Nice!

Point me in the direction of some one way roads with crash barriers, safety personnel, handling challenges, no speed limits and all within the law then please.

Isle Of Man - closer and cheaper.

If you go with a reasonable sized group they will (or did for us a few yrs ago) close the Mountain Section so you get the complete road.

I'm unsure why the Isle Of Man gets overlooked as Europe keeps tightening its once relaxed attitude to speed and the Ring is a financial disaster if you make a mistake.

EDIT - OK I'm starting to see why it's less popular, ferry crossing in the summer is £220 upwards

Dale is the name at the bottom of the article.

Greed,incompetence and carelessness are ruining the most unique track on the planet. Its a tragedy for every petrolhead who has been or who might consider going. Very depressing news indeed. Its not just the track - its the unique community of locals and repeat visitors who bring an informality and friendliness to the place. The monster facilities are at odds with a rural area, and were ill-conceived. I hope some sanity returns...........

I have always dreamed of going round the nurburg i just hope that i can buy myself a decent car and get over there before its no longer available to do!

Isn't it ironic that the whole place was built, way back when, to ease unemployment and poverty in the region??? And of course to showcase the might of the German Car Industry.

2500 laps in.

I've gone off the place due to poor driving, and poor management and overcrowding.

From a business point of view it's difficult. They feel that they are trying to make the best of the situation taking on highly paid contracts by big car makers which pays them a serious amount of money. However they are neglecting their initial source of income, the tourist, who comes not only to set a lap but investigate the legendary circuit itself.

Whilst the tourist will not pay much at one time they will at a rate of (Hopefully) 15% return year on year. The amount of money paid by tourists over a year if managed properly will most likely match if not supercede that of the few manafacturers that will spend the necessary amount to block off a few days, especially as the screw tightens on development costs, which will stop the frittering of money on such things for cheaper cars.
(I state this hopefully as I have no real facts to back it up)

I do hope that the current management decides to relinquish their control over the circuit before they drive it either into further debt by suffocating the enthusiast or by giving it to a single manufacturer entirely *cough Herr Porsche cough*

That is actually a very good point... take the public interest out of the track and the prestige of a good ring time is meaningless. They need to find a happy medium....

Couldn't agree less.

My V8 XJR had the same 0-60 time as my friends E36 M3, so from that statistic alone they where as fast as each other. Top speed and 1/4 mile time would have been about the same too but they where utterly different to drive, one was a big luxo barge with a massive engine, the other more like a race car for the road.

The 'Ring time would have been alone in showing that because it takes into account the cornering and braking abilities of the car.

If you'd driven the ring you would know it's not like a race track, it really is very similar to a normal road which is what makes it pretty much unique.

I don't buy that the 'ring is the reason modern sports cars have stuff suspension, it's mostly fashion. People want big wheels and a very controlled chassis.