The Nürburgring is a famous racecourse in Western German, situated in the town of Nuremberg. It has a Grand Prix track built in 1984, but is more well known for the Nordschleife, or “North Loop” in English, track which was built in the 20's and encompasses the medieval village and the castle of Nuremberg. The track has 20.8km and an elevation difference of over 300m, and has been nicknamed “The Green Hell”.
In the early 20's, car races were often held on public roads in the Eifel Mountains, but this was recognised as impractical and dangerous, so construction of a dedicated race track was begun in 1925 and completed in 1927. The original track consisted of 174 corners.
After WWII when motor racing was resumed, in 1951 the Nordschleife was used as the venue for the German Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship tours, but as the racing cars were developed to increase performance and speed, the Nürnberg ring became more and more dangerous and modifications to the track were made to improve safety, including a chicane corner before the finishing straight to reduce speeds at the pit lane entry.
in 1971 further changes were made due to demands from the F1 drivers who boycotted the Nürburgring one year due to safety concerns following a fatal crash. These included smoothing out some of the surfaces and removing some sudden jumps, as well as installing safety barriers. Parts of the track were straightened out in accordance with the racing line and the number of corners was reduced. These changes made it possible to host the German Grand Prix for a further six years between 1971 and 1976. In 1973, further improvements were made by flattening some bumps and by widening some stretches of road.
As the Grand Prix was starting to be televised, the Nürburgring offered a lot of challenges to television crews due to the sheer length. The length also created safety concerns as more than five times the amount of safety marshals were required than for a standard Grand Prix race which cost a lot of money and the German government were not willing to do this. The last Grand Prix race on the Nürbergring happened 1976.
The record time for completing the Nürburgring Nordschleife is currently six minutes and 48 seconds, completed in the Radical SR8LM car in 2009. This is closely followed by the Lamborghini Huracan Performante at six minutes and fifty two seconds. There are currently only five timed laps that sit below the seven minute mark, and to score below eight minutes is almost near impossible without a professional racing driver behind the wheel who is very familiar with the track.
The track has featured several times on the BBC motoring show “Top Gear”, probably most famously where German Driver Sabine Schmitz, who is one of the presenters on the show since 2016, completed the track in a Ford Transit van in 10 minutes and 8 seconds, in 2005.
The track is open to the public to drive around. It is an important part of automotive history and has become very popular for motor enthusiasts worldwide.