Monday 23rd January 2012

Ringside seat: tourist laps under threat

Our man at the Nurburgring on why the 'ring needs weekday tourist sessions

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Dark clouds (literal and figurative) are gathering over Nurburg, and the mood here is understandably grim. The ongoing saga of the Nurburgring's crisis just gets worse by the day. Threats of mass unemployment amongst Nurburgring employees, possible cancellation of the F1 rounds, and even an alleged additional €160m of debt (yes, that's nearly half a billion total now). How can things get any worse?

Well, try this one on for size: what if the track's last cash cow got caught in the crossfire between cost-cutting and money-making? Last month the public opening times for the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the 'touristenfahrten' sessions were released. Or to be more accurate, they were only half-released.

Only dates up until July 1 were put online at the Nurburgring's official site. And they didn't include any mid-week evening openings. In June there are currently only two days with public sessions on the track.

This isn't just awful news for drivers of the slightly less-crowded midweek openings, it's bad news for anybody who is right now making plans to drive the Nordschleife. A whole year's worth of visitors will be cramming their trip into the few days that are advertised.

Personally, as an employee of an independent rental firm that is nearly 100 per cent reliant on the Nurburgring's public sessions, it could be an utter disaster. With no mid-week rentals my employers would see turnover cut by up to 60 per cent, and profits even more so. Staff would have to go, possibly myself included.

But why on earth would the Nurburgring cut back on the now-€26 per lap, and up to €10,000 per hour public sessions? The rumour is, and I stress it's just a vicious rumour, that the industry testing might one day stretch from 8am until 7pm. These industry pool sessions, as they're called, have been nibbling into the public times for several years. Visitors last year often only had time for a couple of laps as posted opening times of 1730h were often delayed by up to and over one hour. Industry test schedules and 'lap times' taking precedence over a carpark full of frustrated petrolheads.

The official response of the Nurburgring to my pestering was to publish the first eight evening opening times in March.

Ann-Katherin Schürmann of the Nurburgring's press department told me, "The opening times will now be published step by step in the internet on our homepage www.nuerburgring.de and there are no plans [to replace the evening touristenfahrten sessions with industry sessions]."

I truly hope so, because not only do the public hours keep this place alive, but a lap of the 'ring is the only thing guaranteed to break anybody's bad mood.

 

[varsas]

Oh dear. More bad news then. While I realise it's a business, it also (in a way) belongs to the people (of Germany) so it's shame when restrictions on it's enjoyment, by the public, are put in place. I'd get very upset indeed if my local council started closing the local woods so they could rent it out to a horse riding club.

[varsas]

EDLT said:

mrmr96 said:

Will the "prestige" of a "good ring time" for a sports car become less valued by car buyers if they can't actually take such cars to said track?!

It was a pointless statistic anyway and led to cars with suspension that is far too stiff for the road. Even the 0-60 time was more relevant than how quickly a hatchback can be driven around a track that most Germans won't visit, never mind the rest of us.

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.