The one thing on Matt's "Must Do" list in Europe was a trip to Nurburgring, the famous race track, also known as "the Green Hell". Frankfurt is less than a 2 hour drive from there and lucky for us, they were set to allow tourist drives on the track Monday evening.
Matt and I set out a little before noon, as Nurburgring also purported to be a tourist trap with plenty to do. It turns out that with only 2 people on-board and all of the suitcases and piles of crap removed from every storage space, our beloved Tilly is actually a fun little car to drive. She was perfectly capable of reaching 170 km/h on the motorway. And yes, we finally found a portion of the Autobahn that was open and not under construction.
We passed all manner of automobile on our drive. As we got closer to the track though, the general character of what we pass grew more intriguing. We had just been lamenting the fact that we had not seen a Lamborghini, when one ambled by us going the opposite direction. Giggling like little kids, we continued our drive.
We found the visitors center and they talked us into the "behind the scenes" tour. It was excellent! We got to visit the old paddock, a little museum, the new paddock, the winners platform, the media center, and the viewing platform. The platforms provided an excellent view of the Grand Prix track activities. It was just a track day, but we got to see innumerable expensive cars roar by down the stretch. It was loud and awesome!
After our tour, we conducted the requisite swag shop stop. After all, you can't visit one of the most historic race tracks and have nothing to show for it! Then it was off to the go-kart track for Matt. The photo is self explanatory!
Then it was time for our own drive of the famous road track. We rented a tiny Suzuki Swift rather than subject Tilly to the rigors of the track. The Suzuki was the only car they had that used a regular manual transmission instead of paddle shifters. It was also the smallest car they had, in every sense. Given the reputation of the track, this seemed sensible anyway for a first time track driver. Matt was a tiny bit disappointed, especially when the guy who did our orientation called our car a go-kart. It wasn't an ordinary Swift though either. It was equipped for racing. No back seats, roll cage, Bilstein shocks, racing tires and suspension, upgraded breaks , etc.
We got our orientation, then had to wait until the track opened for tourist drives at 5:15. We were among the first in line. They opened the track, we swiped our pass, the gate swung up, and off we went.
What happened next is more or less a literal and figurative blur. There was lots of shifting, a small amount of swearing, a lot of sweating, a comment from Matt about being glad there was an"oh shit" handle on his side, a near catastrophe when someone illegally passed us on a corner, and lots of tail lights. 20.832 kilometers, 73 turns, and about 17 minutes later, we were done. It was amazing! Matt no longer regretted the small car either, allowing as how "it was pretty great". We both agreed that we probably would have died in a more powerful car.
If I lived here, I would buy a season pass and go all of the time. Doing this track in a car I was familiar with would have been even more awesome, but alas, I had to "settle" for a rental.
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