Nurburgring Revisited

Most of you know that I have a passion for aviation, automobiles, and motorcycles. After going through my archive of files from last summer's European trip I came across more video (including in-car footage!) of the day at arguably the world's most difficult racetrack: the Nurburgring in Germany. I quickly put together a video montage that shows the L.A. MINI on a sighting lap of the 'Ring.



The 'Ring is notoriously tricky. Witness this 7 second lap (Warning: there is a bit of rough language) taken from the second entrance to the track:



If you want to see the 'Ring driven at its absolute best, then watch this clip. It's awesome stuff!



More about the 'Ring and the "One Lap of Europe" trip in the archives. Check out the June and July 2007 posts.

Nuerburgring Nordschleife!

Photos courtesy of http://www.bridgetogantry.com/

One item marked on my "to do" list has always been to drive the fabled Nuerburgring in the Eifel Mountains of western Germany. Of course in my daydreams I drove my own car or motorcycle. Well, today that dream became a reality when JCW MCS turned four laps at the historic, famous, and notoriously long and dangerous racecourse. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on-track even though I didn't push the car that hard. Still, I've never seen that much brake dust on my wheels after such a relatively short drive! My concentration level was pretty high since I had to deal with learning the track (pretty much impossible in a few laps) and dealing with all the fast motorcycles and race-prepped supercars. I've done laps at the Nordschleife on the computer so I had a familiarity with the general layout but all the subtle camber changes and the real "sight picture" all needed to be processed. Also, the utmost desire to bring JCW MCS home to the USA in one piece kept my throttle foot in-check. Nevertheless, I won't soon forget my day at the 'Ring.

Entering the staging area
Parking Lot

Impressions of the Nuerburgring from the Staging Area