Friday 9th March 2012

Ringside Seat: Touristen Fahrten magic

Why don't we have 'tourist drives' here in Blighty?

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Us Brits often like to think of the Germans as a bunch of bureaucratic rule-abiding spoilsports. But the truth, it appears, is quite the opposite. Let me tell you about the Touristenfahrten sessions, or simply TF for short.

Here at the Nurburgring the public driving sessions on the 21km Nordschleife are world famous. But did you know that it's not just us residents of the German Eifel mountains who are so fortunate to have such regular and cheap racetrack access?

Hockenheim has its own regular TF slot on a Thursday night, while Oschersleben calls them "Arena Training Sessions". The new Bilsterberg circuit is planning a TF calendar too. The concept all around Germany is always the same; you pay a relatively small amount of money (between €25 and €50 for a 20- to 30-minute session) and drive your own road-legal car on a real race track. The sessions are typically on 'off' days and evenings, when nobody else would use the track. Only on the Nordschleife has TF become a primary money-maker.

But the management here at the 'Ring have recently increased the number of TF sessions available on the 5.2km F1 circuit too. For 40 euros, both cars and motorbikes alike can join one queue in the pitlane and drive the track for just over 20 minutes.

Maybe the sudden increase in public access is a money-making scheme from the management who, after the recent scandal should have been evicted a week ago, but it got me thinking. Why no TF in the UK?

On a public session here in Germany it's very simply stated that road rules apply (StVO). If you crash you're responsible for whatever damages or costs you incur. Germans will even expect these bills to be paid by their insurance company as test cases here have proved that it's not a race and coverage is valid.

Amazingly, there's no briefing at all. No paperwork to be completed. You just pay your money to a guy behind a counter. In return you receive a ticket which gets you into pitlane. The gate between the pitlane and the track is only opened up when the current session's traffic has exited the track at another crash gate. That happens once every twenty minutes. The only marshals on the whole course are stood at the entrance and exit of the track. There is just one emergency response team watching the CCTV coverage.

And you know what? It works. No briefings, no helmets, cars and bikes out together on a real F1 track and it actually works. Sure, the busier sessions can get a little silly. I remember first hearing the term 'Terroristen-fahrt' (Terrorists' driving) at a particularly crazy Hockenheim session in 2005.

But can you imagine this at Brands Hatch? Or Silverstone? Rocking up at 7pm for a sly half-hour thrash on the way home from the office? Hell, the briefing and paperwork alone would take up the first 30 minutes and you'd have to be on your way before the wife/boss figured out what was happening. And that's a shame, because I think TF is the best thing that ever happened to this particular PHer.

Dale's own TF session video

 

[MogulBoy]

I did a couple of sessions at Hockenheim 7/8 years ago but it doesn't sound like much has changed. A right old mixture of cars on track and it was certainly busy but at least that track is wide enough to give everyone the room that they need. Once you have made a bit of space for yourself, you can have a bit of fun but there isn't much time to get into a rthyhm.

[vescaegg]

I don't know if the standards of driving is better in Germany or not, but I wouldn't trust UK drivers to not die every day.

Not sure why I feel this way but I'd be happy to do it in Germany, not so much here....

[ali4390]

That looks dsome great slow speed fun!!

[yorkieboy]

Makes me want to get my scoob back on the road, Looks a right larfffff!!

[ecs0set]

The thought of some 'ring drivers running round Cadwell Park with the same speed / optimism / lack of respect for others is the stuff of nightmares!

[ktm301p]

That guy in the MX-5 was almost as impressive as Chris!

[trackdemon]

Best thing about that is being able to rock up because its raining - I much prefer wet trackdays, but they are difficult to predict when you have to book a couple of weeks in advance....

[RB Will]

I kind of asked this question before. Why can't UK circuits operate like Karting tracks where you just turn up pay and get 15 mins on track. It would certainly see me on track more often.

Castle Combe do "Action Days" which are a like what I am thinking but they only do a few a year and they end up so busy. I know a guy who was hit by someone else in one of these sessions. The general driving standard does seem lower than your average track day but if they were less busy avoiding the numpties would not be a problem.

[TVR Jim]

Sounds like a great idea...

But I would think it needs a little more "structure" to avoid future YouTube videos entitled;

"17yr Old 1.0L Saxo Driver (with Big Bore 4)annihilates Lambo in "lift off-oversteer" FAIL!"

TVR Jim

[ukaskew]

Castle Combe do something vaguely similar on their Action Days (essentially a track day where you can just book a 15 minute slot), whilst things have improved massively in the past two years the standard of driving in the early days was 'interesting' to say the least.

Maybe if it was a more frequent, common thing people would calm down a bit, I guess only being able to do that 3 or 4 times per year means the red mist descends a bit quicker than it otherwise would.

[Gorbyrev]

Sorry but the weekend is almost here:
Der Affe (Monkey - I checked it on google!) fahrten zu wk berg. What a PH week for childish German inspired humour!

[MikeyBoy2000]

It's never going to work in the UK.... Just imagine the carnage when the Asda car park brigade are mixing it with Road rage fuelled 1st timers... I shudder at the thought.

[garypotter]

Great fun, Do they also have the crazy costs if you damage their fencing ina spill!!

By the way nearly switched of the vid at seemed to take hours to get sterted.

[mmm-five]

The UK's road traffic laws would mean you'd have to have no insurance on a race track, no matter what it's being used for. Much the same as we can't use our normal road insurance for 'Ring tourist days.

[Stedman]

Brands and a few others do 20 min sessions. Maybe more paperwork involved but they're quite cheap and should be good fun.

[Guybrush]

It's a brilliant idea. Sure there will be a few crashes at first and the media will be waiting (and wanting) to say "we knew this was a crazy idea") but once people get used to the idea of real freedom and lack of red tape, it will settle down. After all, there aren't crashes every day on the 'no limits' parts of the isle of Man. We in the UK have control freakery rammed into us, such that it's almost in our DNA, so we predict disaster as soon as there's a possibility that we will be allowed to do something without anyone controlling us. It's pathetic really, but we must learn - the human race can adapt to absence of control.

[jakesmith]

3:04
"Sorry I want to go play with this Porsche!"
"Oh where's he gone!?"
!!!

[Smitters]

I think, rather like assuming we Brits would adopt a Euro-casual approach to drinking when the booze laws changed, but in reality, just went mental, this would be a disaster.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love it, but there is no way I'd go out on track with a bunch of people who'd just turned up (or indeed expect people to be happy being on track with me, someone who's never done a trackday). It might not go wrong too often, but when it did, it would be big.

Then we'd see how clever no marshals, one emergency vehicle, no paperwork, no helmet etc would be.

The alternative would be to price it out of range of your average McDonalds Warrior, but then we've got that already - track days.

I'm sorry to sound down, but I just don't think the British general public, in the main, have the sense to do it without ruining..

[GTiFrank]

You mean like the 20 min taster session that MSV run?

[Gorbyrev]

Great fun and good idea. Great ad for the RX-8 too, great sound and obviously, great balance. Start looks like a troll horror movie though - will he turn off the engine and flood the seals?! Will he run out of unleaded? Of course not.