'Ring Trip

Went to the Nurburgring yesterday, got up at 8 am, jumped into the car got about 1/2 a mile and realized the engine was up to temperature already, this is surprising because it was -5 outside and it normally takes quite a long time.  Delighted at the prospect of getting some warm air into the cabin, I turned on the heater and was belted with ice cold air.  Something strange was going on, at first I foolishly thought it was the heater that had a problem. When the steam started escaping I quickly realized the problem.  Apparently my antifreeze had frozen, and the system was blocked, watching the temperature gauge go from normal to really really hot to almost freezing again confirmed my suspicion.  

Ten minutes by the side of the A12 and everything looked under control, and I topped up the fluid and went on my way, eye glued to the water temperature for the rest of the journey.  I arrived at the entrance to the nordschleife around 11 bought some tickets, and had a pee before setting off.

The track was cold, and there was frost in quite a few places outside the racing line.  The good news though was that the track was almost empty meaning I had

 it pretty much to myself.  This gave me time to work more on my line and concentrate on getting the gear changes correct, lining up for the bend and turning in at the right point.  

The first few laps I was predominantly in 3rd gear dropping to second up the hill after the Breidscheid entrance, then as I got a little better and a little more confident predominantly 4th dropping into 3rd for the uphill, and towards the end I was hitting 5th and the speed restricter in the faster sections.  

I found myself turning in way too early for adenauer forst, and nearly failed to turn left a couple of times, I still don't really know the track at all in relative terms.  I also struggled a bit with the right hander somewhere else, I've no idea what the bend name is.  

I was amazed how much of my undercarriage 

the karussell removed from my car, there was an obscene amount of scraping and grinding before being spat out at the end, but one of my favorite bends of the circuit, I was entering round about 45, and exiting around 50, I got th

e impression the car could go a bit faster if I kept the speed up on entry.  The MX5 doesn't have the power to really increase speed that quickly.

Overall a great trip, the ice was a bit sketchy, but worth it to have the track to myself.  The EBC greenstuff pads seem to do a pretty good job, but there is less feedback from the pedal than I would like, and not a lot of bite, so perhaps its time to change them.