Saturday, 00:30. The alarm's going off, I've had 2 hours sleep, and it's time to go. This doesn't bode well. It's my first VR6OC event, and I'm a little worried about how my body will cope with the days ahead. Shoving this to the back of my mind, I fall out of bed into my clothes. It's a hot night, and I'm covered in sweat. It was sleep or bath, and sleep was the right choice.

I stumble downstairs, and get a drink before checking all my gear in the front room. I look up at the window to see someone peering in. Panic sets in as I wonder who they are, and how I can arm myself. To my horror, I realise it's Warren. I decide to let him in, and boil the kettle. After a swift cuppa, we pack my gear onto the back seat of his Mondeo estate. Not the most obvious of cars for travelling to a VR6 Owner's Club meeting at the Nurburgring, but it's just our transport to the meeting venue. Ironically, it's got so much junk in the boot, my kit has to go on the back seat. With all my photographic gear, it's lucky the car is quite large.

We set off for Sutton, where we were due to meet Steve and Aswad at 04:30. After a brief stop for a snack and a drink at Reading services, we arrived at Steve's house at 03:45. Fortunately for him, he was awake already. We went in for a quick chat whilst we waited for Aswad. He wasn't answering his phone, so we decided to head for the motorway junction where we were meeting up with Sam and Jake. Steve had already filled his boot, so fitting all of Warren's kit, my kit, and me on the back seat was a packaging miracle!

A brisk drive later, and we arrived at the M25. We pulled up in a layby, and waited for the others. Jake and Sam soon turned up, and Aswad called from a layby 200 yards away wondering where we were. I jumped into Aswad's car with my kit, and we headed off to Dover. The drive down there was somewhat spirited, and we arrived at Dover in good time. We met up with the rest of the crew at the leisure centre for a quick photo shoot before heading off to the ferry.

The crossing was a little choppy, and the ferry was lacking in basic features. P&O is the way forward for future trips. We arrived safely in Bologne, and started the journey towards Belgium. We all had radios to keep in contact, but with a range of less than a mile in usual conditions, they were not always within range. We seemed to be avoiding any traffic, and the speed was rising. A few speed camera flashes later, we were in Belgium. It wasn't long before we had our first casualty.

The E30 BMW had a brand new radiator following a leak in the last one. It turned out that the leak was caused by the fan striking the radiator. The reason? A missing blade. As we were on the hard shoulder, we headed on to the next exit to diagnose how bad the problem was. Sadly, it was a big leak. We decided to split, leaving two cars at the next service station to wait for the international breakdown cover. We met Paul in his lovely VR6 Syncro near Brussels, and headed towards Germany.

Once in Germany, it was clear that everyone wanted to make the most of no speed limit. We made good time, and stopped 30 minutes from the track to grab a dozen "Currywurst mit Pommes". We headed straight for the camp site, which was just 3 minutes from the main entrance to the new Nurburgring. The campsite had lots of small enclosures in a wooded area. We found a suitably sized area, and set up camp as the track wasn't open yet. I was feeling a little unwashed, and decided to have a quick shower. To my dismay, the track was about to open, and I was dragged back into Aswad's car to experience the 'Ring for the first time.

We headed up to the entrance to find a queue coming out of the entrance, and a few hundred yards down the road. The queue soon subsided, and we found ourselves in the car park for the Nordschleife circuit. A surreal moment. After enduring another queue for tickets, we jumped into the cars. Adhering to the "Safety First" motto, I donned my helmet as we went through the start gate. This was exciting. In all the traffic queueing up to get out, we'd lost the others, so we were on our own.

Aswad had driven the track before, and his confidence showed. Shooting down to the first corner, I was surprised how fast he drove. I clasped the door handle to steady myself. I didn't have the luxury of a steering wheel to hold onto. The 10 minutes or so of track action went pretty quickly. Aswad threw his VR6 into the corners with carefree abandon, tucking the nose in on the brakes, and pulling the front out of slides with the throttle. As Warren later remarked, Alton Towers has nothing on this ride. We were fast, overtaking many cars we shouldn't be. There were faster vehicles on track, but they were mainly supercars, and bikes.

