Day 4 (Afternoon/Evening): Return to Nurburg, Nurburgring Driving
Upon returning to Nurburg, we visited the Nurburging visitor center and ring werk complex. There we got information about the track tickets and shopped a bit in the stores. They seemed to have very little stock of shirts and were out of many sizes but there were some cool souvenirs to be had. These were the ones I wanted most to take home from the trip as the Nurburgring was my number one priority. At the ring, there were a plethora of 911s. Most of which seemed to be GT3s. To drive on the ring, you merely need to purchase a ticket from the manned kiosk by the toll gates or the visitors center. The ticket is loaded electronically on a "ring card" which you scan at the toll gates to enter the track. The queue always moved quickly. Each run was 27 euro per, or 4 for 100 euro. I got 3 laps in decided to call it quits because I was still miraculously alive and the car unwrecked. My wife was going to drive but once she saw just how chaotic and fast the course and other drivers were, we both decided it was too unsafe for her to attempt it given she has no track experience, no rear wheel drive experience, and wasn't even familiar with basic performance driving concepts like apexing.
The Nurburgring was unreal. It was better than I imagined. Complete driving nirvana. And the M3 was right at home on the track there. Very balanced and just ate all the hard late braking and mindless flogging I could throw at it. I drove with all of the nannies on due to my inexperience with both the track and the car. For the first run I used my M1 setting with the rev matching which made me sound like a pro. For subsequent runs I used my M2 setting with sport plus everything (or whatever it is called). This car seems to make you look like a superhero on the track.
We finished off Tuesday evening by eating at the Pistonklause restaurant again. The food was excellent. Service a bit slow but there are so few staff working it is understandable. Again, lots of ring drivers and instructors eating there after touristfahrten ended.
Day 6 (Post-Delivery): Netherlands, Bruges Belgium, Return to Nurburg
On Wednesday (our final full day in Europe) we headed out on a day trip in my M3 to Bruges, Belgium with my wife driving the first part of the trip on the autobahn (she did 120MPH at one point...fastest she had been but I hit the speed limiter myself the day before at 155MPH actual and 167MPH indicated). Along the way we discovered we were only minutes away from the Netherlands (we had originally considered Amsterdam for the day trip) so we made a slight detour and explored a little to add another country to our visited list. The Netherlands villages and cities look so much different than most of the other countries we were in. Very tidy and modern yet still aged homes. Very IKEA looking I guess. We got back on the road and continued on to Bruges, Belgium. Some say that it is very touristy. And it is. However, we wanted to see the very old preserved features of the city even if it was a tourist destination. You can easily see most of what the city offers in one day. Not much point staying there.
We climbed the spiral staircase in the belfry. It gets very tight near the top so much so that if someone is coming down you may have to go down a bit to be able to let them by. The building is a feat of medieval engineering and towers over the city. A medieval skyscraper if you will...providing spectacular views. Definitely worth the price of admission and the sweat. After shopping for a bit (chocolate a must) we finished the brief tour of the city by taking a canal boat tour. This is also a must do and a great way to see the city sights. Unfortunately, we missed out on the Brouwerij de Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery) as it closed at 6PM (the tourists vanish about this hour because most shops and attractions close at this time). We cancelled our reservations to eat at Park restaurant due to time limitations and took a bus back to the parking lot where we got in the M3 and headed back to Nurburg to pack up.
Day 7 (Dropoff): Car Prep, Frankfurt Dropoff
On Thursday morning, we left very early to head to Frankfurt for the drop off of my M3. I wanted to have enough time to wash the car first as required by BMW (smart regardless). We arrived with 1.5 hours to spare and I wasted all of that waiting for a nearby self serve car wash to not open. Apparently they did not open the wash until 9AM. I headed to a rumored self service car wash about 15min away in Offenbach am Main and spent 18 euro on tokens to get the car acceptably clean. (Each token good for 104 seconds of soaping/washing). By the time this was done we were an hour late to our drop off appointment but I was told that it was very common for people to run late and they were very accommodating and understanding. Once we finished the paperwork and turned in one of the keys, they called us a taxi (due to time limitations) and we headed to Frankfurt airport to fly home to the US. Our overall driving statistics in my M3 were pretty impressive. 1856km driven with a combination of autobahn cruising at low and high speeds, high speed blasts, Nurburging runs, my addiction to acceleration, putzing around through construction zones (of which there are MANY) and small villages all resulted in an average of 21MPG. Not bad at all for a car with close to 500hp (realistically).
Trip Summary: An epic delivery of his and hers M3s
Overall the trip was epic. Lots of driving...but we were getting cars...why wouldn't we? The new M3s are fantastic. We are very satisfied. Though I wish my wife could have driven hers around, I think it worked out better to drop hers off because of how much time was spent on the road and our lack of a second cell phone to maintain comms. This was my second ED (first for my wife) and I will never buy a new BMW without taking delivery in this fashion. It is a no brainer. We are taking redelivery at the Performance Center in SC when the cars make it over here. Why not? Double up on the awesome deliveries if they are willing, right?
For more of my thoughts on the M3, check out my initial review here.
Videos from the trip of my M3:
Warm start and revving of my F80 Yas Marina Blue M3
My first Nurburgring lap in my F80 M3 (short clip). All electronic nannies enabled. Rev-matching enabled.
My first Nurburgring lap in my F80 M3 (FULL clip). All electronic nannies enabled. Rev-matching enabled.
F80 6MT M3 top gear acceleration. 6th gear roll on pull from 100MPH to speed limiter.
6MT F80 M3 acceleration from 1st through 5th gear. 5-152mph. Euro 95 octane (US 91 octane equivalent). Traction controls on.
2014 BMW M3 6MT acceleration easy launch 1st through 3rd gear. Euro 95 octane (US 91 octane equivalent). Traction controls on.