Nürburgring

Seeing the sights at the site of the racetrack

19th of February 2025
Nurburgring Exmuhle bend

Maybe you’re wondering why I went from green to, well the opposite? To be fair, it’s not completely the oposite and that’s the interesting thing about racing. It revolutionizes the industry, it “drives” it so to speak. As the formula one (F1) has a long history of creating new features that have found their way into roadcars we see today. And many advancements to electric vehicles. Not just F1 but especially FE (Formula E - electric racing) contributes largely to the advancement of electric vehicles. We can debate about the environmentally friendliness of these electric cars and the placement of the circuits, which are sometimes found in what should really be nature reserves, but that’s not what I want to talk about today. Another time maybe. Well, with my conscience scrubbed sufficiently “clean” with this small excuse, of why it’s okay to love racing and sorts. I will talk about the actual story. Why I’ve started to love racing. (No, it’s not just so I can show off pretty pictures with some blah blah. Though it helps.)

Brand Central

Marco and I have now been together for three years and although we have a lot of interests in common, there are some we don’t or didn’t fully share. Even though I love gaming and do enjoy a racing game from time to time. Racing sims have made me happy since I was about 5 years old and my dad would take me to a computer shop which featured a computer with its own STEERINGWHEEL! But I was never too much into cars. My father has always loved the 1960’s model Jaguar so of course I have to love Jaguar. I’m a sucker for an SUV, Touareg or Dodge RAM make me happy. Since Gran Turismo 4 I’ve wanted a Lotus Elise. When I was about 15 years old, a couple of years before getting my license I decided a Citroën C3 was my car. And I’m just over the moon with my little Volkswagen New Beetle. I love cute and round, or just big and bulky. I’m not into Ferrari, Lamborgini, Mazeratti or any of those: la-di-da-cars. Porsche is an exception… cute and round, that’s why! But more than looking at the overall chassis shape and having a weird brand preference based on nothing but logo and maybe, someone I didn’t like drove those or I don’t know I just don’t want an Opel, my “love” for cars ended there.

Green Porsche

Mechanical Love

There is of course the mechanical side of things. When the sun is shining (but it’s not too hot) you can find me in the yard tinkering with my bicycle or maintaining my motorcycle. Therefor my next sanctuary needs to feature a garage to expand my tinkering. Even as a small child I already loved to play with metal plates and screws. There was a toy set that even had a small engine. I had some fun playing around with that.

Learn to love

Now where tinkering has always been something I love to do and gaming is a pastime I’ve spend a lot of hours on. Watching races and actually enjoying the sport or even caring about it? No. I do enjoy driving and always have but I can’t talk about racing because I don’t care to learn anything about it. Now, I’ve been together with Marco for 3 years and he does enjoy the sport. He is not a big fan, but he is interested in GT3 classes and watches F1 from time to time. He tried to get me interested and I gave it a shot. Because everyone is so in love with Max Verstappen, it makes me a little sick, I found others to root for. Even though I’m Dutch I prefer Leclerc, just because he is quite attractive. And Yuki Tsunoda because he’s cute and Japanese. Although Marco and I have not paid much attention this season because the races started to be too predictablem, we’re anxiously waiting for women to join the fun. Hoping for the day a woman will beat Max. But learning about this stuff and going to the Nürburgring I started to understand his fascination more. Of course, you can imagine the flame was relit with Marco as well and he has dusted off the old Sim rig.

Classic Marco

Concluding

What this is mostly about is we’ve found if you spend enough time doing something, learning about it you might start to love and appreciate it more. Being confronted with it can spark interest. This of course is quite important in a relationship, any relationship. If you care about someone, make an effort and who knows? You might find you love it more than you thought you would! Thank you for reading this just so I could show off my pictures!

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Article: Influence of FE on roadcars
Article: F1 technology in roadcars

Exmühle

We found a couple of bends of the Nordschleiffe out in the wild. This one should be the Exmühle if I'm not mistaken. We walked all the way up to, I'm guessing, Bergwerk?

The green Porsche

Visiting the circuit just outside the entrance this beautiful green Porsche I took a bunch of pictures as it drove by. This one is my favourite and I had so much fun editing it in Photoshop!

Marco in the Classic

The last photo is one of Marco in a small classic car they had just outside the museum in front of a picture screen. The way he leaned out made me smile and because of the closeup it's hard to/impossible to tell that he is in fact in front of a screen. I'm personally very proud of this picture although the original could have Marco more in focus. It's hard to tell in the style of the website.

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