Pictures: 2017 FinalGear RingMeet - Feel the freedom

nicjasno

BMW Perfectionist
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5,851
Location
Maribor, Slovenia, Europe
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'89 BMW E30 325iT, '95 BMW E36 318ti compact
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Too bad Matt isn't holding his cane in that pic. He'd look like an old man feeding the ducks :D
 
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I didn't take too many pictures due to bad weather cba'nes to lug the gear all day around:

When it wasn't raining we had some fun with our "pet" ducks. The first one pictured is named Donald J. :p

20170810_161359 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

20170810_165952 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

20170811_194815 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

Some tent pics of people "partying hard" right before the pub quiz, moderated this time by Antti(public) and Lauri(Larry):

20170812_174807 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1658 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1656 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1660 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1661 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1665 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1666 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1667 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1670 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1672 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1675 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr

_MG_1671 by Dennis Boberg, auf Flickr
 
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If I don't post these now, I probably never will (like my Nordkapp & UK road trip pics -_-)

I arrived on tuesday, which seemed a bit early as no one was there yet. Also, I was at the wrong tent. Luckily I had a place in Adenau to lay low for a few days. ;)
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"These"
 
If I don't post these now, I probably never will (like my Nordkapp & UK road trip pics -_-)

I arrived on tuesday, which seemed a bit early as no one was there yet. Also, I was at the wrong tent. Luckily I had a place in Adenau to lay low for a few days. ;)
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Die Strecke ist jetzt offen.
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When it wasn't at the Ring it was parked in the centre of Adenau on the bus stop in front of a house sporting a Finnish flag.
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I hear it's quite fast too.
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Thursday morning in Adenau and the weather took a turn for the worse.
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First tents popping up shortly after noon.
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I assume it must smell like burnt rubber, clutches and brakes.
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A wild Texan appeared some time on Thursday night.
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On Friday it was time for some culture at the R?mervilla in Neuenahr and we were greeted by some Good News!
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Pretty much the theme for the entire weekend. Gray, overcast and rainy.
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My first taste of true Freedom.
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Freedom intensifies.
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Even Johann couldn't resist the call of Freedom.
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After MacGuffins whiskey came the blue.
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And some very sweet schnapps/jenever.
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#60EuroPolo almost at 100.000km
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Lucile blasting some sweet Fleetwood Mac from an 8-track tape.
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Pedobear was watching at Br?nnchen as well.
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Managed to get a shot of loose-unit going in a straight line.
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Some tricked-out maxi-scooter at the Ring entrance.
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Redliner may have been absent, but he was represented in some form. ;)
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Someone decorated MWFs car. :)
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Sun came out on Sunday and Br?nnchen was completely packed.
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After the track closed after the massive incident on Sunday I wanted to go take a look and try to gauge how much longer it would be closed. At that time no one knew what had happened except for "an accident". I'd never been to Adenauer Forst so this seemed a good enough excuse to go up there. At first, it didn't seem like much was going on. The McLaren that caused all this was parked a bit off my right, but didn't take a picture of it.
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I went a bit further and just around the corner were the rescue helicopters on the track. I didn't take any pictures as they were loading up a wounded person into one of the helicopters as he moaned in pain. :/


As I headed closer to F?chsrohre the true scope of the accident became clear. You've probably seen much better pictures by now, but this was my view from the path along the track.
By this time the rescue workers had finished tending to the wounded and the police were walking around taking pictures and statements. A lot of distraught faces around, both on the track and off.
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About 5 minutes after getting on DerStigs rental bike I managed to make the driveshaft explode, so here is a man bringing a replacement bike. Sorry about that. :p
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Even though Terrex has been quite adamant he doesn't like bikes, we've discovered he is in fact bike-urious.
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The replacement bike actually came with still valid Florida plates. :lol:
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And like that the weekend was over, time to drive home, just in time to end up in traffic near Antwerp.
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Thanks MWF. :)
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A few more not posted pics here.
 
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:thumbsup:
 
A week gone by and we're still on page 1? Wow. Well, let's get on with it then...

