Journey to the Nordschleife
Discussion
Has anyone here been on a trip to the Nurburgring from here in the UK by car?
A friend and myself are considering going on a road trip in his supercharged Honda Integra DC5, sharing driving duties, and are working out what we want to do and where to aim for. We’re currently thinking: Leave the UK on the Eurotunnel on a Thursday evening and then get a Hotel somewhere in France overnight. Then head down to Reims on the Friday (Abandoned French F1 Circuit) then continue onto the Nurburgring and kip overnight. We’ll then have Saturday morning for circuit driving on the Nordschleife and then head off to Brussels, having a few beers and sleeping. Then, we’ll make our weary way home on Sunday.
If anyone has any cool locations to visit or driving roads to take advantage of, then please let me know. Also, any tips or tricks for driving on the Nordschleife would be appreciated! We know it’s a death trap and although we’ll have a 350BHP car, we’re looking into renting a Renault Clio RS 220 EDC Trophy car we can share that’s fully insured if we stack it, or someone drives into us. It’s a real dream for both of us doing this, but there’s no question, we’re both rightfully cautious about driving on the Nordschleife.
It’ll be cool to get some inspiration for the drive if anyone has been! I'm currently reading through the Euro journeys thread as well, to see if any cool locations or roads stand out.
A friend and myself are considering going on a road trip in his supercharged Honda Integra DC5, sharing driving duties, and are working out what we want to do and where to aim for. We’re currently thinking: Leave the UK on the Eurotunnel on a Thursday evening and then get a Hotel somewhere in France overnight. Then head down to Reims on the Friday (Abandoned French F1 Circuit) then continue onto the Nurburgring and kip overnight. We’ll then have Saturday morning for circuit driving on the Nordschleife and then head off to Brussels, having a few beers and sleeping. Then, we’ll make our weary way home on Sunday.
If anyone has any cool locations to visit or driving roads to take advantage of, then please let me know. Also, any tips or tricks for driving on the Nordschleife would be appreciated! We know it’s a death trap and although we’ll have a 350BHP car, we’re looking into renting a Renault Clio RS 220 EDC Trophy car we can share that’s fully insured if we stack it, or someone drives into us. It’s a real dream for both of us doing this, but there’s no question, we’re both rightfully cautious about driving on the Nordschleife.
It’ll be cool to get some inspiration for the drive if anyone has been! I'm currently reading through the Euro journeys thread as well, to see if any cool locations or roads stand out.
Cabrony said:
Would the ring not be quieter on a Friday? If you are sharing driving why not go straight to the ring then do Reims on the way back?
Is the Nordschleife normally more quiet on a Friday? That's a very good point.We went for the Reims > Nurburgring > Brussels simply as it felt like a good loop to drive to but did not consider ideal days to drive on the Nordschleife, just as we got round to it!
Original plan will still work because if the Ring is open on Friday it'll only be from 17.15-19.30 so you could get a few laps in before beer o'clock/dinner.
https://www.greenhelldriving.nuerburgring.de/#/lan...
Eat here.
http://www.am-tiergarten.de/en/restaurant_nuerburg...
https://www.greenhelldriving.nuerburgring.de/#/lan...
Eat here.
http://www.am-tiergarten.de/en/restaurant_nuerburg...
I believe the Ring rentals have a huge excess if damaged so it's not exactly walk away scot free after a stack.
As above ,go to Ring Friday evening ,do a few easy laps to get the feel ,return Saturday morning for a bit more and go and do other
stuff on Sunday.
I actually know of 1 or 2 PHers who have actually driven all the way to Germany AND back again.
Who knew it was even possible ?....
As above ,go to Ring Friday evening ,do a few easy laps to get the feel ,return Saturday morning for a bit more and go and do other
stuff on Sunday.
I actually know of 1 or 2 PHers who have actually driven all the way to Germany AND back again.
Who knew it was even possible ?....
When I did the Ring I deliberately did it midweek so it was quieter. Did it on a Tues night as soon as the track opened, and got some laps in before all the local nutters joined in. Then cooled down in Tiergarten afterwards.
I did it in my own car, as I've had it for years and know exactly how it behaves. Yes it's a risk, but I thought I would enjoy it more in a car I know.
Check here for TF dates: http://nurburgring.org.uk/calendar.php
I did it in my own car, as I've had it for years and know exactly how it behaves. Yes it's a risk, but I thought I would enjoy it more in a car I know.
Check here for TF dates: http://nurburgring.org.uk/calendar.php
I'll go into more detail later but I'll say this for now.
-Yes your plans sound fine
-You can drive to the 'ring in a day. In May I left Warwickshire at 3am and got there for 2:30pm(ish)
-Reims is well worth the visit.
-The 220 EDC from Rent-A-Race-Car is well worth trying.
-ANY car you crash at the 'ring (yours or RARC's) will be expensive. At least RARC's excess is capped and you will have a car to come back in.
-Yes your plans sound fine
-You can drive to the 'ring in a day. In May I left Warwickshire at 3am and got there for 2:30pm(ish)
-Reims is well worth the visit.
-The 220 EDC from Rent-A-Race-Car is well worth trying.
-ANY car you crash at the 'ring (yours or RARC's) will be expensive. At least RARC's excess is capped and you will have a car to come back in.
Wools said:
then head off to Brussels, having a few beers and sleeping.
Suggest avoid Brussels if you can.Ok the Central square and the Euro buildings are nice, but the transport system is pretty grotty,
there are plenty of challenged suburbs and the town itself is so ethnically diverse
it's sometimes hard to work out if you are in Europe, Asia or Africa.
However, some might say that's a good thing ;->
It's only 270 miles from Calais to the Ring, so an easy four hour drive or so.
Wools said:
If anyone has any cool locations to visit or driving roads to take advantage of,
I've been driving across Belgium for nearly thirty years and I've yet to find anyinteresting roads. There might be some somewhere, though.
Brugges is where all the tourist hordes go, so that's well worth avoiding.
I can personally verify that Gent & Ostend are nicer places than Brussels.
Some of the smaller towns along the coast are quite pleasant too,
in an elasticated waistband, garden centre cafe and leisurely lunch sort of way.
cailean said:
Stop at Spa and walk around some of the track. Great place for a pit stop...
That's a good shout.....we normally do this. Usually we have found something going on there and it's a good place to stop for lunch. Added bonus is that roads from there to the Ring are much more interesting.dcb said:
I've been driving across Belgium for nearly thirty years and I've yet to find any
interesting roads. There might be some somewhere, though.
I often read similar comments in this forum, plus others about the bad the quality of the road surface and poor driving standards of the Belgians. While true in parts, I've also been driving to Belgium for a long time (but only 20 years interesting roads. There might be some somewhere, though.
) and I have always found excellent roads. I agree that the west and north of the country are uninspiring places to drive. However if you head to the Ardennes you will not be disappointed - between Charleroi and the French border, in the south east towards the Lux border and going east from Spa to Germany / the Ring (which is where the OP is heading for) are fabulous 
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