2015-07-31 Cross Channel & Drive to Germany
04:00am
up real early, packed up, checked car n fluids, I was probably the only guy with satnav and all the routes plotted in so guess I’m the lead car.
Slowly made our way to the Stop24 services meetup point at jct11 M20 via the diverted side roads in the dark misty morning.
05:00am
arrive at the meetup point, met the organiser Dino in the red M3 & the rest of the group, handed out the radios.
Police asking why the gather, Lee explaining this is a trip gathering.
We set off down the M20 towards the busy eurotunnel turn-off, roundabout traffic held me & the guys back away from the group ahead and a slow black van was hogging the mid-lane so I began to overtake em to catch up but looking in rear-view, one blink I saw a bright headlight coming fast, another blink and he storms right up my butt! I pulled in front of the van and jeez the blue maseratti is in a right old rush flying by lol
We queued at the entrance, guy pointing us to an open available booth to the left (with the cars-only sign remember) so I began pulling left out the queue when all of a sudden out of the friggin blue I heard a lorry horn then his massive corner narrowly missing my left wing! Dafuq! If he took my wing out that’d be game over ffs. That bay was also clearly marked “cars only” so gawd knows why he was rushing through.
We entered our booking number, selected boarding time & collected ticket.
All parked up in the service terminals inside, found that the blue maseratti guy was actually in our group and he thought he was late.
We began to stick on the GB sticker and the headlight deflectors, looking at the confusing instructions like an ikea leaflet.
Look she has pupils looking so happy lol.
06:00am
made our way through the chaos of 2 passport check points, some of the lads went to one side to be checked out, me & lee carried on towards the lining up lanes, they eventually joined the lane further back.
06:50am
we went down the ramps and began to enter the lower section of the eurostar
radios going back forth wondering where the rest of them are, we looked out the window and ahh they’re at the other train! Our train began to move off, yikes goodbye lads, hope these two trains go the same route. As we zoom off, noticed loadsa police at the front end of their train surrounding what looked like an immigrant n prob delaying it, oops.
08:30am
clock goes ahead, we quickly arrived at calais in 30mins, verify me & dads phone works, yup phew.
Tomtom switched to euro map set for the karting centre in Kerpen, we exit the train and here we are driving in a sunny foreign place on the wrong side lol.
@0:00 Following Lee ahead onto the e40 motorway, foreign signs everywhere looking gibberish. Just try sticking close to lee & satnav route hopefully to the next service.
Initially not many of us tend to use the radios.
I remember upon leaving that the orange vauxhaul chevet was in front of lee, heard some crackling radio conversations and then began to break up a lot more.
After afew mins I then realised it was just me & lee cruising slowly down the e40 within the 110kmh limit.
I thought from earlier radio contact that lee was gonna back off to wait for his sons Shaun & Gary to catch up from the other train but actually the rest of the guys in the bmw/maseratti/vauxhaul/civic had shooted off way ahead, leaving us newcomers lost.
@03:10 Lee radio'd me, we had no idea where or when the next services are (I thought we passed a junction with loadsa parked lorries), tomtom only had the 4hr route straight to the karting place in Kerpen. So we just followed that route till 09:30 where the pdf schedule estimated we’d reach the services.
@05:50 After awhile we spotted the fuel signs and finally reached the esso station, what a relief.
10:31am
Since Dino & the guys left early again, I was the only one who knew the route so guess I’m the unofficial lead car. We carried on the tomtom route till we reached the next services.
12.48pm
Guys had a quick break and we set off but soon after leaving, howards white integra began to lose power randomly and struggled at 60mph with engine & ABS lights going off (this sounded like when my alternator recently had a bad connection & drained the battery).
@01:40 Eventually we had to stop on the shoulder and fix it.
We bump started it and lee saw it’s sparking/smoking so there’s a short, one of the wires shook loose.
Warning triangle & hi vis vest on to be safe.
Tightened the bolt and it seems to charge & run ok, lets go.
@03:50 howards car fixed, I began radio check but it wasn’t working..blank screen. Restart it and the screen came back and could receive but once I transmit, it dies. Oh gr8 the batteries dead.
@04:31 I connected the radio charger to my inverter to charge on the way but then the radio simply beeps, it can’t transmit below a certain battery level ffs.
@05:20 ok I borrowed Lee’s radio as he follows behind.
@06:20 we try to join the busy motorway
@06:50 arrive at the Schumacher karting centre for abit of karting
@10:30 I spotted a red facelift K11
03:15pm
we leave the kart centre towards the hotel but I need to refuel and there was a nearby station before exiting the town.
@2:00 I was so busy looking for the station I had no idea which roundabout lane to take to get to the station on the left.
I thought the inside middle lane was gonna have exiting oncoming traffic so took the right lane only to find that exits to the right away from town, Oh crap.
Theres no way to U-turn and it’s simply leading us to the motorway…begin swearing now.
I literally had no idea how to get back or where to go for fuel.
@06:00 Luckily there was a services further down the motorway.
Howard mentioned the torsen lsd in his integra now began to make an odd gear noise during turns after the long cruise (he usually only drives in towns with no prob) so his gearbox maybe going.
04:27pm
we left the services and follow the satnav to the hotel in Adenau
@01:30 we turn off the motorway through some lovely gorgeous mountain roads and found our playground, a mountain tunnel
c’mon we just had to rev our engines through it lol. Twas sooo shweet hearing the echoes of our turbos & vtec, brings a great smile to the kid in us
@03:10 we made it at the hotel up in the hills, parked up and faced with the best view of the nurburgring forest mountains.
06:30pm
me & dad went sight seeing to find some weird steep forest road that leads up to Adenauer Forst corner nearby us. Its unreal to see the famous track up close and realise just how friggin steep and undulating the track really is
(it’s like the waltzer fairground ride) fab views
dino gave me the hotel garage keys, I unloaded all the stuff, don’t wanna go round the Ring with a ton of luggage.