A bucket list check, a lesson in speed, and one of the best days I’ve been alive!
Sunday. Nurburgring Day.
A day I had been anticipating for over two decades. Over two decades spent dreaming of driving the iconic racetrack. I was finally about to graduate from my PlayStation Gran Turismo simulator to the real thing.
The day had finally come to drive the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The legendary racetrack, like no other on Earth. 20.8 kilometers. 78 named corners. 280 feet of elevation. Two lanes of aging asphalt snaking its way through the German countryside, bordered by red and white curbing and steel guardrails at times only a few feet from the track.
To some, heaven on earth. The top spot on my personal bucket list.
The bed and breakfast that served as my home base while in Nurburg, Germany, was perfectly located. ‘Pension — N Ring’ (Pension meaning guesthouse) was 15 minutes or less of a walk in any direction to everywhere I needed to be. It was only a 10-minute walk to one of the track garage entrance areas where I would get the car and meet my instructor.
The day was sunny and bright, with barely a cloud in the sky. Perfect.
I thought of my late wife, Ivana, as I walked to the track. She should have been there with me. Ivana enjoyed watching me race on the PlayStation, especially the licensing part. She would cheer my successes, and laugh at my temper tantrums when I missed a time goal by .01 of a second. That happened more often than I would care to admit.
Ivana should have been there. Sigh. I looked to the heavens and told her to watch me drive. I know she was. Before she passed, Ivana made me promise to do as much of my bucket list as I could. Too much of her bucket list went uncompleted.
That is a lesson for everyone. Don’t put off the important things. We just don’t know how much time we have.
My bad fast Porche Gt3
To celebrate this momentous occasion, I had reserved a Porsche Gt3 race car. Yes, a full-on racecar. Bad fast. Set up for this track. Comes with an instructor. Basically a spotter, his main job is to ensure that the car makes it back to the garage in one piece.
My instructor was a retired race driver and unfortunately, I can not remember his name. He drove out of the underground parking lot and pulled up to the curb. Introductions were made all around, including the car, which I was told much about. Safety and such.
My instructor had driven hundreds of laps around the legendary track and knew it like the back of his hand. He told me what corners were next and how to angle the car for corner entry. I was helped out with braking points and how much pressure was needed. He kept me aware of other traffic, and when it was safe to pass.
Depending on who you talk to, there are anywhere between 78 and 122 corners. Most are blind. Most have elevation changes. And most of them are named, which is cool. The track has graffiti written all over it, but if you speak German, you can get some excellent driving tips. The graffiti is actually track warnings, breaking zones, and helpful hints.
I drove from the garage area to the track entrance. The place was busy. Cars were entering and exiting the track constantly. The parking lot, viewing balcony, and restaurant were full of drivers and enthusiasts.
When it was my turn, I hit the gas and felt the powerful engine roar to life.
I was off like a shot, the Porche powerplant very quickly getting up to speed. I crested the hill at the end of the long straight, made a slight turn to the left, and flew downhill. The grass and guardrails flew by, and my heart was pounding as I negotiated the S bend (Hohenrain) at the bottom of the hill, just touching the red and white curbing on either side of the corner.
The adrenalin surge was like nothing I’ve ever felt!
Thanks to the many, many laps I had done on the PlayStation, I knew the track very well. But I’m also well aware that the game is not real life. I expected challenges. I immediately noticed how the elevation changes are much more difficult than the game can show.
In a very fast car, it really matters how you deal with elevation changes as you turn corners. You must become one with the car.
Car control is something I have a feel for. Braking hard from a high speed while turning sharply downhill takes car control to a whole other level. I could feel the back end wanting to swing around. Easy…Feather the throttle…Hammer down after the apex!
Understeer and you won’t make the corner. Oversteer and you spin out. Finding the balance on a track like this takes years. The professional driver who took me for a lap later in the day told me that the bumps change every year due to freezing in winter.
For an excellent track map with detailed corners, driving lines, and gear / speed hints, click here.
A blur of technicolour purple and burnt orange zipped past
During my first lap, about halfway, I nailed the apex of ‘Bergwerk’, a right-hander that leads you into a very fast part of the track. The track is almost straight, with a couple of angles to the left. Misjudging one of those angles through ‘Kesselchen’ at full speed (over 250 kph) can result in a serious wreck if just one wheel touches the grass.
As I held my line on the inside of ‘Kesselchen’, (little valley) a blur of technicolor purple and burnt orange zipped passed me in a serious hurry. My instructor looked at me and shrugged. He had no time to warn. “That’s why it’s so important to hold your line, a few Lambo’s are out today”
“I thought I was going fast,” I replied. My foot had the accelerator to the floor. The big difference was my corner exit speed, of which I had little after being too cautious around a 145-degree blind corner.
He smiled. “Not like that,” And then stopped smiling and tensed up, as he yelled “BRAKE!” I’d driven ‘Klostertal’ nicely, hard on the gas, but was going too hot for the next corner. “Mutkurve” translates to ‘Courage curve’. No wonder. Only the brave can fly through this uphill, blind left-hander.
It was at this section that I had very nearly wrecked my rental car a few days prior. I wrote about it, the link is below. Cheating Death is not much of an exaggeration.
Pro tip: Paying for comprehensive insurance is a must. My BMW rental had only 800 kilometers on it when I took it out. There would have been some red and white paint and a scratch or two (!) underneath from riding the curbing. Oops. Sorry about that.
‘Steilstrecke’ is a 180-degree right-hander. You start going downhill, and end up going uphill. About 10 feet from the track is a concrete wall. That wall gets really big, really fast, and you have to keep car control while under heavy braking. This is a corner that will test your abilities.
