Nürburgring Nordschleife Touristenfahrten

[Alex787B]

Hi there,

I made a quick search and haven't found any general topic about the Ring, only old stuff - so I'm making a new one as my Skyline's done her first lap yesterday !
If something already exists please accept my apologies, and feel free to move my post

https://youtu.be/gMxqu3hhWtk

Anyone here has already driven on it ? If you have videos please share them !
Also, any advice on my driving will be appreciated, even if conditions and traffic were not optimal for this lap !

Cheers, Alex

[Steve85]

I have not driven the Nordschliefe in real life, but I've clocked hundreds of hours on PS and Xbox (that counts right?).
It's one of the places I want to go most of all. Hopefully i'll be over there next summer to run a lap or two. 

I watch a lot of tutorials on the ring on youtube. Probably the most useful ones are from:

Bridge to Gantry: https://www.youtube.com/user/nurburgdale
RSRNurburg: https://www.youtube.com/user/RSRNurburg

My only comments on your driving is "good job". You didn't go crazy, were patient and were very disciplined in your lane choice. You appear to be the type of driver people like.  You also left some space/speed in reserve just in case. Kudos on this point. I see a lot of the accidents on the ring appear to be because people are driving on the limit of their ability and then a oil patch or wild bus appears...

I would love to watch more of your videos from the ring, keep them coming!

 

[Alex787B]

Many thanks for your analyse mate, I like that my driving inspired that global feeling to you. To be honest, that lap was quite messy, I've been really surprised to see a yellow flag + warning vehicle 2 minutes before the trailer showed up... That was very confusing, I didn't know if I could get back to my driving a while after passing the warning vehicle, or still go on slowly. I believe coordination between all the persons who manage crashed cars, track cleaning, security and so on must be hard to apply perfectly... Anyway I spoke about that on a Nürburgring forum, and I got confirmation my reactions were very cautious. I'm happy with that, as I prefer taking my time to improve my skills and always place safety first.

And you know, I'll be the last person criticizing video games and simracing - I've done that a lot when I was younger and didn't have any car. That served me well, as I already knew the track layout by heart when performing my first real life laps. Of course, it's not the same experience and there's a lot of additional things to consider IRL. But video games actually give you a solid advantage over a dude who's never tackled the Ring and takes 50/100 laps just to learn the layout.

Bridge to Gantry and RSR will provide you with some really professional content. Great companies and teams, passionate people.
Their channels should be subscribed by every Ring fan !

I will post my upcoming laps in this topic then. I'm planning to go back with the Skyline in the next weeks, probably during workdays so there will be less traffic and less crashes !

[hattori hanzo]

did the ring with RSR Nurburgring do recommend for anyone as a must do. 

 

Even the parking lot and the people going to town on the track is an incredible sight. 

[GTSBoy]

Good stuff Alex.

2 points that came to me.

Not a lot of good you wearing long clothes and gloves if your passenger is in shorts. I know it's probably all personal choice, but it just seemed incongruous - more like you were overdoing the driving gear.

And, lower the camera position a bit. Too much rear view mirror, not enough vision of the track forward of the car.

[Alex787B]

On 8/31/2019 at 2:17 AM, hattori hanzo said:

did the ring with RSR Nurburgring do recommend for anyone as a must do. 

Even the parking lot and the people going to town on the track is an incredible sight. 

Totally true mate, that's a place where everyone lives for sports cars, you see incredible rides at every corner, even in restaurants and so on you can feel the racing spirit  that's why the Nürburgring is clearly one of my favorite places I've ever been to, and I consider myself lucky to live only 2 hours away from the track

Did you take a rental car with RSR ?
 

On 8/31/2019 at 8:38 AM, GTSBoy said:

Good stuff Alex.

2 points that came to me.

Not a lot of good you wearing long clothes and gloves if your passenger is in shorts. I know it's probably all personal choice, but it just seemed incongruous - more like you were overdoing the driving gear.

And, lower the camera position a bit. Too much rear view mirror, not enough vision of the track forward of the car.

Thanks for your feedback mate !

To be honest, when I started going to the Ring, I was like most people - going with no gear at all. I've been doing several laps in slow cars, after that I stopped and started making pictures as an amateur to sell them afterwards on the internet and so on... Lots of hours spent on site, that allowed me to realize how dangerous it is. I mean, really.

One day, I was shooting tourists at Brunchenn. Spectators were all behind the security rail + the big security grids, but I was just behind the rail and the grid (at that time, this was allowed, now you cannot access there 'cause marshalls won't let you pass). A guy showed up in an old Ford Fiesta, and lost control of his car. He hit the rail few meters from me, so I immediately dropped my camera and ran to see if he was ok. That was not a big crash like the ones you can see on YouTube, not at all. The dude was able to get out of his car, but still had his wrists completely f**ked and he was bleeding. The sound this all made when he lost control of the car then hit the rail was something I'll never forget. Same for his face afterwards, and his voice crying because of what happened. That day, I changed my mind a lot.

