First time to the Nurburgring
Discussion
spadriver said:
Exciting isnt it? Bearing in mind though that the eyesore that is the Rollercoaster was supposed to have been taken down last March!!
Poxy usless thing is still there.!
The ring racer roller coaster is still there (and will remain so) until the full purchase price of the ring has been paid. Until then the new owners aren't allowed to touch it.Poxy usless thing is still there.!
Apologies for jumping on the thread, but myself and hopefully a couple of mates are planning a trip out there at the end of September. We're currently looking at the weekend of 26th/27th and have checked that both days are open for Touristfahrten. Is it likely to still be very busy over the weekend so late in the year?
Anyone else planning on heading there that weekend? We're looking to arrive about lunchtime on Friday and depart about lunchtime on the Monday. Haven't booked hotels yet so open to any good suggestions.
Anyone else planning on heading there that weekend? We're looking to arrive about lunchtime on Friday and depart about lunchtime on the Monday. Haven't booked hotels yet so open to any good suggestions.
It is always busy on a weekend in the dry, get there when the doors open & do as many laps as you like in the first 2 hours, then travel round the viewing areas, there are many websites that list the satnav data for them.
Steer well clear of the late afternoon as the NUTTERS always go out "for one last hot lap" & cause mayhem.
Steer well clear of the late afternoon as the NUTTERS always go out "for one last hot lap" & cause mayhem.
Edited by andyiley on Tuesday 25th August 14:24
Did learn a few things from my trip.
1: Brakes - Best to have these in tip top condition, sliders greased well, fluid flushed out and changed for something high performance, Motel 600 or ATE TYP200 (superblue) works fine, braided hoses if you have time to install them and decent pads, DS2500s I found are EPIC and no fade on the 330i i took.
2: Crash helmets - WEAR them, seriously. 1 guy the night we got there got rushed to hospital after wiping out 150m of barrier and dropped 300 feet.. car was pancaked, and he'd not worn a helmet.
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Watch out for the 'ring taxis' especially the Green / black GTR, they like to try and run you off the road all to get their fast laps in
1: Brakes - Best to have these in tip top condition, sliders greased well, fluid flushed out and changed for something high performance, Motel 600 or ATE TYP200 (superblue) works fine, braided hoses if you have time to install them and decent pads, DS2500s I found are EPIC and no fade on the 330i i took.
2: Crash helmets - WEAR them, seriously. 1 guy the night we got there got rushed to hospital after wiping out 150m of barrier and dropped 300 feet.. car was pancaked, and he'd not worn a helmet.
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Watch out for the 'ring taxis' especially the Green / black GTR, they like to try and run you off the road all to get their fast laps in
And further to that point, just a little extra braking when being overtaken going into a corner.Its not unusual to have some of the faster heros chop you off because they have misjudged your speed.
Green and Black GTR being a bit pushy? Non of RSRs "taxidrivers" would drive that way-they have nothing to prove.Do they?
)
Green and Black GTR being a bit pushy? Non of RSRs "taxidrivers" would drive that way-they have nothing to prove.Do they?
)Sf_Manta said:
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Seriously, if you havn't got time to check mirrors before, mid and exit of any of the corners Back off a bit. It is your responsability as you are the one in control of the car. Asyour track knowledge builds then so will your speeds. Drive within your limits not your passengers, what if he misses something??doogalman said:
Sf_Manta said:
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Seriously, if you havn't got time to check mirrors before, mid and exit of any of the corners Back off a bit. It is your responsability as you are the one in control of the car. Asyour track knowledge builds then so will your speeds. Drive within your limits not your passengers, what if he misses something??"Dive inside"??? I assume you mean they overtook you on the right! If thats the case then you or both of you were still not able to interpret what was going on behind you. If yes, tf is public road laws apply ie you should be on the right out of tge way of faster vehicles.
Just my views as an instructor there.
