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What It Will Cost:
A lot… We did probably the cheapest day possible at the Nurburgring and spent almost $900 (just for the second weekend). Here’s how it breaks down:
Car rental at Rent-4-Ring: $455
12 Laps (6 for me, 6 for Sarah): $300
Gas: $115
As a once-in-a-lifetime experience its worth every penny. If I lived in Germany, though, I’d be broke…
How it works:
When you get to the track, you buy a “ring card” that is loaded with pre-paid laps. Depending on how many you buy and what the exchange rate is, they cost around $20-$25 a lap. There’s a card-operated gate at the track entrance that lets you on and deducts laps from your card.
Video cameras, interestingly, aren’t allowed in cars on the track. It seems there’s a solid enough correlation between video cameras and bad driving that they’ve banned them. Track officials are checking as you go through the gates, but there are always several cars pulled off the side of the track just past the entrance putting cameras up. We did the same thing for a couple of laps and found the rulemakers were right. All the bad driving happens when the camera is on.
Driving the Nurburging, it turns out, is a serious mind game. The track is long, complicated, fast, and has very little runoff. Mistakes have serious consequences here, and its easy to lull yourself into a false sense of security after a few laps, fooling yourself into thinking you know where the track goes. The guys at Rent-4-Ring say it takes about 100 laps to really learn the track, then another 100 laps to learn how to drive it fast.
There are very few corner workers on the track, so if you crash, you’ll be on your own for a long time. A lot of drivers carry their own yellow flags. We saw at least 10 crashes whlie we were there, and we only did 18 laps.
There is also a huge variety of vehicles and skill levels on the track, so you’re always dealing with catching or being caught. Luckily, since the track is technically a road, there is a strict pass-on-the-left rule that makes overtaking much easier. If you’re driving a Suzuki Swift on R888s, letting another driver pass is a simple as hitting your right turn signal and modifying your line to only use the right half of the track. Letting the passing car deal with how to pass you is one of the most important lessons you can learn on the track. If you’re driving in your mirrors trying to drive for them, you’re going to go off.
Reading the track like a mountain road is another important skill. You won’t be there long enough to really learn the track, so you constantly have to be looking way down the track, reading the tree line, the coloring of the curbs in the distance, and the color of the walls to predict where the track is going to go. Much of the track looks similar, so its easy to forget where you are. Especially with a 130-hp Swift, there are long sections where your foot is buried and your mind can wander. If you aren’t ready for the surprise, blind, decreasing-radius, off-camber corner lined with trees at the end of that long flat-out section, you’ll be sorry.
If the $25/lap price didn’t convince you of this already, plan to space your laps out, taking a 15 minute break between each one. This gives your brain time to settle, helps keep you calm and focused, and keeps your dick from grabbing the steering wheel when you get all pumped and cocky. The breaks are a great opportunity to cruise the parking lot anyway, which is one of the best cars shows you’ll ever see.Scroll through the pictures below and see just what kind of eye candy you’ll enjoy during those breaks.
The massive development around the track is eerliy empty when there’s no race going on. This giant exhibition hall looking thing featured the biggest LED TV screen I’ve ever seen (the whole back wall in this picture), a bunch of giftshops for Nurburgring paraphenalia and overpriced schwag from various race teams and manufacturers from Ferrari to Nissan. Every store was nearly empty, as were the hotels and restaurants surrounding this hall.
This giant roller coaster runs through the building and then loops around the vacant hotels and high above the newer Nurburgring GP circuit. You have to wonder what kind of attention defecit disorder someone has to have to need a roller coaster at the fucking Nurburgring.
The vast, empty development around the track is enough to suggest that the ‘ring is sparsely populated on non-race days. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Nurburging is a destination for drivers, not roller coaster riders, and the developers’ miscalculation is evident in the empty buildings around the giant event hall and the overflowing parking lots surrounding the track entrance. There was a non-stop traffic jam getting onto the track both days I was there, and the car spotting was the best you’ll find anywhere in the world.
The Focus RS had only been out a few months when I did the ‘ring, but I saw at least 6 of them. They’re easy to spot in this retina searing shade of dayglo Kermit.
I don’t know what this is, but I want it.
In Germany, this is what a Corvette club looks like.
For my first lap of the Nurburgring, I pulled through the gates behind this Bug. As soon as the gate went up, he lit up the tires in an most un-Buglike way. Yes, it’s Porsche powered. No, it’s not actually that fast. I was actually able to keep him in my sight (barely) for most of the lap driving a Mazda3 2.0 automatic with two passengers.
I don’t know why, but big Audis with big intercoolers really do it for me.
I spotted this sweet old Datsun parked between a couple of Volkswagens.
GT-Rs were actually abundant at the track, especially R34s and R35s, but few stood still long enough for me to get a picture.
Pure. Rally. Sex. This is what the EVO wants to be when it grows up.
Despite its unusual appetite for high-speed cruising, Mazdaspeed3s are pretty rare in Germany. Seeing the Injen sticker on this one warms my heart. Injen was started by a friend of mine when both of us left R.S. Akimoto about a million years ago. I never imagined, sitting around in his crappy Pomona apartment, that I’d be seeing his stuff at the Nurburgring some day.
Oh, so original guys. I did this in 2003.
