The language is NSFW but it's pretty funny how these guys antagonize each other

That was pretty funny. I suspect the driver was actually pretty decent. He was obviously pretty familiar with the track and the fact he was able to drive (and not crash) with his buddy antagonizing him the entire time tells me he has some skill and experience.

"bends" and "kerbs"...I think I will conduct my entire next classroom session with those two terms.

......only if you can do it with a Scottish accent!

Funny vid! Reminds me of a time I had Sam Smith in my passenger seat. As he was yakking incessantly on and on about this or that......he was becoming somewhat bothersome, so I unplugged him. Quickly realizing we had lost sound communication....he started with some over zealous hand signals which included most of his body. Dramatically over gesturing a left turn-in point by reaching halfway over the car and sticking his sharply pointed finger in front of the steering wheel.....or reaching out with his extended arm and entire body in slow motion with his fist slowly clenching to simulate application of the brakes....etc, etc, etc......

Having no way to unplug Sam from his new found sign language skills.....I simply turned to him with a quick and simple hand gesture of my finger flicked across the throat.

Damon

p.s. I won't even bother to bring up the time I was driving Peter's car with him in the passenger seat through NASCAR T3 and T4. Nor will I mention when he could not hear me.....his solution was to turn the volume on my communicator all the way to HIGH......or what felt like 11 in my now bleeding eardrum. I will say though that it is hard to notice the tach bouncing off the rev limiter when your are desperately trying to reduce the ear drum splitting volume!

Rob,

I'm really glad you taped that run. I had forgotten all about that. I told you I'd get us around the ring in one piece--wanker. Next time do a proper job of holding the bloody camera, though.

-bj

You try holding a camera in a car whose driver once said 'Smooth is over-rated. It's the wrong way to look at things'

Hey, I stand by that statement. Most people think that smooth refers to what you are doing with your hands. That's not it at all. When you're driving at the absolute limit, there are lots of corrections. Keeping the car fluid is a better way of putting it--no sudden large steering inputs, rolling on and off the throttle and brakes, and not fighting the car. Should be a battle in the driver's seat, but from outside the car it should look like the car is on a Sunday drive.


Well back on topic: despite your camera work that was good times at the Ring.

-bj

I agree with your theory. It's your implementation thereof that I take issue with!



All except when you were cock-blocking with Sabine. Totally not cool.

As soon as we're off the rental agency lifetime ban-lists (or come up with fake IDs), we'll settle this once and for all.

WTFudge?

It's a Top Gear thing

It's a little more than a Top Gear thing. Top Gear is simply the reason the average car-guy knows who Sabine is.

For those who don't know, Sabine Schmitz is a German woman who has more laps around the ring than most of us have put together. She grew up around the circuit and now she is a professional driver for BMW in various capacities, including the "Ring Taxi" service where you pay to get passenger laps in a BMW M5 driven by pros. Sabine is very often specifically requested. She can turn a lap 'round the Nurburgring into something that resembles a drift championship.

I learned very quickly that if you saw Sabine well behind you, you may as well start indicating and pulling offline. By the time you'd cleared the racing line, Sabine would be blowing past you, possibly sideways in a cloud of tire smoke. And this was while I was pulling 9:15s BTG in the little rental 320td, a full 45 seconds faster than Clarkson in his 400HP Jag.

Here's a little more info on Sabine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Schmitz

And here's us in the Fuchsröhre, the bar she owned at the time of my first visit:

Rob’s got that “I can’t believe this Sabine chic is drunk enuf to actually agree to this” look on his face!

Hehe, she was on the clock at the time, so she was reasonably sober

VERY HAWT!!!!!


In a Germanic way of course.

Yes, I will say I knew nothing of her prior to Top Gear, still, she's the sh...bomb

Several people have Sabine stories. Mine is driving der 'ring in the wet, looking in my mirror after exiting Adenauer Forst and seeing the e39 Ring Taxi in full opposite lock sliding through the corner. I lifted, and she passed me before Metzgesfeld. I knda hung with her for a minute, and she was gone. But that wasn't the end of it. Through Wipperman I started catching some traffic, and finally, I caught her as we passed a wrecked car on the way down the hill to Bruennchen. We both got through the traffic, and I never saw her again after Eiskurve. I like to describe the experience by saying that I caught Sabine in the Ring Taxi in a 520d. There's a little more to the story, still...

She came to the Badger Bimmers Oktoberfast Driver School at Road America about three years ago. One of my buddies let her drive his e39 M5 at RA during that event. He said she asked "Are you sure you want me to drive this nice car?" He told her to go for it, and riding with her was a hoot.

Regardless, Robert's picture is better than any story I've heard.