Starmaxx 2011 Classic Rallye

At the last weekend of june, my girlfriend and I took a journey towards southern germany, more specifically the city of Tübingen where the starting point for the 2011 Starmaxx rallye was set up. The Starmaxx is an event for car enthusiasts and drivers of current and future classics and is limited to 80 participating vehicles. The course would lead the drivers along 550km of winding roads through the blackwood forest with a number of checkpoints and prearranged tasks along the way.
Unfortunately the weather wasnt exactly brilliant at saturday and we didnt manage to take pictures of everything so this is merely a selection of impressions collected along the way - there really was a lot more to see...
Start was at 7.30 saturday morning (yay), we arrived just in time to register and check out the starting grid. There were two classes (cars older/younger than 24 years), represented by a diverse selection of Porsches, BMWs, Minis, Jags, Opels, Alfas, Mercs, Elises, i think 3 MX-5s and some exotica. Over all a loud and colorful mixture of automotive history:

The start was done with a blind folded driver and required precise timing as well as good communication...

 

We arrived at the first checkpoint and had a good start with a respectable score at the first task:

(That wasnt our attempt :) )

The second checkpoint was hidden behind a farm ...

On of the checkpoints turned out to be a automobile museum that actually had a nice collection with more than a few cherries:

The last checkpoint of the day took us to an airfield - the only task where the speed of the car actually mattered:

Unfortunately this was more of an acceleration test than anything else (there would be room for improvement) - still, a surprising high number of drivers missed the turning point or even the finish.

Thankfully the weather turned out to be great on sunday, the sun greeted the participants at 8 a.m with warmth and blue skies...the first parcours already awaited:

Lunch checkpoint at a beautiful "authentic Schwarzwald" mill:

 Later in the afternoon the route got a bit confusing due to overlapping road diversions...

 

 

Still, everyone arrived at the finish at the "Pitstop-Museum" in Tübingen...

 

 
One day I'm gonna have to have a set of those:

The last race of the day:

After a gourmetesque dinner in Tübingen at the river Neckar, we set sails for our 300km journey home and into the sunset:

At 1.00 a.m. monday night, we arrived after a proper driving weekend and ~1300km on the roads. In the end we scored 27th place out of 80 - not too bad considering that we were listed 50th after saturday but certainly not brilliant, so there's room for improvement should we decide to take part again some time :)

Over all i think the Starmaxx is a nice event for the car enthusiast and passionate driver although the actual driving tests fell a bit short (but then, it's germany after all) - the Schwarzwald scenery and the amount of nice cars, nice people and good food made up for that.

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