We all met up afterwards in the car park to swap stories. We then headed off to the most popular viewing point to watch the action. Filled with adrenaline, we headed for some food, and then back to the camp for some beers. I headed to bed early to catch up on the sleep I was clearly missing, as did Warren who'd given up on sleep entirely on Friday night. Later on, the newly fixed E30 parked up at the campsite.

Sunday, 07:30. It's been a pretty sleepless night. The floor was not as comfortable as I'd like, and I forgot my airbed. The track wasn't open yet, so I made a dash for the shower. Feeling refreshed, I went for croissants at the shop whilst the others woke up. We were soon ready to head for the track, so we headed off to the entrance. We stopped to regroup in the car park, and I jumped into Paul's VR6 Syncro. He was fiddling with the air ride to get better handling. It's a compromise as he can either make the ride height high with a stiff spring rate, or low ride height with a low spring rate.

We set off pretty much together, as there wasn't a queue. Paul is a chauffeur by trade, and it showed. His driving style was super-smooth, a stark constrast to Aswad's balls-out approach! Paul was just getting into the swing of things when the brakes started going off. That was the end of the quick driving, as Paul used the engine to slow for the corners. It was clear that whilst the extra weight of the 4WD and air ride didn't help, that brake "upgrade" he spent £600 on was crap. Time for a refund! We still had a great time completing the circuit though.

Feeling full of adrenaline, we headed off to a viewing spot to get some photos of the cars in action. I spent the rest of the morning there chatting and snapping the cars going through the bends before me. After a "currywurst mit pommes", I jumped into Steve's car. He was having fuelling problems, which was causing his engine to run lean. We went back to camp to swap spark plugs with Jake to see if this improved matters. Heading out onto the track afterwards, my job was to keep an eye on the air/fuel meter on the centre console.

Round the track, the plugs looked a good mod until the engine warmed up. We were back to a lean situation again. Steve slowed down on the straights, and concentrated on having fun in some of the corners. Despite the inability to accelerate safely, Steve and I had a great run round the track. When we arrived back at the car park, we met up with Paul and his two friends who had driven down for the day. They had found someone willing to take us for a ride in his Porsche 996 GT3 RS. Paul had already had a ride, and one of his friends was out having a run. When the car returned, I decided to jump in for a ride.

I slid into the passenger seat, and put on the open face helmet. The German driver spoke no English, so after a quick "OK?", we were off. Through the toll barrier, and the cone chicane, we were onto the straight. Foot to the floor, this car was fast. We passed an E36 M3 like it was parked, and shot down the inside of an A3 under braking through a left kink into the first right hander. The brakes were stupendous, but more impressive was the lateral G in the corner. This was by far the fastest car I'd been in, and it was being driven well.

On round the lap, and up to the corner where the new circuit joins this one. There's Armco to the right, and on the entry, I was sure we were headed straight for it. I braced for impact. We missed it by millimetres. This guy was good. He hit every apex, and had exemplary road manners. Nothing on the track was close to our performance. Thr driver pointed out the fast cars as we overtook them. Soon, we got on the tail of a fast superbike rider. He was taking good lines, and clearly knew the track. All the same, we passed him.

A few corners further on, we had to slow on the exit whilst passing a slower car. The superbike was still behind us, and saw this opportunity to use his superior straight line performance to overtake. There was a flat left kink followed by a braking area for a left hander. We took the right line through the kink, then suddenly moved right. The rider was alongside on a patch of tarmac that couldn't be wider than 2 feet, and at over 100mph. The rider braked hard, and we avoided a collision. We let him through a few corners later. It's not worth risking an accident.

We followed the biker closely, sometimes less than half a metre from his rear wheel. I even saw the whites of his eyes in his rear view mirror. His lines were great, he had his knee down on most of the corners, and he painted a thin black line with his rear rear tyre on every corner. He was still holding us up in the corners though. Following him through a flat left kink over a crest, he lifted off the throttle as he saw an ambulance travelling slowly ahead. Hitting the brakes in the Porsche resulted in massive oversteer. We fishtailed for probably 100 metres as the driver gathered up control. That was our only close call.

Further on round the track, we saw why the ambulance was on track. A VW had blown, and dropped fluid on a fast left hand bend. A rider had slipped on this oil and gone straight into the Armco. With only a metre of grass runoff, he had no chance. Three cars and three bikes were stopped there, who knows how many were involved in the accident. The rider, in his late 30s, lay dead on the grass. A sobering moment.

