Must be that dry midwestern wit, hard for this grizzled ol' southern boy to understand you windy people. Or perhaps it just lacked humor.

Full disclosure statement: Sabine would kick my *** around the 'ring in a diesel van, prolly.

 

Make that definitely...

I'm not crazy enough to drive the ring in a van... But she sure does spank me silly in just about any other vehicle as long as it's on even terms... Sho know that place forwards, backwards and sideways... The only time I can lap her is when she is 4 wheel drifting that big beemer loaded with 3 passengers... And even then she is passing about half the people on the track...

It's a strange sensation coming up behind in a left hand corner and pull out to pass and she is sitting there waving at you through the windscreen...

 

we need to get travis pastrano over there in a loaded garbage truck and see what he can do

 

Don't get me wrong... There are plenty of talented drivers that can challenge her flat out on a clear track... I can sure give her a good race in even matched cars... I have beaten her on a few occasions... (ans she me on ahem... a few more...)

But on an average "work day" during season, she runs that track 10-15 laps in traffic with a fully loaded car (3-4 passengers) on a time that most sport car drivers struggle to keep pace with... All the time one hand on the wheel the other gesturing, talking a mile a minute and drifting that car... Now that impresses me...

Oh and BTW... When I say "in traffic" I don't mean like in a car race "in traffic"... I mean like a highway... Because that is what it is... It's one way, sure... So you won't meet anyone head on in a blind corner, but on a busy day you will be passing cars almost non-stop BTG and most of them are not used to the speeds and have little or no experience on the ring... So they won't be checking their mirrors and moving over... Plus there is a fine for excessive use of the horn in Germany... Also the same rules apply as on all other public roads, no passing on the right... So the general technique is to flash the bights on the straight and then stick the nose in on corner entry and out brake them...

She knows the track... and that counts when you have a track that long and with that amount of curves... I usually do around 50-60 laps a year just recently did my 500'th lap... But I don't know the track that well... Not yet...

 

BTW on a side note... I have seen the local garbage trucks going that route on off season... Then it's just a normal road...

And on season it's not that uncommon to pass a big tourist bus on track... They are bit less common than Porsche's and Ferrari's and a bit more common than Maserati's...