I like that expression, Mark!

 

I am most flattered, Mr G

 

Nick, you should look at p*ssed up heads

their sotw is the prelude

 

i love this thread, some of peoples opinions of the Ring really make me laugh.

I went last year for my first trip, and I`d have to say I loved the place so I would be sorry to see it die. The whole Nuro disney thing is ridiculous, as is the Ring card... totally unrequired, the Ring worked perfectly well for years without it!

We stayed in the Ring Haus, 100m from the Grune Holle, and we ate in the town, bar 1 subway lunch at the Ringwerks. Part of the experience was interacting with the locals and the history of the surrounding towns etc.

I`m one of these saddos everyone clearly loves laughing at in this thread with the small sticker on the rear of my S... the difference is I`ve been, I loved it, I didnt get on like a cock on the track and drove well within my comfort zone while also being aware of others around me and as a result had a very safe trip and will definitely go back.

Maybe i`m just a different kind of petrolhead to most and actually enjoyed the place and the atmosphere being amongst like minded people be it in a Renault 5 turbo or a Hennessy Racing Tuned Dodge Viper.

The place as already said wont die, it has too much historical significance and is a big money spinner for Germany.. it just needs to not be ran by idiots.

 

I do know people who have been and all seem to have been involved in "unfortunate accidents". One of them was a very skilled motorcyclist. He hold records for 1/4 miling at Elvington on the back wheel at over 170 mph

Anyhow he's been there and ended up hospitalized with collapsed lung etc huge bills and all the rest after some guy popped up waving when he was in the apex of a corner fully committed. Turns out there had been a crash round the next bend but because you can't properly marshal 12+ miles of toll road this sort of thing will happen.

He also informed me of some other horrendous crashes which occurred there (I won't go into detail as they were particularly nasty). He is one among another half dozen or so people I know who have been and crashed.

And no i'm not from mars. I don't know about you lot but Germany isn't a stones throw from where I live. With all that wasted fuel going to Germany and back including accommodation I could have done a lot of trackdays and driven at 110% knowing that if the car does break I'm not a long way from home (along with some proper marshaling).

Now get yourself off there before it closes and don't forget to fit your sticker on the boot lid

PS: don't forget to get your specialist insurance cover as normal insurance won't cover you for driving the Ring as its a Toll road and they will blacklist you if anything goes wrong happened to another guy I know who went and crashed)

 

And yet this "skilled" motorcyclist who was on a toll road that he knew wasn't marshaled was so committed to a corner that he couldn't take the appropraite avoiding action when warned of an incident round the next corner

He knew the risks but by the sounds of it was still riding like he would at Elvington......it was only a matter of time before he rode straight to the scene of his own accident!

 

Cheers for that, Gad!

Some very virtual comments on there too, as usual.

 

I dont know anything about it at all and don't intend researching it.

But from reading above is it a case of something going pete tong having been run by enthusiastic ameaters etc and getting big ideas like shopping centres and rides etc making things even worse.

Nice to see the Germans sod things up I thought they were so good at things!

 

Rover Group, anyone?

 

Oh Nick your not suggesting BMW had a hand in messing that up