The left hander flowed into a right hand bend. A short straight through a dip took us to the next bend. My driver pointed at the bike laying in the road at the bottom of the dip. This was the dead rider's bike. Two cars were parked there, who had clearly been forced to take avoiding action. One was an BMW E46 cabriolet. It had been head on into the Armco after losing the back end avoiding the bike. It probably also had fluid on the tyres, which didn't help.

We carried on at high speed, following this fast biker. On the straights, he was a little faster, but in the corners, we were carrying more speed. He was also much braver through traffic, and kept a few lengths in front. We sped through the Carousel, and lept off the ground on a rise near the end of the lap. The positive G forces felt in the dips were astonishing, really taking effort to keep my head upright. At the end of the lap, I turned and shook the hand of the driver. "Das ist good" was my description of the lap.

On arrival at the car park, Aswad and Sam were ready to go out for a lap, and Warren had turned up to experience the Porsche. He had a queue though, and with the track closed for the death, time was running out. When the track reopened, more of the group went out for a ride in the Porsche, and I jumped in Sam's VR6 Syncro for a ride with Aswad ahead in his Schrick tuned VR6. There were four of us in the Syncro, and Aswad was alone. He slowed to let us pass, as he likes to follow. Sam was pushing, with pace notes read from memory from our resident GT4 expert!

It wasn't long before Aswad took the plunge and overtook us. He was clearly faster both round the corners, and on the straight. The extra power from the intake and cams coupled with the lower weight from no 4WD or passengers clearly helped on the straights, whilst the stiffening from the strut braces, and Aswads massive balls helped in the corners. Aswad slowed to let us pass again, before quickly passing us again. This time he headed off into the distance. It was a great lap, expertly filmed by Nigel. We headed back to camp.

We spent the evening round a camp fire, eating hot dogs from the barbecue, and drinking beer. Some of the lads were late returning after witnessing a rider fall off on the road right outside the ring. He'd hit a sign post at about 100mph, sending him flying. His helmet came off, and he slid down the road, his jeans melting to his legs. His bike cartwheeled to a halt, and burst into flames. It was like a scene from a movie. They waited for the police, and gave a statement as the only witnesses to the accident.

Monday, 07:00. I couldn't sleep any more, so decided to get up. I had a shower, and went for a walk around the camp site. The others were a little slow to get up following their late night and excessive drinking. I ordered some fresh chocolate croissants as we packed our kit into the cars. After a quick photo shoot, we headed off towards Belgium. We paused momentarily to look at Steve's tyre marks. I won't give away where he stopped, as there may be a competition in the future!

On the ride home, it was clear that everyone was still in Nurburgring mode. Speeds of up to 135mph were encountered in the rush to make the ferry. We arrived at the port at 16:15 for the 16:55 crossing. Plenty of time! We said our goodbyes, and split up for our journeys home. Warren and I headed back to Steve's house with Steve and Aswad to pick up Warren's car before heading home. We finally returned to Bristol 12 hours after leaving the camp site at 22:30. All in all, a great weekend. Next time, I'm driving the Beemer!

Cocknose ready for his trip	Lined up at the leisure centre
Lined up at the leisure centre	Lined up at the leisure centre
Jake's supercharged VR6 Syncro	Jake's supercharged VR6 Syncro
The VR6 vent is functional	Mark's VR6 has been before
Keeping to the speed limit in Bologne	Mark pacing himself on the E40
Cocknose in Germany	Bratwurst all round!
	600bhp Carpi VW Golf
Jason gets a ride in a Corrado
	Carbon bonnet on an S14 Nissan 200SX
	It's a rental! Lamborghini Gallardo
	Sierra - Buy it, 'Ring it, scrap it!
Ferrari 360
	Ring Taxi
That's the missus!
	E30 BMW M3 Evo
	Aswad on the boil
The Top Gear team overtaking £1m of cars in a day
Chav Boy Slim with his arm out the window	Steve and Warren in the supercharged VR6
	Immaculate BMW Alpina 2.8
Top Gear's Ariel Atom Demonstrator	Who stole my bodywork?
	The camp site washing facilities
	Show me the way home
	Welcome to Slutton!