The Ring Pt1
We decided to chance our arm and head to the Nürburgring, being on mainland Europe and having a decent car and enjoyable set of roads we felt confident we could squeeze this into the journey before we returned to the land of rain. We took it somewhat handy on the way down to make the most of some of the breathtaking scenery.
Gunning it in our mediocre E200 we somehow made it down to the track around 7pm and without hesitation made our way into the main Paddock like a gang of children to see what was around. I’m glad we made it to the place on such an empty day, it gave the already impressive architecture an eerie empty feel.
In all the years like many of you, playing this track time and time again in our favourite car games we were finally here. I’m going to treat this write up as an almost idiots guide to some of the things which I had no idea existed around the area. I guess I just never really looked into the place more than playing the original track.
The place is truly amazing, a roller-coaster which flows in and out of the arena and around the paddock, something I had never personally known about, and thank god it had a subway, which was open till late so we could get our BMT on (lame) but that was a life saver.
Because it was late in the evening on a Tuesday, most of the shops were closed, which didn’t really make much of a difference because most of you reading this will be in the same wage bracket as us.
Most of the shop windows had hefty price tag jackets and race wear, and oh a delicious display of amazing metal like the lurking shadows of the Gulf Vantage…
The whole set-up is a pretty surreal situation, because most of this was closed due to the time in the evening we decided to go for a lurk around the rest of the car park area to see what we could find.
The car park underneath the main stadium is also jam packed with a chunk of interesting machines like this KTM -X Bow.
Upstairs AMG had a collection of metal which was just about to hit the track for an evening session…
Just down from the stadium next to the main straight is an industrial estate like no other. This place was a sight to behold.
So many development centres, each car park with a few interesting test machines.
Most of the gates were closed but peeping in through the gates you could see all sorts of European beauty from Race cars to test cars to GT3’s which had been pushed to far.
Window after window of unwashed fully raced goodness.
Obviously this little AE86 caught our attention amongst everything, one front of a workshop was open and we went in for a look around. The front was packed with a collection of various cars being repaired or built for the track. The little Hachi looked like it had been laid up for awhile.
This Zakspeed looking MK2 was insane… literally such an incredible car.
I couldnt find much information on the car but just look at how intense this thing is… awesome.
Everywhere you looked there was some sort of an expensive build with no doubt an interesting story…
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the TT but this has to be one of the meanest examples I have ever seen, fully race pepped.. I should have taken more pics…
Even their van was badass…
Night started to fall pretty quick so we decided to head back up to find somewhere to sleep, along the way we bumped into a collection of BMW manufacturer test cars.
We headed back towards the village of Nürburg to take abit more of the surreal madness in, I literally couldn’t keep taking photos of stuff you just wouldn’t see anywhere else. How about a GT3 car on a trailer just in a field?
Everywhere you went, any side street or back garden usually lurked something special.
BMW had their test centre and display right in the centre of the village with this E36 super diesel stunner proudly displayed in the front window.
Over at the end of the village we caught our first proper glimpse of the track… Finally after years of hoping to get a chance to lay my eyes on the green hell it had finally happened.
Looking better than it ever could in a game, that childhood excitement kicked in… I remember we just stared at it and got too excited by the empty main straight… Finally we were standing over the infamous Green hell.
Stay tuned for PT2 coming very soon…