Sidecar on the Nurburg Ring

[Troyskie]

G'day fellas,

Just stumbled across this vid.

Go the 3.00 for the FJ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfusUNR1L1M

Troyskie

[ribbert]

G'day fellas,

Just stumbled across this vid.

Go the 3.00 for the FJ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfusUNR1L1M

Troyskie

Do you pay or get paid to ride in that thing?

I know Dean has been riding the Nürburgring for decades and it would be a great bucket list item but the thought of sharing it with all those lunatics in cars freaks me out. It's bad enough when they're on the road and not pretending to be race drivers.

Noel

[Millietant]

LOL - yes, people pay to ride/drive there and I've been round as a passenger in a sidecar rig, but not a FJ one. I doubt the FJ was popular enough to attract paying buyers though (which are, strictly speaking, not allowed except with track authorisation, on Touristenfahrten days)

As Noel mentioned, I've been riding there since 1991. I used my FJ up until 2003 (severely mattered the exhaust and belly pan ) when I switched to my Aprilia RSV. I daren't think how much I've spent just on laps there over the years, but from 2002-2010 I bought annual lap passes at well over £1,000 each year, then there were the fuel, travel and accommodation costs for up to around 12-15 trips per year.

I was never truly fast around there, but could circulate in around 8'00" to 8'15 secs per lap at my best, with traffic. At those speeds, I was never overtaken except by the guys I used to ride with (Phil Hacker, who was my instructor in the early 2000's being one of them) but we were careful to avoid the very busiest times because of all the idiots that went there after Top Gear did their first programme there with the S Type Jaguar (yes, I'm in the video for that episode). The fastest road bike riders around there are a minute a lap faster than I ever was!

I also did hundreds of laps with my youngest on pillion (from him being 9yrs old to 17yrs old) and we overtook tons of supposedly "fast" supercars 

My wife has even done laps there on her FZ1.

Haven't been for a few years now and won't be heading back until the COVID restrictions are all over.