I used rent-racecar.de back in September and it was great. Stayed at the Dorint hotel trackside but would definitely try the Lindner, it's next to the new entertainment center and has a casino (tiny casino).

The owner of rent-racecar who gives the orientation lap has 7,000 laps on the 'Ring and drives like it.

 

Thanks for the posts, I will be there around the 8th of July.
I will confirm that taking the car on track is OK.

 

Not anymore since someone badly crashed it a couple of weeks ago. Car didnt look good when I passed it on the track.

 

If you want to rent one to go on the ring, just get something with not a lot of power, eg. a track-prepped swift, or a Scirocco. If you do not know the track you will have your hands full with one of those already.

 

They don't. So much for that. I'll look for a rental.

 

I know many of the local agencies frown on it, but have you given thought to renting from a regular car rental agency? That is exactly what I did.

I was there last Aug and it took separate weekends to finally hit the right weather. The first weekend my buddies and I rented a 3 series and a 1 series and had fun. But by far the most enjoyable was the following weekend when we rented and all pilled into the car below (4 of us with luggage) and attempted to pass everything we could. We received numerous thunder claps, fist pumps and thumbs up from the corner workers.

While it was not a race car, I think having a rental car kept us all in check, while still giving us a chance to learn and experience "The Ring".

 

A "number" of people have done this in the past, hertz, avis, sixt etc ... however over time the rental companies got fed up getting their cars back
with (at best) worn tires and brakes ...

they now all, to the best of my knowledge, exclude any or all activities that could include a lap of the Nordschleife, and have in the past severely financially
penalized renters that do, not only barring them from renting from the company ever again, but also charging them significant wear and tear costs running into the 1000's ...

and heaven help you if you happen to total the car on track ... you break it
you buy it ...

it is rumored that some companies GPS track the cars, and others have "spies" at the track looking for rental cars ...

I personally would no longer recommend it ... but I have a "friend" who has
done this many times in the past ...

 

Theo is a great teacher ... I'd also recommend staying at "Am Tiergarten" also... esp for their beefsteak on a hot brick, and lots of beer and tall motoring
tales in der pistenklause ...

I hope to be there next Thursday night in fact!

 

Thanks guys, I guess I will send an e-mail to rentaracecar as soon as I can confirm none of my friends are indeed crazy enough to lend me their cars. I figure I go for the cheaper BMW's should be plenty fast first time out at the ring and fun enough.. I only really have half a day..Looks like it wil be July 8th or 9th.

I've taken a Diesel Peugeot 807 on the track for a couple of laps and had some fun.
You'd think a C class Mercedes woul be fun as any rear wheel drive, but I took my rental 2010 C300 to VIR and the ESP is such a kill joy. The '98 S500 and '86 Audi 10 we were testing for a Lemonds race was faster and funner ;-)

 

I think I read in a Car & Driver that Hertz has introduced a policy that if you are caught driving one of their cars on the Nordschleife, you will be issued a global lifetime ban from renting their cars. I would wear that banishment like a badge of honor.

Agreed to all of you points - I've heard much the same, especially the "spies" writing down license plates. I think the GPS thing is BS because there are many places around the track where you park not to far from the armco. Just to be careful and to protect my future rental rights, I blurred our car's plate out and left the car companies name out.

While I was apprehensive about taking a regular rental car on track, I reminded myself that I often feel more safe on a race track than I do on public roads. As with any track (more so with "The Ring"), you can get yourself into trouble very quickly if you are driving above your head. I made it a point to drive within my limits and I think that the car's limitations (brakes, tires, lack of power, weight) actually helped keep me reeled in. If I were in a race-prepped car, I don't think I would have been able to keep myself on as much of a leash.

The other down-side to those race prepped rentals is that even if you are a natural, it is hard to drive them fast on a track you don't know. I lost count of how many cars with roll bars we passed (putting along) with luggage proudly stacked high in the back window.

You will have a blast no matter what car you are in. Just be sure to make a sacrifice to the weather gods before you go. My first day behind the wheel looked like this:

 

Just did the ring yesterday in a rented BMW 320I.
Slow car, slower tires, but it was very exciting!

I only had 2 hours and one car rolled, so I only got 6 laps in...
I started to figure out the corners, I just could not remember wich one was coming ;-)

This sure tastes like more ;-) The ultimate track day challenge

 

I tend to agree with you on the GPS tracking; while many cars in europe are equiped with a 'lojack' style tracker I cant imagine that the rental car companies would dedicate resources to constant monitoring like that for what is probably a tiny fraction of their rental population ...

Its also true that the type of car is no indicator of the experience or familarity of the driver with the Nordschleife ... witness the ring mini etc blasting past some fairly exotic cars on track ...

I still recall my 1st outing on the ring in a '99 GT3 ... scary ... a lot of car and almost no knowledge ... I fixed that the following year!

 

Oh Oh .. someone has the ring bug ...

 

AWE C'mon Peter! That is the weakest report I have ever heard from the Ring!!! Get in front of your computer and write some more! Any brown pants moments?

 

I should imagine that the driver of the car that rolled it had more than just brown pants! - I am reminded of that joke about how to tell if you are flying upside down - that could be one occasion where wearing a helmet could be a curse as well as a blessing!

My personal recollections are:

- spinning 450 on the exit of Bergwerk when encountering a "small river" crossing the entire track on the exit

- chosing to go into the gravel trap on the outside of Pflanzgarten I after failing to brake enough just before the dip ... rather than "saving it" like the red GT3 on youtube didn't

- back end getting light and hopping around as I braked on the uphill exit of fuchsrohre

- turning in a little too early on the exit of pflanzgarten II, getting light and putting a wheel off on the outside berm in excess of 1x0 mph ...

- carrying too much speed into brunnchen and putting a wheel off in the dirt on the other side of the rumble strip ...

- watching a GT3 997 from Norway spin 360+ for the 1st time in front of me at the apex of hocheichen ... luckily only clipping his chin spoiler

- watching the same GT3 997 lose it for the 2nd time in front of me (on the same wet lap) on the exit of metzgesfeld and pirouette over the grass to come to a stop iches from the armco ...

- coming round into Adenauer Forst to see a yellow puegeot on its roof and its driver lying on the track ...

- recounting this tale to a group of school students only to discover that one of them was the driver of the yellow puegeot

- seeing a biker and his bike slide into the concrete wall at bridscheid bridge

- seeing the F360 that I had just taken a lap in come back in bits on the back of the flatbed having lost it and spun across the track on the exit of schwalbenschwanz

ah the joys of the ring ...