Race car driver Jackie Stewart called it “The Green Hell.” It’s the Nürburgring, which opened 95 years ago this week in Germany.
Famous as a proving ground for automakers to test their sportiest machinery prior to production, it’s composed of two circuits. There’s the 12.9-mile Nordschleife (North Loop) and the 4.18-mile Südschleife (South Loop). It’s the Nordschleife that’s particularly notorious, with 40 right turns and 33 left, a maximum grade of 17%, and 981 feet of elevation change with an incomparable assortment of high-speed corners.
Between 1951 and 1976, the Nordschleife in Germany’s Eifel Mountains staged 20 Formula One races until Niki Lauda’s Ferrari crashed and caught fire in 1976. After that, F1 judged the course too risky, although many drivers do not.
The Nordschleife is also a public toll road. For €23 euros, or $24.13, you too can do a lap, as long as it’s not being used for testing or racing. Just keep in mind that German road rules apply, including speed limits.
How it came to be
The Nürburgring’s roots go back to the end of the 19th century, in the early days of racing. As in America, contests are typically held on public roads across Europe despite the danger. Yet it quickly becmmes apparent that road courses reserved strictly for racing would be most beneficial for automobile development, whether for racing or civilians.
In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II proposes a route via the Eifel Mountain region, which has little industry and stony soil, making cultivation difficult. But little is done, and racing continues to be held on public roads.
By the early 1920s, the ADAC, the German Automobile Club, was holding annual races on 20-mile street circuits near Bonn and Cologne. But this was far from ideal. Their growing popularity led Otto Creuz, a member of the district council in the Eifel region, as well as other government leaders in the Weimar Republic to build a track close to the town of Nürburg in the Eifel Mountains.
What emerges
The Nürburgring’s concept is similar to Italy’s then-popular Targa Florio, an endurance race held on public roads in Sicily’s mountains near Palermo. (Started in 1906, the event ends seven decades later due to safety concerns.)
With Gustav Eichler as architect, the project begins in 1925 as an unemployment relief project to help revive the moribund local economy. Up to 2,500 workers are employed in building the serpentine race course at any one time, which takes two years to build at a cost of 14.1 million Reichsmarks.
The track that’s created, the Nürburgring, is designed to accommodate four configurations totaling more than 18 miles, including the 4.8-mile Südschleife and 14.1-mile Nordschleife — later reduced to 12.9 miles. Additionally, there is a 1.5-mile warm-up circle surrounding the pits known as the Betonschleife, or Concrete Loop.
A legendary track opens for business
Ninety-five years ago this week, the Nürburgring hosts Its first contest, a motorcycle race won by German Toni Ulmen on a 350-cc Velocette. The next day, car racing starts. German Rudolf Caracciola wins the race in a Mercedes-Benz Model S, driving at an average speed of 101.1 kph, or 62.8 mph. He is dubbed “Ringmeister,” or “Master of the Nürburgring.”
Racing was held at the track until 1940, resuming in 1947. By the 1950s, as Formula 1 cars became way too quick for the course, which continued to claim the lives if drivers. its “Green Hell” sobriquet comes from the challenge of driving it. The circuit is long, with massive elevation change along the course. This leads to different weather at the same time on different parts of the track. And unlike modern race courses, curbs are high and the circuit is known for its bumps and lack of run-off.
After a series of accidents in the late 1960s, 17 million Deutschemarks were spent to improve safety. Safety fences, emergency lanes and crash barriers were installed at the track, which had previously been lined only by hedges. Despite that, Niki Lauda lost control of his Ferrari 312 in a fast-left-hand curve during a 1976 Formula One race. Striking a boulder on the right-hand side of the road, his Ferrari catches fire, and rolls across the track where it’s hit by three other cars. The horrific crash would end Formula One racing at the ‘Ring.
In 1981, in attempt to modernize the Nürburgring, the Südschleife is abandoned and the Nordschleife is shortened to today’s length. Run-off areas, safety fences and an extensive network of emergency roads are added.
You too can drive it
That said, automakers have long used the Nürburgring as a testing facility — and you can too.
From the start, the Nürburgring was built as a one-way toll road, open to the public in the evenings and on weekends. But don’t try it in a rental car. If caught, you’ll be fined. And most European auto insurers will not cover you while driving there. There are speed limits in parts, and if you crash, you’re on the hook for the cost of repairs to the track, the cost of closing the track due to your accident, as well as repairs to your car.
And German driving laws still apply, so no passing on the right and watch for speed limits, not to mention the limits of your own driving ability.
