About
Nürburgring
is a 150,000-capacity motorsports complex around the village of Nürburg,
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located about 70 km (43 mi) south of
Cologne, and 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Frankfurt. It features a Grand Prix
race track built in 1984, and a much longer old "North loop" track
which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg
in the Eifel mountains. The north loop is 20.8 km (12.9 mi) long and has more
than 300 metres (1,000 feet) of elevation change from its lowest to highest
points. Jackie Stewart nicknamed the old track "The Green Hell," and
it is widely considered to be the most demanding and difficult purpose-built
racing circuit in the world. (Wikipedia)
http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/home.html
Facts
Official start of
construction:
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27 September 1925
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Official opening:
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18 /19 June 1927
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Costs:
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about 15 million Reichsmark, Employment of
up to
3,000 workers for two years
|
Length:
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20.832 km
|
Turns:
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73 (33 left, 40 right)
|
Gradients:
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max. 17 percent
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Slopes:
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max. 11 percent
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Highest point:
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Hohe Acht, 616.80 above sea level
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Lowest point:
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Breidscheid, 320 m above sea level
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Total difference in
altitude:
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approx. 300 m
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First event:
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18 June 1927 –
Eifelrace for motorcycles
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Original track
length:
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22.8 km Nordschleife + 7.7 km Südschleife = 28 km,
(89 left turns - 84 right turns)
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Length Endurance
Championship:
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24.433 km (Sprintstrecke, with Mercedes-Arena,
Motorrad-Schikane and Nordschleife)
|
Track
 |
| Photo 1 Plan of the track (http://germanlife.com/) |
The most notable part of
the track - “Nordschleife”
Whenever
big car manufacturers present their new GT, GTO, GTI, OPC and so on versions,
they test it on the North Loop. To name some of them, Pagani (Zonda F 7:24.44),
Ferrari (Enzo 7:25.7), Nissan (GTR 7:24.22), Lamborghini (Murcielago LP 640 7:40),
Porsche (911 GT3 RS 7:33), McLaren and Mercedes (Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
7:40). The fastest production car is Radical SR8 LM with time 6:48. Radical
Sportscar is a Biritish manufacturer from Peterborough.
Current
record is held by Stefan Bellof in Porsche 956 with time : 6:25.91. This is a
special version of Porsche. It’s not approved to drive it outside tracks. The
956 is made of an aluminium and it weighs around 800 kg. The Porsche engine has six
cylinders arranged horizontally and is called a boxer engine. This particular
car had around 635 hp and 5 gear manual gearbox.
Public access
You can
take your own car and race on the track. There are several restrictions of
course, for example, you can’t drive convertible cars. You need a helmet and
it’s highly desirable to have a helmet and a proper fire proximity suit. The Track
is open on fixed dates only and a ticket costs around 115 €. All tickets have a limited lap count.
If you
don’t have fast enough car to race on the track there is an option for you as
well. Car rentals, I’ve seen around 5 different car rental companies near the
track. Of course the most comfortable way to rent a car is to take one of them
directly from the Nürburgring. Prices vary based on the car you want. From 99€
you can get Suzuki Swift Sport and for around 439 € Porsche 997 Carrera S.
There are certain limitations, you need a valid driving license and you must be
at least 21 years old to drive Suzuki and 30 to drive Porsche.
If you have
BMW you can always try BMW Ring school.
Car
rentals:
http://www.rent4ring.de/en/ (with BMW RS-M3 starting from 649 €)
Accidents
The track
is quite safe, but each year there are many accidents and several deaths. To
prevent potential income loss, track management decided not to publish any official
figures.
Fail
compilations:
Short summary
If you’re petrolhead
like me, trust me it’s worth the money. Why should you listen to me? Because I’ve already test-driven
some of those supercars on the track. Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo
LP570-4 Superleggera, BMW M3 and Subaru Impreza WRX STI to name some of them.
I’m passionate about driving with high-speeds on a real track. If you want to
experience the thrill, hold on tight as you speed around the track. It’s the
best way to put yourself behind the wheel and try it. It’s like administering
yourself a big dose of pure adrenaline.
Drive
safely and unleash your speed on the track J
Photo 3 Remember, they have fast cars as well :) (Copyright to Me)
First question which comes to my mind... is it possible to race on motorbike on the track?
ReplyDeleteI have never heard about this track. I was in Cologne in the end of September for few days. Doh! If I had known this before...
I suppose that this kind of tracks are very important. Let's build some of this, make a cheap price and there will be much less crazy guys on the streets.
Yes, It's possible to race on motorbike. I think it's a bit cheaper.
DeleteWe have 3 tracks in Poland. Kielce and Poznań (this one is far better) are still active. Track in Lublin will be shutting down very soon.
I've heard about plans to build certified F1 track in Gdańsk/Gdynia.
I have heard about this track but I was sure that a pleasure is much more expensive. I hope that I will have a possibility to try it someday. One additional question: you say that we could rent a car but can we also buy some lessons with race instructors?
ReplyDeleteCollection of cars which you were testing on tracks is pretty impressive… to be honest I am a little jealous;)
Yes, you can some lessons. I can recommend really good school, not only for this particular track called AMG-Academy (http://www.amgacademy.pl/) . It's expensive, I admit but worth. Especially AMG Winter Sporting. You can buy special movie from your drives. I've one from Ferrari 458 Italia :)
DeleteThank you for that information! I will check it.
DeleteHmmm you have one movie... so maybe you can upload it for us?
