Definitely a great vid for the collection! I've had it for a few months and sent it on to a number of people. FWIW, John Heinricy lapped the Nordschleife there driving a CTS-V in 8:19... so you're pretty close! Apparently, this was faster than a stock M3 or M5 was capable of.

Best regardSS,

Elie

 

It's simply just mind blowing to imagine a stock Cadillac doing that course THAT fast!

Cobalt was tuned on that track. I wonder what that car's like.

 

yup

 

Yea, that car in the vid seemed like it was some kind of NASA experiment flying down those curves...and the CTS-V is just as quick?! I wonder what LS1 Z28's do??

 

some of you are confusing the track's public days with what's on the video.

what you're seeing in Hans Stuck qualifying for the Nurburgring 24 hour race in a V8 M3R BMW. It's a RACE track during this period

that means in qualifying and racing, you can pass on whatever damned side is fastest. it's called racecraft and you do what you have to do not to stuff up your lap time.

and Stuck has racecraft by the spadeful.

you'll notice the bit they don't give you on GT4 - the Grand Prix circuit (where the start/finish is). For the 24 hour race (plus the six hour races they hold there - don't quote me - i think four times a year), they stick the grand prix circuit onto the Nordschleife (north circuit) to make the longer track.

the gp track sits on the site of the old sudschleife (south circuit).

very cool. wonder where you got that, guy?

 

by the way, the gearbox is loud because it's straight cut.

 

oh, another point. when a manufacturer claims to have lapped the nurburgring in a certain time, they'll be talking about the nordschleife, not the full racetrack you see on this video.

the full track on the video is 24.358km - or nearly 4km longer than the nordschleife.

stuck and his teammates won the 24 hour race, by the way, in an average of 170.6km/h - including pitstops.

the late Stefan Bellof, in a porsche works 962 Le Mans-style racer, became the only man to average over 200km/h there in 1985 during the last Group C world sports car championship race (though just the Nordschleiffe, not the then-new Grand Prix track.

he died at Spa the same year - about 150km away, and part of the same Eiffel Mountain range - in the same car.

there is in-car footage of Derek Bell there in a 962 setting the fifth fastest time in history. Now THAT's fast!

If you're ever in Germany, it's an hour or so from Cologne, and BMW has a thing called the Ring Taxi - with expert drivers hurling you around the track in a prepped M5.

Or you can check for "public days" on the internet (www.nuerburgring.de, then click on the union jack flag for english), pay your money and rip into your rental!

 

That freaking track is huge. If I had the money I would build one of those in the desert so anyone could drive it year round, oh yeah I would definately open it to the public.

 

Hmmmmm.

I had my son check it out when you sent it, and he loved it as much as I did.

It's the perfect thing to start off a working day morning, for those of us who check out the latest news before starting our day.

By the way, if anyone hasn't guessed yet, it can courtesy of Mickey T.

 

The Ring Taxi is frickin' insane.

I'd recommend a borrowed Ducati 996SP as the best way to enjoy the 'ring Woulda probably been a lot more comfortable on my own bike, and I definitely would have been more comfy in my own gear, but I'm not going to complain.

 

That was pretty sweet! I would love to get my X1 out there, but I might want to play some of those video games first to familiarize myself with the track. Actually I bet anything would be great, looks like an awesome track.

 

Why rent a car for that track when you have a skateboard?

 

well, i've driven there a few times and love the place. it's actually (as those of you who've been there will know) much more difficult to learn than it is on playstation.

parts of the track never get dry, so moss grows on the bitumen. parts of it have trees that have overhung the track for fifty years, so there's sap and all sorts of things pounded into the bitumen.

it also straddles two sides of a mountain range, so it's often dry and then, in the space of a corner, teaming with rain. and/or fog.

but i can't get there every day and, like guy says, there's no better way to start the day.

so we've got a full simulator (with race seat, height and reach adjustable steering wheel, sequential box, plasma screen) in the office and i drive it on PS2 every morning. not as good as being there, but not bad...

 

I, along with what Im willing to bet is a rather large portion of the readership here, dislike you intensly now.

 

sounds like a bit of sooking...