Ultimostile

Drive with a fortnight delay

 

Nice sunny springtime weather in Denmark.

Stopping over at scenic places.

Enjoying the Scaglione design.

But most of all enjoying the drive.

As always heralding a great season.

This year on and off the race circuits - hopefully!

 

Club Bongard not so proud member

CROWD-funding now at a total of 455 EUR

Pick-up after using the Notruf phone number (2009).

Between Metzgesfeld and Kallenhard.

Not so proud passenger, but memorable drive!

At Rent-4-Ring with broken petrol pump.

Stranded at RSR Nürburg with failing alternator (2016).

Handing over car to Bongard for SOS International return to Denmark.

 

10 years of ultimostile youtube

CROWD-funding now at a total of 435 EUR

What the car looked like that year.

This february it was 10 years since I posted my first videos on youtube under the ultimostile name. Back in 2008 I just reported what I saw and it took me years before I even uttered a single word. I drove my Bertone GT for fun and had an Alfa Romeo 166 3.0 as my daily driver. This video is recorded on a tiny FlyCamOne2 plastic video camera that could just be squeezed in between the bars in the front grille of the Bertone.

 

The plastic model-airplane camera

The lap is actually quite clean and elegant. I am not really overtaken and I touch all the white dots on turn-in and apex. My friend Gert Sterner in the Alfa Romeo 145Q overtakes me in the carousel when I choose the high path up on top. We had tremendous fun earlier when we spent a lot of time in the Eiffel mountains. Last year was actually the first time since 2001 where I did not turn a single lap on the Nordschleife - I will definitely have to go back in 2018. Hopefully for some proper racing!?

Caught on ringside camera - the FlyCam is visible in the grille.

I was testing my new brakes that year.

Cruising on the Autobahn on the way home to Copenhagen.

 

Racing the Ring?

Going abroad in 2018.

I was asked on Facebook by fellow alfisti Alexander We from Germany if I was going to race on the Nordschleife this year. He suggested the Nürburgring Classic event in june. So I checked it out this evening. It turns out that this is when they run the FHR 3-hour race and it sure looks like a fantastic event. It is a full weekend of classic racing on both the Grand Prix circuit, on the North Loop and on the combined track. From all the offerings I can spot three possible races/drives that look interesting:

FHR Endurance - 3 hours - 1.100 EUR.

GLP Nordschleife regularity - 75 minutes - 150 EUR.

Masters Experience XXL trackday - 60 minutes - 195 EUR.

The Masters Experience on the full track is just an open pitlane event for classic cars, but the price is okay. Whereas the GLP Regularity requires steady driving for one hour and 15 minutes not faster than 11m20s and not slower than 17m00s for a full Nordschleife lap - That seems about right for the Giulietta SV. And then there is the full FIA-spec 3 hours race: My big dream. I suppose I would just drive it with a nice big lunch break in the middle of it (while my pit crew prepares the car for another stint?)

What should I choose? Everybody would of course be welcome in my paddock and I would love to drive in convoy with other classics from Copenhagen on the german highways with a stop-over somewhere in a nice Gasthaus.

How about that?!

Check out this wonderful video from a similar event a few years back:

 

 

Terrific but bloody expensive

2016 has been the most exciting year ever in my car life. I finally got around to do some actual motor racing and I drove up and down the Alps and criss-crossed the spectacular island of Sicily. But it has also been ridiculously expensive. This craziness has to stop!

As you might know, I like honesty. I just show it as it is, and in my videos I don't mind showing how difficult I find it, to get things right. So, here's to honesty: Let me show some numbers. I write down all expenses in a spreadsheet during the year, and I have done so since I purchased the Giulietta in february 2013. Back then the value of the car consisted of the 15.800€ I paid for it. I have bought components for 17.100€ over the the 4 seasons an now, I have 53.400€ invested in the car. During 2016 I spent 9.200€ on improvements on the car, and luckily the prices for Giulietta Sprints out there are going up. But the car is getting awfully valuable; I don't owe any money - but it sure would be a shame to see it burn behind the armco of some boring danish race track.

Running the Ultimostile Experience has cost me a total of 11.500€ this year, and that is just crazy! I spent more or less the same amount on racing as last year, 2.400€, but this time I actually went to three races, whereas in 2015 it was all spent on license and race gear. I had a wonderful outing at Padborg Park for the long-distance night race with the Sixtyfivers, and I raced at the Munkebjerg Hillclimb and in the season-closer at Ring Knutstorp in the south of Sweden. In the two latter events I even got on the podium (for what it is worth).

