Germany's Nürburgring is known to many as the Green Hell. Conor Twomeyspent three days putting it to the test
Jackie Steward dubbed it the "Green Hell" and he wasn't alone in condemning the Nürburgring as the most difficult and dangerous race track in the world.
The Nordschliefe in the Eifel mountains in Western German is 20.8 kilometres and is comprised of 73 tree-lined corners and innumerable unpredictable changes in elevation.
Completed in 1927, the original Nürburg-Ring was partially devised as a way of bringing employment to 3,000 German workers during depression and to keep tourists rolling to the region thereafter.
It was conceived from the outset as both a racing and a test circuit and was paved in gravel and had no barriers to stop cars flying into the forestry all around it (they weren't installed until 1974).
After the war, the full Nürburgring was simply too vast to maintain and racing was confined to the Nordscheife, but it was no less notorious in how it dealt with anyone who put a wheel wrong. That's what made it so revered, of course, drawing thousands of driving enthusiasts from all over the world, as well as many car companies looking to fine-tune their performance cars to the highest standards. For many it is one of the automotive wonders of the world, like Maranello or the Utah Salt Flats, and one of the sacred pilgrimages you have to make before you die.
All the great drivers have raced at the Nürburgring: Fangio, Ascari, Surtees, Moss, Steward, Ickx, Hill, Hunt, Clark and Lauda (whose 1976 crash finally ended the Nürburgring's F1 involvement).
Now it's my turn to experience the Green Hell for myself. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I ended up here, attending the world-renowned Scuderia Hanseat driver's school at the invitation of Opel Germany. The subject of the Nürburgring came up while I was chatting with Opel's test drivers at the recent Corsa OPC launch (Opel did much of its chassis tuning for its OPC range here) and when I expressed my lifelong desire to drive the legendary track, was told: "For sure you will drive it."
I thought no more about it until a few weeks later when I got a phone call from Opel's PR officer offering me a spot on the Nürburgring driving course. "You will come, ja?" said the voice in a tone that suggested this wasn't a question. I was too stunned to refuse anyway.
The Scuderia Hanseat driver's course is the most exhaustive I've ever encountered, but unusually they're not teaching pure racecraft here. Instead, you're here to learn the track. Initially, it seems like a bizarre approach to driver training but after a while you realise that the track is just so tricky that to drive it properly means you have no choice but to drive it at your very, very best.
A badly timed steering, throttle or brake input means you'll run out of road very quickly and because there's no run off on the Nürburgring it focuses the mind like no other driving experience. To drive the Nürburgring well demands skill, concentration and, above all, knowledge of the track. And the only way to learn 20.8km of willfully complicated winding track is one little bit at a time.
So that's what we spend three days doing - covering a one or two-kilometre stretch over and over until we know instinctively where to brake, steer and accelerate. Each time you pass through a section the instructors, strategically positioned behind the crash barriers, record their thoughts on their little voice recorders and play them back to you on your way back to re-start the section. This continues for four hours in the morning and four more in the evening, and for an hour after lunch and an hour at the very end of each day, the cordons are removed and the track is yours to explore.
That first hot lap of Nürburgring is something I'll never forget. There are just so many kinks, turns, corners and curves that I never know whether to brake, turn in, accelerate or brace for impact. I rarely have any more than a few yards of visibility because most of the bends are completely blind and sometimes I'll come powering out of a bend only to find the track has fallen away and I'm looking up at the sky. It's like being on the best country road you've ever driven, but without oncoming traffic and without insurance.
Yes, that's right. No insurance company will cover you while driving on the 'Ring so you can banish any thoughts you had about taking a rental car out for a blast. You also have to pay for any damage you do to the crash barriers, while ambulances, recovery trucks and track closures can also add up pretty quickly. The current record bill stands at about €15,000, not including the price of the written-off Lamborghini.
An hour seems like a long time to lap the Nürburgring but in reality you'll be lucky to get three laps in in that period of time, at least if you take the Scuderia Hanseat course.
You first have to negotiate the achingly boring F1 track and even if you get a full-on, traffic-free lap it will take between nine and ten minutes to get back to the start-finish straight which has a 20km/h limit imposed upon it and leads back to the F1 track again. What really limits the number of laps you can drive, however, is fuel and brakes. Three laps is enough to drain my Opel Astra OPC's tank and on such a warm day, my brake fluid was starting to boil before I get to the end of the second lap. The Nürburgring is extraordinarily hard on driver and car, burning out the clutches of the new Audi S4 and Ford Focus on our course, while scuppering the wheel bearings of one of Opel's Vectra OPCs and warping my brake discs as well.
By lap ten, my final free lap at the end of day three, I'm starting to feel the track, understand how it all flows together and learn which direction the track snakes when you crest that heart-stopping blind corner flat out. Because I've been coached by the best in the world, I'm passing Porsche 911 GT3s and BMW M3s all along the track in my 240bhp Astra OPC, and even though they tack onto my rear bumper, trying to follow my line, they soon fall away and I don't see them again until the 3km-long, flat-out section from the Dottinger Hohe to the Tiergarten.
I'm feeling like a driving God until a 1965 MG Midget passes me like I'm stopped, quickly followed by what I hope is a BMW 130i M Sport but turns out to be a 120d. Hmmm. Even though I've been to the best school there is, there's always more to learn and millions of different ways to improve my cornering technique.
YOU CAN, OF COURSE, just turn up during one of the "tourist" sessions and drive away without any tuition, but then you're running the risk of getting stuck in some serious 'Ring traffic and you really won't learn very much either. And at €19 a lap, it's not exactly cheap, so even though the €2,500 Scuderia Hanseat cost seems like a lot of money, it does equate to 24 hours of tuition over three days and six hours of free driving (plus food and hotels) so it's actually reasonable value.
It doesn't really matter what you drive because you'll have a blast no matter what you pilot, but a reasonable degree of performance and track readiness is advised. You also need a contingency plan in case your car gives up the ghost and strands you in Germany. Some travel insurance might be a good idea too, just in case things go badly pear-shaped (as they so very often do).
It might be one of the most exhilarating, intoxicating and overwhelming driving experiences on the planet - just don't forget that there's a very good reason that they call it the Green Hell.
For more information log on to Nürburgring.de or scuderia-hanseat.de