Nurburgring trip in Oct

[][\/][ajor1]

A few of us are looking at going over to Zebrugge on the North Sea Ferries to go to the Ring the first weekend in October. The info on the net seems to suggest this is the best chance we'll have of getting on the circuit. The trip across is sorted so looking for advice for a decent and reasonably priced hotel within 15 miles or so of the ring and any general advice as to best time to get on it etc etc.

All advice would be greatly received so thanks in advance.

Travelling out on Friday 30th Sept and coming back on Mon 3rd Oct.

Steve

[bhouse]

This place has the huge advantage of being run by a member of this club...

[XTR2Turbo]

I have just come back from the ring. I organised the trip for a party of 9.

We stayed at the Lidner park about 1 mile from the ring. It only opened a couple of years ago so lacks the atmosphere of the older hotels but is clean and good value.  We had a 4 room house, each room with twin beds etc and it cost approx £70 per person in total for three nights. They offer smaller houses also.

Other tips.

Try to book a ride in the ring taxi but the booking process is a pain and  from my experience needs to be done atleast a month before you travel. It is €195 per taxi and they will take 3 people. You must pay by bank transfer not credit card.

They serve 2 litre glasses of beer in the some of the restaurants !

Get steak on a hot stone at Pistenklause in Nurburg.

Best time to lap is first and last thing. We were out on track on the Sunday. 80 until 090 was quite and 60 - 70 was quiet. Much of the time very busy and you can spend as much time looking for cars coming from behind as trying to learn the lines.

Also worth watching from some of the spectator areas.

If wet you can go Karting in the new Ring Werk for €11 for 10 minutes.

[RWDKurt]

http://www.northloop.co.uk/forum/forum.php is a great source of advice also.

We go every year (at least once) and stay at the Burgstube:

http://www.burgstube.com/

Martin and Heidi are great hosts.

As for when to use the circuit (sorry - Toll Road): if you're going over the weekend, try to get on early and late in the day when it's less busy

[GreigM]

The obvious place is the Tiergarten (which contains the famous pistenklause restaurant - if you're eating there book in the morning as it gets busy) - http://www.am-tiergarten.de/  prices are good and its literally a 30 second drive to the ring

The other one - even closer to the ring is http://www.ringhaus.com/ - a bit cheaper and lower standard, but still acceptable.

Personally I'd avoid the Lindner hotels as the lindner group is destroying the ring and may soon price it out of existence...

[windy]

Personally I'd avoid the Lindner hotels as the lindner group is destroying the ring and may soon price it out of existence...

Care to explain?

[][\/][ajor1]

Thanks a lot for the pointers.

I've e mailed a couple of the places to check availability.

I think with the info on the net I'm quickly going to reach information overload

I also did a search on here and the other thing it looks like I need to ensure we have is the insurance.

The more I look, the more I'm looking forward to it.

[windy]

Just been for the first time.

A session in the ring taxi immediately underlines the fact that only a few people know the place very well and those that don't know it are likely to come a cropper very easily. So do it as your first activity - it is a real eye opener to the place.

There are so many corners 70+ and very little run-off. It would take ages to learn the track and know every corner, so expect to go there and take things very steadily to start with.

Go do a few UK track days first in a very slow car and you will quickly get used to the fact that this will be the scenario you'll encounter at the ring, i.e you'll be concentrating more on your mirrors than you will be looking forward. There are a lot of very quick 911s and bikes which will be coming past you and appearing from nowhere.

The other thing that you have to watch for is the gradients. There is about 1000 feet of ascent / descent in a lap and it starts off mainly downhill. You will need a very good set of brake pads to cope with the abuse.  

[XTR2Turbo]

Personally I'd avoid the Lindner hotels as the lindner group is destroying the ring and may soon price it out of existence...

This is not quite true. Reading up on the subject a bit since returning..

For some years the investment in the grandprix circuit and operating costs of F1 events has meant that the venue was loosing the owner (the local state) money. Although the region was of course generating lots of tax going to the governemnt and not the state.

You could blame Bernie and Max for the losses at the GP circuit. A similar situation to most F1 tracks that don't enjoy huge government backed funding.

Around 2004 proposals were pulled togetther to try to increase revues and expand the site thereby reducing the states funding of the losses.  This involved some additional hotels , restaurants and a giant complex of shops and conference facilities next to the GP circuit.

The idea was to attract other people to the region but this turned out to be flawed. The revenue projections never met their targets and the costs were a factor larger than they should have been due to corruption over contracts. End result is that the development went bust and the state has had to bail it out.

Mr Lidner of the hotel group is one of the people who is now involved with the running of the new company which also includes the 'old ring'

But the situation is now as it is and they need to cover the massive borrowings. You cannot rewind the clock. They will not close the ring to the public as it is their major attraction. Prices have gone up but I guess there will be a supply /demand. Most people complain it has become too busy as every chav wants to to take their Corsa on an 8 minute lap.

They are charging manufacturers more to use the track but the view is it was much too cheap for them before - especially compared to public days. If manufacturers refuse to pay I guess they will have less time and their will be more public days and track days.

The main fear seems to be that the ring owners could incentivise their business (restaurants and accommodation) with bundled track time discounts that would not allow the traditional businesses to easily compete but this has not happened yet and I imaginw would fall foul of competition law.

Just looking at it as a visitor I think some additional and better accommodation was probably needed to support the few big events (F1, DTM, 24hr etc) that take place and I am sure more events will slowly develop. Exactly the same is now happening at Silverstone.  The folly was the huge Werk complex and shopping Boulevard next to the GP circuit which was most of the cost and is basically a ghost town.

Ideas to split off the North circuit as a seperate operation just seem naive in the extreme.

[Barry Ashcroft]

There is a fully booked 2 day track day at Spa on the Monday/Tuesday (same as last year when I went) because of this the ring last year was absolutley rammed and the que was huge.

Some guys were there all day and only got 3 runs in

[][\/][ajor1]

Guest house booked now so thanks for all you advice.

Now where's that insurance doc.....I need to check the small print

[][\/][ajor1]

There is a fully booked 2 day track day at Spa on the Monday/Tuesday (same as last year when I went) because of this the ring last year was absolutley rammed and the que was huge.

Some guys were there all day and only got 3 runs in

Forgive me if I'm being an idiot but why does this increase the amount of people at the Ring?

Do people make the trip over to have a go on it?

[windy]

I think he is referring to the Sunday before.

[Barry Ashcroft]

There is a fully booked 2 day track day at Spa on the Monday/Tuesday (same as last year when I went) because of this the ring last year was absolutley rammed and the que was huge.

Some guys were there all day and only got 3 runs in

Forgive me if I'm being an idiot but why does this increase the amount of people at the Ring?

Do people make the trip over to have a go on it?

Yeah pretty much most of the guys at the TD on Monday/Tuesday will be at the ring Sat/Sun

Its not far from the Ring to Spa

[][\/][ajor1]

I suppose it wil add to the atmosphere and to some extents, it might be a good thing to limit how much time we can get on the track for our first visit as the more times we go on it, the greater the risk of a prang

All booked now so there's no turning back