At Lotus Eleven on the Gaisberg
06/21/2011
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You don't usually treat yourself .......but once a year you make an exception. It doesn't necessarily have to be the Mille Miglia, or even Goodwood, but the Gaisberg is slowly becoming a "MUST", because this event offers an ingenious alternative. You get to drive and drive properly, even with fast cars, even with racing cars, but there's still plenty of socializing. Where else can you drive five times the 8.6 km up the mountain, plus half an hour on the race track to satisfy your driving pleasure? And present the cars to an enthusiastic audience in the middle of the city, receive a warm welcome everywhere and be treated to sensational culinary delights? Salzburg offers all of this with the Gaisberg Race.
The route up the Gaisberg is around 8.6 km long, is easy to drive and, with only two hairpin bends, does not turn into a material-killing "stop and go" orgy! Mostly in third gear, but also occasionally in fourth, it goes all the way up to the broadcasting tower. It is an absolute delight to storm up to the summit on this challenging, closed-off route without fear of speed traps. The track record of 3:41.54 minutes is still held by Gerhard Mitter from 1968 in the 909 Bergspyder Porsche. We're a long way off that today, but that doesn't detract from the fun.
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The Salzburgring is a very well-developed race track today, which is also forgiving of mistakes. Perhaps the straight is a little too long for various historic vehicles, while the real racing cars in the field naturally feel right at home here. You often have an encounter of the third kind. In a Lotus traveling at just under 200 km/h, a 917/10 from 1969 appears briefly in the mirror, and then it passes you and quickly disappears from your field of vision. I don't think any straight is too long at over 300 km/h. I actually felt like I was speeding along, but unlike this Can-Am car, I was standing still. It's absolutely impressive what a good 10 years of racing technology, a lot of displacement and power can do. But the balance of power between the Lotus and the pre-war supercharged racing car was exactly the same.
Driving in the colorful mixed field was great fun and let you study and feel the driving dynamics of different cars. How much earlier than my Lotus does a Ferrari 275 GTB have to brake, or how vehemently the 917/10 accelerates.
On behalf of Zwischengas and all participants, I would like to thank Dr. Gert Pierer, Thomas Matzelberger and Hermann Schwartz, who were responsible for the event, and we are already looking forward to the Gaisberg 2012.