Too big, too private :) I had some serious moments on the track :D
DeleteI hope that we won’t have more moto-maniacs this term, because I won’t be able to comment all those articles and pass this subject. But seriously speaking I didn’t know that you’re able to rent those most expensive cars for a testdrive. What happens if you damage car in some way? Do you sign any extra legal obligations? What if you crash into other person – do you get a ticket? Sorry for such a short comment, but it’s definitely not my cup of tea and I would like to learn more from your personal experience.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can. It's very expensive, but possible. For 10 minutes of driving Ferrari 458 it's around 100 €. For 2 hours on the race track it's around 1k €. Of course you have insurance, but it won't cover everything. For example one wheel in Ferrari costs around 10k €. So get good insurance or any serious incident can be very painful for your wallet.
ReplyDeleteAbout tickets, you won't get any in Italy(They are driving like...) :) Especially in Maranello. Of course don't try to test patience of local Police.
Short movie (try to avoid these mistakes) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDUqQIPgfTk
Oh, I didn't catch it was a reply to my comment! Thank you very much for this respond and I hope you didn't push Police's patience too much :)
DeleteI have heard many good words about this track. I like to watch Top Gear and a lot of tests were there. In my opinion Nürburgring became as determinant for the best and the fastest cars in the world. I agree to my colleagues that it’s expensive but a huge part of cool things bring a lot of costs. From myself I could add some interesting fact about max speed reached at this track (I can’t find this in presentation). The winner in this case is Koenigsegg Agera R. Record was set in 2012 on Gran Turismo Nürburgring event. For more details please see this article. You can also watch the movie from this event – Koenigsegg was like a bullet
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gtspirit.com/2012/04/06/koenigsegg-agera-r-hits-402kmh-on-gran-turismo-nurburgring/
Agera R is simply amazing. I've in memory one of the Top Gear episodes with Koenigsegg :)
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyau3VUVVtI
But still, Koenigsegg got a lesson nad fairly improved next generations of their cars.
Thank you for link.
Interesting place, but I'm not interested a fast cars. Three months later, I saw one offer to drive a car like Ferrari or Porsche, but cost of this pleasure is ~450PLN for four laps in the track. I don't remember where but in google everyone will find something about this. For me it is too expensive, I would pay to jump with a parachute for example.
ReplyDeleteGot to love it !! :)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all it is awsome that anybody can go there and the cost is not so big. The track is realy big and complex, that way you can realy try out yourself.
Funny thing that James May said once: if someone is manufacturing a car and he want to destroy it he should test on this track :) The sense of this is that when car producers are testing their cars on the track they are forgeting why they've created new model because they are focused on lap times !
This is whole secret of the this track, everyone wants to be the best :)
Captain Slow wisdom :)
DeleteIt's a legendary track for sure. When a future production car (all camo'ed and stuff) beats the fastest time in it's class, you know when it happens if you're even remotely interested in motorsports. I hope to test it out some day in one of those supercars.
ReplyDeleteWell...racing isn't a cheap hobby for sure. It's impressive that you've driven so many fast cars on a track!
ReplyDeleteI just started driving a year ago and I'm still getting used to it, as I recently changed from an automatic 4x4 suv to manual Alfa Romeo on low-profile tires. God, I hate that now every curb is a challenge. I always considered cars as just an another way to get from point A to point B, so I never really felt the need to show off or drive really fast. But the more I drive the more I like the sound of my engine and the sole act of driving is starting to feel good so maybe I'll get more into it over time, when I feel more confident on the road. For now, I'd rather seek adrenaline on the sea ;)
Have you ever tried this one (http://www.alfaromeo.pl/pl/#/models/giulietta/outfits-and-pack/quadrifoglio-verde)? It's simply amazing. Even better is 4c (https://4c.alfaromeo.com/). If you have enough money and love alfas buy 4c :)
DeleteI drive rather safely (but dynamically;)!) and do not have a big urge to try out driving with extremely high speeds, but if you are interested in fast cars and races, this seems to be a great possibility to try it out!
ReplyDeleteThis is almost cmpletly outside my interests and yet I heard of this track! I think it is one of the most famous tracks in the world. I admit that I would be willing to try this kind of driving but I choose something connected with flying over this everyday!
ReplyDeleteGive me that lovely C63 AMG and let me to the Nurburgring and I can stay there until the engine will blow or I will crash the car on that famous jumpy turn :-)))) Anyway I am jealous right now :-) Like you said, that track is a legend already ! it's the most difficult track ever and as you actually suggest going in there, I would have to say no, because this track is not for fun, it's a track for pros, at least when you decide to go to nurburgring you have to spend some time on some "fun-factored" track and learn how to actually drive a car on the track. If not, I can only imagine what could've happened if someone not trained would enter the track and i'd like to remind that there are always other cars on the track and the person who never drove a car on the track would probably cause an crash...
ReplyDeleteDriving 1199 Panigale Superleggera on Nürburgring could be marvelous! Obviously worth all the money in the world, isolating from everyday problems, forgetting about reality outside that racing circuit, two wheels and sound of the engine only... Lack of speed limitations, pure skills, high RPM, 195 HP could make my day!
ReplyDeleteI've seen some of those car accidents on the racing circuit and few of them are totally serious! I wouldn't like to be in that people's skin seeing my car crashed into pieces. Hope they had proper insurance!
Lovely and demanding track, but I know it only from races in Gran Turismo, so that's not a real experience. Maybe someday I will try it on my own.
ReplyDeleteNoteworthy that, the short version of this Nurburgring is also F1 Grand Prix Germany track in last years alternately with Hockenheimring.