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Visiting The Nurburgring


george_seamons

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Shit. This seemed like a really nice idea until I read that very long post about all the limitations, killing people etc. A few of my mates used to go to comps on the Ring, all of them said it was a f**king scary track, most came back with damaged cars.

Personally I don't trust myself enough to go out and drive on the Ring. Especially as you probably can't concentrate on driving, instead you have to keep looking in your rear view mirror and letting people go.

Sounds like a great experience though and sooner or later I'll have to go.

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One instructor has done 8:47 in a 100bhp MX-5. Now *that* is commitment!

That's nuts. there was a guy there with us doing 9:20's in a 1300 polo GT with an air filter and a few suspension mods, but he'd done 100+ laps. still crazy though.

One thing that I think is important to be aware of, is the absolutely insane cambers and gradients on the ring. Things like forza 3 and other console games give a fairly accurate representation of the way the track goes in terms of direction, but nothing can ever prepare you for quite how steep certain sections of the track are, parts of the track are so steep you can hardly walk up them!

I found my biggest problem was the crests, since taking the sump off the audi on one, I'm particularly cautious of crests, and simply cannot make myself go flat out over one. you end up loosing so much time by knocking off say 20mph for a crest, as you spend the next straight getting back up to the speed you should have been doing at the start!

make sure you car is up to a solid 12 minutes of extreme use. Many many people suffer from brake fade by the time they're half way round, probably almost as many people will suffer from overheating towards the end of a hot lap, and something I hadn'y prepared for, was the tyres seeming to 'go off', my tyre pressures had risen by around 9psi all round! I adjusted them accordingly so as to stay in my chosen range whilst on track, but even with the pressures correct, in the later 3rd of the track I found my toyo T1R's noticeably started to loose grip, this was pretty obvious even to my passengers, as we came out of most bends in a kind of 4 wheel drift, and the car got a lot more twitchy under braking too.

The final thing to consider, is what you do when you get off the track. if your brakes are RED hot, there will be masses of heat built up in the pads. if you park up, even leaving the car in gear, all that heat from the pads can be passed directly into one local spot on the disc, which can very easily warp the discs. if your engine is overheating, or just incredibly hot when you come off track, it's also better to allow water to keep circulating rather than switching it off and letting it just boil in the block. also if you have a turbo car, that'll need time to cool a tad before switching off.

I've typed too much now, if you've read all the above, congratulations! you must be very bored.

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Shit. This seemed like a really nice idea until I read that very long post about all the limitations, killing people etc. A few of my mates used to go to comps on the Ring, all of them said it was a f**king scary track, most came back with damaged cars.

Personally I don't trust myself enough to go out and drive on the Ring. Especially as you probably can't concentrate on driving, instead you have to keep looking in your rear view mirror and letting people go.

Sounds like a great experience though and sooner or later I'll have to go.

I've been round, knowing nothing of the track, and in someone else's car.

Just remember it's not competitive. If you can drive down a country lane, you can drive round the Ring. If you're not comfortable, just go a bit slower. The problems people have with damage comes from thinking they're better than they are, the realising they've got the corners mixed up just as they've turned in 40mph too fast to make the bend. The first lap I did I was braking and downshifting where now I'd be flat out.

I had immense fun going slowly, going round the car park, just soaking up the atmosphere. It's a cracking place.

Prawny - the steak is apparently still expensive, but going down in quality.. Pinnochios is where it's at :)

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Just remember it's not competitive. If you can drive down a country lane, you can drive round the Ring.

I guess you're right. But don't you think that to have that attitude you need a car you can enjoy driving slowly? That's why I miss my S2000, the driving experience dominated everything even when you weren't booting it. Maybe it's also a matter of how much time you spend on a track. I went to an open event a few months ago at our local track and saw most guys getting a buzz out of driving around as if it was a normal unrestricted road - they weren't booting it on the straights, didn't try going around corners quickly. That's a similar attitude to mine when I went there for the first time but now without timed laps or doing the whole thing sideways, it's just as boring as commuting. I'm guessing the Ring would be similar and lead to an accident. But I can imagine it's mostly about the atmosphere.

Now that I've got my B+E license I can happily drive there if you guys decide to make a small TF Ring meet. Probably need around 1000 pounds for an outing like that?

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Where do you read Al's trip reports? He seems to be a member of most internet forums... :D

I didn't think Nuremburg had a circuit? I met a couple of bikers while I was waiting for the ferry in Calais who had hired bikes, thrashed them at the Ring, then had to fit new tyres before taking them back. The guy at the hire company asked if they'd been to the Nuremburgring? Nope, certainly haven't been there...

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Where do you read Al's trip reports? He seems to be a member of most internet forums... :D

I didn't think Nuremburg had a circuit? I met a couple of bikers while I was waiting for the ferry in Calais who had hired bikes, thrashed them at the Ring, then had to fit new tyres before taking them back. The guy at the hire company asked if they'd been to the Nuremburgring? Nope, certainly haven't been there...

Maybe i'm thinking of somewhere else then, i'm sure its in germany and ends with ring, has a reasonable straight and the first corner has quite a big run off thats painted green.

And what the hell, how did someone do sub 7 minutes? Even in a radicall, thats pure insanity and made of danger.

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Prawny...

If the saab hit you whilst you was skidding out... i gather it would of ben your fault ?

To answer for Nick... It all depends. It could be judged to be your fault or his fault depending who was where and so on. Like any accident, there are expectations for tourist days, such as only overtaking on the left.

One track is 3miles the other is 12....

There's two tracks at the Nurburgring. The Nordschleife (Northloop) which is 12 miles and quite mental, and the Grand Prix circuit which is about 3 miles or so and where they run F1, DTM and so on...

The real fun comes when you at an endurance event (N24 or VLN) and they use both circuits! In fact there's a Northloop trackday in June which uses the FULL 15 mile loop...

And what the hell, how did someone do sub 7 minutes? Even in a radicall, thats pure insanity and made of danger.

Stefan Bellof has said that when he did that lap he had no fear of death whatsoever. It was truely all or nothing. Plus this is an old Group C endurance racer, so nowhere near as safe as modern cars... Sadly he was killed in the same car at Spa.

The Radical lap is insane, especially as the bloke driving doesn't think of a Ring specialist, and had some pretty hairy moments. I'm waiting for Caparo to go out there with the T1!

On the trip reports section on Northloop :)

Cool! Another Northlooper! On my second trip I had a pax lap in Nige's Golf which showed me just what a pussy I'd been! That probably took a minute off my time :)

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Cool! Another Northlooper! On my second trip I had a pax lap in Nige's Golf which showed me just what a pussy I'd been! That probably took a minute off my time :)

Ha, I bumped into Nige when I went and he took me and my mate out for a couple of laps each, said he'd never had such a quiet passenger :lol: :$

Unsurprising he's so quick though, he's done about a million laps, he was marking them down as 5 bar gates on the bottom of his drivers window when I saw him and was running out of space :P

I aught to start using Northloop abit more, I signed up and looked around abit but that was about it, feel like too much of an amateur to post anything :$

Edited by Jolfa
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I aught to start using Northloop abit more, I signed up and looked around abit but that was about it, feel like too much of an amateur to post anything :$

Same! I've been a member for a year or more I think, but post fairly rarely due to not knowing a huge deal about it all. I've got a few mates who post on there pretty regularly though

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