Ultimate Street Bays European MEGA Tour 2009

[alex4057]

Thursday the 13th

We had a messy night at Jan on wednesday so eventually we all stumbled about got organised and headed out to Slackers Garage (there local Club HQ) where we met up with some more slackers to load up the van's and head for the Track to get set up.

there was some cool projects inside too.

oh and a small sound system they would be taking too,

They seem to love a big Stinger over there too,

There are two of the most original fire busses i have ever seen amongst the club too, one with ladders, one with hoses,

apart from Jan's bus it was an early bay bonanza

Frank being German and needing to get there first so he can lay his towel out made a dash for it, but i gave chase

Setting up camp was the order of the day, Kim and Chris then went back to Oslo with Jan and the Slackers, I stayed at Gardermoen Raceway as i wanted to be out in the woods rather than camping under street lights for another night.

Mags was kind enough to take Lee and I to meet Øystein "Austin" Asphjell and to see his amasing collection of cars,

His Heb inspired Coupe Project is probably my fav, the metal work is OUTSTANDING

 

[alex4057]

Friday the 14th

The Show Starts HERE :mrgreen:

The rest of Slackers Garage Turned up and the pits/camp was sorted, Sofa's, Coffee table, Carpet, Lighting, Sound System, Projector and screen, IT ROCKED!!!!

Oh and did i mention the track is next to the airport

Friday was great as we watched an empty show fill up,

 

[alex4057]

Now the show was so exciting that i kind of failed to take any more pics really,

Saturday 15th

After getting through tech inspection the previous day, we got lined up after the drivers briefing and managed to get one pass done before we got greeted with a downpour which lasted most of Saturday afternoon and evening. I ran a 17.4 which i was reasonably happy with, Sorry Chris will have to update you on his times as i'm not sure what he ran when!

I'd heard a lot about this SCC spirit but it wasn't till saturday that i truly understood it. As people got a bit disheartened by the weather, some of the slackers started to plot, By Early evening 2 DJ's had turned up with a car full of gear and had started setting up :mrgreen:

in the green mac is a chap called Richard who had riven out there with his wife an 2 kids in a barndoor all the way from the uk :mrgreen:

Our pits soon turned into the local RAVE, it was the most sureal evening of my life.

IDA from the fireflies (Yep that is her name, How cool is that) took lots of awesome pictures at the Slackers rave they can be found: http://bilder.firefliesvwclub.com/#3.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The following three Photo's are copyright of SCC an Arlid Dyrkorn

 

[alex4057]

Sunday 16th

We awoke to Sun and the track crew had been out prepping the track since 4am,

Gardermoen Raceway truly is a special place :mrgreen:

I ran a new PB run of 16.7 @ 128 kmt

Below is the link to the YOUTUBE clip of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dku4WlAevtc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ernst Our New USB member qualified with his 2332cc powered van, It was his first time on a track and managed a 16.3 PB if my memory serves me right.

Jan and his brother racing jan's daily drivers :mrgreen:

That crazy ambulance is powered by WBX engine and ran a 12.8

Slackers Garage won the best club award and well deserved it was too :mrgreen:

The show fly past so fast and suddenly it was time to pack up and go, in fact by the time i realised this almost everything was packed down around me. Only my pile of stuff was left.

I must be the only person using race weight Erco's on the road and BRM's on the track, but it's the only way things work out with tyre sizes and wheel offsets.

Lee was over the moon as Espen asked him to drive his Fire Truck back to HQ as he couldn't drive both his vans

I deffo's think thanks to this trip in my van and Espen letting him drive such an original van we have managed to turn Mr Manx to the way of the Early Bay.

Sunday Night saw Lots of iiirkesklem (Manly Hugs) as we dropped the sofa's off at HQ and went our seperate ways,

We ended up at Jan's getting pizza and all looking like we needed our beds.

 

[alex4057]

Monday 17th

We had Breakfast at Jan's and then took a stroll around Oslo,

finding a few interesting things along the way,

We were enjoying ourselves so much we almost missed the ferry, Luckily Jan's neighbour escorted us to the port on his motorbike with two bays schreeching sideways round corners and roundabouts trying to keep up :lol:

Jan, Slackers, and the SCC crew had been so amasingly welcoming, we felt like kings. They really looked after us and made it such a special trip that i will never forget. I forgot to say that first night we were at Jan's house he went and slept at a neighbours house leaving 6 strange english people in his home alone, not many brits would have done something like that. I feel indebted to all of them and am seriously looking forward to when they come over some time in 2010 so i can do my best to look after them as well as they looked after us.

Monday evening we sat on deck watching our boat pull out of Oslo, Feeling sad to be leaving mates behind but excited about the journey and getting home.

 

[alex4057]

Tuesday 18th

We awoke as the boat arrived in Coppenhagen, The plan for the day was to DRIVE and that was about it, the further we got the better!

The bridge was much tougher on the way back in fact the whole journey was as the wind was very strong!

Somewhere into southern Denmark, maybe Germany Chris came over the CB and got me to pull over, I had a puncture in my rear right, so off came the Erco's and back on with the BRM's, Problem Solved. This did mean we hit rush hour traffic in Hamburg, but this was pretty much the only traffic we had suffered on the entire trip.

