π
2025-09-02 01:01
in Cars, Flying, France, Ncars, Nflying
This castle is one I had heard about years ago and always wanted to visit. It's the biggest private collection of figher jets in the world, parked in a castle garden. This is what happens when wine maker had some play money from the wines and liked to collect things:
The visit starts with the car and motorbike collection:
One small building on space rockets, because why not? :)
Also an impressive bike and motorbike collection:
Yes, it is a winery, still :) I'm assuming the museum fees don't come close to paying for the upkeep, so I'm sure some of the winemaking fees still help with the upkeep of the entire place:
Relatedly, a collection of tractors used to work in the grape fields:
I happened to be close enough to the Nurburgring two years in a row, right around my birthday, so after giving it one shot a long time ago in 2016 in a Track Renault Clio (clickme), I decided to come back. My notes said that back then I was able to do a 9:22 in that car after 6 laps, so obviously the point was to do better this time around :)
The first time I came back in July 2024, I did some research on which company to rent cars from, and was lucky enough to find and end up with Rent4Ring. They are one of multiple companies providing cars for rent and instructors, but they stood out for their good selection of higher end cars, knowlegeable and passionate staff that truly cares, and in my case excellent communication and help from Taylor Espinoza who helped me with my reservations, both times. One other plus is that they have a fair amount of cars, giving more leeway for last minute date changes for weather reasons if needed, or for them to have a spare car if someone happens to bend the car you were going to use a few days before you arrive.
Rent4Ring July 2024, Track Prepared Supra
Arriving in Nurburgring
entrance to the track, before it was opened
Arriving at Rent4Ring, big thumbs up for the paint jobs and wraps:
happy day :)
fair warning for beginners
I wonder how many cars, they lost
and now it's time for me to go ;)
OMG, I managed to do sub 9mn at the end, which is not easy given how many laps were voided by accidents and yellow flags:
Rent4Ring was so awesome that I came back the next year when in the area for Nature One. This time around, I booked 2 even nicer cars, although while the Porsches were definitely expensive, I found out later that I was not faster in them than the Supra. The cars were faster, but I was not :)
These cars came with a required coach, which worked great ror me since I was not about to drive the Ring without a coach with me for every lap, and another big bonus is they came with a full Vbox video recording system, which was much better than the gopro recordings I had done last time.
I was there a bit early, so I went to check out other things in town:
amusement park
nice ring taxis
There was a cafe and nice car display:
Then it was time to go back to Rent4ring:
nice decals again
Back for a briefing:
a reminder of 'please don't do that'
Nice car to start, Porsche 718 Spyder RS:
My fastest lap: 9:34, even if it's not that fast:
For the 2nd half of the laps, 911 GT3RS 992:
laps are not cheap, but all inclusive
My best lap, 9:02, faster but nowhere close to how fast you can go:
Strangely, I only got down to 9:02 that day, despite the fast cars. It's true that half the laps had yellow flag and were ruined, so I'll hae to come back and try again.
The rent4ring crew was great like last time, and the coaches I got this time around did a great job telling me what was ahead.
While it's true that 699E per lap is not cheap, the cars wre not cheap again and were really well taken care of. and that included good suspension, good brakes and good tires without which a fast car is kind of useless. Both cars felt very stable and forgiving enough, which is definitely useful on that kind of track. Big thanks to the rent4ring crew:
After going a bit of research for Dusseldorf, I found Classic Remise Dusseldorf, which holds a lot of cars for people who own too many, and cars on display, waiting to be sold. Some interesting and unique specimens :)