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R O A D
T R A C K
R A C E
S U M M E R 2 0 1 6
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T R A C K G U I D E : N Ü R B U R G R I N G
W
elcome to the Green Hell,
the Holy Grail of racing
circuits. With 25km of
tarmac and 83 corners to learn, the
Nürburgring Nordschleife is fully
deserving of its reputation as one
of the most challenging circuits
you’ll ever drive on, not least
because it’s one of the only places
in the world where bikes are
mixed with cars on the track
during tourist track days.
But once you’ve got to grips with
its historic corners, the Nürbur-
gring really is the most rewarding
place to drive in the world and you
can literally watch your lap times
drop before your eyes. If I haven’t
scared you off, let’s begin…
Starting on the Grand Prix
circuit, this is where you’re really
able to push your car because
you’ve got plenty of run-off, so
you can build confidence from
seeing what your car can do.
Following the quick left-right
chicane before the final corner on
the Grand Prix circuit, the Coca
Cola Kurve, you take a left-hand-
er, which takes you onto the
famed Nordschleife itself.
The first part of the lap through
Hatzenbach is pretty tricky – it’s
quite bumpy and you have to use
the full width of the circuit, but
you can get away with using some
of the kerbs.
Then you head uphill towards
Flugplatz. It’s changed a lot over
the years, but it’s still one of the
most exciting parts of the circuit.
The first time you go there, you
can’t see over the other side of the
crest so you’ll over-slow it, but
after a few laps you eventually
realise that you can carry a lot of
speed. Up until this year, Flug-
platz was where the cars used
to take off, and it translates into
English as “flight path”.
Next, you head towards Schwe-
denkreuz, which is one of the
quickest corners on the track. In
the GT3 car, you approach it at al-
most 270 km/h before braking into
Aremberg which, as we saw at the
24 Hours, is very tricky in the wet.
Then you start your downhill
descent into Fuchsröhre. You’re
going flat out through here,
straight-lining all the little left
and right kinks and down into
the compression before entering
Adenauer Forst. This is a tricky
part of the circuit, because you get
used to the high-speed flow of the
circuit and suddenly you go from
sixth gear down to second at the
tightest part of that section.
MISS-HIT-MISS
You then make your way to-
wards Kallenhard. Here in a GT3
car it’s just a little lift, again using
the full width of the circuit before
entering a section called Miss-Hit-
Miss, which is shaped like a 50
pence piece. As the name sug-
gests, you miss the first apex, hit
the middle one and then miss the
final one, using the whole width
of the track, before you head down
into Breitscheid. This is the lowest
part of the circuit; there’s a pretty
solid concrete wall on the outside
so you obviously don’t want to get
too close to that!
Then we head up to Ex-Mühle
and along the straight to Bergw-
erk, which is famous for Niki Lau-
da having a big accident in 1976
and is another one that can be
very slippery in the wet. The next
part of the track is an uphill climb
for about a kilometre and a half
through Kesselchen. It’s flat out in
a GT3 car and you’re able to get
up into sixth gear before entering
Mutkurve, going down a gear and
then back on the power for the re-
mainder of the uphill climb. That’s
probably the scariest part of the
track – you’ve got to be committed
at 250 km/h in the GT3.
BY ADAM CHRISTODOULOU, WINNER OF THE
CLOSEST EVER NÜRBURGRING 24 IN MAY 2016