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[Brawlyrox]

taken from http://www.nurburgri...ingers-faq.html

1. About the FAQ
1.1 What is a FAQ?

A list of Frequently Asked Questions, together with their answers.

1.2 What is Ringers?

An email list-server for people with an interest in the Nürburgring. See the Ringers page for more details.

1.3 What are all the abbreviations I see used on the list?

To save time when typing, it's common for people to on the net to use a number of abbreviations for common phrases. For example, ICBW for 'I Could Be Wrong' and by the way for 'By The Way'. You can find a list of the main ones at:
http://kb.indiana.edu/data/adkc.html


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2. The basics
2.1 What is the Ring?

See Beginners Start Here.

2.2 How do I find the opening hours?

See the Opening times page for a summary of the full weekends and links to the calendars on the official site. Please note that public sessions are very limited, so it's essential to check before planning a trip.

2.25 How do I get to the Ring?

Brits can find directions on my Directions from Calais page.

In terms of channel crossings, the four options are Hoverspeed, SeaFrance, P&O and EuroTunnel. Prices vary by length of stay, with weekend fares being cheaper than five-day fares being cheaper than open returns.

You can often save money by booking through discounters. Discounters recommended by Ringers include FerryView, AutoPlan, www.ferry.co.uk, www.cheapest-channel-crossing.co.uk, www.directferry.com and Motorsport Travel on 01295-278748.

If you just want a good deal without the hassle, Ringer Jon Reeves has a trade account with P&O through his company Bike2Track, and offers a special standard rate for a 5-day return of £120 for a car and £55 for a bike. To book this, email him at [email protected] or call him on 0870-904 6644.

See the Ferry deals page for more details.

2.3 How much do the tickets cost?

See my Prices page.

2.4 How many bends are there, anyway?

You will find all kinds of numbers quoted in answer to this question, including 157, 172, 173, 174 and 186. However, the official answer is 73 (40 right-handers and 33 left-handers).

The reason for this disparity is twofold. First, nobody is quite sure what a bend is in the context of the Nürburgring (see this photo to appreciate the difficulty). Second, the Nordschleife was reconfigured more than once, most significantly in 1971/1972, and more recently in 1984.

Regarding the former, there are many little kinks on the Nürburgring's Nordschleife that some people call bends, and others don't. It's believed that the old Nordschleife had even more such kinks. This is why the original Nürburgring -Nordschleife and Südschleife combined -is often credited with 174 corners (85 right-handers and 89 left-handers). People who have looked at original construction drawings (available at the Watkins Glen Motor Racing Research Library) agree with this number. And 174 is the figure most widely repeated, especially by motor racing's scribes, even when it should have been obvious that the changes meant 174 had become a wildly inflated count.

Which brings us to the latter: the many rebuilds. No matter how far you stretch your definition of bend, there is no way you can count 174 on the current Nordschleife. Whenever such a figure is quoted, it either applies to the former Nordschleife and Südschleife combined, or is simply incorrect. There is no doubt a lot of bends were destroyed in 1971/1972, and some more in 1984. Just how many, again, depends on your definition of bend. But be sure of this: every official source nowadays states the number of bends as 73. Entry written by Laurens de Jong on 27-Jan-01.


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3. The risks
3.1 How dangerous is it?

While the official fatality figures are very low, this is because they only count those who are declared dead on-scene: if they are still working on the victim at the time the helicopter takes them out, they are not classified as a fatality. I was on the scene of an accident where one victim was declared dead at the trackside while a second was declared dead in the helicopter shortly after take-off: that went down in the stats as one death and one injury. According to an ITU nurse at a local hospital, they get 2-3 ITU admissions a week from the Ring, about half of whom don't survive. That's more than one death a week.

The Ring is obviously significantly more dangerous for bikers than for car drivers. The number of nasty bike crashes I've seen there is the reason I don't ride there any more. Entry written by Ben Lovejoy on 16-Feb-02.

3.2 Is my normal car/bike insurance valid?

Probably. See this page.


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4. How do I get to know the circuit?
4.1 Can I get passenger laps?

Many people will happily offer passenger laps, though it can be a bit dodgy just picking people at random! Certainly most members of the Ringers list will offer passenger laps - look out for Ringers stickers on cars there.

4.2 What about the Ring-taxi?

See this page.

4.3 What about videos?

Mr Video on the Ringers list was the late Jørund Seim. You can find a large selection of his on-bike Ring laps at:
http://www.motorcycl.../en/multimedia/

There are also a number of commercial videos available. Perhaps best known is Helmut Dahne's 7:49. This is on-bike footage with commentary by the man who holds the motorcycle lap record.