Lots of risks every single day out there, crashes, collisions, even fire. This guy was crying because he crashed, and was probably never going to get his car repaired... But another corner could have destroyed his entire life if his body was damaged, or if he caught fire for some reason. Since that day, I decided never going back on the track without gear. I saved money to buy a suit, a fire hood and all that stuff. I also bought gear for my girlfriend. At some stage, I thought it might be overkill considering I'm far from being a pro driver (best time I did was 9 min 30 in my stock Toyota Supra). I also thought people would laugh at me and say "don't act like a pro, you're slow" or so. But when I think back about that dude, and about all those who get injured or die every year down here, then I just realize danger is everywhere, even if you're an experienced driver ! And once it happens for real... then it's too late to say "I'm gonna wear a suit that will protect myself from burning fuel vapors".

If I was the only decision maker, I would force my girlfriend to wear the same gear as me, but to be honest I'm already happy I convinced her to wear a helmet lol. Maybe next season she'll accept to wear a suit hahaha

(wow sorry for that long answer dude, I will not blame you if you haven't read everything !)

[GTSBoy]

51 minutes ago, Alex787B said:

(wow sorry for that long answer dude, I will not blame you if you haven't read everything !)

Nah, it's cool. I was certainly more worried for your GF than your gloves. At the least, she should wear some jeans - something that will protect her a little more than nothing at all.

[KiwiRS4T]

Surprised to hear they are so laid back.  Tracks here (NZ) you have to wear fire resistant overalls at least and an approved helmet (that's driver and passenger) and some tracks won't allow passengers unless you have an approved roll cage...that's just for track days, not racing.

[Alex787B]

2 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Nah, it's cool. I was certainly more worried for your GF than your gloves. At the least, she should wear some jeans - something that will protect her a little more than nothing at all.

Yeah that's true mate. Even jeans are really light for that - when fuel vapors ignite inside the cabin, jeans or common clothes are just burnt immediately. Of course it'll be better to have them but they won't do miracles. Best are these ugly white fireproof underwear. They are not that expensive considering the injuries they can avoid you.

But I'm working on that lol, at the beginning she didn't want to wear anything. I keep taking her with me to the equipment shop everytime I need to buy something, and get her discuss with the owner - he was a kind of pro driver and knows well how risky it is, and he regularly tells us some accurate stories that help a lot convincing her  thanks anyway for worrying for her health mate !

 

2 hours ago, KiwiRS4T said:

Surprised to hear they are so laid back.  Tracks here (NZ) you have to wear fire resistant overalls at least and an approved helmet (that's driver and passenger) and some tracks won't allow passengers unless you have an approved roll cage...that's just for track days, not racing.

Really few regulations here on the Nürburgring. It's considered as a classic toll road, so only traffic laws apply. No need to wear any gear or so... And there are really really few people who consider wearing them. Helmet + gloves are common, but most of time dudes wear them with shorts and t-shirt (you can see it on YT videos)... Not the best combo I presume  anyway I'm not bashing anyone. I can understand that not everybody can/wants to bother dropping 500/1000 € to buy equipment... It's all about how you understand the risk.

And unfortunately it's the same for vehicle regulation - nobody will force you to have homologated security stuff in your car like roll cage, harness or fire extinguisher.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Alex787B

[GeeDog]

On 8/31/2019 at 4:08 PM, GTSBoy said:

your passenger is in shorts

I have to say thats also the first thing that came to my mind when I watched the video.

 

20 hours ago, Alex787B said:

at the beginning she didn't want to wear anything

Where's the video of that?

[Alex787B]

@GeeDog I think I know why you stayed on the video haha - if one day I'm good enough to be under 8 minutes on the Nordschleife, I'll record a vid of that 

[GeeDog]

My one & only visit to the Nürburgring - back in 2007. Couldn't see 5 metres in front of you. I'd give almost anything to drive my R33 there now. I'd also love to drive my daily on the autobahn, but thats another story. Keep posting your videos.

[Alex787B]

Dude that's sad to be able to come from the opposite side of the world, visit the Nürburgring and get that weather.
That's no exception anyway, weather is one of the things you cannot anticipate here. I usually decide if I'm going when I wake up and have a look at the forecast... If you try to check 2 days before you can get something completely different on d-day. You can even have completely different weather at different sections of the track !