We Plowed on and got the miles tumbling down, we left Coppenhagen at 10am and by 10pm we had covered well over 500 miles and were 20km from a place called Deventer in Holland. We needed to stop for a rest and provisions and at this point decided to head our seperate ways, we only had 280 miles to go to get to Dunkerque. Chris and Kim headed for Arnhem so they could enjoy some more time and see something else, where as Lee and I Pushed on as i have to go to work this friday and wanted to get home and recover before i do.


Wednesday the 19th

By 2am the mist came down and i could now only see one or two white lines ahead, i was getting worried about something plowing into the van from behind so pulled into the next services and slept for a few hours. The bugageddon that might from driving was crazy, i have never seen so much splatter on the front of a vehicle before.

We were only about 80 miles from Dunkerque now, so when we woke up we got on with it and managed to get there by 9:30am, we weren't booked on till the 23:58 ferry but they just slipped us onto the 10am crossing which was ACE, Once again we were being looked after from above.

After dropping Lee at East Croydon Station and emptying the van I sat down at home about 1:45pm.

This was the most EPIC Adventure, for anyone thinking they can't drive round europe in an old van, TRUST ME, you can, it's much easier than going anywhere in the UK thats for sure. Also I can highly recommend SCC if your into your Drag Racing, it's an AWESOME event.

There are so many people to thank so i wont name any of them, they all know who they are, This really was a great trip and i can't thank the people i traveled with and met enough for making it such an awesome adventure.

This is just a small selection of the pics the entire content is on my facebook: Alex 'Jesus' Leiserach

 

[Slammed]

Looks awesome Alex! Hopefully one day I'll make it to SCC in the '54. 8)

 

[holmsen]

What a cool trip report,with lot of great pics,glad yall made it back home safe.
I'll lol if Lee arrive in a bay next year
BTW,Slackers Social Club :lol: desided last night that we will come to the Big bang, 8-10 bays are comming,so you keep a little spot avaliable for for us with the rest of the USB's
Thanks for all the kind words m8,Espen x and i thinks it was an honor having you all as guests.
Give mr.Hoffa, Lee, Kim and Chris a big iiiirkesklem from us
Jan.

 

[alex4057]

Will Do Jan,

I'll see you all at Big Bang Then

 

[EspenX]

Social club... ppffhhh... Slackers Garage is a proper racing club! ...all though a very social one Great trip report Alex, you guys coming over made our SCC experience extra special.

I couldn't make it to the club meeting yesterday, but I guess I am going to Big Bang! (8-10 buses Holmsen? Wooot?) You can be sure of one thing, by next spring I will have a new engine so I too can get that USB sticker

 

[alex4057]

Only 10 Days to go before the next USB Event

http://www.vwaction.com/vwaction/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gets your bays out and get testing, we look forward to seeing some of you Track Side

 

[Airtime]

Awesome trip report! :shock: 8) We only crossed the Little Belt Bridge, not the Great Belt Bridge like you guys did.

 

[Trikky2]

I enjoyed reading your write up and looking at all the photos of your trip. Thankyou for posting, much appreciated.

 

[surfbus]

Good to read about your trip. That's cruising big time!! 8)

 

[maddog]

T'was an awesome trip, weather was kind to us, the buses behaved very well concidering the mileage covered and the show was the BEST ever. Top racing, beautifully countryside and the kindest, most friendliest people i've ever met at a show!!!

Thanks again to ALL the Slackers Garage, especially Jan and Espen for looking after us all so well!!

I covered 2,600 miles with a bus fitted fully with solid mounts.......ears have only just stopped ringing :lol:

I ran three 16.7's and a 17. Not bad concidering my tyre choice was pants as i had problems with too much wheel spin plus the NOS wasn't working properly (over fuelling). Was hoping for better times but it was still a great time had by all.

On the last day we left Alex to head back to the ferry and we spent a day exploring Arnhem in Holland. Great town and alot bigger than i thought. The WWII stuff was very interesting too and we even had time to take a look around the war graves of all the brave heroes that flew in for operation market garden.

Been a busy week this week trying to catch up on work so i'll update soon with pics too

 

[alex4057]

Really looking forward to seeing your pics Chris

 

[maddog]

Right then, time for some more pics, i wont say too much as i dont want to repeat all that Alex has said..........

Cool dudes ready at Dover.....

On the ferry....woohoo!!!

Our first night away.................

Morning!!! Lee & Alex's first night together goes well :lol:

 

[maddog]

On the road again....our 1st whole day in Europe

Parked up in one of the motorway services for a break and dodging loads of wasps!!

Into Germany and arrive at CSP

Busy working on their race car

 

[maddog]

Off next day and again another pitstop........

Passing over one of many stunning bridges

Again....the weird auto museum.......... :lol:

Parked up at Denmarks coastline

 

[maddog]

We just had to test the water!!

Different angle shot

The moment we needed to do some fettling.......

Had to wait till morning to find a welder but all was cool and it gave us a chance to stretch our legs and explore the Danish town and harbour