Saturday before last we embarked on an 8 day Europe Tour from England and here are some photos of the car-oriented bits we did. We also did a load of tourist bits and pieces, but I'd take up pages if I included those as well.

Parked outside the Moet and Chandon Chateau.........



Some quite nice scenary near the Austrian Alps to park next to........



Time to visit Alois and Estonia Ruf, (who are both delightful people who kindly bought us all lunch in one of their local restaurants).....



Their fantastic tables and chairs in the showroom and yes the motorised seats actually work.....



They started work on mine straight away......



They created a Ruf RGT2 and did the following:

Ruf 550bhp engine conversion

Ruf Alcantara Steering Wheel

Ruf Floor Mats

Ruf Strutbrace

Carbon GT2 Rear Spoiler

Ruf Carbon/Kevlar bonnet

The bonnet and wing are being left as unpainted carbon, which looks good on a black car.

 

Part 2........

Here's an RGTRS being built for racing.....



Bare RTurbo shell........



Super-wide CTR2 Sport special......



After some touring around for a few day, we met back up with the Rufs at Hockenheim, where they delivered my finished car.....



Ruf were holding their 25th Annual Trackday at the Hockenheimring and there were about 50 cars there, mainly Porsche/Rufs, but also some Lambos and Ferraris.

Sadly the Blue RTurbo demonstrator was badly crashed whilst being driven by a very skilled driver, who is an F3 driver I believe. He overcooked it into a fast corner, the car spun and went into a high concrete wall alongside the track. The car was badly damaged, although it was not possible to see the full extent as it was on the other side from that visible from the grandstands. I didn't feel it was appropriate to take a photo of the wrecked car, so I didn't.

Also two GT3s hit each other on the circuit under braking. The standard of driving was very different to UK Track Days, it was very aggressive, almost like a race. I was offered the chance to drive my car on the track, but I declined.

Heres the RGTRS at the circuit......



They completed my car in 2.5 days and were fantastic about the whole thing, despite the compressed timetables required. The test-driver took it up to an indicated 346kph (215mph) on the morning before driving it to Hockenheim.

Then it was time to drive the Nurburgring to watch the 24 Hrs Race and also the 6 Hour Classic Race on the day before.

Of course we had to stop by Manthey Racing, who gave us a great tour of their facilities (I’m also pleased that they came 3rd overall in the race behind the works BMW Team).

 

Part 3............



A GT3 RS for sale in their showroom…



Their workshop…..



One of their customer cars……



Then it was time to watch the race. Loads of Porsches entered…..



There are 240 cars in the race from 700+ bhp 996 GT2s and DTM Touring cars to Beetles and other cars. This Mini is driven by Sabine who drives the Ring-Taxi M5 as her day-job (and she runs her bar in the evening!).



Access everywhere is easy, here’s the grid, with the cars on about 30 minutes before the race……



The track is packed with cars, since 240 is a lot, even if the circuit is about 15 miles long (GP plus NS)….



Anyway that’s about all I can type for now………..

 

Awesome...Thanks for sharing your special trip!!! :-)

 

Great report Guy,

all the best
adam

 

NIce... looks like alot of fun!

 

Very nice! How do you like the power of the RUF conversion? Also, the pic after the rear shot that says RGT2 isn't working for me. Is this a pic of the front bonnet in carbon/kevlar? What exactly is the bonnet? Is it the front bumper (just want to make sure I am picturing this correctly)?

Also, if I recall correctly, you were going to talk to Manthey about their BBS wheels. Any info. or decisions?

 

Oustanding report, thanks for sharing! More pics, please.

 

DMW,

The extra power is nice, car spools quicker and the extra revs are useful.....I'll sort out the missing picture later, it's of the carbon rear spoiler.

Bonnet is what we call the hood. The hood is not on yet as it's only arriving in about 2 weeks time, as are the floormats, which have to be ordered custom for right-hand drive.

I looked at the Manthey wheels and held them, they are awesome and unbelieveably light (15lbs). I'll probably get a set in a couple of months time.

Guy

 

Beautiful. Thanks.

 

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing.

 

guy.

i jusdt love the bling chromes so in synch with the ruf stuff!!!

 

Awesome! Looks like a great trip, car looks nice too!

 

Awesome pics......Post more.......!

 

Thanks for the eye candy, helps the day go by faster!