Larry Cable

Its that time of year again, to contemplate another pilgrimage to the Nordschliefe.

This year, May 1st-4th is a 4 day extravaganza of tourist lapping: http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/angebo...-nordschleife/

followed by the Spring Scuderia Hanseat 5th-7th:http://www.scuderia-hanseat.de/en/home.html

Gentlemen, start your engines!

aero997c2s

Theo, the owner of rent a race car took me out in one of his E92 M3 for my first taste of the Nordschleife back in November and what an experience it was!!! That man knows the track like the back of his hand as he made evident while he was holding conversation with someone in the back seat, and sliding through corners. Those of you looking for rentals, I highly recommend rent a race car. Theo and his wife were extremely friendly and accommodating!! Sounds like a great trip!

Larry Cable

Yep I know Theo and Heide ... they are good folks.

woshimihei

last year was fun. I'll start planning this year's European trip.

CRex

Do pls share info on rentals and dates... Organizing a group of 7-10 and thinking of options around Jul 7... Thx!

Larry Cable

OK here are some useful links:

general info websites:

BridgeToGantry provides a lot of useful info:
http://bridgetogantry.com/

As does Ben Lovejoy's site:
http://nurburgring.org.uk/

The offical site is less useful for potential drivers etc, but worth a look if for nothing else the opening times:
http://www.nuerburgring.de/en

Track Access

There are a number of ways to get track access:

• - tourist laps
• - private track days
• - training courses

Opening Times for Tourist laps can be found here: http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/angebo...dschleife.html

Tourist lapping days are the most frequent, but are not for the faint hearted! The range of cars, bikes, speed and level of skill (or total lack thereof) can be daunting and dangerous!

A number of groups organize private track days at the Ring including:

http://www.destination-nurburgring.com/

http://circuit-days.co.uk/

http://www.rmatrackdays.com/

Manthey Racing/Motors usually has one customer day a year that you can attend: http://www.manthey-motors.de/ this usually occurs in August sometime, contact Manthey for details

RSRNurburg also run trackdays here and at Spa also: http://rsrnurburg.com/drive-the-track/trackdays

Lastly, there are a number of training courses including:

The Scuderia Hanseat:
http://www.scuderia-hanseat.de/en/home.html

Porsche Sport Driving School:
http://www.porsche.com/international...erview/tracks/

BMW M Fahrer Training:
http://www.bmw-drivingexperience.com...dschleife.html

There used to also be a BMW Club school but that has not had dates for a couple of years now: http://www.fahrerlehrgang.info/

Cars to Drive

In the good old days you could pop into Hertz, Avis, Sixt et al etc rent a car (even 911's) and thrash them around the track (ask me how I know)... sadly
the rental companies got wise to this, and it is now effectively banned especially for performance rentals.

If you are lucky enough to be doing European Delivery with a car, your insurance will cover the tourist days and you can pop out in your new ride to your hearts content ... Ive done this twice and will do it again next year if I do
ED on a Macan Turbo...

So ...

What are your choices? Well a number of local companies have sprung up to service this market, I personally have used (and would recommend) two of them:

Theo and Heide's company: http://www.rentracecar.de/

And Ron Simon's: http://www.rentracecar.de/

There are others, including: http://rent4ring.de/en/

Where to Stay?

There are an amazing number of places to stay, the classic is of course Sabine's family hotel: http://www.am-tiergarten.de/

You can actually see me sitting outside on a bench having a cold one after a good day on the track on their main page...

of course the Pistenklause restaurant is where everyone goes in the evening to exchange tales of great courage etc...

Hotel Zur Burg is another local favorite: http://www.nuerburgring-hotel.de/

The Dorint by the F1 track is a little more up market: http://hotel-eifel-nuerburgring.dorint.com/en/

If you want to stay in Adenau itself the Blau Ecke is the place to be: http://www.blaueecke.de/en/

I personally would not give my business to either of the Lindner properties, as those are the assh*les that have put the whole area in jeopardy!

La Laterna is also worth a mention: http://lalanterna.de/

Learning the track

OK, now listen up, the Ring is long, and technical, and because its an 'old' track there is precious little runoff (I can only think of about 5 spots on the whole track ) so mistakes can be expensive and fatal. This is particularly true of tourist fahren days when the traffic can be heavy, and the mix of cars, bikes, speed and skill (or the total absence of it) can and has been fatal...

Anyone who has been there for a weekend, can relate tales of the track being closed multiple times, cars and bikes being hauled away, not too mention the injured and the dead.

If you are in any doubt go onto youtube and search for Nordschleife crashes and watch the endless videos of people crashing...

This is not just for fun, its actually very educational!

Which is a nice segue into the question of how to approach the Ring... (with respect)

What I DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL ... is doing no preparation and turning up on the day cojones swinging like wrecking ***** (pun intended) an heading out for a few laps ... after all how hard can it be?

Ideally I would recommend attending either a training course or a trackday (with a coach) to learn it, or find someone who has been many times before.

Regardless, BEFORE YOU GO I recommend the following:

1) study the numerous descriptions available of the line including the Sport Auto M3 line.

2) go onto youtube and find some full lap videos of the track, watch them and memorize the line & corners, this will help visualize the track

3) video games, I personally dont recommend them, they may teach you the line but I think that their 'virtual' laws of physics train you in some bad habits

Well that's it for now ... above all enjoy, have fun and be safe!

- Larry

p.s

I may update this with additional info over time, so watch for edits!

dantzig

Thanks for all of the helpful info! My friend and I are planning our first trip to the ring in June.

Jon

FEKGT3

Pm sent. It's a long one.
Thanks for information. Tourist delivery booked for late May.

surlynkid

Larry,

Will Nick Simpson be going with you?

Larry Cable

Hi Jon, let me know if you need anymore information or advice, Ive been going to the Ring for over 10 years ... so happy to share!

Larry Cable

YES! Nick and Scott will be attending RingHoon14!!!

Scots wha hae!

want to come too?

Larry Cable

will check it out!

- Larry

Larry Cable

Its also worth noting that Spa-FrancoChamps is about 1:30 drive from the Ring and they also have some limited open tracking but also trackdays by some of the same groups that run the ring also!

http://www.spa-francorchamps.be/en/t...experience.php

Hockenheim also has some access too, its about 1hr south of Frankfurt:

http://www.hockenheimring.de/en/public-race-days

DJN

Hey Larry, I will be posted in Bordeaux, France April 1 to June 30th........hmmmmm?

Cheers!
Doug N

Larry Cable

Doug Doug Doug ... its time ... its meant to be! three days at the Ring and one afternoon at Spa ... BE THERE!

- Larry