I'll tell you what...

[jp]

...if the IRL a road course like the old Nürburgring I'd be all for it. They just showed the 1973 German Grand Prix on Speed and it looks like a great track.

I really like the look of a high-speed road course with high banks. I bet it was dangerous, though.

jp

[KnockOff]

positively deadly

[Doc Austin]

At the old ring, hedges (yes, vegitation) lined the circuit to act as soft barriers, so the 'ring really had the first SAFER barrier about 1970 or so.

The ring wound, rose and dove through about 14 miles of the German Eifel forest. There were many corners with blind, multiple apexes, or even outright elevation changes that made the road ahead impossible to see. Rally drivers like Vic Elford and Leo Kinnunen always had the upper hand because they had developed the ability to learn a circuit quickly, and the ring had so many corners that was a real advantage for them.

The ring also had plenty of scarey high speed sections, with a breathlessly long straight leading to the pit straight chicane. while this gave the larger displacement cars an advantage in top speed, the rest of the circuit twisted and turned on itself so much that the lighter and more nimble cars like the 908/3 were tough to beat, and never lost a world championship round at the 'ring.

Sadly, a circuit like the ring is too big to provide adequete safety and emergency medical care. In today's politically correct and paranoid enviorment, the 'ring is just unacceptably dangerous, though they still run touring car races there, including the world famous 24 hours of Nurburgring. the general joke about that race is that if you have a car that doesn't fit into a class, they will create a class for you. the last Nurburgring 24 hour race I read bout was forced to use the old ring and new ring pits because they had over 120 entries.

The ring will pass sadly into motorsports lore as yet another emasculated version will take it's place.

[manson]

Notice the hedge in this Surtees-Ferrari pic.

[BigFig]

Re: I'll tell you what...

Originally posted by jp
...if the IRL a road course like the old Nürburgring I'd be all for it. They just showed the 1973 German Grand Prix on Speed and it looks like a great track.

I really like the look of a high-speed road course with high banks. I bet it was dangerous, though.

jp

That 270 deg turn with the hi banking was always my favorite. It was a real ball buster that seperated the men from the boys. If you look closely you will see lane down at the bottom with no banking, the "boys" used that at a much slower speed of course. This happened with the 24 hours and the 1000 km races mostly and I can't recall an F1 race with somebody using the lower lane.

[dalz]

The 24-hr touring car race uses the old AND new circuit--they both are part of the original front straight and start-finish--so the length for the course using both tracks is about 16.4 mi. It looks like about 200 cars start that crazy race. Boris Said did it in a Bimmer this year and now plans to make it an annual pilgrimage.

A fast, balls-out road course for the IRL? Road America beckons....

[Feed 'em Beans T]

I know not all here are sim racing buffs. Those that are appreciate the length, variety and difficulty of the 'ring in Grand Prix Legends (GPL). Spa is half it's size, but not nearly as challenging with a few very long straights. It takes hours up on hours to come close to "memorizing" the 'ring

GPL gave me a great appreciation for the old European courses. Gotta go now. I need to do a few laps around the IMS road course in the Williams in F1 2002 before heading out tomorrow. ;-)
Cheers,

Beans

[Doc Austin]

Yo, Beans, do you drive SCGT?