A
June summer-Friday I took a flight down to Germany over the weekend.
One reason was that Hartge have finished their Z4 5,0 powered by the
well-known E39 M5 S62 engine. The other reason was a visit to Nürburgring
and the unrestricted Autobahn.
Me
and a friend met up with B8 Guru in the northern Germany on Friday and
on Saturday we visited the local BMW dealership which had a premiere
on the new E60 5-series. I have already seen the new 5-series in dark
blue on the streets of Stockholm and already enjoyed the exteriour looks
of it. But this time in Germany it was equipped with AC-Schnitzer aftermarket
wheels which looked very good on the car. We took a spin in the 530d
and noticed the active steering which takes some time to get used too.
But the overall handling was better than the E39 5-series. Other things
worth noticing is that the 520i now has dual exhaust which it never
have had before.
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| The
new dials on the E60 5-series. Different... |
To
test drive the E60 5-series you had too participate in some kind of
biking competition which I lost to B8 Guru. I guess I have to loose
my license more, stop driving and more biking instead…
Here
is what B8 Guru thought:
"The
testdrive was only around 15 minutes or so, which is not enough time
to really familiarize yourself with a new car.
The car feels more nimble and better handling than the E39 - better
chassis and suspension. This is very promising for the M5.
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| Here
wwe have the 530i that is very nice with some nice AC-Schnitzer
wheels. |
The active steering takes a little getting used to. When you start out
you are in for a surprise since you don't have to turn the wheel very
much to make the car turn sharply. It is almost numb at low speeds.
As you increase speed the steering gets heavier and of course the ratio
change makes you feel "connected" to the road as on the E39.
I have spent too little time with the car to say if I prefer the active
steering, but it definitely is different. I don't know if the steering
will be the same in the M5 as in the 530D. The chassis and handling
is yet another milestone from BMW which speaks volumes for a sedan."
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| Here
is the E60 520i with dual exhaust. |
Saturday
afternoon we left for Nürburgring in a rental, a Mercedes C270
CDI, yuck. However the new CLK. B8 Guru did not want to increase themilage
on his two Alpina B8 4,6 so we took the rental. The top speed of the
rental s officially 228 km/h and we reached a bit over 235 km/h on the
speeedometer numerous times. Overall an econmical alternative when driving
long distances but kind of boring.
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| Top
speed on the rental CLK 270 CDI was only 235 km/h on the speedo,
228 km/h according to the factory. |
We arrived at Nürburgring at around 9 o’clock were we met
up Johan and two of his ring-friends at the church in Nürburg.
We decided to meet at the church but to be politically correct we should
have met at the BMW M Testcenter which is just oppposite the church.
In the BMW M Testcenter we had the silver BMW M5 Ring-Taxi that replaced
the silver former white M5. There were also an race-M3 on display.
After we
got over the shock of seeing Johan’s M3 basically without interiour
and a roll-cage we proceeded to eat at the Ring-Taxi driver Sabine’s
restaurant in the middle of Nürburg. We had an excellent dinner
at her place. One of the discussions of the evening was if we could
visit Hartge in Beckingen and Ruf Automobile in Pfaffenhausen all in
one day. The day after (and some beers less) we concluded it was impossible
and we had to save the Ruf visit for some other day. Very sad but more
time for Ruf in the future.
We also
asked if Sabine were interested in ”testdrive” the Hartge
Z4 5,0 on the Monday when we should have it but she was booked fully
that day. We didn’t talk too much to her since it seemed like
a busy evening. We’ll do that some other day with some more beers
is my guess. Sabine seemed to be in a happy mood and had a BMW-Williams
F1 t-shirt.
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| B8
Guru, some weird guy and Sabine and another weird guy drinking Weissbier
at Sabines restaurant. The restaurant was decorated with trophies. |
The following
Sunday we drove with Johan on the ring. I went with him two laps which
was an very FAST experience. We overtook cars and bikes alot of times
as well as being airborne a couple of times. The M3 had roll-cage, R-tires
and was lightened alot. Also 4-points harness belts felt very safy and
you sat so fixed so you couldnt even open the glove compartement in
front of you.
So Johan
showed that cars are the ones at rule the Nordschleife. The only car
who overtook us was a Radical which is a very extreme sportscar.
The weather
was very hot so we decided to take the rental out for a spin outside
the track to let the airconditioning cool us off. Just what we did parallell
along the finishing straight of Nürburgrings Nordschleife. After
half a minute a Polizei jumped out and stopped. Aha, routine check we
thought. No, we were wrong. Apparantly we had speeded and went 89 km/h
on a 50 km/h road. Great. Actually it was great since it was my friend
who got caught. So I just sat in the passenger seat and recorded with
the DV-camera and the digital still camera zooming in my nervous friend.
But it turned out good since we just had to pay €30. After they
checked his license and passport my friend try to dodge the ticket with
some remorseful stories that did not work at all. The literally showed
with their hands that they weren’t going to listen at all at that.
However they would listen to €30 in cash instead of €89 later.
Hmm, a Saturday evening and they cut the ticket by more than 50% if
the got it cash. Interesting…
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This
is what happens if you speed outside the track. 5 meters from
the track to be exact... This straight is parallell to the finishing
straight on N'urburgrings Nordschleife.
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B8 Guru
and I went to the ”Adenaur Forst” section of Nürburgring
that is a tricky section for most newbies on the ring. It was very interesting.
Saw everything from powersliding Ring-Taxi BMW M5 to jumping VW Phaetons
that takes ”short-cuts”. We have some of the highlights
on the video here.
After the
Sunday we felt it was time to move on towards Hartge in Beckingen, located
near the border to Luxemburg. Very beautiful and sweeping Autobahn stretches.
Hartge had book an hotel for us in Saarlouis which was a very beutiful
little town.
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| BMW
M Testcenter Nürburgring. Interestingly all the testcenters
near Nürburgring was not in Nürburg, possibly because
it was only BMW M who realized early on that you have to have one
near this demanding track. Now Jaguar and alot of others have outside
the town of Nürburg. |
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