A fascinating video of two laps in a RUF Porsche can be bought directly from RUF Automobile. They charge you DM 79 plus shipping (DM14 for Europe), and take credit card orders. The video is called Faszination on the Nurburgring (if you want the English version). Phone: +49 8265 911 911, fax: +49 8265 12 13. Entry written by Laurens de Jong (thanks also to Hans Visse) on 02-May-01.

Johannes E added:

You can view before buying at http://www.sjrixon.clara.net/

There is also a photo-lap on my site.

4.4 And books?

Yes, but currently only in German.

Among German titles currently in print, you can choose from:

Der Nürburgring. Die legendäre Rennstrecke von 1927 bis heute; Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Robert Ostrovsky; Heel-Vlg., Königswin.; ISBN: 3893658416. This book falls in the "coffee-table" category. Definitely nice to
look at and show to others, with plenty of photographs.

Die Nürburgring - Story. 60 Jahre Rennsport-Faszination; Thora Hornung; Motorbuch, Stuttgart; ISBN: 3613012006. Probably my favorite Nürburgring book. It chronologically covers the Ring's history from pre-1927 until 1987. A lot of very good race reports.

Das Nürburgring Fahrer-Handbuch; Ulrich Thomson; Heel-Vlg., Königswin.; ISBN: 3893655336. This book talks about nothing but The Line for 147 pages. Initially written for motorbikes, it has addenda for car drivers. An essential book to fall back on, especially if you belong to the Ring Bores. It actually also provides a brief history, but nothing that can't be found elsewhere.

Grüne Hölle Nürburgring : Eine Bild- u. Text-Dokumentation; Jörg-Thomas Födisch/Robert Ostrovsky; Brühlscher Verlag; ISBN: 3922300537. Lots of pictures (black and white only), each with short description. Also, brief history of the Ring. Entry written by Laurens de Jong on 18-Jan-01.


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5. What about the local facilities?
5.1 Where do I stay?

There are a great many hotels, B&Bs and pensions in the area. These do get booked up when there's a big event on at the GP circuit, but then you just have to stay a little further from the Ring. Accommodation is generally cheap by UK standards.

You can find a selection of places on my Where to Stay page, together with a link to a comprehensive list on a tourist info website.

5.2 Where do I eat?

There are a number of restaurants and bars which serve food in Nurburg. Most Ringers tend to opt for either the Lindenhof (on the main street, next to the church, almost opposite the BMW dealership) or the Pistenklaus (turn right out of the Lindenhof, take the first right and it's on the right). The Pistenklaus is where local racing driver and Ring-taxi pilot Sabine Reck grew up. The walls are covered with all sorts of memorabilia (pictures, autographs, spoilers) of all kinds of racers, from local heroes to Jackie Stewart.

Another recomandable place is the 'La Fontana' pizzaria: into Adenau from Breidscheid, left at the VW dealer, twice right following the signs. The road up there is tiny, but once you're there you will be suprised of the space - enough to park your race truck. Food and prices are similar to Pistenklause.

5.3 How do I meet up with other Ringers?

You can see the dates when I will be there on my Planned trips page. There are usually anything from 10 to 50 Ringers there on each of these weekends.

Once there, look for people or vehicles bearing the Ringers logo.

5.4 Anything else to do in the area?

The Ring museum is worth a look, although it's disappointingly light on actual Ring history. Don't miss the scale model of the Ring - gives a good sense of what the whole circuit is like.

A lot of the local roads are well worth driving when the Ring is closed.

6. What about spectating?
6.1 How do I get to the spectating points?

Virtually the entire Ring is accessible if you're prepared to do enough walking or cycling. However, if you're feeling lazy, below are a list of spots that are easy to reach by car or bike and a short walk. For reference, a digital map can be found in the Ringers file section here.

First stop around the Ring is Hatzenbach. It can be reached by foot by parking your vehicle in Nürburg and walk up towards the track. If there's something going on at the Grand Prix Strecke, from here you can see some of that, and the Nordschleife at the same time.

Better access to the rest of Hatzenbach and Hocheichen can be had from Quiddelbach. Where the B257 crosses the Nordschleife, there is some parking space. Walk back from there against Nordschleife traffic for some good views of Hatzenbach and Hocheichen. Going with traffic, you can get real close to the track at the emergeny access gate right before Quiddelbacher Höhe. A must if you like the sound of engines at full song. It's possible to take the trail that goes into the forested area from there, from where you can explore some of Flugplatz and then Schwedenkreuz, but it's a bit of a hike.

If you park your vehicle in Breidscheid or Adenau (on Saturday afternoons and Sundays the shops are closed, so any of the supermarket's parking lots can be used), you can walk back to the track and then against traffic, to watch the action at Breidscheid; walk back some more and you're at Wehrseifen. Very good viewing here, and usually good for a spin or two if you wait long enough.

