RE: Solitude: My Dream Drive

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Monkey boy
Some of these old lesser knows race tracks are known to people who played the on-line racing games like Grand Prix Legends, many players probably think that tracks like Solitude, Avus & Grenzlandring they are just made up tracks in someones computer mind, but no, they are real.

I never learned about Grenzlandring at all until I spoke to Bill Patterson...

He did a season of F3 racing in the early fifties in England and Europe and described the circuit to me. Apparently it was more or less a ring of concrete road some miles long which was used for assembling tanks for deployment during the war.

It must have been terribly boring with a mere 500cc, though good training in slipstreaming.

Edited by Ray Bell on Monday 6th June 21:55

[Evangelion]

Grenzlandring was indeed a supply road built by the German military around the town of Wegberg during World War 2. After the war ended, the mayor of nearby Reydt decided to drive down it just to see where it went, and it was only when he overtook a man on a bicycle that he remembered overtaking a few minutes previously, that he realised it was a big circle. (It's actually a 9 kilometre-long egg shape.)

Grenzlandring is in fact responsible for the highest speed I've ever seen in Grand Prix Legends, 207 mph in the H-16 BRM while slipstreaming another car down the long hill. I was so astonished that I completely missed the braking point for the next bend and went somersaulting out of the race!

[Ray Bell]

What did Tony Rudd say when you did that?

By the way, the linked GPL lap at the start of this thread has some crazy scenes with old Jack outbraking himself!

[Ray Bell]

Here's the sweeper through the forest:



As you can see, the road is pretty easily discerned. At least for part of the distance.

[RoverP6B]

Where is that rather overgrown sweeper? Both Solitude and the above-mentioned Grenzlandring appear still to be in use as roads.