Nurburgring Track Rentals

[JPolen01]

Yeah that is something to think about and I haven't done a ton of research on it. For me I am okay with forgoing somethings like cheaper upgrades for the benefit of being able to fly on whatever airline at whatever time I like. Shopping for credit cards sucks. The venture card does have an annual fee though. When our first year ends I will be calling to cancel unless they waive the fee.

[G.Irish]

Yeah I usually have an ok experience with United but I really would fly Jetblue or Virgin more often if I wasn't trying to earn airline miles. Luckily with Star Alliance there is a good amount of choice with foreign carriers but it would be refreshing to just choose the best balance of customer experience and price rather than defaulting to United.

You have a good idea about quitting before the annual fee hits. Maybe I'll start doing that every year or so with a different rewards card to get that big new member's bonus that most of them have. Would get me about 2/3rds or more towards a free flight with most rewards programs.

[HAULN-SS]

I was getting ready to tell you about getting the barclay world arrival+ - which is what I use. 40k signon points (about $400 worth), 2x points on all purchases, and 10% discount refund on reward spending = 2.2% total cash back basically. They recently just changed it to only a 5% discount on reward spending so I am in the market for a new card. This one had a 2nd year $89 fee - which I have paid once, but I've probably cashed in somewhere around $2500 in free stuff out of it.

[BLINGMW]

I'm lurking...
I'd love to join you guys, keeping my ear out for what this schindig is roughly going to cost.
And FWIW it doesn't take a very fast track car to make that experience pretty incredible/dangerous enough.

[WRXtranceformed]

Just a little off topic but just FYI if you are shopping for new cards think twice about cancelling your old one. The longer your credit history with revolving accounts the stronger positive hit you get on your credit history. I have a travel rewards card I had forever and got a better one about a year ago. The old one has a yearly fee that I call and convince them to waive every year. I have kept it open and just put one small bill on it every month. In fact I just requested and received a big credit line increase because it decreases your debt to limit ratios especially if you aren't spending much on it. My credit score was already strong but it jumped significantly with the increase.

Just food for thought before you cancel your old cards!

[G.Irish]

Yeah that's a good point. My plan was to just keep my longest tenured cards and periodically cancel the new ones if they don't waive the annual fees

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Jake]

^ That's what I'm doing, too. I have an ancient Visa that I never use, with a low limit from the college days, but I leave it open because it helps my "average age of card" stay higher.

[JPolen01]

I realize the ring is open to pretty much anything, but are there ANY safety checks in place at all? This clown is wheeling the piss out of his opel utility van right up until the point he backs it into the armco wall. He even has ladders on the roof! Why do you want to share a track with crazy people like this?

Wheeling
[youtube]O0woyQEzAVM[/youtube]

Crash
[youtube]14bOrUALXxw[/youtube]

[BLINGMW]

No there are no safety checks.
Because it's the largest and most awesome track in the world? :dunno:
It's basically run as a public road and you pretty much have to assume it's like a Hyperdrive without instructors. Or EMS. Or runoff room. FWIW I'm guessing asshats in vans (to be fair I would do this in my van too at least once) are few and far between. And there's plenty of safe passing room.

[youtube]_ka6W7WWWlM[/youtube]

[G.Irish]

I realize the ring is open to pretty much anything, but are there ANY safety checks in place at all? This clown is wheeling the piss out of his opel utility van right up until the point he backs it into the armco wall. He even has ladders on the roof! Why do you want to share a track with crazy people like this?

This is why I want to run the Ring on track days not on touristenfahrten days where anyone can show up with anything. The other downside of touristenfahrten days is that apparently the schedule can be changed at any.

[G.Irish]

I'm lurking...
I'd love to join you guys, keeping my ear out for what this schindig is roughly going to cost.
And FWIW it doesn't take a very fast track car to make that experience pretty incredible/dangerous enough.

Here's what I've been able to find out on cost thus far:

Renting a 200 hp or less sport compact

• Should cost about 75 euro or less per lap (I've been thinking the GT86 for 50 euro/lap would work nicely)
  
• Each lap should take around 9-10 minutes with said car
  
• 1 hour of track time would be about 6 laps, so about 300-450 euro per hour
  
• There are cheaper options (like a E39 528) for 25 euro per lap, which would be 150 euro per hour or less
  
• Gas would be extra

Track day entry fees

• One of the track day orgs charges about $800 per day per car, $70 per extra driver
  
• With 3 drivers it would be about $313 per driver per day

Haven't looked much at lodging but it seems like there are plenty of decent options for less than 100 euro per night.

