Europe - Nurburgring - Day 12

Nurburgring has been called many things due to its reputation as arguably the best race-prep track in the world.

The Green Hell and the Ring comes to mind as the most infamous names.

The Northern loop of the Ring, or Nordschleife, is 14 miles of 174 bends. The complexity of some of these turns continues to make this one of the most challenging courses. Most performance car makers bring their prototypes to the Ring to test their coveted prototype's true ability.

Ok, great, I just explained a race track to you that sits in the hills of Germany. What's the big deal?

When time and money allows, I race my E30 M3 on some of the tracks in my region. It's an exhilirating experience, if you're into testing the limits of your car and your ability to drive. It just so happens I kind of love doing it. Some times on the local roads more often than I should.

The Ring is the ultimate track for those that have a passion for racing. Being able to drive on the Ring is a once in a lifetime event for most...if they are even that lucky. Miguel obliged by recognizing the importance of this opportunity and agreed to risk life and limb for me to destroy the BMW 320d that I rented. I had no intention of driving like a grandmother, if you were curious about the whole life and limb part.

We arrived in Nurburg and prepared for the drive by watching a couple races on the GP-Strecke. The GP-Strecke hosts the current professional races. The Ring became too dangerous when modernization of the Formula One cars allowed them to increase their speed and cornering, but couldn't keep them from launching off of unsuspecting dips in some of the straightaways.

Enough history...the track is about to open and we just finished our bratwurst at the nearest restaurant. yum.

All makes and models of cars that have been modified or just driven off the car lot are lined up to enter the gates of the Ring. There are motorcycles with guys dressed from head to toe in leather, just in case the Ring gets the best of them. There are Ferraris, Audis, Porsches, Clios, and one motorhome. haha, I am not joking about the motorhome.

Well, it finally was my turn to race on to the Ring and I asked Miguel to videotape the whole time with my camera. We get up to the gate and the guard said no videotaping...problem.

So, we started up the video camera after passing through the gate...solution.

For the next 9 minutes....just kidding. For the next 15 minutes, I didn't care to be anywhere else. I was pushing the car to its limits. Pushing through turns that should have put me in the guardrail and popping out of each carousel, because my desire to go fast in the turn exceeded the car's cornering ability (Had nothing to do with my skill as a driver, of course). I was focusing on the road as much as possible, because it was all new to me. At high speeds, you have to look further down the road to be prepared for the next turn. NOT the turn you are in. The tricky thing about the Ring is that you can't always see the next turn until it is upon you. Needless to say, there were moments that both Miguel and I stopped breathing. Read: lost traction momentarily, regained quickly.

We came around the final bend and knew that a another day would be upon us without loss of life and/or limb. It was a bittersweet end to the trip around the Ring. I knew I had just completed one of my lifelong goals, but I was just about to leave it all the same.

The Ring experience came and went in a flash. Next time, I will buy more laps.

It was a good day. It was a great experience. It was the kind of driving I always wanted to do.