The Nurburgring, 13 miles of the bestest tarmac anywhere. The reason I bought the Prelude in the first place. Probably not my first choice for a Ring Tool but opportunistic. It had come up in conversation that I was after a car for the Nurburgring trip and a colleague happened to mention he was selling this Prelude because it was his brothers and he'd recently died. Fishing! The brother had also been planning for the 'Ring to the extent that he'd fitted D2 High Performance suspension. It handles like a Go-Kart.
We went out on Wednesday 29th May, rained all the way. Two guys with us were on bikes, a 'Busa and a GPZ500, and their sense of humour was severely tested. Thursday the sun shone but it turned out to be a German bank holiday and everyman and his dog were on track which detracted from the fun quite a bit. I know where the track goes and although the Honda's fairly quick it's no match for some of the exotica out there, Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis etc.
Later in the day it rained again. A wet track is a good leveller. Less cars on track and we actually start overtaking stuff. My favourite part of the circuit is the run up hill from Bergwerk to Klostertal. We close quite rapidly on a Rent-a-Ring Suzuki, obviously worried about his deposit in the worsening conditions and, as I go passed, look in my mirror, only to see a Ring Taxi BMW M5 right up my chuff. He just appeared from nowhere! I pulled to the right and as he powered up the inside the back end stepped out. As a big, expensive crashed seemed inevitable he just disappeared into the spray. That was a smidge over 120mph. They are piloted, in the main, by current or ex-racing drivers, one wonders how many laps they've done around the place.
Friday and more rain. So much rain that the track was closed to bikes because it was very slippy. Good fun
, but bloody scary! Glad I was in the car in those condition but given the choice it would be bike every time.So, now the car has to go, unfortunately. It sounds good, looks good and goes pretty damn good too, but isn't very practical for work.
Apart from the suspension I think its fairly standard. It's twenty years old and isn't immaculate but for it's age doesn't look too shabby. It has a new battery and four new tyres. The milage-ometer doesn't work and it has a 4WS problem which I was a bit worried about going out to Germany (see Newbie in Maidstone). But after a few corners it was hardly noticeable and no probs at all in the wet.
I'd like about £1195 for it, bearing in mind I've just put 500 quids worth of tyres on it.
Pete 07719001336
I'll try and suss the photos and put an ad in Cars For Sale.