[WRXtranceformed]

I'd kinda rather do this, pay some more and get to hoon a V10 R8 through the mountains and Italy:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93B240&c=246C2&l=F2E7EF1&email=7xqJYT99%2FdXvoouBnIlWpwif8GG0Zxj9&relid=483324BB">http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93 ... d=483324BB</a><!-- m -->

(my brother and I are actually looking into doing this for his 30th birthday in a few years)

[*insertusernamehere*]

Then you don't understand the point of wanting to do the ring....

[JPolen01]

I'd kinda rather do this, pay some more and get to hoon a V10 R8 through the mountains and Italy:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93B240&c=246C2&l=F2E7EF1&email=7xqJYT99%2FdXvoouBnIlWpwif8GG0Zxj9&relid=483324BB">http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93 ... d=483324BB</a><!-- m -->

(my brother and I are actually looking into doing this for his 30th birthday in a few years)

That's pretty cool, but completely different than driving the 'ring.

[WRXtranceformed]

Then you don't understand the point of wanting to do the ring....

I understand...y'all can go dodge contractor vans and I'll stick to blasting through the Alps

[G.Irish]

Yeah that's a different kind of experience but that does look like a damned good value for everything that you get. Looks like there at least a couple of sections where there's no speed limits and you could stretch the R8's legs a little bit.

The only thing about something like this is that hopefully there are some twisty bits that they'll let you drive briskly. I could imagine them being really tight with $180k cars.

There are actually a number of other cool driving/race experiences I've looked up recently, from blasting around Baja in a trophy truck to slinging Lotuses around Hethel. Some of the experiences are pretty inexpensive for what they are. This Audi deal might be the best supercar value I've seen so far.

[CaptainHenreh]

I'd kinda rather do this, pay some more and get to hoon a V10 R8 through the mountains and Italy:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93B240&c=246C2&l=F2E7EF1&email=7xqJYT99%2FdXvoouBnIlWpwif8GG0Zxj9&relid=483324BB">http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93 ... d=483324BB</a><!-- m -->

(my brother and I are actually looking into doing this for his 30th birthday in a few years)

Did we talk about this once before? I desperately wanted Kaan to do this for his bachelor party but alas...

[WRXtranceformed]

I'd kinda rather do this, pay some more and get to hoon a V10 R8 through the mountains and Italy:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93B240&c=246C2&l=F2E7EF1&email=7xqJYT99%2FdXvoouBnIlWpwif8GG0Zxj9&relid=483324BB">http://audiclubna.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=93 ... d=483324BB</a><!-- m -->

(my brother and I are actually looking into doing this for his 30th birthday in a few years)

Did we talk about this once before? I desperately wanted Kaan to do this for his bachelor party but alas...

I can't remember if you and I talked about it or not! Yeah G it really does seem like a great deal considering it's mostly "all-inclusive" other than your flights and you're staying at some of the nicest hotels in the area. You are probably under 6 grand all in with airfare and some fun money. Not a cheap short trip but it would probably make sense to stretch it for an extra day or two at the end, maybe go visit Geneva or something (watch mecca) :thumbup:

[BLINGMW]

GT86

Yeah! 8)

E39 528

No. :oops:

[G.Irish]

Starting to see some 2017 dates pop up for track days:

April
11 Tues - Circuit Days(399 GBP) [Track day at Spa available the next day]

May
2 Tues - Destination Nurburgring (500 GBP)
11 Thurs - Schnelleschwaben (799 Euro)

June
14 Wed - Trackdays.de (749 Euro)
19 Mon - Schnelleschwaben (799 Euro)

July
13-14 Thurs/Fri - Destination Nurburgring (1900 GBP) [This one is right before FIA WEC 6 hr Enduro at the Ring]
17 Monday - Skylimitevents (480 Euro) [half day]

August
28-29 Mon/Tues - Destination Nurburging (1200 GBP)
30 Wed - Trackdays.de (749 Euro)
31 Thur - Skylimitevents (720 Euro)

Ideally I'd like to do 2 days so the August Destination Nurburgring event would probably be the best bet. The July event would be cool but lodging will probably be much harder to come by because of the WEC race.