowed to hold such an event nowadays. A rare Alpina B6 3.5S - E30 M3 purists believe that only the S14 4 cylinder engine should grace the engine bay, but these were rather a nice piece of kit
Gatecrasher, it was actually Olaf Manthey in his company car! Now that's a proper S14 - Carbon airbox to give the perfect soundtrack
We decided to go and do some spectating on a public day, Uwe took us to a popular corner which he told us was known as Brünnchen. Safe to say, I have spent many happy hours here since, not only for public days but also watching the VLN. To our shock (well, at least to us Ring newbies), a bus full of tourists appeared on the track, quietly lapping as Porsches etc found their way round this mobile chicane, I still to this day haven't heard of a racetrack that lets buses on, but this is just one of the things that makes the Ring unique. Next was a trip to Nürburg Castle, the castle is believed to date back to the 12th century, the site of the castle was probably used by the Romans as a signalling point, so there is some serious history up here. The castle is always looking over you
We visited what is now known as the old Nürburgring museum, which was a delight for BMW fans, they had a couple of rooms full of BMW stuff from wayback to present day. Nowadays, BMW have a highly polished museum in Munich, but back then they were probably happy for Nürburgring museum to house some of their stuff. Evening brought a new experience to most of us, steak on a stone, or cook your own meat! Many of you will have tried this, particularly at Pistenklause, but as I recall, this meal was at Altes Forsthaus (I am willing to stand corrected). Things didn't work out for one of our party, I think they forgot to heat up one of the stones! That's Steve in the photo, with Brian offering to cook the meat by candlelight!
Our final day, time for a few more laps and another look round the car park. M3 Parking Only Porsche GT3RS, you don't see one all year, then you're tripping over them in the Ring car park! Alpine-Renaults Charming James Bond style hinged number plate (allegedly)
Uwe and Brian having one more lap That was a great trip, sadly I've lost touch with most of those guys, but have made many other friends through my Ring trips. Some have ticked the box and don't care to go anymore, but for me, the novelty hasn't yet worn off, so I suppose it never will now. Thanks for reading my report, it brought back a lot of good memories for me. Hopefully, many more trip reports to follow. Alan .
Those were the days, my friend................ Happy and sunny days. I was not with you on that trip (before my time) but have enjoyed joining you on a good number of trips since then. Thanks for the report, even if it is a bit late!
Great report Alan! I recognized a lot of the cars and people. I was at that meeting also, but I was mostly out on track all the time. I think we either met the first time on this trip or the next one but it was around that time. Wow, 14 years ago! Cant believe it. John
That was an amazing, never to be repeated meeting, I remember one of the guys counted approx. 120 cars at the industrial estate, so there must have been 150+ cars in town that weekend. I remember meeting you on that trip John, as you say, hard to believe it's 14 years ago!
One of your best yet, my friend. There is nothing better than actual pictures of the time and place. Thanks again. /Walter Boggs
