Sunday, November 19, 2006

Geschwindigkeit ist Spaß

Its never easy to forgive someone. Take the Germans for example...World War I, World War II, The whole holocaust thing..they've done allot of pretty questionable things over the years. But i am ready to forget all of that now...ready to offer a fresh start and forgiveness all because of one simple thing...the autobahn. I love it. Any country that offers the chance for unlimited speed with no recourse from the law, well, they're alright in my book.

My first experience on the autobahn was in the Koln area. I had a Mercedes E class rental car for a few days which made a good first car for a first time autobahner. Not too much power that one could get into trouble with. That car would do about 220 (kph) or so but that was it...now you might be saying who in their right mind would want to go faster than 220? Well, aside from that being a dumb question, the fact that i was getting passed on a regular basis shows that i'm not the only one.

Last week i had a meeting in Stuttgart which presented me with a second opportunity to drive on the autobahn. This time though i had a BMW 7 series from work. 2 more cylinders can do wonders to a vehicles topend and this car was still pulling when the needle passed 240. I guess i hit around 250 or so but the numbers ran out on the speedometer. That...was....Awesome.

The Nurgurgring is one of the most famous racetracks in the world and during the summer its occasionally open to the public. For anyone willing to pay 25 euros per lap you can try your hand at its 13 miles and 100+ turns. “The Ring”, as its commonly known, is calling my name. Before I leave next year I want to rent a Porsche or some other fast car and blast up the autobahn to the ring and then make some laps.

My goal is 320Kph...that's about 200 Mph. And its totally legal. Gotta love the Germans.

4 comments:

Keith said...

I'll go on the other side of the spectrum - Australia strictly enforces their speed limits and people just aren't in a hurry to get anywhere anyway. The speed limits top out at 100kph (that's 62mph - I've heard they can get up to 110kph but I haven't seen it) but most people move along at a little under that. If there were ever a country where it would be safe to put an autobahn-type road, it would be this one. But, nope, even in the middle of nowhere I can only hit 100kph. The only fun comes from driving in the mountains but I'm not sure how long my rental cars (Nissan Pulsar, Subaru Impreza) can handle that abuse or when I'll become part of a tree or go into the ocean. So, enjoy it while you can.

Anonymous said...

Over 150mph on the Autobahn must be cool. I did 130 mph on 696 in my neighbors Camaro. That was pretty sweet.

Corrigan said...

696..that could be expensive!

Aventius said...

driving fast on the highway is awesome. i hit 130 in my saab on I-75 this weekend. the stretch between square lake and m-59 never has cops.... i love it.

the autobahn though is even cooler. when i was there, we had a minivan. seven of us cramed in, packed to the gills with ski equipment inside and on the roof and we had it in fifth gear doing 180 kph. And i think the thing that was the most odd was that sitting it in the back, it didn't seem like we were actually doing 112 mph. It felt like we were in the states doing 70.

I miss the autobahn.