Ringside Seat: speed cameras

What is it about cameras and cars that inspires so much trouble?

Enforcing an unenforcable law is hard work. In many people's eyes the Nurburgring's 'no camera' rule, in force since spring 2007 until 2013, was one of those pointless rules. It took way too much time and effort to realistically enforce it, and those that were determined to flaunt the rule seemed to do so with impunity.

No need for hidden camera set-ups any more

And despite this house rule of no video being allowed during public sessions running for six years, I've spoken to hundreds of people who had no idea this rule even existed. 10 seconds on Google will reveal that dozens and sometimes hundreds of videos would appear from Touristenfahrten each and every month.

The theory was that by banning cameras, no embarrassing video footage of fatalities or injuries would leave the premises, thus protecting even the craziest of public sessions from too much political scrutiny.

In practice it just didn't work. Technology advanced to the point where a HD camera could be hidden in a pen or key fob. Or cars would be inspected at the gates, only for them to stop on the track again to re-fit cameras. A complicated procedure that not just caused many accidents, but also ironically resulted in videos of these accidents being uploaded to YouTube. Total fail.

In 2009 the money-making masterminds of the Nurburgring's doomed rebirth decided to rent out GoPro cameras to customers of the public session. The (laughable) idea was that each and every SD card would be inspected for footage of crashes before being handed over to the waiting customer. But if half-a-dozen customers rent a camera every hour, each recording an hour's footage per rental, would you want the job of checking all that footage? The impossible to enforce rule had then resulted in an impossible to police product.

Literally everyone has been at it, even van drivers

I'm delighted to announce that this madness has apparently ended. Back in March we heard on the grapevine that cameras wouldn't be stopped at the gates anymore as the marshals had "more important things to do". Then, only this week, I finally checked the AGBs (terms and conditions) of the new Nurburgring operating company and found that video for personal use is now officially OK.

I should be over the moon, right? I can use my cameras all the time. Onboard videos are also really good news for anybody who lands in court as a result of an accident that they don't believe was their fault.

But some people are less than happy. They're worried the new rule could bring unwanted attention to the 'ring.

Case in point; last Sunday's TF session. It was a bad one. Nothing unusual in the scheme of things. I've seen worse days over the last decade. Eight closures in one day? Nothing too special. But never before have I been able to watch these accidents minutes after they've happened.

Hand-held footage more queasy than the ride

My social media feeds were on fire! It seemed that every accident and incident had a corresponding video that had been uploaded by smartphone within minutes. The crashing Civic, the crashing rental cars here and here. But what's even more interesting is that all that bad news is NOT from onboard the car - it's from illustrious individuals trackside. On public access land pointing their cameras wherever they want to.

Should more people see how dangerous the 'ring is? Or should we protect the last public playground for petrolheads? I'd be interested to hear your views on it.

Photos: Jorg at Ringbilder

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MikeG88

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159 months