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While I was recently over in Europe/Asia a week ago, I finally got my hands onto Berks TA in person. We took the car over to the F1 circuit called Istanbul Park in the east side of the city of Istanbul Turkey. This is a very large and fast track.
For unknown reasons to me (I do not speak the language) They made us last minute put the T-tops onto the car so it messed with the video camera focus. Most of the footage is useless unfortunately due to the camera fixating on the windshield and reflected. We tried to adjhust it for the seond run after this and it looked like a snow storm.
Here is a bit of footage of the car just after the warmup lap where Berk (albeit a very skilled driver- is still young and agressive) over heated the tires right off the bat and was spinning them on every shift with the car quite sideways on every up-shift and down-shift. I calmed him down right here and had a quick lecture between helmets best ai could and coached him to try and leave the car in a taller gear and pedal it. Hard to tell in this video but the car is mainly in 3rd and 4th gears but it is still breaking loose in 3rd and you see me trying to get him to roll into it a little smoother. Just after he ws getting the feel te ar started to overheat due to a restrictive thermostat, very high humidity, and about 95* weather. Here is a quick taste of the car but really this video is disappointing and does not do the car justice. We had the car well ovr 150mph at times but here it does not breach more then about 130 for the initial first run trails making sue it was all setup well and mechanically safe for those speeds.
Hopefully in the near future he and his friend Serdar will get it back to that track and get some great footage of it in action. Other then the oveheating issues, the car performed great. He needs much fatter tires though...lol
I am safe back in the states no after my 3 week visit to half way around the world. People need to also realize the cost and difficulty it was for them to build this American car over there with extremely high cost in taxes an shipping. It is quite the site in Istanbul.
SlickTrackGod - an enjoyable read (didn't watch the video), thanks for posting.
Thank you. I use to hang out with mnay of the group in SC3G and a few of them got to know Berk while he was here finishing his Masters at UCLA. If you do not know the story Ill give a breif rundown how he and I met.
8+ years ago we started talking on here, emails, and then phone calls. He put this big block into the car and had serious weight issues as you could imagine. I latched onto him mentoring him in chassis dynamics not ever thinking we would actually ever meet in person...FF 6 years later he arrives here in So Calif to finished college so we meet and I stick him on my NASCAR team at Irwindale so he can put what I have been teaching him to use. His parents fly out a handful of times and we all become good friends.
Berk's Visa runs out and with our wonderful govt they kick a highly educated person out for a year while he works for the US based company that hired him in Minnesota. (kind of a sponsor thing- after a year he can come back). So while he is working remotely from Istanbul he and his father contact me Via a conference call and they want me to come stay with them for the experience of a life...and let me tell you words can not describe all I learned and experienced during my 3 week visit.
Long and short of it, this was a wonderful way to kind of symbolically put my hands on the car that started this friendship that will continue for life- I've made wonderful friends (they call me family so I will call them family as well- their culture is unbelievably generous.
Lastly, since was over there already half way around the world, I surprised Berk with a trip to Nurburgring Germany for 3 days and then down to Rome Italy for another 3 before heading back to Istanbul Turkey for the last 1.5 week when when finally got his car to the F1 track there..yes Nurburgring. It was on mine and probably any true driving fans bucket list in life. What a dream come true. We were hoping to get the TA there to say I ran a 3rd gen there as well, but when I first arrived in Turkey I stayed with Berks parents for 4 days while Berk had unexpected job requirements up in Germany. I flew up to meet him in Cologne and we rented cars and drove the autobaun down to Nurburinging. I was a little disappointed because the M2 I requested to rent from SIXT at the airport for 3 days came back with a broken wheel on a flatbed- So I had to settle with a 4series luxury box with a 4cyl turbo and winter tires (a BMW 420I). Berk had his Jaguar F-type as promised.
We get to Nurburgring Friday afternoon for a 2 hour open session and it is raining(as it does quite often there- Why if is called the Green Hell.) I ran the BMW rental 2 laps in extremely wet making sure I know the track for tomorrow. I studied for 4 months.
Saturday morning still raining- very heavy at times- so we change our race car rentals to FWD swifts since we can not lay down big power with RWD cars in that weather- would have been a waste of money. But hey, I still want to drive the track so lets make the best of it. (I already took 2 slower runs in pouring rain Friday night in the airport rental) The track is extremely slick in the rain, but what an experience. Ill post a video of my first run in the little swift - LOL- Keep in mind I grew up racing 4 speed manuals so this 5 and 6 speed manual stuff I miss 3rd gear a few times (I drive exotics with paddles more so now. damn 5th gear (laughing) I never get passed though in all 12+ miles.
Video footage is poor quality due to the rain on the windshield. Then after filming a few other people in the passenger seat my camera ran out . This was my first run that day. (2nd video I will post is far better to watch)
Then Sunday morning I wake up and we have 3 hours of dry forecast- So I jam over there with the BMW airport rental and lay down a very respectable run in somewhat dry. An M3 start 5 seconds behind me on race tires and finished 5 sec in front of me. He is 444hp race tires, I am 181 HP and crappy winter passenger tires that squirm. I held him off 3 times then he finally got by me on the tight slow hairpin after the long high speed uphill section just before the famous Carousel. Here is that footage. Glad I at least had one somewhat dry lap. I will return.
I also rode a Harley from the Asian Continent t the European Continent. My friend lent me his 2014 Dyna Glide with ape bars. I kind of feel like peter Fonda...lmao. They ride in the emergency lane with bikes over there because rush hour trafic gets crazy. The Turks will make 6 lanes out of 4.
Here is some still shots of that video above with the M3 race car, I am in the black 420!, and then the white skyline on race tires we just passed. This is at the famous Brunnchen spectator lookout point shot from a professional photographer. Note how skinny my tires are compared to theirs. look up 'winter tires", they suck.
Here is Berk driving the TA in Istanbul city freeways at night. (getting back to 3rd gen related) His brother Mert is in the passenger seat. This was a few months before my visit.
And if you are Monty Python fans, Here is Nurburg Castle in the middle of Nurburgring Nordschleife race track. You will have to run up your speakers. We were clowning around and I tried my best to yell.
07-22-2017, 12:23 AM
