The area around the ring is all about motorsport, where else would you find a 996 parked in the lobby of your hotel?
I had booked a drive on the Nordschleife on a public day to get the full experience. We arrived in Nurburg the night before and met up with Kam, who had flown in from London. The next morning, we were up bright and early with much anticipation. We filled ourselves with the generous buffet breakfast and headed over to RSR Nurburg, the company that we were renting track cars from.
For our drive, Kam and I had hired a Toyota 86 and Renault Sport Clio Cup respectively. Kam has driven the Nordschleife before, so he was going to try the 86 which is a more challenging car to drive on the ring. I chose the Clio because it's plenty of power for a beginner on the ring and yet is a very fun car to drive.
Before we could head out on to the track, a mandatory drivers briefing took place.
The briefing included a series of in-car videos of what not to do on the Nordschleife, and the consequences of doing them.
With the formalities out of the way, it was finally time to head out for my first lap! On public days, a lap of the Nordschleife is known as the Bridge to Gantry. That is, the lap starts at the Bilstein bridge (around Antoniusbuche) and ends at the Audi gantry (around Dottinger Hohe).
So without further ado, here are some videos...
My first lap - Watch out for the BMW 1 series that overtakes on the right hand side.
The accident took some time to clear and the track was closed for almost 2 hours. During that time, we explored the track car park, which was a visual feast in itself.
The car of choice on the ring right now seems to be either a Porsche or a BMW.
After having a look around the car park, we headed into Nurburg and had lunch at Hotel am Tiergarten (which belongs to Sabine Schmitz's family).
It was quite surreal to be in a small country town like Nurburg and have sports cars parked everywhere.
Don't mind this, just another GT2 sitting around.
After lunch, the track was open again and we headed back out to complete our laps. I drove a total of six laps and was still wanting more at the end of it. My best lap was the final lap, with a time of 10:48.2. The analysis can be seen here.
I vow to come back the drive the Nordschleife again one day.
I vow to come back the drive the Nordschleife again one day.
To be continued...
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