Friday 23rd August 2013

Ringside Seat: Sales patter

We know the 'ring is for sale, but what's really happening?

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On paper the Nurburgring is interesting, but not remarkable. It's a racing circuit, and it's very long. It goes up and down quite a bit. But is it interesting enough for the German government to sell to a private entity at anything like a decent price?

Could the Nordschleife be the next Red Bull Ring?

From a manufacturer's point of view there are plenty of other places to test cars all over Europe and the rest of the world. The behemoth that is the Volkswagen Group has its own German facilities at Ehra-Lessien with over 96km of tarmac available. That place features an 8.9km speed testing straight made famous by the 268mph Veyron Super Sport. It's flat, but thanks to the curvature of the Earth you can't see one end from the other. That's pretty serious, and combined with the other 50km of twisty and bumpy stuff, it makes the 21km Nordschleife look pathetic.

There are other places worth naming too, like Millbrook or the Michelin Almeria facility. Now we're about half-way through the schedule of the 'ring's sale and the registered interests are in. One by one, they should be turning into offers. The next step will be formal offers, then final negotiations.

Non-circuit facilities need rejuvenation

The much-discussed deadline here is the end of 2013. According to the local papers, radio and TV the Nurburgring will almost certainly be in new hands by next year.

But who's going to buy it, and why? Right now the doors are closed and we have nothing but conjecture around who's actually bidding. But that speculation includes manufacturers as diverse as Jaguar to Hyundai, with the usual BMW, Mercedes and VW suspects in the middle. Investment groups from both sides of the Atlantic (and Pacific) have been mentioned as well as Bernie Ecclestone himself. And don't even get me started on the energy drinks. Red Bull Ring Part Deux? Would that be so bad?

'Ring has many rivals as a test facility in Europe

Maybe it's the onward march of health and safety that makes us all love the anachronistic Nurburgring Nordschleife and its unforgiving crash barriers. Potential buyers know that. They know we all love the place, and that they can make money from it too. It's win win.

Imagine the glee at Hyundai HQ if BMW had to ask permission to test on the Hyundai Nurburgring? Of course, right now there's no way of knowing how much is being bid and by which party. Only the state-appointed liquidators know that. But even with debts of around half a billion, I wouldn't be surprised if the Government still shift the Nurburgring and turn a tidy profit at the same time. That would be both interesting AND remarkable.

[LukeR94]

Ill start off the bidding at






£10

[Timmycube]

Imagine the Pistonheads ring though?

£11 to start a consortium...

[Ex Boy Racer]

Timmycube said:

Imagine the Pistonheads ring though?

£11 to start a consortium...

I'll put in £20

[FastRich]

Pah, you're too cheap.

I'll see your £11 and raise you £15.

[tim milne]

Red Bull might be the best bet.

They're agnostic from a manufacturers point of view and—more importantly—with their heavy involvement with extreme sports sponsorship (their strategy seems to be that if it can kill you, they'll pay for it), then at the least the inevitable Nurburgring neutering might be at least delayed or softened in their hands.

[Gary C]

Consortium of private individuals sounds interesting.

[80quattro]

I'll put £50 into the hat if I can name it the 80quattroring

[M@1975]

I'll stick in a ton if I can have a corner named after me..

[80quattro]

M@1975 said:

I'll stick in a ton if I can have a corner named after me..

Wouldn't exactly roll off the tongue though, would it?

[dlockhart]

theres 147 corners if memory serves at 500 million thats about 3 million to name a corner. come on cough up....

[samoht]

Would have been useful to have had some stats on annual income/costs, even if just informed guesses.

How much do they charge per lap? How many Tourist days a year?
How much for a trackday? How many drivers?

I guess manufacturer testing pays a comparable amount per day (otherwise the organisers would shift the balance to make more money).

Would help put the value in perspective.

[rtz62]

Don't care who gets it as long as its not that grey-haired, squint-eyed, duplicitous, sanctimonious, half-truth-teller that has a. Ig interest in F1....

[moribund]

Can't see a manufacturer buying it - having their name mentioned next the inevitable future fatalities is not good marketing.

[HeMightBeBanned]

I'm going to form a company called 'Lick My' and then put in a bid

[J-P]

Timmycube said:

Imagine the Pistonheads ring though?

£11 to start a consortium...

Good shout - how many members on PH? How much would each member have to put in to stump up the necessary cash?

[nawarne]

rtz62 said:

Don't care who gets it as long as its not that grey-haired, squint-eyed, duplicitous, sanctimonious, half-truth-teller that has a. Ig interest in F1....

....Oooh, don't hold back!!

You're right though, he caused all the upset and worry for the circuit in the first place.
Nick

[The Moose]

dlockhart said:

theres 147 corners if memory serves at 500 million thats about 3 million to name a corner. come on cough up....

Is that what they're asking €500,000,000?

[MarkPhillipson]

Here's my idea - we divide the 'Ring up into 1 hour units and sell it like a timeshare to motoring enthusiasts (only individuals can apply and a strict limit on the number of units sold to any one person will be imposed). Once you've got your units (say between 2 and 4 am on 15th September)you can swap that time with someone else - using the new www.its-your-ring.com website - if you don't happen to be available on the 15th Sept that year. At a very reasonable £200 per unit you have a racing slot for life. This would raise around 2m euros - a clearly ludicrously small sum of money compared to what they are hoping for but it would return the 'Ring to the people who would most appreciate it. From a commercial perspective it could not even remotely be run as a business with a purchase loan of half a billion to service (or has someone got that confused with the further half billion current debts to pay off?). As it is clearly a white elephant then they should understand that only eccentric individuals like us lot will go shopping at a white elephant stall......

[RemarkLima]

The Moose said:

dlockhart said:

theres 147 corners if memory serves at 500 million thats about 3 million to name a corner. come on cough up....

Is that what they're asking €500,000,000?

Pistonheads said:

But even with debts of around half a billion, I wouldn't be surprised if the Government still shift the Nurburgring and turn a tidy profit at the same time.

€500 million is half a billion in my book... So see that figure as an "at least" figure. Especially if there's profit to be made... Again it could go down a little depending on what debts can be written off or marked down.

So, get a 100,000 people each to stump up €5000 it could be *ahem* yours.