Just my views as an instructor there.
doogalman said:
"Dive inside"??? I assume you mean they overtook you on the right! If thats the case then you or both of you were still not able to interpret what was going on behind you. If yes, tf is public road laws apply ie you should be on the right out of tge way of faster vehicles.
Just my views as an instructor there.
in my only trip to the ring people were diving in on the braking zones left and right.Just my views as an instructor there.
i do a track day a month, but DN9 was a different experience! A red flag around 9am that closed circuit for over 3 hours meant GT2/3s were eager to get in good race time all afternoon. There's no discipline over 14 miles, or at least not on first day at DN9.
it's a fabulous place and experience, but the carnage is real and it's different to uk track day. Later that afternoon i witnessed a new GT2 and M3 written off at Tietgarten, circuit closed, credit card machine burning...
i want to go again, but i would treat it as a race and be aware for anything all the time.
Robert Elise said:
in my only trip to the ring people were diving in on the braking zones left and right.
i do a track day a month, but DN9 was a different experience! A red flag around 9am that closed circuit for over 3 hours meant GT2/3s were eager to get in good race time all afternoon. There's no discipline over 14 miles, or at least not on first day at DN9.
it's a fabulous place and experience, but the carnage is real and it's different to uk track day. Later that afternoon i witnessed a new GT2 and M3 written off at Tietgarten, circuit closed, credit card machine burning...
i want to go again, but i would treat it as a race and be aware for anything all the time.
DN9 was particularly bad with the first time ring driver of the Golf writing it off first thing. Then there were several people who chose to ignore part of the briefing and overtook either side. i do a track day a month, but DN9 was a different experience! A red flag around 9am that closed circuit for over 3 hours meant GT2/3s were eager to get in good race time all afternoon. There's no discipline over 14 miles, or at least not on first day at DN9.
it's a fabulous place and experience, but the carnage is real and it's different to uk track day. Later that afternoon i witnessed a new GT2 and M3 written off at Tietgarten, circuit closed, credit card machine burning...
i want to go again, but i would treat it as a race and be aware for anything all the time.
Every driver was stopped before going on the the circuit on the 2nd day and told, in no uncertain terms that it was overtaking on the left only.
After DN9, Darren changed the criteria so no novices are allowed without instruction and reduced numbers, DN12 was certainly far better for it IMO
However, your last point about `be aware for anything all the time` should always be the case !. This isn`t a tootle down to the shops
Wh00sher said:
However, your last point about `be aware for anything all the time` should always be the case !. This isn`t a tootle down to the shops
no indeed, and i'm pretty good at being aware of what's around me, and letting cars past at first opportunity. It was still concerning though to have fast cars everywhere and knowing they'd overtake anywhere, no backing off even for 1 corner. First shock was at 8.50 when a posse of GT Porsches had decided the circuit was live and none of them wanted to let the leaders get away. As you know the circuit goes live at 9am so as a noob i was given an early shock! 15 minutes later i arrived past the Foxhole where the VW had crashed. I parked on the right of the circuit while the next 10 or so cars failed to stop and went past me under breaking into the debris, i seriously feared being rear-ended.
After this i rented a Swift for the day.
It is an awesome place though and i want more...
Sf_Manta said:
Did learn a few things from my trip.
1: Brakes - Best to have these in tip top condition, sliders greased well, fluid flushed out and changed for something high performance, Motel 600 or ATE TYP200 (superblue) works fine, braided hoses if you have time to install them and decent pads, DS2500s I found are EPIC and no fade on the 330i i took.
2: Crash helmets - WEAR them, seriously. 1 guy the night we got there got rushed to hospital after wiping out 150m of barrier and dropped 300 feet.. car was pancaked, and he'd not worn a helmet.
