Globe-Trotting

Have you ever gone to the grocery store with the sole intention of buying one carton of milk? You blow by those other suckers fighting to keep their wobbly shopping carts in a straight line. You snicker, secure in the notion that in a couple of moments you’ll be in the 10-items-or-less line and on the fast track out of there.

But on your way to the back for milk, you go through the cereal aisle and think about how good some Cap’n Crunch would go with that milk. No problem—that’s why you were given two hands. And don’t forget the beer. One little case should do it, and now you can stack the milk and cereal on top. Of course, you can’t have beer without the chips and salsa, and so on and so on….

That is exactly how we felt driving our recent jaunt across the pond for a tour of Eibach’s headquarters in Finnentrop, Germany.

Underestimation does not begin to describe our approach to this trip. Much in the same way we shop for groceries, we went over to Europe to cover one MAX Power story, and we came home with several. So without further ado, we bring you Part II of our Spring Tour across Europe.

The Sauerland Rallye
The good people at Eibach let us loose on the back roads of the beautiful Sauerland region for an opportunity to flog some Eibach-equipped hardware and see the countryside surrounding the company’s Finnentrop facility.

The entire Sauerland region is postcard perfect, and the roads feature some fascinating undulations with everything from Second-gear hairpins to high-speed sweepers. We managed to get seat time in five fine examples from the Eibach fleet. These included: a BMW E39 540I with Eibach springs and the company’s new dampers, a Lexus IS 200, an Audi A3, and an Audi A4 Quattro, all riding on the progressive-rate Eibach coils.

The road quality of the Sauerland region ranges from billiard-table smooth to fire-road bumpy, and the rallye provided us with a good opportunity to see the region and test out the Eibach equipment in a real-world environment. Both the view and the ride were of the highest quality.

All-Access Pass
As part of our Spring Tour across Europe, we were able to get a behind-the-scenes peek at Team Toyota Europe and Tom Walkinshaw Racing. These guys don’t exactly give out tours like Universal Studios, but our good friends at Eibach pulled some strings for us.

Tom’s House
The TWR facilities actually house the Volvo S40 British Touring Car Championship and Arrows Grand Prix F1 teams. The Volvo is at the top of its game, having won the Championship in 1998 and finishing Third overall in 1999. Unfortunately, Arrows has not enjoyed the same success, and the team earned only one point in the ’99 World Constructors Championship to finish in Last Place. Ironically, as of this writing, Volvo is pulling out of the BTCC for the 2000 season.

We learned some interesting factoids while we were there:

TWR has two autoclaves for carbon-fiber fabrication that cost $1.5 million.

Arrows and Ferrari are the only teams in F1 to make engines and gearboxes (for this season Arrows will purchase its engines from Supertec).

Arrows spends $300,000 each race weekend on brakes alone.

The F1 team uses seven to eight engines for each race weekend, and the cost to rebuild each engine is between $80,000–$140,000 each.

In F1, aerodynamics is the greatest concern, and Arrow will have its own wind tunnel soon.

Goodbye, Le Mans; Hello, F1
Toyota Motorsport was started in 1975, and from this was borne Toyota Team Europe (a European equivalent of our Toyota Racing Development). The company’s pride and joy is its World Rally Car team, and, as of this writing, the team is poised to win its third WRC Championship. Just for grins, the team entered its GT1 car in Le Mans, and, in only its second year, the car finished Second in 1999. In the ultimate “been there, done that” gesture, TTE abruptly ended its Le Mans effort to concentrate on a new program—F1. You can expect to see a Toyota on the grid at the first event of the 2002 F1 calendar.

Much like TRD, TTE uses its racing expertise to help design high-quality performance parts for the Toyota in your garage. As part of the company’s Tuning Program, TTE makes body kits, wheels, and bolt-on performance parts. After much prodding on our part, we got the folks at TTE to admit that one of the new products coming down the pike is a supercharger for the Lexus IS.

Hot Laps With a Ring Master
After our Sauerland Rallye, the crew at Eibach wanted us to have an impression of how their products perform on a racetrack. But we didn’t go to just any track; we went to the track—the Nürburgring. This is the be all, end all of racetracks. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world.

The original circuit opened in 1927, and it was a premiere stop for the Formula One series until Nikki Lauda’s near-fatal accident in 1976, after which, the course was deemed too dangerous for the Grand Prix cars. In 1984, the new circuit was built right next to the original, and it has been on the F1 calendar ever since. The Nordschleife (or North Loop), as the original circuit is known, is still open to the public, and for about $10 (U.S.), anybody can run a lap on the ’Ring.

Eibach had each car from the Sauerland Rallye and a few additional surprises waiting at the track for us. TTE generously loaned us an IS 200 with its body kit, struts, Eibach springs, 18-inch wheels, and exhaust, and AC Schnitzer came loaded for bear with no less than a fully modified M Coupe and E46.

After an all-too-short debriefing, we were let loose on the track with a multiple-lap pass in hand. No helmet, no track marshall, no rules. Your first lap around the Nordschleife is quite daunting, to say the least.

After a few laps, we began to sense the immense history of the place. Through the famous Karusell section, we saw everything in grainy black and white, like the Speedvision specials on the many legendary contests that have taken place here.

In terms of performance evaluations, it was hard to judge most of the cars, because each one on its own was so completely different from the other. Every Eibach-equipped car we drove did have a solid neutral feel to it. The one car in which we felt the biggest difference was the IS. We drove one version modified with Eibach springs and the TTE car with Eibach springs and struts and 18-inch wheels. As much as the springs alone helped calm the twitchy attitude of the IS, the addition of the struts and larger wheels made it drive like a different car.

By the end of the day, we had sampled each car, and we even managed to keep off the curbs and armacos. We drove on the ’Ring, and we lived to talk about it. Our lives were complete, or so we thought.

One of the AC Schnitzer test drivers was offering rides in the company’s wicked M Coupe. We thought that sounded like fun. After climbing into the carbon-fiber racing bucket in the passenger side, an AC Schnitzer technician helped tighten the four-point belts. I thought it a little excessive for him to cinch the belts so tight; I’ve ridden in full-blown race cars with the belts more relaxed than this—after all, this is only a street car.

The driver climbed in and, since he spoke no English and the only thing I knew in German was how to order a beer, the conversation was brief. He asked if I was a good passenger, and I nodded nonchalantly as if to say “Give me your best, I can take it.” Well, that was exactly what he did. I have never seen anyone push a street car to such limits. While the M Coupe was indeed a formidable machine, this driver tore right through its envelope. It also helped that he seemed to know every corner of this 14-mile 176-turn course like it was his daily commute. It was an incredible lesson of driver and car acting as one.

So who was this Superman? Manfred Mad Dog Wollgarten has been a test driver for AC Schnitzer for over 12 years. He started racing in 1974, and he has entered every 24-hour event at the ’Ring since 1979. In 1996, he came to the States to race in both the 24 Hours at Daytona and 12 Hours at Sebring. He is a god, and he is our hero. We are not worthy.