Finally, there are two places along the B412 where the Ring almost touches the Bundesstrasse: Brünnchen and Pflanzgarten. Brünnchen has acres of parking space. From there, you can walk against traffic in the direction of Eschbach and Wippermann. Pflanzgarten I also has parking space across the B412.

There are many other interesting viewpoints along the track. If you're serious about this, get a hold of a good map (for instance, at a the garage on Döttinger Höhe. The 1:35 000 map of the Wanderverein Hocheifel is especially recommended).

Some places are more difficult or impossible to reach during races (when marshalls tend to ask you to leave when you climb fences, and such). Entry written by Laurens de Jong on 18-Jan-01.

Additional comments by Alexander Neurohr on 18-Jan-01:

If you like walking you can also reach Adenauer Forst, where there's always action on the weekends. To get there you need to drive down the mainstreet at Adenau and turn left where's Car Dealers on both sides of the street. At the end of the road you'll find the parking of a school. If the bark uphill is closed, you have to park here and walk the remaining 1-2 km uphill. There are no signs that show you the way, but you only have to go straight on. It's worth it.

My favorite place to enjoy the car's music while races is below the bridge at Antoniusbuche. There you stand right behind the armco at the fastest point of the track. The stewards don't like it, but they've let us stay there for about 10 mins to get photos from the Viper while VLN.

Additional comments by Alexander Neurohr on 19-Jan-01:

If you want to see what the view is like from a spectating point, visit:
http://www.alexander-neurohr.de
click nordschleife and then click the viewpoint you want to see. This is only a small selection now but will grow.

6.2 But there's no longer any racing in the Nordschleife, right?

Wrong! Some of the best racing in the world can be seen on the Nordschleife. Admittedly, not necessarily because of the race cars, but mostly because the Ring is such a wonderful venue for any kind of racing.

Top of the bill on the Nürburgring's racing calendar is the 24-Stunden Rennen (24-Hour Race). According to Guinness, it is now the biggest race event in the world, with 873 cars entered in 1999. The 24-Hour race proper is limited to less than 200 entries, all full-body racecars. Spectator interest for the 24-Stunden is considerable.

Lesser races are held in the Langstreckenmeisterschaft (or VLN, formerly Veedol Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring), and 11-event racing series run on Saturdays. Most races are 3 1/2 or 4 hour events, except for the prestigious 6-Stunden Rennen (6-Hour Race). Races typically have car counts exceeding 150, of the same type that run the 24-Stunden. Teams participating in the VLN are professional or semi-professional.

And amateurs participate regularly in the Castrol-Haugg Cup races. A smaller schedule than the VLN, also running on Saturdays and sometimes on the Grand Prix Strecke, rather than the Nordschleife.

Finally, some classes in the Eifel Klassik event (for historic racers) run the Nordschleife.

Here are some links:

http://www.24h-rennen.de
http://www.castrol-haugg-cup.com
http://www.langstreckenpokal.de
http://www.eifel-klassik.de

But you need to know German for most of those sites. Entry written by Laurens de Jong on 18-Jan-01.


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7. What about car/bike setup for the Ring?
7.1 Do I need any kind of special setup?

Most people don't do anything special to their cars or bikes, so don't feel that you need to. But if you want to, you'll find some basic advice below.

7.2 How do I set up my car for the Ring?

I am no expert at the setup by in general I would say:

Almost all road cars are too soft for the Ring. Only a few cars have a chassis which is good enough for the Ring when they leave the showroom. Most cars will need some tweaking to perform really well on the Ring. However, don't run away and buy a lot of stuff before you have the chance to test your car. Your first trip to the Ring will be more about learning the track than taking your car to the absolute max.

The Ring is very bumpy in places. If you have a car that is set up for racing on other tracks, you may find that it is to stiff for the Ring.

Make sure your chassis parts are checked and in good condition. Don't take any chances with old stuff, it might spoil your visit.

Go for a set-up that gives the car a slight understeer rather than the opposite. The Ring has very few tight slow corners, many corners are fast and some are taken at speeds of over 200 km/h. You are probably not used to this (if you were, you probably wouldn't be reading this FAQ) and most drivers will have a hard time controlling oversteer at such high speeds. Entry written by Anders Jonsson on 18-Jan-01

7.3 How do I set up my bike for the Ring?

To follow ...

7.4 What car tyres should I chose for my Ring trip?

First of all, you can't use slicks (unless it is a closed event you are attending). The tyres must be road legal. Either you go on regular road tyres or you go for so called "R"-tyres. The most commonly used R-tyres is probably Pirelli Zero C and Yokohama 032 R, but there are others.

An R-tyre will give you much better grip, greater car control and it will probably cope with more heat than a regular tyre, allowing you to do several consecutive laps without overheating the tyre. One drawback of a R-tyre is that it will not give you long mileage. This could be a problem if you have to travel long distances to the Ring and then drive a lot of laps, there is a risk that the R-tyres will wear out before you get home! If you start out on fresh tyres you should be OK though.

