The Big Five Oh Trip - Part 3

The Nurburgring Nordschliefe.

Just the sound of that name is enough to stand what little hair I have left on end.
Since its inception in 1927 it has claimed the lives of 72 professional racing drivers.
Every year it claims on average another 3 – 12 public lives.
It is not for nothing that Jackie Stewart gave it the haunting nickname it still carries today: The Green Hell.
And I’m actually about to drive it.

We head out to the track, the public entrance to which is just down the road from the RSR Nurburg garage. Normally after 9:00 am we’d be allowed on, but it looks like there’s already been an incident as the track has come to a standstill. So we sit in a field with a hundred or so other cars and bikes and wait for the P.A. announcement to give the “all clear”. Derek in the meantime regales us in humble fashion with stories of his former life as an F3 and pace car driver and how he came to be an instructor at the ‘Ring.

 

Finally we hear a klaxon sound and some kind of garbled voice in German makes an announcement. Derek quickly navigates us over to the entrance before most of the mob gets the jump and in no time we’re in line at the toll gate.
The way it works on “public days” is that they create a forced exit and re-entry to the track along the main 3.5 km Döttinger Höhe straight so that traffic must slow down, get off and re-enter on each lap through an electronic toll barrier. I drive in, hold the chipped card against the sensor, the gate lifts, and we’re gone.
I can’t believe it.
After all the years about fantasizing what it would be like to drive this beast I’m finally on it. It seems most surreal. All of the jet lag, stress, brain fog and insecurity suddenly vanish, as soon as we clear the last yellow gate cone I am full down on the Scirocco’s accelerator and banging it off the redline as it screams to haul the three of us down to the first turn. Derek is immediately in full track guide mode as he describes meter-by-meter exactly where to brake, turn in and accelerate. His instructions are amazingly precise. I feel initially that he has me braking a bit too early, but there's no doubt that this is not a place you want to get a first-timer in over their head, many veterans have been caught out by coming around one of the 'Ring's tortured blind corners only to run smack into the back of a lumbering bus or other tourist vehicle. On public days you really have to drive this track like a rally course, always leaving that last few percent of extra grip to deal with unexpected.

Meanwhile as we hit the first set of curves that take us past the interchange that connects it with the modern GP track, I am completely blown away by how much it looks EXACTLY like it did in my practice laps at home on Gran Turismo. It's really freaking me out. But no time to dwell on that, we are in thick traffic with smaller fish to get around in front, and big dogs in M3's and 911 GT3's flying up to overtake us. Unless you're piloting a Koenigsegg or something else with the power-to-weight ratio of a superbike, driving the 'Ring is as much an exercise in watching your mirrors as it is looking ahead. Thankfully the Scirocco is as perfect a partner as I expected, mindlessly easy to flog about due to the excellent balance of its GTI derived chassis and lower center of gravity. As per RSR's rules I have to leave the traction and stability controls engaged, but these thankfully have very high thresholds and barely ever make themselves known.

As we get out of the first few tight turns the traffic spreads out a bit and we start making the long climb up through Flugplatz and Schwendenkreuz. Some 4 - 5 kms in at this point, I finally see the speedo climb past 160 km/h and we begin to reel in some more closely matched cars. I find the uphill blind turns the most unnerving, as Derek insists I keep the power on and it takes a great deal of faith to do so, but every time we rocket over the top one and stay in it there's a tremendous feeling of satisfaction and I eventually learn to just go with it. We suddenly then see the caution lights come on and the yellow flags come out. It doesn't take long to see why... a silver E46 M3 that passed us just moments before is sitting by the side of the track with a good chunk of its nose missing. Ouch.

You really don't want to crash at this track.

Besides the somewhat more obvious perils of getting maimed or killed, breaking your car is probably the cheapest thing that's going to happen. You have to also pay for absolutely EVERYTHING else that results. Like the grass you tore up. The oil and coolant spills that they have to mop up. The Armco barrier you bent. The posts to go with it. The emergency vehicles. The staff that drives them. If the fluids you spilled cause another accident you're on the hook for that too. And if you really go out with a bang and manage to shut down the whole track, that will cost you an additional $2200 an hour until it gets reopened.

About half way around, the intense concentration required starts to get the better of me. For just a few fleeting seconds I think my sleep-deprived brain may not be able to sustain the pace but then I see it coming up, the lead-in to Karussell. Without question this is one of the most famous and delicious track corners in the world. A bizarrely configured 270 degree continuous hairpin with flat asphalt on the outside and steeply banked concrete on the inside that is rough to the point of feeling like it's corrugated. The correct way to approach is to just drop the car straight into the steep inner banked section and hold on for dear life as the steering dances violently in your hands and the g-forces try to fling you into the passenger seat until you suddenly fly up and out the other side, wheels momentarily clawing at the sky. I don't quite manage it as elegantly as I'd have liked, but just going around it for the first time and feeling the car rattle through it for real is incredible. I regain my confidence and go on the charge again and eventually we are making the long climb up the back sweepers past Pflanzgarten, keeping the throttle nailed to the floor just like in the game at the top of 4^th gear until we finally have let off for the final left-right turns that will take us on to the long straight home, the famous 3.5 km Döttinger Höhe. Sadly as explained earlier this is truncated down to a kilometer or so on public days to control traffic, but we still manage to wind the little white 'rocco out past 200 km/h for just a few brief seconds and begin to reel in the massive rear wing of a 911 GT3. Of course he's already slowing down for the exit, but in my mind we are up on his bumper challenging him. Hey, a guy can dream right?

The fact is I really have just completed a dream, a real honest-to-God lap of the Nurburgring. And as good as that would have felt on my own, I can say without question Derek's instruction took it to a whole other level. Having someone beside you with a HD resolution map of that track in his head, calling out each turn and how to attack it with surgical precision, completely made the experience.

Of course I had paid for two laps, and as much as I would have liked to have Derek guide me around again I knew that I had to try it alone, just me against the Green Dragon. Well, me and Pete that is.

We exit the track and as we head back to the office to drop him off Derek debriefs me in a very complimentary fashion. I am careful to put the positive comments in storage, lest my ego start writing cheques on the next lap that my still very inexperienced 'Ring hands will not be able to cash.

Moments later we are back at the gate and off again. Despite having Pete up front now as the second set of eyes and voice of reason, I don't mind admitting that for the first bit I did feel a wee bit naked. But I knew as long as I kept the same 8/10ths – 9/10ths pace as on the first go-round I should be able to deal with the unexpected so I begin to pour it on. Some corners I came in a little overcooked (finally waking up the stability control) and others woefully too slow, but on average I think I kept a pretty respectable pace. Sadly there was much more traffic to deal with, and not one but two caution slows downs this time, so my dreams of posting a sub 10 minute lap (the magic time if you're a Top Gear fan) quickly evaporates. Nonetheless finally navigating the world's most notorious track on my own feels as amazingly good as you'd expect, and on my second try I finally get just a wee bit of air coming out of Karussell.

I suspect my grin at that point exceeded even the Drift video cam's 160 degree field of view. 

Many, many thanks to RSRNurburg for the overall excellence of the experience, instructor Derek (who’s last name I sadly do not have) for his outstanding guidance, and finally Christopher Heiser for his fabulous blog Nurburgring For Dummies, which is absolute must-read material for anyone considering this mad (and HIGHLY recommended) adventure.

Truly the crowning experience in any gearhead's resume.