Last Weekend it was time for the Hyundai Driving Academy aka. The N Trackday at the Bilster Berg.
I thought I'd write down what happened, because I had no clue what it's all about prior to the event.
Went there with a fellow mate from the local N-Thusiast Group as well as
@Chris81
We've arrived at around 4:15 PM - which was near perfect considering dinner was scheduled at 7 PM.
Right at the parking lot: Ns. Lots. Of. Ns. We parked the car with a big grin on our faces!
The Hotel we stayed at was a 4 star SPA & Wellness hotel called "Gräflicher Park". Appearantly the count ("Graf" in german) who built the racetrack also built this hotel.
I went to a gas station to fill up and afterwards we chilled a bit in the hotel's swimming pool - excellent day so far, although we had ~32C (way too hot when you sit 4h in a car
)
At 7 we had a small introduction and a who's who and at 7:30 PM we had dinner - Nice!
Next morning we had breakfast at 7 AM and were supposed to meet at the track at 8:10 AM.
At the track the first surprise, way colder temps of around 18C - sad news was rain was excepted.
For those of you who are not familiar with the bilster berg, here's a small snap of the track layout:
The most important facts: 4.2km long, 70m elevation, max drop 26%, nickname: Nordschleife's small brother.
As you can see its a very technical track, which was very to my liking, as I haven't yet experienced any car on the track.
When registering you were supposed to put in your skill level (either new or experienced). The ~60 cars were split into groups (group 5 being the most inexperienced one, group 1 being the experienced ones)
I was in group 5. We started off with the first activity after we had to put on our "noise-transponders" (NO JOKE!)
These little guys measure the noise of the car, so the track won't exceed the noise limits.
So off to the activities we went:
Activity 1: A small, very slow but very technical handling course.
Intended for the unexperienced drivers to get to know their car.
Activity 2: A way faster handling course.
First time, I've experienced proper under- and oversteer in the N. First time I've also experienced what "listening/feeling the tires" means. Big eye-opener for me!
Activity 3: Drifting in an N with the instructor (yes, correct. Drifting.)
There was an N prepared with PVC around the back tires. This setup made drifting the N possible. The Instructor gave a passenger run to each of us. Great fun!
Here's a small clip of it:
https://streamable.com/a5q7s
Activity 4: A slalom course
This section was supposed (I guess) to let you build on the experience of Activity 2. Lots of slipping, cone murdering and fun as well!
Activity 5: First technical explanation of a track segment called the Mausefalle (mouse trap)
First off: The Mausefalle is the most challenging part of the track. Here's a clip of me driving the segment from T-6 until T-16. T-11 (when it goes steep downhill is the Mausefalle).
https://streamable.com/6it2m
This segment was really tricky as the whole track was wet and you needed a perfect technique to make this turn in adequate speeds. Was big fun learning how to do it!
Lunch break
Nom Nom Nom! Lunch at the track.
Activity 6: Learning braking and evading when its slippery
Knew this one from my ADAC "How to drive a car" training.
Activity 7: Lead & Follow on the track
Now the stuff I was most excited about. We were split in groups of about 5 cars and were following the instructor around the track - trying to catch him. First round I overdid it and was sliding like hell, next few rounds went much better and I could see the instructor also sliding, so I guess I was near enough to him
All in all, I can really encourage this "N Track Day". Lots of fun, lots of nice people and chit chat, great track and most importantly: great instructors!
Thanks to Fabian Hamprecht, the instructor of our group 5 (he's a german driver in the ADAC GT Masters (GT3 class))
Link to his
Insta, if you want to know more. Really nice guy, was fun chatting with him!
And at the end some more pics of the event:
