Guide: To The Nurburgring

A guide for a trip to the ring, will be adding to this overtime....

Warwickshire Modified joined Mod Scene Media in documenting a trip to the Nurburgring, the race track in Germany which has become as equally famous as it is notorious. Its long length and open mix of slow novice drivers in daily runners and fast professional racers in tuned motors means its an intense track and separates the men from the boys!

With this guide we will go into details to accompany the Mod Scene Media video, and give some advice for people thinking of taking the trip themselves.

First up is the video itself, watch the road journey to the Ring and some interviews and guides from regulars at the track, along with some of laps themselves




Right - some numbers, just so you know what to expect with a trip to the Nurburgring

• 3-day Trip recommended
• Petrol useage of £100
• Its around a 1,000 mile trip total

Travel

Preparation

You need obvious parts like passports for your trip, so make sure you have them and they're up to date.
Your car also needs to be prepared for the trip, this includes meeting the european laws (although some regulars might see you as a bit of a square for doing so). These laws include the following:

GB Sticker / Numberplate - You must either have the large 'GB' sticker or the small blue GB badge on the end of the rear numberplate

The Crossing

You have two options when it comes to crossing the pacific ocean, Eurotunnel or Ferry. Both require passports, obviously, and both will need to be booked in advance. You can add a flexible options to either regarding your travel times (by hours) but you do have to pay for the priviledge

EuroTunnel
Total Cost: £150-£200 per car
Travel time: 35mins
Check In: Atleast 30minutes before departure (Max. 2hrs)

By far the quickest and easiest method, but a little expensive too. Heres the good and bad:
Its fast, maybe too fast? - If you think you need more than a 30 minute break from driving in the UK for afew hours (and then onto Germany for afew hours), then maybe look into going by ferry. It entirely depends what sort of driver you are, if you're used to doing long distances then it shouldn't phase you not stopping long.
You can stick by your car - Unlike the the ferry where you have to leave the car levels, on the EuroTunnel you can stay by it or even in it. This might be handy for some last minute prepping, or putting on the GB stickers and headlight deflectors!

Ferry
Total Cost: £100-£150 per car
Travel time: 2hrs 30mins
Check In: Atleast 30minutes before departure

You can save £20 - £30 by going by ferry, but theres some things you need to keep in mind:
Its Slow As F**k - The travel can add 3 hours to your journey, depending how long you have to wait for the next ferry to arrive. The ferry crossing itself is about 2hrs 30mins, but with not much to see and only unbranded hot food joints the trip isn't very memorable, made even more depressing when you realise the ferry is only going around 22mph. You also have to leave your car during the crossing.
Weather - As its more exposed to the elements this means the weather can determine the level of service/crossings, the remnants of a hurricane just breezing up against the Irish coast can have an effect and cancel half of the ferries and add 40 minute delays to those ferries left like it did for us during a trip in October 2014.
FlexiSaver - You can a save further £20-30 by doing a standard fixed travel time rate on your outbound journey, meaning you have a set time to catch your ferry. This ideal for the start of your trip, you can determine the traffic and your travel time better on the UK roads and make sure you arrive early/on-time. On the return journey however, with such a long distance to cover and so much room for error you're better off going for a 'FlexiSaver', which means you can access a ferry within a 4 hour window of your allotted time.

The Roads

Travelling through France, Belgium and Germany is quite a refreshing experience! Although the French drivers can be a little pushy, overall the attitude throughout the rest of the journey was really welcoming. Where you might get three sets of roadworks on one stretch of road here in the UK, the amount of roadworks on the route we took was minimal, and we basically didn't run in to any traffic at all.
We only saw one police car during the whole trip, which for some might encourage speeding but take note of the local laws and the fact that they fine you heavily if caught. Fines vary from 90 euros to 700 euros, the German police have been known to march people to a cash point to pay up, and the French police to seize cars if the fine can't be paid.
Speed cameras? Not so much of an issue, its extremely unlikely you'll hear anything if caught by one (countries are mostly against the sharing/sending of motoring traffic offences to other countries).



Hotel

We were recommended a hotel for the trip, and it was a faultless choice to be honest. Hotel Burgstube has English speaking owners (born in Coventry nonetheless!), experienced drivers/riders of the the track, and interesting items related to stories dotted around the premises including the rooms. Its only a 5-10 minute drive to the Nurburgring, has some nice views and the rooms have everything you will need. Pricing is great value. If you can, book in an off-peak time as the track will be quieter to start off with, and the staff might be able to get more hands-on with your experience

On The Track

Get your car track ready

- Theres basic modifications you can be making to improve your car before track use, tyres are always an important factor, then look at brake and suspension upgrades. Everything else is a plus.
One suggestion before you even set off on your trip, is to find a place and time to put your car through its paces. Some people may never drive their cars hard and on the track you will do it for nearly 15 minutes straight, after already driving all the way to Germany! Pushing your car to its limits early on should help highlight an underlying problems that wont normally surface on a day-to-day basis, it's better you have these problems now rather than when you're on track and so far away from home.


Insurance

The other option is to rent a car for the track, Rent4Ring

Get yourself track ready - It can be a daunting experience going onto any track for the first time, unfortunately the Nurburgring is up there with the worst! To prepare yourself try and get to a track day of some sort in the UK first, if not dont worry there are plenty of people that have gone straight on with zero experience. If you stay at a hotel like the Burtgstobe you should be able to get a talk to introduce you to the track - listen carefully - these are experienced track goers and with their words echoing in your head as you go round it will all make a lot more sense and your driving will be more controlled and fluid. If you can get an instructor to go with you then it will help immensely, it can be quite exspensive though.

Don't rely on a single day for a track session - With all the travel and money spent to get there, if there's a serious accident on the track and its closed, or you misjudge the track calendar and there's an event being held on the day, you'll be missing out on the highlight that is the track itself. So we recommended two days to give you plenty of time while your there, even once you have done your laps just meet people in the car park/pits at the entrance - it may lead to a free ride in some awesome cars!
There's still plenty to see too in and around the village of Nurburgring itself, and some excellent driving roads

Spectating

- If you aren't driving on the track yourself theres still plenty of places to spectate, here we'll list some of the popular spots. We recommend sitting in the car park at the entrance of the Ring

Brünnchen GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.370277404785156, Longitude: 7.007500171661377
Google Maps Link

Breidscheid (Bridge over the road at Adenau) GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 50.37722396850586, Longitude:6.949999809265137
(Park up and cross the road to head up the steps)
Google Maps Link


Thanks/Credits:
The crew Mike "Han" at Mod Scene Media, Emily, Richard
Staff and friends at The Hotel Burgstobe,
Everyone we met along the way that made it such an awesome and memorable trip

This guide was created based on a trip in April 2014, while we do our best to keep the information up to date some items such as pricing are subject to change