Suggestions welcomed, Driving the 'Ring

[Weaver]

Wife has a business trip ending on a Friday in Basle, CH in August. I plan on meeting her in Basle then driving to Stuttgart to visit the Porsche Museum. Since we are doing the museum on a Tuesday, she thought I would want to drive the Nurburgring on that Monday. I did check to see if it is open to the public on that date, and so far it is listed as "open".

I have visited the Nurburgring for Dummies website, seems like some good info, even though its a few years old.

I planned on renting a track car (VW Polo GTI) from Rent-Racecar.de. They come recommended from some friends of mine, Euros, that have dealt with them before.

So if anyone who has been to the 'Ring and has some tips or suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Also, and this might be stretch, but if anyone knows some epic roads between Basle and Stuttgart that would be great! I just found out about the Switzerland part of the trip an hour ago, so I haven't mapped it out yet. I know the Sudschwarzwald Nature Park is between Basle and Stuttgart and we have about 12 hours available to travel 3 hours by Autobahn. So we are looking for views and great roads.

Thank you for your time.

[aigel]

Just remember that the track is practically a public road which any doofus can drive for a per lap fee What I would do is drive fairly conservative as there is no point by, run groups etc.

For a great road to drive try the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse. It runs on the ridge of the Black Forest mountain range and much of it is going south/north in the direction you need to go anyway: Schwarzwaldhochstraße - mehr Schwarzwald geht nicht.

You can work your way up the Black forest from a more southern point as well, as it starts pretty close to the Swiss border. Any road in the forest will be fun.

Have fun and be safe!

G

[ShakinJoe]

Drive it on Forza3 as many times as possible. It is tricky and very long...but fun.

[StevoRocket]

This is my introduction to the Nurburgring video

Check out a site called Bridge to Gantry run by a brit called Dale who lives in Nurburg.

Its full of info, photos and videos and its updated every day.

http://bridgetogantry.com/


Of course you shouldnt time your laps but this is what you are up against.

http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.php/btg-laptimes

[Aragorn]

Came across this thread a while back:
My September 2012 road trip through Europe

As far as the ring goes, driving it on a simulator like Forza (xbox) or Gran Turismo (PS3) a few times will give you a feel for it. I have driven many laps on Forza and still don't know every corner yet. It is open to the public though and just about anyone can drive or ride their motorcycle on it. Might want to take the ring taxi but only if Sabine Schmitz is your driver.

Have fun...

[StevoRocket]

Real

[rouxroux]

Stay to the right, wait about 30min. after openiing to let the bikes thin themselves out. We had to pick our way through a wreck @ Foxhole, and the circuit was closed later in the day due to a fatality of a cyclist.

[StevoRocket]

Sabine is no longer a BMW ring taxi driver.

She now drives her own 911 GT3RS but I bet she is booked up for months ahead given she has other commitments.

Stay in the Pistenklause Tiergarten hotel restaurant if you want the chance to meet her.

Games are used even by race drivers and give a feel for what the track looks like but the changes in camber, gradient and surface are absent from that experience.

Get onto vimeo and youtube and search for gt3 and nordscliefe nurburgring and watch those instead.

And of course the Nurburgring crash videos on youtube.

This is a BMW film which is well worth watching about the ring http://youtu.be/F-ATN8z2exc

[Weaver]

Thank you for all of the replies and the private messages, I appreciate y'all taking the time.

I guess I miss quoted the title of the post. I'm not really looking for info on how to drive the course, just things to make sure to do while we are there. Like the museum or to watch from different areas of the course. Stuff like that. The Tuesday we are there the track is open from 5pm to 8 pm, so we have some time to kill around the track or the town before we pick up our ring rental. Got the Polo GTI, but was told a Golf GTI might be available by then, no charge upgrade. A GTI with an APR stage 2 is my daily driver, so that could be cool.

I've done my fill of track work, I know my limitations. I'm not going to be gunning for Walter Rohrl's times, just experience the track for 4 or 6 laps.

Aigel, thank you for the road recommendation. We are now going from Basle to Baden-Baden, so we are going to take 500 right through the Black Forest nature park. Got a S4 to drive, but a buddy of mine I'd trying to get us a Panamera to try.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your contributions.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by StevoRocket

Sabine is no longer a BMW ring taxi driver.

She now drives her own 911 GT3RS but I bet she is booked up for months ahead given she has other commitments.

Stay in the Pistenklause Tiergarten hotel restaurant if you want the chance to meet her.

Games are used even by race drivers and give a feel for what the track looks like but the changes in camber, gradient and surface are absent from that experience.

Get onto vimeo and youtube and search for gt3 and nordscliefe nurburgring and watch those instead.

And of course the Nurburgring crash videos on youtube.

This is a BMW film which is well worth watching about the ring Born on the Nurburgring Official BMW Film - YouTube

I think Gran Turismo does a fairly decent job of capturing the cambers, but surface grip would be harder to get accurately. I'd hate to have the job of accurately getting the way you need to drive the surface of my indoor kart track with all its variations! I'll certainly give you the surface part.

Some corners at the 'ring are much much faster than you think, and some, are much much slower than you think.

[aigel]

The 500 is a nice drive. Stop at the Tittisee and Triberg for the waterfalls. Furtwangen has a very nice clock museum if you are into clocks - this is where a lot of the clock / watch making / precision engineering in Germany has it's roots. You get snowed in for 4 months out of the year, you'll have some time to fiddle in the shed.

Try to get your hands on some black forest cherry cake with coffee while you are there.

G