Especially for all American soldiers and members of this ///M3 forum

[///M Power-Belgium]

How can i best begin to tell you about our little adventure trip.....
24 july 2012 , during my annual vacation my GF and i decited to make a ride
with my ///M3 to Liege-Tilf-Esneux-Durbuy-Longueville-Hotton-La Roche en
Ardenne-Bastogne(the real Belgium Ardennes) on the small roads,
trough the woods, to test my new Michelin super sports tires ,in countless
turns,this tires.....wow,have a phenomenal grip,but are slightly harder than
the PS2 ,because the sidewall is tighter,but they make a little more road noise than the PS2,the Michelins PSS in combination with my oem exhaust mod. is fantastic !
Now.........fore all the soldiers on this ///M3 forum,and i know, they are there..........
After a few hours of fun & drive we looked forward to a schaded parking in the
forest(it was 30° celsius) and we parked the ///M3,we got out,and the first thing we saw was a monument(Tohogne) of the second world war 1940-45
and i immediately knew : here i must take a picture with the link..........
My ///M3-soldiers-and this forum,i have hesitated to post this pictures......
It felt... the last day's as a duty...towards these brave American heroes who
faught and died......to liberate us .(See Google-12 april 1944 Tohogne Bomber crash B-24 J Liberator ) =>http://www.bel-memorial.org/cities/l...ct_civiles.htm
I think otherwise we spoke German here now(the goddam Nazi's)
Luckely all this is long ago...............
And than we got in my ///M3(the ultimate driving machine)
Made in Germany ?!?! what the F....CK
And one of the best cars in the world !!!

[NoM3ForMe]

Very nice pics.

[Cyclone Chris]

Thank you.

[Transfer]

Cheers and thanks for posting

[Templar]

I've been there as well and it's beautiful. On my trip I also went to Ypres to check out some WWI memorials. Pretty humbling. Thanks for sharing!

[Ghetto2315]

Hard to understand the broken language in the post (good effort though), but the pictures told the story well. Thanks for the pics

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Templar

I've been there as well and it's beautiful. On my trip I also went to Ypres to check out some WWI memorials. Pretty humbling. Thanks for sharing!

Ypres, Ieper you mean sir ? WWI
It was hell on earth !!!

[Templar]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Ypres, Ieper you mean sir ? WWI
It was hell on earth !!!

Yep, sorry I tend to spell the English spelling of it

[javistor]

Thank you for the kind words, as a USAF retiree I appreciate your thoughts!

[positiveions]

Here is to the man that fought in WWII; which includes my grandfather. And to the rest of the men and women that fought for freedom. Pour Notre Liberte

[OC3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

How can i best begin to tell you about our little adventure trip.....
24 july 2012 , during my annual vacation my wife and i decited to make a ride
with my ///M3 to Liege-Tilf-Esneux-Durbuy-Longueville-Hotton-La Roche and
Ardenne-Bastogne(the real Belgium Ardennes) on the small roads,
trough the woods, to test my new Michelin super sports tires ,in countless
turns,this tires.....wow,have a phenomenal grip,but are slightly harder than
the PS2 ,because the sidewall is tighter,but they make a little more road noise than the PS2,the Michelins PSS in combination with my oem exhaust mod. is fantastic !
Now.........fore all the soldiers on this ///M3 forum,and i know, they are there..........
After a few hours of fun & drive we looked forward to a schaded parking in the
forest(it was 30° celsius) and we parked the ///M3,we got out,and the first thing we saw was a monument(Longueville) of the second world war 1940-45
and i immediately knew : here i must take a picture with the link..........
My ///M3-soldiers-and this forum,i have hesitated to post this pictures......
It felt... the last day's as a duty...towards these brave American heroes who
faught and died......to liberate us .
I think otherwise we spoke German here now(the goddam Nazi's)
Luckely all this is long ago...............
And than we got in my ///M3(the ultimate driving machine)
Made in Germany ?!?! what the F....CK
And one of the best cars in the world !!!

Yes, ironic, isn't it? Anyhow, if I may make this unsolicited observation: there's a reason why many of these consumer products are made so well by Germany and Japan, and seemingly better than American made products in most instances.

Clearly, Germany and Japan have substantial engineering prowess, so I don't want to take anything away from them. But at the same time, there's no reason why United States cannot make better cars than them. But, yet, we have crap being produced in Detroit, while GT3RS, M3, LFA and GT-R come out of Germany and Japan. Why?

When Germany and Japan lost WWII and Eisenhower and McArthur became the governors of those countries, the Allies re-wrote the constitutions of those 2 countries so that they could not engage any more in war machine building.

So, with so much engineering and scientific talent in those countries, what were they to do? All their talent went into consumer products industries - cars (Porsche, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc), motorcycles (BMW, Yamaha, Suzuki, etc), cameras (Leica, Nikon, etc), tv's/electronics (Siemens, Sony), etc.

Meanwhile, to the victors of WWII went the German rocket scientists (US and Soviet Union) and Cold War started. In these 2 countries, consumer products took a backseat and all focus and engineering/scientific talent went to aerospace, defense and computer/telecommunications industries. Yes, in United States, A students from various universities' engineering programs went to work at Northrop, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, Boeing, Hughes, Rocketdyne, Bell Labs, etc, and the C students went to work in Detroit; whereas, in Germany and Japan, all their top students went to work at Porsche, BMW, Leica, Toyota, Honda, Nikon, etc.

And, that was ok because the Allies realized that Germany and Japan being proficient at something (as long as it wasn't making war machineries), and those activities spinning their economic wheels, are a good thing. Because if you just simply punish them and, at the same time, oppressed their economic system with too-heavy of a burden (payments for war reparations, etc), which happened to Germany after they lost WWI, then it sets the stage for that country falling into a gloom and a radical leader rising, which in turn lead to WWII.

So, as a result of all this, we have German engineers developing phenomenal dampers for high-end auto and racing applications; whereas, we have American engineers developing space vehicles that can withstand unbelievable amount of vibrations and heat upon re-entry into atmosphere.

[Demkay]

^^^ Lol. Excellent post.

And nice write up OP.
.

[Wasteland]

so all American car engineers are C students? nice.

[OC3]

Originally Posted by Wasteland

so all American car engineers are C students? nice.

Obviously not every single one of them. But, suffice it to say, most of the best and brightest in America go to work at the defense/aerospace & computer/telecom industries. That's where the $'s at.

Anyhow, then, there's the labor unions that add to the cost of building cars that makes Detroit uncompetitive...

[mshab356]

I lives in Antwerpen for three months last spring. Amazing country! Ardennes-Bastogne was beautiful! Sounded like a great trip

[///M Power-Belgium]

After a 20 min. drive i'm already in the Ardennes.
But actually i live in Limburg;our roads are loaded with police speed radars & camera's !(incredible)!!!
Therefore if i want to step on the ///M3 accelerator, i want to go to the Ardennes, with its
beautiful forests and countless turns....without police speed radars.

[kosmo69]

awesome!

[///M Power-Belgium]

I see your location......Munchen ???.....Germany ???
So the Deutsche autobahn....with no speed limit ,
you can also step on the accelerator......

[boothguy]

The plaque says it most eloquently:

"For our liberty, on April 12th, 1944, a crew of eleven airmen of the US Air Force died in this place". And just below that in French, "In memory of the civilian victims of Longueville murdered by the Nazis on September 7, 1944".

As the son of a veteran who fought in this very battle and over some of the same ground in 1944/5, but came home to live his life and start a family, thanks for remembering and honoring these and all American veterans. All gave some. Some gave all.