This is a corner that will also test your bravery.
A few times, I had not responded well enough to the “Brake” command, and his tone changed. “BRAKE” meant brake immediately and hard! Keep the wheel straight while under hard braking, then roll the corner…
I do think of myself as a very competent driver, and expected to drive the track well, and fast. I had practiced a few times, renting a Porsche at a local racetrack and driving it like it was meant to be driven.
At times I thought my instructor was too conservative, and had me slow down too much for a corner. On the flip side, I know that there were times I didn’t quite trust his “Go, Go!” command, and was too easy on the accelerator. Consider that the ‘blind corner’ effect of my learning curve.
Track days at the ‘Green Hell’
To facilitate track days, they have a very cool system at the Nurburgring. The wall on the main straightaway opens up, and lift gates are rolled onto the track. The gates are controlled by your “Green Hell” card, which you load with Euros at the small office. Each lap costs 30 or 35 Euros, depending on the day of the week.
“Green Hell”, is the name given to the Nurburgring Nordschliefe by the legendary British driver Jackie Stewart. He gave the track the name after winning the 1968 German Grand Prix in rain and fog. The nickname stuck, because it’s awesome.
As we pulled up to the gate at the end of my first lap, my instructor reminded me that I paid for the brakes, so use them. On many occasions, I had eased off the gas early, before he had told me to brake. I was anticipating the corner I knew was coming.
That’s the sort of thing you do when you approach a corner at 180 kph, but can’t see what is coming next. Blind corners will do that to the most confident of drivers. Track knowledge.
I needed to be more aggressive into the corner, braking later. He only had to tell me once. The next two laps, I heard a lot less “brake,” and a lot more “BRAKE!” Well, what would you expect? I was going to use the brakes I paid for. Just doing what I was told.
There were about 120 cars on the track that day. Not too busy, spread over 20.8 kilometers of track.
I have posted the video of my third lap on YouTube. View it here.
At Eiskurve (Ice curve), I had to brake extra early, as someone had failed to negotiate the hard left-hander, and spread safety gravel over the track when they spun out. No car debris, for the driver had avoided the wall.
Impressively, when I went around the next lap the track crew had the gravel swept and track cleaned.
I drove my second lap more aggressively than the first. I carried a lot of speed down the hill toward ‘Brunchenn’, a sweeping right-hander, and floored it for the following uphill. Nailed it! Which of course meant I was flying over the rise near where the car had spun out the lap before.
The track seemed to narrow at the top of the crest, and I heard a very loud “BRAKE!” Oh, Doctor, that was the closest I came to spinning out driving the Porche. Some sweet car control under braking, if I do say so myself.
The corner Brunchenn happened to be the name of my room at Pension N-Ring. No room numbers, track corners were used.
For my third lap, my instructor let me be more aggressive, but he still has to make sure the car gets back in one piece. I made more passes that lap, but still was passed by lesser cars whose drivers knew the track better.
It was awesome! And better yet, I know I can go a whole lot faster. Give me some more laps in that car, and see what I can really do.
I have not driven the Nurburgring for the last time. Oh no.
It’s simple math. I need to spend 5 grand on another trip to the Nurburgring to avoid wasting the 30 Euros sitting on my Green Hell card. It’s not like I have a choice in the matter. Wasting money is foolish.
After my third lap, I pulled into the parking lot and thanked my instructor. He was reasonably impressed with how fast I went with so little time on the track. He drove the race car back to the garage. I wasn’t done yet. I had also paid for a taxi drive, where a professional driver would take me on a hot lap around the circuit.
Just in case I thought I turned a fast lap, Erik showed me how slow I went.
Erik and his team had finished first in their class at the 6-hour race the day before, driving a black BMW. He took me for a lap in a similar car to the one I had driven, a Porche Gt3 race car.
It was wicked cool. I posted the video on YouTube. Click here.
Watching Erik drive was something else. Calm, cool, and collected, as if out for a relaxing Sunday drive. We talked about the track and the race, hitting a top speed of about 250 kph. True skill, especially flying over the bumps and keeping control of the car.
Erik said he knew all the bumps and contours of the track, but that they changed once in a while. He would pause to concentrate occasionally, then continue talking about his favorite track.
He drove like the car was on rails. Setting up the corners, flashing through the gears, and nailing the apex. Bringing the car to the brink of wrecking, yet seeming to be in complete control. Impressive.
He tore around the course in (his guess) “maybe eight and a half, under nine.” A snarl. “Traffic.”
After the hot lap, I walked around, checking out the cars. The Devil’s Diner was busy, but I secured a spot on the patio, overlooking the track. A cool vantage point to enjoy a cold beer.
I talked to some drivers who had hundreds of laps on the legendary track. They confessed to still making minor mistakes in search of the perfect lap. That is the ultimate goal for all of them. The track does not keep time.
The perfect lap. As one driver from Sweden told me, “If I ever manage the perfect lap here, it means I need a much faster car.” I had seen him before while walking around. He drove a sweet black Audi, trimmed for racing.
His buddy shook his head and laughed. “If you could do a perfect lap here, you’d be racing professionally!”
I noticed a lot of camaraderie amongst the drivers. Guys talking cars, and discussing the best way to tackle various corners. There were no egos here. Shiny new Lamborghinis were parked beside hard-driven Ford hatchbacks. If there is a better way to spend a sunny day, these guys don’t know it.
Since 1927, the Nurburgring Nordschleife has been a true test of both man and machine. There is no track on earth like it.
To anyone who loves cars and loves driving them, this place is Nirvana.
I’ll be back.
Copyright 2024, Michael Williams. All rights reserved.
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