Ringside Seat: trip back in time

A tourist lap of the Nurburgring, 60s style, thanks to one man's photo collection

Recently a set of original Kodachromes surfaced on Reddit from one man's visit to the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 1967 . They offer a fantastic insight into the Nurburgring of the past.

Car ownership was slowly transitioning from luxury to normality and the famous tourist-driving sessions were just starting to get popular. Enter one man, known only as Jack Moody, possibly an engineer in the employ of Porsche. As an avid photographer, he documented his trip to the Nurburgring with a full roll of film.

Of course, there were some major differences in both the track and the behaviour of its visitors, and nowhere have I seen it better illustrated than in the following pictures.

The journey begins at the old Start/Finish loop, now the site of the Formula 1 track.

Just like today's public sessions the cars are a mix of the sporting and the sedate. The first thing I saw was the two Austin Healeys, but who could miss the Messerschmitt bubble car at the end of the row?

Out of the pitlane, probably paying a single Deutschmark per lap, and on to the 'loop'. All of this tarmac was ripped up during the 1982-1984 modernisation.

The first piece of recognisable Nordschleife now appears. No forests here as we exit Hocheichen and head towards the jump at Quiddelbacher Hohe. The three-pointed star of the photographer's Benz just visible in the bottom right of the frame. In my mind's eye, Jack is holding his camera loose in front of his eye, snapping frames off the wrist while the other hand holds the light-action steering wheel of his new company car.

Another sparse horizon, this time at Aremberg. You can just make out the Aremberg hill at the bottom right of the frame. Today's gravel trap didn't appear until the late 70s or early 80s. In 1973, for example, there was nothing but an extended area of grass run-off. That's proper FIA compared to this wooden fence!

One of my favourite shots of the whole set, even though it's so shaky. I can imagine that even at cruising speeds, Adenauer Forst's combination right-left-right flick still caught Jack out a little. Check out the gaggle of Beetle owners parked on the infield of the corner! It's not as if the corner was any less dangerous back then. This video was shot only three years later.

The big old Benz is picking up speed now, heading down to the second entrance at Breidscheid. Those privet hedges are awesome. They might not stop you rolling down the hill to Herr Bongard's fledgling recovery business, but they look a lot prettier than the steel ones.

Heaving itself up the Klostertal, our next view is of the famous Steilstrecke. As with Adenauer Forst, there's a little congregation of tourists stopped to talk about the view, or maybe their new cars.

The Caracciola Karussell, but not as we recognise it. No flat bottom here, just a big solid kerb and a grass bank ready to flip over any car that oversteers to the inside. Crashes to the outside would be seriously punished as well.

Just a few seconds later and the V8 is rumbling its way up to the top of Hohe Acht. Ahead is a Porsche, probably just passing the big Benz. But only Jack knows for sure!

The hand-written notes on the slides proclaimed this shot as being "one-handed at over 100mph!". GoPros be damned, this is some real first-person action on the famous Dottinger Hohe straightaway. No road cones and ticket barriers here in 1967 though. Our current tourist entrance is barely 15 years old. Back then Jack would have driven through Tiergarten at full speed, braked into the Hohenrain chicane and then emerged onto the first straightaway of the Start/Ziel loop.

Having driven the west-facing straightaway, Jack has now down the 180-degree turn (where you could have turned off to the old Sudscheife) and is heading back towards the castle and the finish line of a 1967 tourist lap.

I can't tell you how much joy these old slides have brought me. They're amazing. The Redditor who found them would love to find out more about Jack Moody, Porsche Engineer, Nurburgring visitor and Kodachrome junky. Be sure to leave a comment if you can shed any more light on these.

Below is a video I made to compare the Nurburgring then and now. Enjoy!

[Sources: rexhardwick, via Reddit]

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jimmy156

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