On any "normal" racetrack the recommendation would always be to use an R-tyre if possible. It is much more fun to drive, you will be faster and have more margins for error. However, on the Ring the balance shifts a little. Why? First of all the famous Ring-weather. If you go there for a weekend, chances are that you will have rain at least some hours. A cold R-tyre in heavy rain could mean disaster, the thread is not so deep and if the tyres never gets up to its working temperature it looses a lot of its grip and stability. If the track is just a little bit damp and your R-tyres are up to correct temperature, you will have surprisingly good grip, but once your tyres are cold and you get standing water on the track you could be in trouble.

Secondly, the advantage in lap times is not as big as you would expect. On a regular track, the difference might be 2 seconds per minute of driving. If you translate that to the Ring, it would mean almost 20 seconds, but the difference will not be that big. The reason is the characteristic of the track and the driving style that pays on the Ring. Not so much hard and late braking as on a normal track and much faster, long sweeping corners. The actual difference in lap times might be closer to 10 seconds which of course is a lot but not enough to spoil the fun if you settle for regular road tyres.

As you might have figured out, the serious Ring-fanatic brings two sets of wheels, just in case. Entry written by Anders Jonsson on 18-Jan-01

Additional comments by Ben Lovejoy on 10-Aug-04:

Although R-tyres are very impressive, those of us in the C-Car syndicate concluded that they only added to your speed, not to your fun, so we went back to road tyres.

7.5 What bike tyres should I chose for my Ring trip?

To follow ...

7.6 Is there a noise limit?

Yes, 95dB(A).

The marshalls do conduct testing, both targeted and random. However, based on various experiences, we have concluded that Nürburgring GmbH is keen to be seen to be doing something to satisfy the concerns of local residents[1] without actually keeping too many people off the track. [1] Is it just me, or does it seem bizarre to live inside a race-track and then complain about the noise?

For example, they sometimes pick out perfectly standard (and quiet) vehicles to test. Phil Gardner's theory is that by picking lots of vehicles they know will pass, this enables them to be seen to be carrying out lots of tests and report back that 95% of them pass, thus giving the impression that noise is not a problem at the Ring. They have also allowed vehicles to continue after failing the test by a margin, with one person suggesting that there is an 'unofficial limit' of about 100dB.

However, the bottom-line remains that there is an official 95dB limit, and some people have been sent away for being too noisy. So if you go there with a noisy can, you run the risk that you might not get to play. Also, the German police have powers to confiscate noisy cans, which can spoil your day, especially if you've ridden there ... So unless you are going by van or trailer, and have the stock can with you for a swap if needed, I'd think about whether the extra 3bhp or whatever is worth it, especially as the Ring is not a power circuit.

If you decide to risk it, most people who get singled out for testing do so by being silly. Don't rev your engine in the car-park, keep the revs as low as possible when passing through the barriers and don't go haring off from the cones at full whack. If you wait until reaching the bridge before opening it up, you have a much better chance of getting away with it. Entry written by Ben Lovejoy on 11-Feb-01


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8. What about lap-timing?
I strongly advise against timing laps. It is likely to encourage taking chances, especially on overtakes. The marshalls and police both report that they find running stopwatches on the handlebars and dashboards of a high proportion of vehicles involved in serious crashes. There are no prizes for fast laps on tourist days.


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9. Are there any PC games which include the Ring?
Yes, three. GPL on the PC, PGR2 on the XBox and GT4 on PS2.

9.1 What is GPL?

Grand Prix Legends. A PC racing simulation that models the 1967 Formula 1 season and contains the mighty old Nürburgring.

GPL is referred to as a simulation rather than a game as it is generally considered to have the best physics model of any racing game out there, and perhaps because of this (and the high power/low grip of '67 F1 cars) is one of the hardest to learn. It is however very rewarding when you manage to get it right!

GPL is out on budget (Sierra Classics) so only costs about £10 these days. Te budget CD also contains the 1.2 patch & the manuals as .PDF files.

As a minimum, you need a processor speed of 400Mhz or more and a 3D card with the power of a Voodoo2 or higher. You will also need an analogue controller like a wheel or joystick, you're gonna have a hard enough time as it is without trying to drive using the keyboard!

Once you have GPL, there are various downloadable files available. The 1.2 patch gives it force feedback, which helps a little if you have a decent FF wheel. You will need the D3D patch if you don't have a 3dfx card. Both are available at http://www.papy.com.

GPL is very configurable in terms of car setups. As a starting point, you might want to try Alisons setups at http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/ - they're quite driveable.

Every GPL link you'll ever need can be found at http://hotgrids.racesimcentral.com/. Have a look at 'To do's if you're new to GPL' here

[Brawlyrox]

http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/