Viewing Single Post From: journey to the ''HOCK''....

Viewing Single Post From: journey to the ''HOCK''....
zoomer46	Sat Jul 5, 2008 2:59 am
Member Posts: 1,210 Group: Members Member #509 Joined: September 2, 2006	a picture story of the trip a few of us have waited pratically all year for! started out when jeremy and gilly arrived at my workshop on the thursday 26th,to do some final prepping and stay at my gaff for the nite and then depart at 0345am to catch the 0715am ferry from dover to calais, turned out to be a great day out showing them around and going to halfords to get some final bitz and pieces,then off to the b'ton marina for some posh nosh next to the waters edge and a nice stroll around,then we did final packing back at the workshop,and to give the cars a last jetwash, gilly more than likely telling jeremy off,he has no option but to obey as the ''midlesboro stare ''is too much to take from 'our gilly and we headed back to mine,popping in to meet my parents to have a good chat and say goodbyes before the off...the running around made for easy sleep for jezbo 'n gilly but i went out for a midnight foodrun at tesco's,as i didnt want to be buying nosh on route too much,got back had 2 hrs sleep,which was hard to get as given the chance i would of got going before that as i was sooo excited to do the trip,like a kid on xmas eve.... 3am alarm went and we got up at the same time,loaded a few bitz into the cars, a quick prayer by jeremy to the good lord for a safe journey and we were on our way...got to dover in good time and got a good slot on the boat,by this time i was beside myself waiting to drive my merc abroad for the 1st time heres us just before the ferry. and waiting for loading up then at last on the ferry and to the pre paid breakfast,which turned into a eat as much as poss when the waiter turns his back contest,in typical english fashion we took the spare sauce satchets and marma and jam portions with us...this brekky was a great way to start the day ad well worth the price! next we got some fuel in calais and then promptly got lost,spent 30mins going in circles to find the right route oiut,both of us with gps! luckily this didnt set the tone...we had walkie talkies which was invaluable,as we constantly talked about turns and routing and anything really,never really got to turn up the stereo all the way there,the views once we got out of france and belgium and into germany were awesome,this is a seriously underated country for scenery,its as nice as any other place in europe, this was a regular view from my car, some videos on-route http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08009.flv belgium-namur,am amazing valley i almost missed.. this tunnel was felt like something from a star-wars film! http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08014.flv http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08011.flv http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08008.flv then another fuel stop,mainly as the services could be quite a way apart at times ,curiously my car was slightly better on fuel than the 2.6,but both doing way more than the usual urban mpg's,not sure what the mpg was ,but both around 30% better, then back to the cruise...great scenery espacially as you get closer to the hock,very swiss like... eventually we got to near the hock,but to our surprise no signs for the track of or even hockenheim town,or not at least till we got there! we got separated at a junction and we had no choice but to make our own way to the track,jezbo got there 1st,the sins to get there were a big letdown and only non - lettered blue on white signs were up to say you were near germanys premier gp track!1 mile from the track! not great.... i could say we arrived to fireworks and applause but the weird thing is we were the 1st there by miles! no-one to be scene! we had to find the ''conti -crysal'' or the count of monte crysto''as was he only way i could remember it ! with no-one around we cruised the pit are with our 190's,as nice as our cars are ,the were nothing next to racing astons , porsches , ferrari's and such.... vid of some of the racing http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08037.flv we happened to stumble on a major racing weeekend for gt cars at the hock,so we parked up and looked around and admired,for free. qualifying day ,and the main races were naxt day,what a bloody bonus having that lot there!!!!!! after all the racing we returned to look for the 190 meet,no signs yet but we sussed out the site and started setting up camp,1other set up at nite, next morning they started coming in thick and fast from 8.30am, we decided to get the cars washed as the journey made them look grubby,so we set off to find a jetwasth,no chance!only drive-ins,i ended up on another solo tour of germany to get it done!this is getting too regular ! anyway got back to the gtg and the place was filling out real fast, i was directed to a certain point of the ring of cars and people parted to let me through as i was waved in,to the spot reserveeed for non-evo 16v's, and had to park the car at a very precise angle to the next car,very german! he said ''kan u moov zee ass over to de left more pleez''me not wanting to take things too seriously ,moved my bum over in my seat towards the car he was pointing at,''i said wot like this ???!!''he didnt get the joke,but a group of others standing around burst out laughing at my daft english humour. now got a rousing welcome now from many of the visitors,saying hi there ,and complimenting the car,evryone was crowding around the car,mainly i guess it was a rhd 190 16v, one of the