Tina and I traveled to Europe last week and one major feature of the trip was to be able to spend an entire day at the Nurburgring driving the Nordschleife. In addition to my day at “The Ring” we also spent time in London, Cologne and Stuttgart (Porsche Museum).
I had spent quite a bit of time practicing the track on video games (Forza), YouTube videos and importantly studying a European Circuit guide that provides turn by turn info with diagrams, lines, notes to surface conditions, etc. I can say that this absolutely paid off as I knew the track forward and backwards. But I also felt like Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. I had practiced extensively, but I knew the real deal was going to be different in some potentially unpredictable way. I was expecting the differences to be in track elevation and surface conditions (bumps, surface changes, etc.)
Anyhow, corners that I was worried about were maybe not as difficult as I had expected and the opposite was true as well. Corners that I was less concerned about were more difficult or scary in real life. I was more worried about corners such as Schwedenkreuz, the kink prior to Metzgesfeld, Kallenhardt (concerned about wall on outside of turn), Miss-Hit-Miss (concerned about pushing out to outside wall), Angst Curve (high speed kink just prior to Klostertal), Eschbach (concerned about running wide), Brunnchen (concerned about running wide) and the jump at at Planzgarten (concerned about the jump and unsettling the car for the double apex right). Maybe it was because I was concerned about them in advance that I drove them correctly as I found most all of them to not be an issue.
However I had four places that were more difficult than expected. First was the fast double apex right hander called Flugplatz. It has a crest just right before the turn in. It is easy to do slow, but you are on the edge when very fast. The issue is the car is light just before the turn in point and if you get the entry wrong you will go off on the left and have a big crash. Second was the bottom of Fuchsrohre (Foxhole). This was the fastest part of the track and an early apex at the very bottom pushes you out to the right at the top. I had one moment in which I ran right up to the very edge of the track at about 115 MPH. There is no room for error as when you go off you ping pong between the barriers for about 100 yards. Third was less of a problem, but more of a surprise. On the uphill, off camber, right hand at the end of Wipperman, there was some issue with the surface that caused the car to jump to the left a bit. I suspect it was a small dip in the track surface. But I learned the car always would recover and it wasn’t an issue, but it scared me the first time. Lastly, I found that while the first part of Galgenkopf (last series of right hand turns before long main straight) is easy, the last bit requires some respect. It’s easy to carry/gain too much speed that causes you to track out, run out of track and potentially have an off at high speed. In a way like Hog Pen at VIR. While not an issue of being scared, it took me about ½ of the day to realize that the speed limit at Breidscheid/Ex-Muhle are pretty much ignored (yes, there is a section that has a speed limit). So I eventually stopped lifting/braking for that. There is an entrance to the track there and you just have to watch for cars pulling out onto the track.
The car was a Rent4Ring’s “Stage 2 Suzuki Swift”. They have stripped the interior, put in a full roll cage, composite race seats, four point harness (it must be street legal so five point harnesses are not allowed), modified suspension (Ohlin shocks, springs, roll bars, alignment, etc.), Federal FZ-201 tires on 15” alloy wheels, sport intake and exhaust. It had about 136 HP. It was setup very well, easy to drive, pretty neutral, and didn’t seem to have any bad manners, but could have used more power.
They do scare you a bit during a 15 minute briefing regarding various on track things (how easy it is to crash, how easy it is to screw up and owe someone else money for their car because you didn’t follow the rules, etc.). They also warn you that if you exceed specific RPM limits (due to missed shift) that you will pay a hefty price. They have an system to monitor the engine and then download the data when you get back. You basically leave the briefing ready to ask for a refund!
I had been planning this trip for months, so I brought with me a GoPro camera and also ran Trackmaster on my phone while at the track. Video is technically not allowed at the Nurburgring, but in 2013 there is an unwritten rule that it is OK as long as the camera is mounted inside of the car. The rule was relaxed because everyone was doing it anyhow, and they were having problems with people pulling off the side of the track, setting up their camera, and then pulling back on again. They had a number of small accidents in this area due to people pulling back onto the track in front of other cars.
