E30 Zone

Hi guys

Planning to take my cabby to the nurburg ring in August. Has anyone been there before who can enlighten me on what the score is in turning up and driving round ?

Check their website mate. It has opening times on there. Usually open most weekends and some weekday evenings in the summer.

You turn up, buy your ticket, then pop it into the barrier, just like entering a car park.
The most important tip is WATCH YOUR MIRRORS. There'll be stuff coming up behind and passing you at closing speeds you won't believe, especially when you've totally misjudged a corner, and find yourself completely off line, going at half the speed you should be.
Plan is to be there myself at the end of August, either just before or after Spa.

I'm going around towards the end of August in the week so am just trying to work out if you per book or as you say Brian moooore just turn up.
I'm going for a nostalgia trip as well as a bit of business .
My cabby is no speed demon but will be great fun to drive round there

Edited for privacy

As above. If you need to get out of the way though move off the racing line to the right. If you get rear ended on the left hand side of the track your liable to get the blame. Take some brake pads too.

Went a number of years back when it was a lot cheaper and not quite so busy!

Advice as above is good, but I'd also advice indicate when pulling off the line to make sure anyone behind you knows which way you're going and make the move obvious and deliberate.

Don't do any more than 2-3 laps at a time, to give yourself and the car a break and give you the chance to look things over on the car and let any lessons learnt sink in. Also be aware that you will probably be using in excess of a gallon of fuel a lap - you don't want to run out of fuel on the track!

Don't go too nuts to begin with, if you don't know the track a lot of the corners tighten pretty quickly! Computer games will give you the gist of which way the corners go, but don't take any more from them than that.

Stay away from the kerbs, some of them are massive!

Drive it like a fast B road rather than a track,

Calendar for 'tourist access' is here -
http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/angebote/ ... leife.html

Don't try and keep up with a local no matter how crap their car looks.

Track knowledge means someone who knows the place like the back of their hand will be significantly quicker in a 1.1 saxo than a novice in a 325i

Drive it like a fast B road without having to worry about oncoming traffic.

Don't drive faster than the the distance you can see to stop in. Even if you don't crash others do, and some of them will be motorcyclists. You don't want to round a blind bend at 120mph and pile into something or someone.

Tourist days are good fun, and certainly get the adrenalin pumping, and anyone who is a letrolhead should go at least once. but if you want to drive absolutely flat out you're better off doing a proper closed trackday there.

Haven't been for a few years but definately recommend taking spare brakes as i cooked a set in half a day.last time i was there i got a 15lap ticket for €250 but prices may have gone up.there is a petrol station near the entrance.
Best to get there nice an early.opens at 8am so get there for 7 and have a little walk round the corners.you'll see how they are different from any game you can play.
You can also get someone to take you round in the ring taxi.helps to show what corners you can take flat out and which have blind apex's and adverse camber

its a bloody good day out though.worth every penny

Speaking of flat out trackdays the GP circuit is sometimes open in the evenings for turn-up-and-drive sessions. IIRC it was about 30 quid for 20 minutes. No briefing, no prep talk, no helmets, just off you go!

I was getting fuel surge on the right hander at the bottom of the long straight with less than about 1/2 a tank

Yeah i did the gp track too. So much better than uk trackday. Briefing was mega short, dont think they even checked my licence, then out for some glorious hassle free laps free of your usual bell ends. Great track too.

As brian said watch the mirrors i took my evo round and even travelling at a fair pace there is always some nissan gtr or 911 wanting to be past ,my main advice would be if its wet either wait until it dries or dont bother my 4 wheel drive car was hell to drive around after the first corner was a s2000 smashed to bits and the lad i was with was in a e46 m3 with top spec tyres and everything on and he was just sideways all over the shop it was like driving on ice.

also true about keeping up with a local next day in the dry there was a lass in a mini overtook the lad in the m3 much to his utter shame and he is a good driver.I paid for 4 laps did one the first night then did 2 the next day then there was a fatality and they shut the track for over 4 hours but tbh after that i didnt feel like going back out,its a hell of an experience my legs were shaking for the first few corners out of a mix of excitement and nerves.

ha the lap at a time is good too after one lap in the evo there was smoke pouring from the brakes,had to have the windows down on lap two too clear the cabin from brake smoke.

didnt the e30zone spray the site name in a tunnel near the ring once upon a time

blue30 wrote:Speaking of flat out trackdays the GP circuit is sometimes open in the evenings for turn-up-and-drive sessions. IIRC it was about 30 quid for 20 minutes. No briefing, no prep talk, no helmets, just off you go!

I was getting fuel surge on the right hander at the bottom of the long straight with less than about 1/2 a tank

Fuel surge ?

gingerrusta wrote:

blue30 wrote:Speaking of flat out trackdays the GP circuit is sometimes open in the evenings for turn-up-and-drive sessions. IIRC it was about 30 quid for 20 minutes. No briefing, no prep talk, no helmets, just off you go!

I was getting fuel surge on the right hander at the bottom of the long straight with less than about 1/2 a tank

Fuel surge ?

Starvation

My S50 used to do it all the time. Makes you shit yourself the first time it happens until the penny drops and you realise what is going on. The first thing that pops into your head is things hanging out of the side of the engine that shouldn't be there

Make sure you have insurance to cover you while you are on the ring.

Try to avoid hitting the barriers or crashing as the bill can be quite large.

some e30s don't come back in the same shape they leave here in . cough

blue30 wrote:Drive it like a fast B road rather than a track,

This! It's a private toll road with public access on tourist days, NOT a race track. Drive 'enthusiastically', but don't push it to the limit, and you'll have an experience to remember for all the right reasons. At any speed, it's a road like no other you will ever have driven on.

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Nice and easy

I've not been since then either feels like an age!

Just don't do this....

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