Author Topic: Nürburgring (Read 3453 times)

Red01 · « **on:** September 09, 2005, 12:21:38 AM »

I was watching the UK show "Top Gear" on SPEED last night. One of the parts of the show was driving a Jaguar diesel around "the most dangerous track in the world - The Nürburgring." Track tests I'd seen on other episodes always had them testing on closed tracks except the one time they did a track day on motorcycles. I figured this was going to be the same, but I was in for a bit of a surprise... the 20.8 Km (12.9 mile) Nürburgring is open to the public much like a one-way toll road with no speed limits (unless there's flags out). They were out there thrashing the oil burning Jag trying to get a lap time under 10 minutes, getting passed by, and occasionally passing, other folks in their daily drivers/riders. It costs 15 Euros to do a lap, or you can buy packages of laps or even a full year pass (750 Euros). They talked to a couple of motorcyclists who were frequent flyers... one guy claimed he rode the track at least once every (open) day. Another came every open weekend. Right after they interviewed the two riders, they showed an ambulance pulling out of the track, with a tow truck right beind it with what was left of a 998 style Ducati.

I was just thinking about how cool it must be to live close enough to enjoy The Nürburgring on a regular basis.

Bobcat · « **Reply #1 on:** September 09, 2005, 01:43:20 AM »

Quote from: "Red01"

I was just thinking about how cool it must be to live close enough to enjoy The Nürburgring on a regular basis.

Bah. Just come over to my house. Race any car you want on the Nurburgring in Forza Motorsports. I'll only charge you $5 for track time.

Red01 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 09, 2005, 04:46:24 AM »

CAR? BAH!

I wanna ride Rossi's Yamaha or Corser or Mladin's Zook...

ribbitism · « **Reply #3 on:** September 09, 2005, 10:04:27 AM »

I'm shocked.. I thought everyone around the world knew about the Nürburgring by now

Autobahn's in germany are also fun. They have speed limits but you can exceed them if you so wish, only downfall is that your insurance becomes invalid at speeds exceeding the limit, it's good fun to cruise up behind a cop car and then just accelerate past and not stop though

These roads are open all day every day and are all over the country.. but that's one bonus of living in europe; people often take biking holidays and head to germany to see what their bikes can do.

B12Teuton · « **Reply #4 on:** September 09, 2005, 10:50:02 AM »

You clicky here and get some popcorn! This is a lap of the 'ring in the Porsche 911 RUF CTR

http://www.aocb77.dsl.pipex.com/RUF.wmv

tacoman · « **Reply #5 on:** September 09, 2005, 01:13:24 PM »

I caught the show too. Too cool, but we could never have that here. The liability insurance would be huge. I don't think I'd want to be out there on a bike. The cars were sometimes bumper to bumper. One bad move on a bike and you're a hood ornament.

Red01 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 09, 2005, 02:37:26 PM »

Quote from: "ribbitism"

I'm shocked.. I thought everyone around the world knew about the Nürburgring by now

Oh, I'd heard of "The Ring" before, I just didn't know it was open to the public in that manner.

billster · « **Reply #7 on:** September 10, 2005, 04:03:08 AM »

Hans Stuck does a lap in factory BMW.

http://www.bmwtransact.com/microsite/Nurburgring/M3_race.swf