Also autobahn is OK, not great but OK - there is no speed limit on some of them, but the overall shape of the road is not that good. You don't want to go too fast anyway 'cause it's not really safe and comfortable. It's just like you're doing 150 km/h with all 4 wheels curbed and wrongly balanced.

Thank you all for the interest you have for this topic. I'm happy to broadcast the Ring spirit all over the world ! Next two weekends I'll be going there as a spectator to see VLN Race on 06/09, and DTM on 15/09. These are two professional racing events (I'm sure some of you have already heard about DTM). I'll post everything I get here so you all can enjoy the thing too

Nissan GT-R in VLN

DTM race

Edited September 3, 2019 by Alex787B

[The Bogan]

Cheers, stay safe.

And no, I wasn't looking at your girls legs, honestly.......

[Alex787B]

27 minutes ago, mlr said:

Cheers, stay safe.

And no, I wasn't looking at your girls legs, honestly.......

Thanks mate, haha at first she didn't want me to upload the video 'cause she says her legs are ugly x'D
I'm surprised people noticed that anyway, considering the amount of vids on YT showing cockpit view of violent supercars with almost naked ladies on passenger seat 

[Steve85]

Hey Alex...

Me again. One thing that might help you is if you learn to heel and toe. It will assist you in being a little smoother on downshifts as the car doesn't re-engage gears quite as roughly.
It's just a suggestion though, feel free to ignore. I learned by reading (i think the original Gran Turismo book had a good section) and watching YouTube videos then practicing in everyday driving (where safe).
Once you can do it easily in slow driving you can start to do it when you're going faster and faster. It becomes second nature.

Of course, you do you. I love your videos and can't wait to see more. [emoji16][emoji106]

[GTSBoy]

11 hours ago, Alex787B said:

almost naked ladies on passenger seat

You've done it now. Shovel more power into the car, less clothes on the girlfriend, turn the camera around and give us some new 'ring videos!!!!!

Edited September 3, 2019 by GTSBoy

[Alex787B]

12 hours ago, Steve85 said:

Hey Alex...

Me again. One thing that might help you is if you learn to heel and toe. It will assist you in being a little smoother on downshifts as the car doesn't re-engage gears quite as roughly.
It's just a suggestion though, feel free to ignore. I learned by reading (i think the original Gran Turismo book had a good section) and watching YouTube videos then practicing in everyday driving (where safe).
Once you can do it easily in slow driving you can start to do it when you're going faster and faster. It becomes second nature.

Of course, you do you. I love your videos and can't wait to see more.

Hey Steve, thanks for this advice and for your support  you are totally true concerning heel and toe. I've already tried to learn it in my previous cars but I couldn't get to it. That made me perform a really uncomfortable move with my leg, and pedals placement was obviously not designed for that. throttle pedal was wayyy further than anything I could reach having toes on the brakes. So I gave up. I recently tried again on my daily 320d and on the Skyline and it seems to be way simpler. At least, pedals placement allow me to do it on these cars. Still getting cramps after a few attempts, but I believe I just need to train my body to do it

Looking at the video there's also one thing I MUST fix - hands position on steering wheel. They should be stuck on opposite sides of the wheel, and I shouldn't be passing the wheel from hand to hand... That's a beginner's mistake !
 

12 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

You've done it now. Shovel more power into the car, less clothes on the girlfriend, turn the camera around and give us some new 'ring videos!!!!!

Ahah yeah that's a hell of a thing to do, jut like those dudes do with girls on straight lines, but doing laps around the Nordschleife !
Now I'm looking at the forecast every day, and it seems the weather will not be that good for these 2 upcoming events... I hope it'll still be worth going there anyway !

[Alex787B]

All right so I went to the Ring yesterday, and despite the weather that was not that good in the middle of the afternoon, it got better when the track opened, and I could perform a lap. Way better than the previous one, I've fixed that hand position problem so I'm quite happy !

VIDEO : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50bsTBHCFvE

Now I noticed something else I need to work on - sometimes I really do useless gear shifts, and I need to stop this. There's a lot of sections in which I shift to 4th gear, and I shouldn't do it but stay in 3rd gear and rev higher instead.

Also too bad for that yellow flag (I believe the Megane RS was out of gas, or it encountered a mechanical issue), made me loose something like 20/25 secs, but that's part of the game lol

I also start to feel some points I'd like to improve on my car - that's a good thing, cause that means I'm starting to know it better

EDIT : also, sorry guys but my girlfriend's on holiday, so I took my biker bud to replace her as a passenger haha

Edited September 12, 2019 by Alex787B

[GeeDog]

Nice - a couple of points I saw:

- try and move your camera down a bit, or remove the mirror - the mirror blocks the camera's view of the track ahead

- use the rev range a bit more before changing up - you seem to be short-shifting

- at least get your mate to wear shorts