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Watch out for the 'ring taxis' especially the Green / black GTR, they like to try and run you off the road all to get their fast laps in
Have just done a couple of passenger laps of the 'Ring so will comment. Neither of the drivershad been there before and it was their first ever lap. One car was a 991 Carrera S the other a 993 Carrera 4. Neither car had had special attention paid to its brakes. Nobody wore a helmet. Nobody got ran off the road. I gave both drivers a few minor pointers but they drove well, kept an eye open for fast approaching traffic and enjoyed themselves.1: Brakes - Best to have these in tip top condition, sliders greased well, fluid flushed out and changed for something high performance, Motel 600 or ATE TYP200 (superblue) works fine, braided hoses if you have time to install them and decent pads, DS2500s I found are EPIC and no fade on the 330i i took.
2: Crash helmets - WEAR them, seriously. 1 guy the night we got there got rushed to hospital after wiping out 150m of barrier and dropped 300 feet.. car was pancaked, and he'd not worn a helmet.
3: Get a secondary rear view mirror and have a friend running as a co driver watching behind you. This helped both me and my friend when we went as one would drive, the other could warn you when fast traffic was coming up so you could have a chance to give space and not end up running off the road,... most of the time.
Watch out for the 'ring taxis' especially the Green / black GTR, they like to try and run you off the road all to get their fast laps in
Some good advice in here. I'll add a bit of info from the two times I've been.
If you're doing weekend days, it's gonna be busy. I got there first thing in the morning and you get an hour or so of clear-ish track time. It also seems to quieten down towards the closing time. The first hour and last hour are your best times for some quiet runs.
The first time I went I was obviously slow. However, I had made some upgrades the second time and actually found it a lot easier traffic wise the faster you go (obviously I'm not recommending you drive beyond your means though) as you aren't constantly being swallowed up by really fast stuff. As said though, stay right. The fast guys will generally know what they're doing and are normally fairly courteous if you show them courtesy yourself. Expect overtakes on corners and into braking zones. There are no 'overtake on straights only' rules.
Take money. Quite a bit of money. You'll probably end up doing more laps than you intended and if you do have a prang the bills can be quite large. I did 8 laps my first visit and 8 on my second.
Video games DO help you at the 'ring. Only for learning order of corners and some idea of lines though. The elevation changes and bumps are the hardest part of driving there though, which games give you no idea of. You'll say 'holy s
t' quite a few times at just how steep some parts of the track are.
Brakes are the biggest change you should make. Overspec them. High temp fluid/pads and healthy discs are a must.
Video of my lap if you're interested, from my second visit (8:22 BTG):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBibTjlke7g
If you're doing weekend days, it's gonna be busy. I got there first thing in the morning and you get an hour or so of clear-ish track time. It also seems to quieten down towards the closing time. The first hour and last hour are your best times for some quiet runs.
The first time I went I was obviously slow. However, I had made some upgrades the second time and actually found it a lot easier traffic wise the faster you go (obviously I'm not recommending you drive beyond your means though) as you aren't constantly being swallowed up by really fast stuff. As said though, stay right. The fast guys will generally know what they're doing and are normally fairly courteous if you show them courtesy yourself. Expect overtakes on corners and into braking zones. There are no 'overtake on straights only' rules.
Take money. Quite a bit of money. You'll probably end up doing more laps than you intended and if you do have a prang the bills can be quite large. I did 8 laps my first visit and 8 on my second.
Video games DO help you at the 'ring. Only for learning order of corners and some idea of lines though. The elevation changes and bumps are the hardest part of driving there though, which games give you no idea of. You'll say 'holy s
t' quite a few times at just how steep some parts of the track are. Brakes are the biggest change you should make. Overspec them. High temp fluid/pads and healthy discs are a must.
Video of my lap if you're interested, from my second visit (8:22 BTG):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBibTjlke7g
Edited by Andy S15 on Monday 31st August 14:31
Unfortunately your experience is not the norm.There have been many times the Ring has been closed within the first ten minutes of opening.Sunday's are becoming extremely busy with the usual end of summer rush.
Usual best times to visit are Monday thru till Wednesday being the quietest, but only if your lucky.;)
Usual best times to visit are Monday thru till Wednesday being the quietest, but only if your lucky.;)
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