ED Memories: August 6, 2023

Sunday, August 6, 2023

All right! Today is a big day! I've been awake for about an hour already. I'm lying in bed in anticipation of going back to that incredible racetrack and revisiting it this time behind the wheel of my own brand-new car.

I have to say I'm super glad that we planned it this way, to get to 'The Green Hell' after putting many, many twisty-road kilometres on the cars. The butterflies are back in my stomach a little bit, at the thought of hitting that track at speed in my shiny new car, but having done the distances we have, the way we have, I'm feeling reasonably comfortable at being able to push a little bit when we hit the track. 

After lying here just thinking about it for a while, I finally rouse myself at our normal time, and we are on the road by 8:45 and heading to Nürburg. We pass Lake Constance on the way out of town, it's massive and makes me wistful for some sailing, but in all reality that's going to have to wait until next summer. This season is all about Porsche.

On the highway, I'm easing into a little derestricted autobahn … 185 km/h with zero effort. Almost scary how drama-less this car is. Stable as a rock and quiet too! The speedo creeps upwards as confidence grows. The behaviour of the other drivers around is also confidence-inspiring. Lane etiquette is incredibly disciplined as it absolutely has to be at these kinds of speeds. There's none of the passing on the right hand side no-nos that affect us all in Canada so negatively.

There's a bit too much traffic for us to completely top out, so I end up going not quite as quickly as we did in Andrew's M2, although it's clear that the 718 is quicker, and according to the Internet, has a touch higher top speed. Still, 235 km/h is nothing to sneeze at. 

As traffic increases, we have to reroute off the autobahn, because apparently there is some kind of massive accident somewhere ahead. I'm thinking that although Germany has way less accidents per capita we do in North America, here on the derestricted autobahn, when they do have those accidents they are pretty darn big, yikes.

So anyway, we are winding our way through small towns in a line of cars and I'm Listening to Sebastian Maniscalco, and Dave Chappelle  podcasts for some laughs. Next thing I have to figure out is how to get audiobooks onto my phone, maybe I will try Audible … though I'd rather just pay for an audiobook, one by one, not a subscription service. I need to do some research. It would be nice to listen to a novel or two on long road trips like this.

The traffic routes us on and off the highway, as we keep hitting tons of it, until finally we we decide to get right off and take some back roads, but unfortunately there's tons more traffic. No escaping it! If this is ‘normal' Sunday driving, they can have it! 

Wet wet, wet … it's raining solidly now, and seems to be set in for the day. We are travelling 300 kms or so though, so hopefully it will brighten up as we head north. Right now it looks like that despite the traffic, we will make it there in time, just, but our first session at the Nordschleife will be wet and short. That's fine by me. I will be slow because I will be crazy careful! I know it.

There is way more traffic out in the boonies here than I anticipated by any stretch of the imagination. I don't remember it being like this back in 2018. I wonder if this is 'normal 'or if there has been stuff going on. I'll check the news tonight.

Glad I downloaded some CBC 'The Debaters' podcasts last night, as I'm having a good laugh and that nice comfy feeling of home while driving in this yucky weather. CarPlay works well with Spotify for this. Here's a neat tech tidbit: kind of a cool thing happened - Apple CarPlay told me I was running low on fuel and asked me if I want to search for a nearby gas station in Google Maps. Now that's clever. The integration between Apple and Porsche seems reasonably good.

Fittingly, we make a brief stop back at the Porsche complex in Stuttgart. The GTSs have certainly had one heck of an adventure in their short lives. We get a perfect chance to take a couple of cool photos in front of 'home' before we get back on our way.

Finally we roll in to the town of Adenau (where our flat is) and dump our stuff. A quick splash of fuel
and an annoying credit card confirmation / SIM card boondoggle to work through to get Nordschleife tickets (I'll explain later), and we are off to the track. It's late, so we will likely only get one or two laps in. That's ok though, as it's still drizzling so a 'sighter' lap will be just fine for tonight. We zip off the somewhat familiar route to the track entrance. The butterflies bounce around on the way there, but then they disappear as I scan my app and the barrier swings open allowing me access! Here goes!

We get the first lap in. And boy, is it greasy. Track temperature is only 13° and it seems there's no way in the rain to 'switch the tires on' (sounds like F1 excuses I know!). I take it super-easy and suss out the car and conditions, which don't seem very fun at all. What is going on here? The Boxster is understeering, like, a LOT. It didn't do this at all in the rain in other sections on the trip. Is it the temperature? No, that doesn't make sense, it was cool in the Dolomites in the rain and the car was super-planted and composed at all times then. Tire pressures? No, the onboard display confirms they are just fine. WTF?

Understandably there is almost no one on the track, which is nice as I can just play around a bit and feel the lack of grip. The car is very balanced, so it slides very predictably. But why is it sliding SO MUCH? Clearly Andrew isn't having any such issues as it doesn't take him long to disappear into the distance. I just can't push though. It's totally interfering with my ability to soak up and enjoy the experience. I mean, I'm on the Nordschleife, in a Porsche, the very place that it is truly designed for, and the nervous handling is just too much. I take it super-easy, probing the super-low limits. Slow is smart. At least until I figure out what the heck is going on. I'm sure Andrew is wondering where I've gone.

We pull in after a lap and discuss. Andrew has had no such issues on his Pirellis, and I can tell he clearly was relishing driving the Cayman in this environment. Me, not so much. I don't think that I was driving like a wuss or anything. The only thing we can think of, is that it is a particular tire/track surface combination that Michelins just do not love, as that is the only difference between our two cars really. We know it's not solely a wet-weather thing as they were supreme in the earlier cold and damp, and even monsoon-like rain we had encountered. A frustrating mystery for sure and I am somewhat bummed.

It is supposed to dry up tomorrow, with only showers here and there, so some drier running will be great. The track doesn't open until 5 pm though, so we will rent mountain bikes and follow the circuit like we did in 2018. Maybe there will be some other race series on track or something to see.

There's no time left to manage another lap but I can't say I'm disappointed. It's almost a relief to me that the track is closed for the night, and I can go away and take a break and have a rethink. We go for dinner and take a few photos in front of the F1 pit facilities, and I try to shake my mood, without too much success. After dinner, I somewhat glumly head back to the apartment to ponder the track scenario some more. Is it me? Is it the tires? Is there something wrong with the car? Is it me? Is it me?

After all that anticipation, what a downer.

Hopefully tomorrow is a little better.

~ Luke

p.s. You can read the full, no-holds-barred accounting of this day at gtschronicles.com.