christallon

Here is some great driving!

Ur20v

I think Track car is there now... awesome track, spent many a happy (scared!) lap on my bikes and cars. Never grows old. Especially when you consider theres a pedestrian crossing and 40km speed zone- see if you can spot it!

CosmosMpower

Picking up a 16 M3 euro delivery next month. Would it be safe to drive the car at a medium pace on the ring or should I rent a race car? I'm a HPDE instructor level driver.

TYPE911

Serious indeed! Dave29 have you seen this....?

Saru385

my friend and i each did a few laps of the Ring in her Cayman S when she picked it up last year. there were a wide variety of cars and while some people were going quite fast, i'd say the majority of the people were driving "spiritedly".

should be no problem taking your M3 out and just enjoying the track on a tourist day. definitely not a day to go for any records or really push it though. too much traffic to do that safely.


edit: interesting that they were passing people on the right in that video. we were definitely told not to do that on the tourist day and i think you could get pulled from the track for doing that. slower cars were told to keep right at all times, regardless of the racing line.

Ur20v

Saru358, it looks like it was a closed/club day, pretty much anything goes.

CosmosMpower - do it, you will regret not doing it for sure! You can go at coach pace or spirited. at 8/10ths you will be ok- 10/10ths is an accident waiting to happen if you haven't got hundreds of laps behind you!

Slow laps are cool, you get to see the castle, pedestrian crossing and all the graffiti on the track- its all missed at speed.

The Mick

Awesome stuff! This clip is from a race in the German VLN Endurance series.

shotor

Totally safe. I go once a year and I've never had any problems.

A good lap is so reliant on track knowledge that it almost doesn't matter what you drive the first a few laps you do there. You will be slow.

If you just want to do a few laps, best to go on a tourist day. Try to avoid a day after a major race as the track will be very busy.

If you want to do lots of laps, then a track-day is worth the money. You can easily do twice as many laps and the level of cars and drivers is generally higher.

I rent from these guys normally: http://www.rent4ring.de/en/info/rent...dschleife.html

If you want to a Ring-Taxi [GTR, M5, Aston, etc], I would recommend doing it after completing a couple of laps. It sounds counter intuitive, but the lap is so long and these guys are so fast, that you'll just be overwhelmed with the track and might miss the real speed that these guys are carrying up there. They are very fast.

Ur20v

^^^ good advice- ring taxi after as many folk are sick and it would then mess your day and driving. Still worth doing to see how it looks to be lapping properly.

TRAKCAR

Not yet, flying to Stuttgart in 10 days. Stoked!!

Only 3 days Ring (The first 3) out of the 20 track days booked. Probably the worst relative lap times of them all. Ring scares me, but I'll report in with some Harry's lap timer video's hopefully.

Larry Cable

define medium pace? its not really about the car, its about your level of familiarity with the line...

I'd say "no" not really ... its a very complex track, with many many corners that look the same but aren't, camber changes, surface changes, many blind corners

I still remember my first outing there back in '03 ... on the straight between Kesselchen and Klosterthal ... I'd spent the previous 2 days doing section repetition, and full lap lead/follows with the BMW Intl Farhrer School, and I
thought I knew enough of the line ...

heading up the hill at around 135mph in my 996.1 GT3 Clubsport, no one
in front of me approaching "mutt kurve" I asked myself the question,
"do I know the line" ... answer "I'm on a race track in a forrest in Germany"

Even if you are an experienced HPDE instructor, perhaps in fact because of
this, I would suggest that what you do is this...

Contact Theo and Heide at rentracecar.de tell them you would like some
guided laps (maybe even rent a car from them for 1/2 day) and go out
with them ...

Also, download some full lap videos (the ones without the crashes) from youtube and memorize the line (I did this before I went the 2nd time - what
a difference) and *DO NOT* use a video game to teach you the line ...

enjoy!

- Larry

Larry Cable

On tourist days the ring is considered a one way toll road, so the rules of the
(german) road apply, hence you must pass to the left (although many ignore this sadly)

On private days this is suspended...

snzuloz

I agree with this as well, I went last year, started off with a ring ride in a GT3, took me about 1/2 hour to get straightened out so I could drive my rental lol. Definitely a scary place to run, open days are open to anyone with very different skill sets and speeds.

OzStriker

Get yourself a PlayStation 3, Gran Turismo 5 and a wheel and learn the track first, will make it all so much more enjoyable.

Ur20v

I agree with the gaming and video- just note that distances between bends, elevation and track conditions are not indicative but I found the hundreds of hours on my xbox helped me locate myself and visualize the track (games are surprising good at the scenery!) I then steadily built up on follow my lead laps then, reset and steadily built up on my own - did this for both bikes and cars separately as they use different lines and are effected by the track differently.

First ever lap was on a bike in very wet conditions (read down pour) - did a 11 minute lap gate to exit, the focus was 110% and it was enjoyable like doing a parachute jump or putting your head in a lions mouth and getting away with it.

Peter, just relax and enjoy, lap times mean nothing there - just imagine its a very fast, scenic road where traffic laws have been suspended and you are on a spirited Sunday drive- that's my mind set and how I cope with the pressure/focus- although I have got dragged into a race or two - that turns the **** to 11 and the heart rate to 180bpm!!

You will enjoy the carpark and spectating also!

Can't wait for the full post from you- make sure you post here (997 section) or at least a link!!

Good luck and most of all ENJOY.