I had gone over to Germany to go to Techno Classica classic car show (click for my pics), and decided to check out the race at the ring. I haven't driven on it yet but its up there as a life goal.
The BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring (snappy title) is a 4 hour race as part of the VLN championship of endurance racing, with a few other endurance races in the year. This was the first one of the season, and the weather was pretty good considering that practice was closed the weekend before and there was still a bit of snow in the car park.
The cars ran in 3 groups, with GT-style cars going first, some pretty serious machinery with hoards of prepped 996/7 GT3s and E46 M3s. The next group had older stuff that was still fast including E36 M3s and other Porsches. The final group was just about anything which was legal. This meant for some pretty crazy speed differentials as prepped Murcielagos went up against Mk2 Golfs, multiple Yaris (Yarii?) and even mk2 Escorts.
It was €10 to spectate in the stands and to get into the paddock. You can see everything in action, watch the teams prep in the pits etc. The end stand has the best view really, with the cars coming down the straight then entering the complex in front of you.
Some pics:
After about an hour in the stands it was getting seriously cold. It is free to spectate anywhere around the ring and we tried getting to Adenauer Forst but ended up on what can only just be called a road in the middle of the forest, with a tractor blocking the way, so we had to give up on that.
We then went to the spectating point near Quiddelbach, down from the Flugplatz and you could get really close to the action:
My £90 Konica-Minolta was just not up to these action shots, I need a DSLR.
The BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring (snappy title) is a 4 hour race as part of the VLN championship of endurance racing, with a few other endurance races in the year. This was the first one of the season, and the weather was pretty good considering that practice was closed the weekend before and there was still a bit of snow in the car park.
The cars ran in 3 groups, with GT-style cars going first, some pretty serious machinery with hoards of prepped 996/7 GT3s and E46 M3s. The next group had older stuff that was still fast including E36 M3s and other Porsches. The final group was just about anything which was legal. This meant for some pretty crazy speed differentials as prepped Murcielagos went up against Mk2 Golfs, multiple Yaris (Yarii?) and even mk2 Escorts.
It was €10 to spectate in the stands and to get into the paddock. You can see everything in action, watch the teams prep in the pits etc. The end stand has the best view really, with the cars coming down the straight then entering the complex in front of you.
Some pics:
After about an hour in the stands it was getting seriously cold. It is free to spectate anywhere around the ring and we tried getting to Adenauer Forst but ended up on what can only just be called a road in the middle of the forest, with a tractor blocking the way, so we had to give up on that.
We then went to the spectating point near Quiddelbach, down from the Flugplatz and you could get really close to the action:
My £90 Konica-Minolta was just not up to these action shots, I need a DSLR.
