One of the primary new new *car experience* to look forward to, any time you mention being in Germany... you canät get far without talking about the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Or the 'North Loop' of the Nurburgring.
20.8km, 12.93miles. 150-odd turns. And Wikipedia doesnät actually list the elevation change... but Dale from claims it's about 2000feet in all (1000 down, 1000 up) but it is just as dramatic as the other tidbits already listed. It used to be a well known challenge to European F1 fans... it's audience has increased as of late thanks to Jeremy Clarkson, and a the proliferation of small video cameras and youtube. It's become a destination for all petrolheads of all varieties... from American wantabe racers and tracktards, similar people from all across Europe, and now the monied Russian versions thereof.
It doesn't take a lot to get on the Nurburging. 24Euros (this year), a road-legal car, and an open touristifahren session are it. That's the good and the bad. It's relatively cheap, and easy to access. But, then again, there are minimal rules, and sometimes the people don't even realize that 'German Road Rules' apply. Additionally, some summer days the track can be absolutely packed with people.
Now, I admittedly fit among the "American Tracktard" set, although... I am perhaps on the "slow"/"conservative" end of that spectrum. Thus, going to the Nurburgring has been one of those "Bucket List" items all the people are talking about these days for me. It actually was something that I had talked about doing when my wife and I visited Germany for our 1 year anniversary... and probably more than a little affected my thought process for wanting to do One Lap of America not too long thereafter. But I knew back then that, having never driven a car on track, that I'd probably be in over my head if I went to the Nurburgring. Sure, I could have done a 20minute "holy cow I'm here" lap, but I probably would have gotten racy thereafter... and probably ended up folding up whatever car I had borrowed.
Alright, so... enough exposition. How was it? It was about like visiting Sebring for the first time. Awe-inspiring, and humbling. I might eventually admit to letting out a "woop" at some point in the evening; and leaving the cones for my first lap I definitely had the sense of "oh my gosh, I'm actually doing this".
But, Dale's right... the numerous youtube videos of a lap really can't do the track justice. And there's soo much of the track to learn. I came through the Lauda Links and was absolutely surprised by Bergwerks. I mean I knew there was a corner, and I knew it was to the right, but wow has it got a late apex, and some massive elevation to it, that just doesn't come through in the videos. Fortunately I was slow, and the car had plenty of margin, but it was a real wake up call for me.
My first lap was somewhere around 16minutes. I didn't press the car, and for the most part I stayed off on the right side of the track, which is really difficult to do in some places, and leaves you feeling quite unsettled due to the undulations and off-camber nature of some sections of the track. Over the next three laps I picked up some speed, and used more of the racing line... managing to pass an e30, and getting to play with one of the other Rent4Ring stage 1 rentals who eventually let me by at the end. I only had two "oh goodness" moments. One was while passing an Acura TSX... or the European Honda version thereof in the "upper section" of the course just after where the GP track joins... when I got worried he might come in on me as we both apexed a tight left hander, and the traction control kicked in a tad. The second time was overcooking Brünchen a tad on the last lap, and again the traction control kicked in just a bit.
On the other hand, I also managed to keep up with a Russian in Rent4Rings top-of-the-line rental that had 2x the power from Brünchen all the way to the gantry. So that was... satisfying.
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