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Anyone been to Nürburgring?

Coledavis01

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Have an opportunity coming up this June to make it to Germany and wanted to gain some insight from anyone who may have made the trek to the Green Hell and what their experience was.

By no means a racing driver so likely going to do a ride along but looks like there are a few options out there.

Thanks!
 
I've been. If you are in the area then you should do it. You will regret it if you don't. It's a tough circuit, lot's of 'so-called' good drivers come undone there.
 
Thanks Tekhouse,
I'll be about 4 hours away by car, did you bring your own or rent one at the track?
 
Thanks Tekhouse,
I'll be about 4 hours away by car, did you bring your own or rent one at the track?

Actually we were with a classic Rally car event. So I was in one my mates old school rally cars, a Renault Gordini (see the photo below). You know until today I never realized we did this event and have no photos to show for it. I did not take my Canon camera that day and my phone camera at the time was rubbish. We are planning to go again sometime, there are a lot of events that are reasonably 'close' to us. A few boat trips and a bit of driving.. ;)

IMG_0339.jpg
 
I've been there numerous times. Rent a car there, like a race prepped Scirocco or a Swift. Might not sound so fun - but they go like h*ll.

I took my Dodge Magnum SRT8 with a blower on out for a spin there and realized that hurling 4000 lbs around the track wasn't the best idea :) And stay away from the barriers. They charge you like 500 euro per meter you tear down ;)
 
I've seen her on Top Gear, that would be an amazing experience!

- - - Updated - - -

Appreciate the feedback, I'd love to drive the track but nervous to do so with no prior experience. The Scirocco looks like a good deal & have heard taking a regular rental on it usually doesn't end well.

The BMW ring taxi looks fun but for the price could drive it myself. Any idea how big of a deposit is needed? Assuming a U.S. drivers license would be accepted?
 
First of all - don't use a normal rental since the insurance and the CDW and LDW won't cover the Ring. If your car insurance back home have excess car policy - it probably won't cover a rental car around one of the worlds most famous tracks. So rent a Race car like the Scirocco and settle for just that. They got awesome BMW M3s, Mercedes SLS AMG and so on - but without ALOT of track experience and ALOT of experience around the Ring - the Scirocco or Swift will be more than you can handle.

I remember my first 20 laps - I maybe pushed the Scirocco to 60% of what it was capable of - and now after over 15 years and 200 laps+ I feel comfortable maneuvering anything more expensive around the track. It's not cheap though - 10 laps in a stage 2 or 3 Swift would run you about 700 bucks and the Scirocco Cup close to a grand (prices including ticket to the track, fuel, insurance and so on.) Don't get fooled by the low advertised prices of $250 and so on - they're always excluding everything so it don't come as a shock to you when you see what you ended up paying.

RentRaceCar.de and RentForRing.de are two renowned companies - as well as the main rental place at the track.

Also remember - it's a LONG track with a lot of elevation changes so me and my friends usually take 3-5 laps each while the others are taking pictures. Without a lot of training you get really tired.

Usually they charge you like $2500 and up if you crash the car even if you got the insurance cover. They also datalog everything so if you end up over-revving the engine to 10K RPM - they'll charge you for that.

American drivers license should be ok as long as you're 18 years old+ and present it together with your passport. They usually don't hold any deposit other than full payment up front (might be different for US Drivers - so call ahead and ask)

You're going to have a blast. It's an amazing drive. Look at this and get inspired:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl6QcnGxip8
 
Nah, not trying to scare you at all ;) I was like that when I took my Magnum around Laguna Seca which was terrible with such a big car... I shipped it back to the US for a 12 weeks vacation with the family and you can't have a blown 800 horsepower station wagon just across the street from Laguna Seca and not drive it lol.

Just be safe out there bud!
 
That would be a great track even with an 800hp Magnum! Memories alone would make it worthwhile.
Closest ever been to either was Gran Turismo on a playstation.

I plan to bring a camera along to mount & record it- will post it so everyone can laugh at my cornering skills!
 
Well, those movies are far better than ones like the one I posted above :) :)

We do have some great tracks to drive here in Europe - The Spa Circuit is awesome and so on. But we don't have any dragstrips :/
 
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