onlookers pointed his video camera into the car filming me menouvre around and said''welcome to germany!'', was a very humbling remark,and could think of only saying back ''its great to be here ,thank you!!'',this was such a great welcoming from all and a real highlight of the trip,and really stands out,no sooner had i switched off my engine ,than when i heard my bonnet click open! jeremy reached in ,without me noticing,was a funny moment,'' ya gotta show 'em the engine man!!'', he was right,and the car drew even more attention..all the pics i see of the car from the event are of the engine! not the rest of the car http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p136/zoomer46/mercedes/?action=view&current=HOCK29-6-08020.flv heres some pics of the other cars ,no 2 cars were the same at the event,every variation was there... stadlers 12v amg 190e power pack amg engine on STANDARD 16v 2,5 !not evo! v.v.v. rare... sweet looking car in silver the evo2 section had a constant crowd mean dtm engined car with pukker dtm guilotine throttle bodies! this car was amazing,the deatial it had was mind blowing,jeremy sat in it,we told him it was the most amazing car there and shook his hand and congratulated him on it,he deserves all the praise possible.. the dash alone was great,alcantara stitching all over it,amazing........................ the infamous low bootlid of the evo2 that no-one believes me about, the awesome evo2 with mclaren slr wheels almost seemed like kentronix sneaked in ! part efi conv stadler boys were flat out over the weekend ,and were very impressive to watch,the best in the business! the highly impressive dtm duo reps ,everyone got shots of these 2 together... we thought that the track time was on sunday,then told no!its today! nerves to the fore... this waiting was very nerve wracking,but it was worth the trip alone to do it,forgot to take a pic of my dipstick melted into the manifold! after it was lots of beer and chats till 3 in the morning! everyone wass buying us drinks,and free food at the end!woohooo!! best behavior and all that.,.. roger and mark doing their best biggles impro's got to talk to henger , maki and lude,also thorsten stadler bought me a beer which was nice and we chatted for ages about alsorts,especially my klasse1 questions.....1 minute it was 9.30pm then seemed like minutes later it was 3am! super evening.really really good! this girl was nicole,(kienses-little) she was great fun,and was very generous to all the brits,even tho she had a bmw 320 coupe, we let her in our inner circle the pic is not a great one ,but trust me ,she is good looking girl next day was packing up day, everyone who we spoke to over the weekend came over to outr tents to say goodbye when they left,which was very nice... then we left,jeremy and gilly went to france ,i went to go stay in bonn for 3 days,but didnt make it,the heater matrix return pipe blew off ,(what a surprise...)and it quickly sent the temp up to 115deg,steam in the car too thru the vents!not nice....... got to a picnic stop and borrowed a screwdriver fro a guy with a landrover and put the pipe back on,the clip was completely loose(what a s....) but it was too late the head gasket had already gone,got away from the stop kept at 90 deg for 3 mins, then up to 120 in seconds,more water after a wait,it was using more than a streamengine,barely got to a service stop on what seemed 2 cylinders,and that was it really.. called my uncle 30 miles away,he came to try and tow me,had to keep the engine ticking over for the brakes ,as we were basically on a mountain pass,loosing water ,topping it up... then aft around 10 miles the join in the downpipe suddenly separated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! waaa waaa waaa,scrape..., c'mon gimme a break!!! now we could'nt even tow the p.o.s,3 hrs later a recovery truck picked up the car and took it to the merc dealer nearby, its still there!and will be for around another week... but had a super 3days in bonn with the relatives,and easily forgot about the car,rented a renault kangoo for 2 days,flew back on thursday morning,so that was the end of the trip. an adventure at least.... next time ,i hope to see more than 3 cars there,those of us that went are basically noobs,so the more established members should get out there and just do it,no more b.s excuses next year... p's ,as a side note and advice,if you take out european breakdown cover ,make sure your car is elligable to be recovered back,when i requesteed my car be ''re-patriated'' to the uk and not fixed out there,they then came back to me and said 'we have a problem,we have checked the value of your car,and the value of it is less than the cost of bringing it back to the uk,we estimate it is worth �500 going by the glass' guide'',you can imagine my polite reply..''you will bring back that car,and it is not worth only �500! get your facts right and check which type of 190e it is,you will find its a low mileage sports version,worth way more than x10 your estimate,they are worth from �3000 to �30,000!'' reply was ''i will speak to my technical advisor'' me '' yes you bloody will....'' got a call back saying'' yes ,we will bring the car back to the uk'' me ''you got that right''. so the moral is they will quite hapily take your money for the extra cover without verifying if your car is eligable or not! get the value agreed before you go,the cover will allow for hotel accomodation , car hire and flight back if needed. so get cover or a friend with a big trailer... Edited by zoomer46, Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:01 pm.


journey to the ''HOCK''.... · GTG Pictures