Well after racing the tracks in the northeast in my Z I finally bit the bullet and decided to take the Z to nurburing. I shipped the car from NY on 7/1/07 to Lisbon Portugal where I have family that was able to pick up my car off the boat. It arrived late 9/15/07 but my cousin really helped me out and got the car and took care of all the paper work so when I got there on 10/3/07 the car was ready to go. I spent the night there and left early on thursday 10/4/07 for Nurburg Germany. The trip took 20 hours driving and I stopped half way through in France for the night. I arrived in Cologne, Germany Friday night.
Saturday I go to the ring for the first day of racing and arrive to a find a very crowded race track. The ring opens at 5:00 Pm so I get my tickets and line up to get on the race track but when I am 10 cars from the entrance they shut down the race track because of an accident and they announce that they will not be reopening. So I am bummed but at least the track is open all day Sunday so I had back to Cologne for the night.
Sunday morning I wake up early and I am one of the first to arrive at the track. Track opens at 8:30 and finally I get to experiance the ring and it is one amazing track. I have been practicing on the xbox so I have some idea of the layout but quickly find out the turns and layout are very challanging. After a couple of laps I take a break and pull into the parking lot where I met some people from the day before. One person I met grew up about an hour from the track and his car was being fixed so for the rest of day he jumps into my car and gives me tips on brake points and how to take turns. This guy helped me out so much and I was able to really enjoy the track.
Anyways I just got back to NY and I am really itching to go back.

Here are some pics:

 

Nice summary of your trip. We'd all love to go to the 'Ring with our cars! How much did it cost to ship your ZR to Europe? What did it cost to rent the track? Where else did you drive (gotta be a TON of good drives there)?

 

Thanks, I shipped it via a container which cost 2,000 but when I was at the track I was told you could do drive on from NY to Holland for about $900 so I guessed I should of done more research. You actually pay per lap on the track. It looks like a bunch of toll booths at the start finish line and you buy a ticket you insert into a slot and the toll booth lets you through. I bought a couple of 4 lap tickets which I believe cost $64.00 so its about $16 euros a lap. I only drove at the ring but I plan to go back to Lisbon when there is a track day at Estoril Raceway which is only 15 minutes from Lisbon.

 

Thats a pretty cool freaking adventure.

 

So cool... but just wondering, wouldn't it have been more economical to rent a Z there? Or did you want to drive with your mods?

 

Yes it would be more economical but it would be very difficult to find a place that rents a Z in Germany. They mostly rent VW GTIs, BMWs, and Porsches. Also I wanted to have some fun in europe and mostly in Portugal this car is very rare.

 

Cool. Someone has deep pockets, and it sure isn't me.

 

I'm jealous - after renting a Z4 for the 'Ring, I always wanted to take my Z!

 

how awesome. It must have been such a good experience. Do you know what your best lap time was?

 

Sounds like a you had a great experience, needless to say I am jealous.

SO what was the best time you ran, did you get to drive the complete 'ring? Just to be in Germany driving the autobahn would have been too cool for me, I know where my car tops out at due to those fine Japaneese engineers at NiSSAn, what does your Z top out at, hopefully you ran wide open.

More pics and let us know about the autobahn driving as well. You state that in Germany Z cars are rare and what did the locals think about the Z and Americans in general. Too many questions maybe Dave M who posted from Nissan Sport magazine could do a interview and we could read about your trip, and start planning for my trip to the 'ring.

What a feeling to be on the famed 'ring, knowing that world champions have felt the same thrill that you too had.

 

Isn't the ring the greatest 'man' place on earth. It's amazing how you meet people from all corners of the world(most not speaking english) but somehow you are able to magically communicate in car language. We met some great people at the ring this summer when we went.
It still amazes me that the track is such a free-for-all. Motorhomes, bikes, atv's and GT3's all on the track at the same time. And it somehow works..

 

only 900 bucks to ship it?

how did you go about getting approval to drive your car in europe? did you apply before hand or after you got there?

if it's pretty easy this sounds like an excellent trip idea!