The Nurburgring

[Porsche]

@runny_yolk

The photo of you in the BRZ appears to be at Schwalbenschwanz (The Little Karussell). Your friend is at the Karussell.

[kodyo]

Originally Posted by Porsche

And a CAGE! Don't forget the cage, because the 'Ring is the most unforgiving motor racing circuit in the world, with minimal run-off areas and lots of Armco barriers sitting mere feet from the road surface.

Many drivers have occasion to USE their cage at the 'Ring.

You were fortunate to have extra room when you fell off the road at Adenauer Forst. There is at least one youtube video comprised of nothing but crashes at that very spot. You did the right thing, by the way, to just allow the car to run off the road, rather than try to pinch it in. Many drivers roll their cars onto their heads at that point as they try to avoid running wide off the right side.

Glad to see you had a good time.

Yeah, I saw that video. There are tons of crashes there.
Here is a compilation of crashes from the 1970s that I find pretty interesting:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwc54G2Ur8"]Nurburgring Nordschleife Crashes 1970 at Adenauer Forst. NEW ! More crashes - YouTube[/ame]

Unfortunately we didn't have much time to prepare ourselves for the ring as far as studying it. I was in Germany on business and decided to go for it while we were there. If I was going to do it again, I'd try to get more familiar with the track. I'm just glad we had a slow ass car and took it easy or it could have definitely been worse (that's why I suggest everyone who goes for the first time get a slow car unless they have some experience there).

BTW, my hertz rental car was an automatic Ford C-max diesel, not exactly fast :P

[Porsche]

Originally Posted by kodyo

Yeah, I saw that video. There are tons of crashes there.

BTW, my hertz rental car was an automatic Ford C-max diesel, not exactly fast :P

Still ... plenty quick enough to be seriously killed on the 'Ring!

[kodyo]

Originally Posted by Porsche

Still ... plenty quick enough to be seriously killed on the 'Ring!

We did go 125 mph on the autobahn in that baby after all, haha.

[Hanni_0176]

I can only imagine how much fun this would be. I've driven this course a shitload on the Gran Turismo games, and it is by far the most difficult course in those games.

To whoever said it earlier, this is definitely on my bucket-list.

[SirBrass]

I drive the Ring in GT almost nightly at 420pp (around 1215kg & 215hp NA) and would love to do several laps in real life in a GT86!

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[Stierzy34]

Always have wanted to go there. Bucket list for sure. Have a buddy in the military over there, still need to go pay him a visit

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Europe is still predominantly manual transmission:
http://travel.usatoday.com/tips/2010...el03_ST_N.htm\

Looking at a rental company in Germany their example cars include: Ford Focus/Fiesta, VW Golf, Scirocco, Toyota GT86, Mustang, BMW 1, 3 and 6 series, Porsche Panamera etc.

http://www.sixt.com/php/fleet/vehicle_group_list

Economy cars no longer have to be dull affairs, just because most people rent a Malibu or Hyundai doesn't mean you have to. I know I wouldn't complain about thrashing a MT Fiesta or Scirocco around Germany for a couple days even if I could only drool at the Nordschleife (ok I would probably complain about missing that).

Then Europe is doing something right. Try & normally rent a fun, cheap sports car here & it's either not available to rent, isn't MT, is in the least powerful trim, and possibly priced as an "exotic", which basically means hundreds per day.

The 'sportiest' normal car is something like a Maxima in auto trans here. It sucks.

We Americans generally joke that the best theft protection a car can have (against joy riders) is to be stick shifted. It's true. There's even a few cases where the cops nailed the crook trying to get away b/c the car he tried to hijack was MT & he couldn't drive it.

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[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by SirBrass

We Americans generally

Dude, I'm American, I know. You posted in a thread talking about renting a car in Germany.

Also the myth that MT prevents/reduces theft is anecdotal at best with no data to back it up other than "5% of new cars sold are MT" or whatever the number is this year. If someone can learn how to bypass a lock and break the ignition lock or whatever they probably took the time to figure out how to operate the extra pedal and stick.

http://www.carinsurance.com/Articles...ft-device.aspx

Also: quickly looked up Hertz rental cars in America (as generic as I could think of) and it looks like the offer other a lot of cars that would be a hoot, also went to check out rates, looks like I could get a Corvette for less than $90/day or a Camaro SS, Challenger R/T, or Mustang GT, not exactly 'lowest trim' although it looks like the entire fleet is AT, can't win all the battles.




Edit: looks like Alamo offers MT rentals although nothing exciting, I wouldn't mind playing around in a MT Yaris or Focus.

[SirBrass]

Yeah, that Camaro is expensive to rent.

And I drove a Dodge Charger while my BRZ was in the shop. WORST. CAR. EVER. I swear I earned myself a boat-driving license or whatever driving that thing. The body would noticably roll even going through a drive-thru. *blech*

[atledreier]

For those of you going there I actually recommend GT5 or GT6 to familiarize yourself. i have thousands of laps in the game, and it felt totally familiar and I felt secure and knew what each corner was. Of course I took it easy, I was driving 2000km back home, but it felt REALLY good. Did nine laps in one day, and definetly going back as soon as possible. The elevation changes are addictive!

[fourvalleys]

I'm planning on going in March. From what I can see, they haven't released the calendar for 2014 yet, but hopefully they will soon. Thanks for the advice and information posted so far!

[SeanBlader]

Originally Posted by atledreier

For those of you going there I actually recommend GT5 or GT6 to familiarize yourself. i have thousands of laps in the game, and it felt totally familiar and I felt secure and knew what each corner was. Of course I took it easy, I was driving 2000km back home, but it felt REALLY good. Did nine laps in one day, and definetly going back as soon as possible. The elevation changes are addictive!

Any racetrack worth driving has elevation changes, Nurburgring just being a much bigger track than anywhere else in the world just has a bigger difference between top and bottom. I'd say you almost get more entertainment and challenge out of a smaller course with more technical turns. Laguna Seca is actually a very tough track to drive well, and the corkscrew isn't even the hardest, it's just the most talked about. Having been on a few tracks that were flat, the challenge there is actually looking 2 turns ahead because without any elevation there's very little that's visible of the next turn.

And as a race track event, you're screwed no matter how you wreck. You can still have plenty of crazy adrenaline inducing fun without overdriving and potentially hurting yourself or someone else. I still say take whatever rental car you like out there, just drive at 8/10ths your limit or the car's whichever is lower. Sixt didn't give me any trouble other than cost for the 2000 km's I put on their 1 series.

[SirBrass]

If I ever make it back to Germany (I would love to! A stunningly beautiful country!), I'm going to definitely put the Ring on my "I'm not going back to the States without doing this" list.

Where is it, exactly? The only other time I visited Germany (Spring of 2001 as part of a high school trip during my junior year), we stuck to Bavaria, specifically München. So I can't say I'm really familiar with the rest of the country's geography.