Part of the Ultimostile Experience is my internet activity. I am a sucker for the attention, and I actually love when people get what I am doing. It all cost me 265€, but I got a 190€ refund from advertisements on my Youtube videos. So 75€ for all that? That's okay, I think.

I am paying 490€ for Tax and Insurance and Club Memberships cost me 100€. This leaves 8.400€ spent on the three journeys I went on in the Giulietta during 2016. Okay they were epic! I will never forget the early spring drives in the Alpine Dolomites and the fantastic places we stayed - and the wonderful company. And obviously I enjoyed the Sicilian trip in late autumn - with my wife, even! And in summer I went to a full-day track event at Spa Francorchamps, where I sadly had to leave the car behind at the Nürburgring. But that was also an epic experience. In early spring I went to the Bremen Auto Klassik and in late summer I visited the Auto e Moto d'Epoca in Padova, Italy. Tremendous fun with charming people and good friends; gentlemen trips.

Anyway: This has gotten out of hand. Right now the car is sitting, gutted, in Steffen Madsen's workshop. He is refurbishing the worn (abused?) three-shoe drum brakes and he is building a race engine. This will probably add another 8.000€ to my expenses. Terrible!

But the car will be so delicious and I can hardly wait to take part in the final tuning. It is so much fun to be part of the restauration/rebuild, where Steffen and I spent several minutes on the phone every day. I love that.

The question is: "Do I even dare take this precious little car on the track in 2017?" I am not exactly poor, but I don't have the kind of money it takes to run such a circus. Maybe the Ultimostile Experience has eclipsed, and the rest will only be legends and anecdotes?!

Well, see you out there ...

 

Video from the Sicilia trip

 

 

 

Like Vincenzo Florio did it

Actually parking against the traffic - but getting support from the crew.

At the Targa Florio museum they had this tableau - much like the real thing.

I recognized it from around the corner - splendid to actually be there!

Organizers Andrea and Daniele preparing the all-cars photo shoot.

And then we drove the route once - just imagine 11 laps!

We finally arrived on a hill-top Abbey with all plus creature comforts.

And the obligatory winery for the splendid supper.

 

Storyboard for Palermo video

Leaving the Alfa Romeo Mito behind in Copenhagen airport with icy windscreen.

And arriving for some warm afternoon sun in Palermo.

Spending hours into the dark wrestling the cars out of the habour authorities.

Interesting and picturesque streets - literally avoiding the Carabinieri.

And eventually aiming the Giulietta downstairs into the smallest garage door.

Walking the old city for a super-delicious seafood Ristorantino.

And returning to the hotel for night caps - fabulous!

The following morning on the roof of the hotel - nice driving weather!

Eager to go: Zig-zagging the cars out of the hotel garage - Sicilia, here we come!

 

Eight boys in five cars on four boats

 

Friday afternoon Søren Malmstrøm called me and suggested that I followed a group of "Nørrebro Racing" cars on the Four Ferries Trip around the Ise firth; it's a round-trip (virtually) ticket for a 200 km tour with four water passages. And you buy one ticket per car and one ticket per passenger. I had already been contemplating that tour with Per Holmen in the Sunbeam Alpine and Klaus Rejkjær in the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT Veloce. And lo and behold; they lept at the chance. A quick coffee and off we were the following morning. A splendid Saturday.

Such a nice day - even the tickets look nice.

Nørrebro Racing only brought a Porsche Speedster and a TVR 3000M.

I had my video-kit with me - and everybody else joined in with snippets of iPhone film.

Per Holmen itched for a test drive of his new Sunbeam.

In the evening all back at our starting point.

The boys - Klaus is impatient and noisy in the Bertone GT in the background.

 

Munkebjerg Hillclimb 2nd in class

 

Last year the Munkebjerg Hillclimb coincided with the Old Timer Grand Prix organized by the German Automobile Club (AvD) at the Nürburgring, and I chose to attend the latter in stead of competing in the former. This year I had promised everybody that I wouldn't return to Nürburg during the OGP weekend without racing in one of the actual races.

So I decided to go to Munkebjerg - and Donna U joined me for a wonderful weekend.

Wherever I go, I seem to run into wonderful people also; the Munkebjerg charisma.

Donna U did the filming (see above) and the local news caught the Giulietta SV in action.

I was satisfied by the little red bug both in the dry and in the wet.