A Lap Of The Ring

In the past few years the measuring stick for how big and bad assed a manufactures car is has become a lap time on the Nordschleife circuit of the Nurburgring.  This is the legendary 28.265Km/17.5 mile track in Germany that for many years was the home of the German F1 race.  This is the track that Niki Lauda had his famous crash in 1976 and was almost burned to death.

 It’s said Nissan’s goal with the GTR was to go quicker than a Porsche 911 around this track.  Porsche has in the past shown in it’s TV ads engineers doing laps at the track testing the 911.

One of the great things about the track is that it’s open to the public and for a fee you can take your car or motorcycle and do a lap.  This is the reference at the end of the Porsche ad when they go to the ATM machine for more cash so they can do more laps.

The cost for driving a single lap of the Nordschleife is €23 for each car or motorcycle. Multi-lap tickets can be purchased for a lower per-lap price, such as 4 laps at a cost of €76 (€19 per lap). Additional multi-lap prices are 8 laps for €146, 15 laps for €251, or 25 laps for €391. An annual ticket with unlimited laps, valid from January to December, can be purchased for €995.

Since the closest most people might ever get to this track is their XBox or PS2/3 I thought we should take a lap around the track with the legendary Hans Stuck.  Stuck is an ex F1 driver and winner of the 24 Hours of LeMans twice.

Stuck takes us for a lap in the BMW M3 GTR.  If you are a sports car nut and the audio of this clip isn’t enough for you to get your rocks off then you should just quit now.  The motor on the over run and on the down changes of the gears is just wonderful.  Add in just how fast he’s going, flat out in 6th gear on multiple occasions and it has you reaching for your passport and your cell phone to book the next flight there.

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