Planning a 300Km/h run on the German autobahn

Koln to Frankfurt and Frankfurt (goes past airport) to Wurzburg has plenty of 4 lane straights.
Btw, the bends on the autobahn are banked curves, so build for high speeds.

 

My Autobhan record is only 130MPH in a 1985 308.... that was between Stuttgart and Munich... not much room for a max run.... but that was in 1990.

 

there is a stretch between the nurburgring and luxembourg that i think i did in less than 3 hours.
in a 456mgt

 

my other recommendation is the highway from rome to naples - pick a day with little traffic, drive a ferrari, and you can vmax easily.

 

gibraltar to anywhere north. nobody there

 

Do they still give a free pass to Ferraris?

 

i cannot know for sure of course, but i can verify that i have never received a ticket from a caribinieri in italy while driving a ferrari.
electronic tickets yes, but none in person.
they usually just want to have a good look and maybe sit in it, and hear the revs.
did i mention i love italy ?

 

My understanding from riding motorcycles on the track is unless the tire is built for low pressures (I.e. like some Dunlop motorcycle tires), reducing the pressure creates more sidewall distortion which increases heat, therefore the tire gains too much internal pressure. A higher initial pressure, keeps the tire cooler. I am no tire expert either, but that’s how it was explained to me.

Regarding fast speed runs.... I think it is better to not plan it. If the time seems right.... conditions are good..... then do it. I would not be comfortable hoping someone doesn’t accidentally move over or has a “twitch” at the wrong time.

 

You should try FL, USA. We have straight and flat roads here:

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That is so impressive. I got the idea that in the US you ended up in a high security jail in Colorado along with the shoe bomber if you breached 65mph. Obviously this is very wrong!

 

It varies from state to state. This type of behavior is definitely frowned upon in FL.

 

I have a question that I bet you might know the answer. Back in 1971 a buddy and I bought Triumph Bonnevilles in London and traveled through the continent. We went to West Berlin (and went through Checkpoint Charley into East Berlin) and had to travel through East Germany. I am pretty sure this was in East Germany but there was a section of the autobahn where a curve in the highway was actually banked. And I mean banked liked what you see at a NASCAR track.

Would you know where this might have been? I'm thinking it probably doesn't exist any more.

 

It's interesting what a difference road surface makes. I am in Germany at the moment, sadly not in one of my Fcars as its a four person trip, but in a 680hp Panamera Turbo S e-hybrid. Yesterday on a stretch of Bavarian autobahn it felt effortless at 160mph, albeit you need to really pay attention on a public road at that speed. Today, on the newly remade and widened 5 north from Basel towards Karlsruhe, a surface that felt fine at 100 mph had me holding on and slightly sweaty palmed at 155, to the extent that I did the unthinkable and let a C63 AMG (the old 6.3 V8 version, likely with performance pack, but credit to you Sir) shoot past me at what must have been 175+. Road started feeling like a rutted cheese grater track above 150.

Given the monstrous stability of the Porsche at these speeds, I doubt I would have dared drive any Ferrari faster, yet yesterday on a similarly empty but beautifully surfaced road I'm pretty sure I would have hit 200 in my 575.

 

Drive your Portofino to the "Ring". I did 220kph on the autobahn in Koln in an Audi R8 on the way to the Ring. Then I did 300kph on the Ring. Pretty thrilling and open to the public. Better test of your car and your driving skill than going in a straight line on the autobahn.

 

that was mostly likely part of the auvus track... I think it was removed in the mid 80's? but not positive.

 

Thanks, I had never heard of that track before. However, I googled it and it doesn't appear that it was ever part of the autobahn, so it wasn't the stretch of road I was remembering.

 

Between the Mont Blanc tunnel (once you have cleared the mountains and are down on the endless flat plain) and Genova, three smooth lanes, nowhere for cops to hide, saw 305kph as a passenger in an AMG Merc. Hated the car: stone hard seats, ugly engine noise...that stretch is always empty. The area around Alessandria is best. I drove a 456GT at 230kph there (only 230 as the owner was the nervous type), felt like I was stopped because it is so featureless with almost zero trees and the Alps far in the distance to the west and north...a bit like the midwest 100 miles east of the Rockies I guess.

Avus (not Auvus) just outside Berlin used a section of Autobahn back and forth for the circuit with at one end a hairpin and at the other end the huge banked turn where Jean Behra met his demise. Apparently the banking has been removed.

 

Paul,

Sorry, I don't know of it and my wife (West German) who was a GF of an East German Pro Soccer Player and traveled with him throughout East Germany in the early 1980's, doesn't recall it.

 

Thanks Mark. I know I saw that banked turn somewhere on the autobahn.

 

Haha.. I'm dying laughing here.

The ring aka the Nürburgring is not part of the Avus in Berlin.
And there are plenty of options to go 300+ everywhere.
I'm German and have seen the 300 mark plenty of time. I would always recommend weekend mornings as already mentioned or nights, not necessarily in deer season or wet/frosty conditions. In general is the road condition ten times better than here in the states. Especially at night, the road profile is usually perfectly visible and even with two lanes has enough room for speed runs.
The Nürburgring is not the ideal environment for a speed run. Especially on "Touristenfahrten" days it's a mix of sightseeing, bachelor parties and semi race drivers plus motorbikes.
In general, I would always recommend track days since that is the most secure approach to high speed.

 

I think you are conflating two separate posts..one conversation is about Avus near Berlin, and another poster talked about cars driving from Cologne towards the Ring, which indeed does involve a nice fast and quite empty Autobahn down towards the Ardennes/Hunsruck hills, from memory.

 

I know that Autostrada well... the one from Turin to Alessandria is amazingly flat and straight. However I also remember ( 1989 ) driving that road going to Marengo Battlefield - that day in late October it was socked in with the most dense fog I've ever seen. you literally could not see more than 5 ft infront of you... I was barely able to drive 35MPH... 60-70KPH?... and to this day it was the most shocking thing to see the red rear fog light of a slow MB just popping out - i had just enough time to hit the brakes... it took forever to go from Alessandria to Turin that day like 3 hours... that is how bad the fog was.

 

its the only Autobahn that I know of that was used as a race track - and in Berlin.... the banking I'm sure was removed ... but i think it survived into the 80's? I think ...

 

All I can say reading your posts about how it was to drive on public roads back in the day, at 35 years old, is that I wish I was older, not younger!

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

I think in 1989 I was 20 yrs old... It was the perfect time to be living in Europe if you ask me... wall came down, F-1 was fantastic, and the girls were fun.... it was a great time.... I would not change a thing..... other than do more.