As always, I was one of the last to make it to Ringmeet, this time really late. I had been on vacation and only returned to Germany on the Ringmeet Thursday, and was still quite jetlagged on the Friday. So the first thing upon arriving in Kreuzberg was to catch some sleep in the hotel before finally joining Ringmeet when the Friday barbecue was already underway.

Friday evening was fun, and the pupquiz Finnish edition was to my surprise a tad easier than what Adu had come up with the previous years. And due to my brillant strategy - joining the team with the most Finns - I actually did win this time! Well, mostly the Finns did, but anyway. :D

On Saturday after breakfast we went to Br?nnchen at around noon, and as last year, the first thing I saw was already a serious contender for best vehicle of the weekend:
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This Carbage Run looks like fun.

We then proceeded to look at the track. Our cars did, too.
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The Saturday had lots of rain, so some people with appropiate cars went onto the track.
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And some people without. loose_unit displaying his normal way of cornering. :D
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Later, we went to the entrance. R3.... which one?
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Also, modified VW T2 DoKa. Awesome. But not allowed on the track because.... no seatbelts.
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And now for something completely different: Our neighbours next to the camping ground. I became hungry quickly... ;)
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Also on the camping ground: Some really old joke.
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The Saturday evening went ahead with dinner at the restaurant next door, then awards. As always. It was fun. No pictures from me.
So, on to Sunday shenanigans.
First, DaBoom managed to put loose_unit's MX-5 into a hole while reversing.
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Quite a deep hole...
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... but thanks to the MX-5's lightness and LSD (it has one, right?), we managed to free it again.
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Pineapple! Pineapple in the middle of the car!
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Then, something came for us... cue first curious looks at the margins under the bridge, then slightly worried looks at those of our cars parked right next to the narrow road... the thing then proceeded to go quite fast past those cars. The driver obviously had done it before. :)
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thomas probably thinking: "How you doing?" :p
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I've got your new profile picture right here... :D
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Then, as the weather was fine (at last, no rain, even sunshine!) on Sunday, we headed to the Ring. Time for another round of nice cars then:
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Nice Slovenian 3er compact. With something obscuring the view.
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Group of Ringmeeters. With something obscuring the view.
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As was already mentioned in the Ringmeet thread proper, the afternoon tourist drive session was cut short by a serious series of accidents due to an oil spill at the fastest part of the track, ending the tourist drives shortly afer 2pm. I did my first (and eventually only) of three planned laps about 45 minutes before that incident. And after seeing on-board videos of people just avoiding to crash (and filming other cars crash while they're at it), I don't think I would have made it through that corner in one piece if I had been there at the wrong time - quite a sobering thought. I'm glad that none of us was on the track at the time.

Here's my lap:

... and a few pictures which this time, I didn't buy:
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However, due to the infamously dreadful quality of on-site announcements at the track entrance, we hung around for a few more hours, because those fuckers just can't bring themselves to tell everyone that the track won't open again that day. We eventually got bored, went for a drive around the country roads, and then headed back to the campsite at around 5:30pm.

After hanging around for a short while, I called it quits and headed home because I had to work on Monday.

Suddenly, halfway home, my eyes spotted a familiar car:
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Hi and bye, Mr. and Mrs. public! (Not bad for shooting blindly at over 100 kph, don't you think? :) )
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Fun and games, on those too rare moments when the weather was nice.

A somewhat valid reason for vertical video.

Too slow to react, so missed most of this lovely display, but better than nothing :lol:
 
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A norwegian was angry


But then he found the light


The grass was rather muddy


And the weather was mostly cloudy


Frank ate a fruit


And Darjan had a crispy bacon sandwich


I was rather lazy with my picture taking, so that's about it. Possibly some usable shots on the film as well, but it's going be a while until I'll bother developing it.


Bonus shot of ZE IMPERATOR on a ring
 
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I think the weather was also a major factor in the number of shots people took. I didn't even bother unwrapping the Canon for the entire trip.

I'll get the photos off the potato at some point and post them. Been pretty shattered since I got back and getting my sleep pattern back to normal is taking a while - having to get up at 6.45 yet not feeling ready to go to bed at 10.30 as I normally would.
 
You should've seen the pirouettes he started with!
 
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