My initial personal notes said I ran 15 laps, but my notes might not be accurate as I ran a number of laps back to back in the afternoon and was making notes after a series on laps. So when I looked at the video and logging data, it showed only 14. I had pre-paid for 12, but on my last lap realized I was getting tired and had made a few small mistakes early one and decided it was time to quit while I was ahead. That was at about 5:15 or so.
I ran on a Saturday, the weather was excellent and all of Europe was at the track. It was absolutely packed in the morning. I was a bit late getting to the track, so there was an initial closure for about an hour. I then I got out onto track.
For the first lap, I was taking it easy and doing a recon lap. We had been instructed to stay to the right as much as possible. I did stay to the right a good bit, but that really slows you down, so you spend the entire time looking in your rear mirror. In the morning, there was a number of crashes, break downs, oil spills, etc. Each closure was about an hour long. There were people in fast cars going slow and slow cars going fast. Some people would signal with their blinker to let you know they have moved to the right while about 60-80% just moved or was on the right with no blinker. It was hard at times to know if they were on the right on purpose or if they were just over there and about to turn in on you. So passing could be tricky at times, especially if the speed differential wasn’t that much and you either crawled past, or had to pass them in a turn (both inside or outside). You also had the typical issue of catching a fast car driven slowly in the turns, but then driving slightly faster than you (or fast enough you can’t pass) on the straights. I had a few of those.
Here is a quick summary…
Lap #1Two accidents include a bike at Brunchen
BTG: 11:49
Track closed for about an hourLap #2No accidents, but oil down in places
BTG: 10:54
Lap #3Accident on track
BTG: 10:55
Track closed for about an hourLap #4Accident on track (Porsche 911)
BTG: 9:49? (need to check my data. This is likely a 10:49)
Track closed for about an hourLap #5Two accidents. Both are BMWs. Debris on track
BTG: 10:42
Track closed for about an hourLap #6Less traffic. Scare myself at Fochsrohre on this lap.
BTG: 10:07
Lap #7Yellow flag (car recovery?)
BTG: 10:31
Lap #8At least one yellow flag and disabled vehicle on track
BTG: 10:07
Lap #9Yellow flag and car recovery vehicle on track
BTG: 10:39
Lap #10BTG: 10:25
Take a breakLap #11It is now about 4:45 local time. Much less traffic now! Caught and passed a well driven white van (Top Gear redux?)
BTG: 9:50
Lap #12One of two drama free laps. Very little traffic.
BTG: 9:41
Lap #13Second good lap. Interesting time is nearly same as last. Ring taxi passes me at one point.
BTG: 9:41
Lap #14Getting tired. Make a few small mistakes early on. Decide part of way through lap it will be my last. I do better on second part of lap. If I hadn’t lost concentration early on, this likely would have been my fastest lap. Passed by KTM X-bow
BTG: 9:49
I have video for all laps but #2 and #3 as the GoPro had locked up and I had to reboot it prior to lap #4. I have TrackMaster data for all laps except for #5 and #9. I have put together a YouTube video for lap #12. I plan to play around with seeing if I can do an overlay of the Trackmaster data for the future videos (hopefully with in the next week or so). Here is the link to lap #12 as well as the track master data. Top speed was about 120 MPH at the bottom of Fuchsrohre. Most of the time I was at about 70 MPH or so. Large parts of the lap were spent at full throttle. The slower laps are more dramatic due to the traffic. The faster laps are less drama as they tend to flow well, with me being held up less and also being able to not get slowed down by passing cars.
Lap #12 YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDFnKiUcDXoLap #12 Trackmaster...
http://www.mytrackmaster.com/#SessionPl ... lvbhj0qAIMThe car is supposed to be capable of a 8:40 BTG time in the hands of a professional driver. I generally tried to leave some room on the track in some places. I also know I could be more aggressive on braking harder and later and also carrying more speed through a number of turns. Redline was 7K. Due to the warning about over revs, I tried to be careful with my shifts and also short shifted at about 6.5K. I drove quick, but not at 10/10ths. I can imagine that within another 10 laps or so, no traffic, no short shifts, carry more speed in places, I think I could get down to 9:15. Overall I felt very good about my final times given I had never driven the track before.
Richard
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