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myevo.com at the 40. ADAC-Reinoldus Langstreckenrennen

with RALLIART GERMANY (Nürburgring)

VEEDOL Langstreckenpokal 2000

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Wednesday 10 November 2000: it is 04.00 o’clock in the morning. We stay at one bus station. The weather is cold, nobody on the road. Some minutes later a little car cross the road  and stop. „Did you know? At this time there is no busses coming ....“

„Yes“, we know....

The Nürburg

After a few minutes a dark blue Mitsubishi Galant V6 appears. Yes here we are. We take our baggage and get in to the Galant. The trip begins. It is 04.40 in the morning. After 4 hours of motorway we reach Rüsselsheim. The PR chief of Mitsubishi Germany, Mr. Harald Rettig is waiting for us. At the same time the latest news from DUBAI comes in. DUBAI? Yes, Jutta Kleinschmitt is there with the Ralliart Germany Mitsubishi Pajero T2, fighting between the desert dunes against the time.  

The old RING, 22.5 km

From left:

Harald Rettig (Chief PR Mitsubishi Motors Germany), Antonio (myevo.com) and Sven Haaf (Ralliart Germany Rally Driver)

Mr. Rettig shows us the situation and introduces us in the wordl of RALLIART GERMANY.  In fact Ralliart Germany is a great race and rally company, who not only race with the Pajero in the Rally Marathon Championship around the world. They prepare more racing cars as the Lancer Evolution VI Group N rally car of SVEN HAAF, as the Lancer Evolution VI Group A track car, who is used in the German track Championship. Ralliart prepares also one Carisma GDI track car for this Championship. 

After a passionate and useful discussion we are invited to visit the RALLIART factory. Engineers and race technicians are working here using the latest technologies available on the market.

The trip begins now. We will move to the Nürburgring, the best racetrack in the world. We will not only have the possibility to look behind the scenes of Ralliart during the last race of this season. No. Mr. Reiter has reserved the co-driver seat of the Group N rally car of SVEN HAAF for us. Why? He wants to send us on the track during the training....

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Sven Haaf

 Ralliart Germany Rally Driver

Ralliart Germany rally driver Sven Haaf with Antonio, myevo.com

Please: do not eat too much before you start here or you will need a lot of time washing the interior carpets....

Ralliart Germany Lancer Evo 6 Gr.N Rallycar of Sven Haaf, 280 PS

Now it is time to go. The pulse is high, the noise is high, passing the pit lane we are is like entering in a full grand prix atmosphere. Dodge Viper, Porsche GT3 and GT2, BMW M3 and all the crème de la crème of racing is here. SVEN too. With his Lancer Evolution 6 Group N.  We get in the overall, put the helmet on the head, and sit in the car. Fasten your seatbelts. Yes, .... After this, you feel like Italian Salami.  SVEN speak very quietly with us, as he would go to the supermarket at the end of the street. After a few seconds he starts the engine and we roll out of the pit stop. The first bends with 150 km/h on the clock are not very brutal, but we have another 22 kilometers in front of us, which means about 11 minutes, very long minutes.

Now I understand why Walter Röhl, the famous rally champion from the Group B era says, if you mean you can drive, you should come here and try this out. No other racetrack on the world is similar.

And he is right. The sensation is familiar to the skiing feeling. You feel the G-force, you don’t see what come after the next bend, and you need all your physical and mental force to get the next bend.

Mitsubishi Carisma GDI, 130 PS: enough to enjoy the Nürburgring!

Not easy. Next year myevo.com will try to organize a driving stage at the Nürburgring, together with Ralliart Germany. If you drive an Evolution or any other sport car, you have to get there.  No more and not less. 

Schwedenkreuz, Karusell, Hohe Acht. Each bend owns a name. When you speak with a driver the description get a personal note. ... You know, I got the “Karusell” to early, I lost speed and I was to slow up to the “Hohe Acht”.... Easy?  Maybe. We are on the last kilometers, the straight line, the only one (?) let us relax. At least we see what is in front of us and get some confidence. How fast we are? Two fifty. Enough? We think yes, or better: we are sure: this is enough.

On the same line it is possible to get 270 on the clock. With „only 250“ on the clock we are happy, very happy.  With a big smile we reach the starting point our trip the pit lane.

Thank you SVEN this was a unique experience.

You will understand, that we denied the question if we like to drive yourself the Carisma GDI. With all this racecars on the track, with no knowledge of the track, this could be a play with the fire. Thinking at the nickname of the Nürburgring – die Hölle – we prefer to answer  „no“... another time. 

Meanwhile the Ralliart Germany crew is hard working. Tomorrow at the long distance race the Lancer Evolution will be in the front, at least this is the target.

The reality deserved some bad surprises.  During the warm-up the lancer Evo VI found a VW Golf on his trajectory and overtaking the Golf the physical laws had been overtaken too: The result was a spin of the lancer with 180 km/h on the clock. Fortunately the Evo landed with only about 20 km/h against the guardrail. As the driver opened the eyes, and saw that the rear spoiler was at the same place as before you will understand how happy he was....

The bad side of this spin was a time penalty. The Lancer started his race in 32nd position, with a lot of slow cars in the front.  Not really an easy job. The Ralliart Germany crew had two hours to repair the car. A new exhaust system, some minor repairs, and the Evo VI were ready to start.

Ralliart Germany

Lancer Evo 6 Gr. A trackcar

 ++300 PS!

You mean this is not a job for woman?

Wrong! Don't try to overtake this woman, N. Lüttecke.

At 12.00 with an incredible noise the race got started. Four hours of Nürburgring. 

It is difficult to describe the atmosphere. More than a race, you think this is a battle. The battle of material, concentration, teamwork. A little mistake could mean serious consequences for the driver. The Nürburgring is not a flat track like Hockenheim or Monza. Here you have mountains, up and down like in a Luna Park, the only difference: faster, extremely faster than at the Luna park. Imagine you press the FFW button of your Video recorder. Enough? We think YES!....

We want that myevo.com readers get this feeling. Order the new CD-Rom with a 30 minutes Video, enjoy the Nürburgring with us and remember: Next year you could be there.