|
Taken from Cyril Posthumus's lovely book 'The German Grand Prix' (1966)
THERE IS NO CIRCUIT comparable with the Nürburgring today. Only the Targa Florio circuit in the mountains of Sicily is longer and more rugged (and certainly more primitive) but it is not suitable for Grand Prix racing. Czechoslovakia used to have her Masaryk-ring, an 18-mile network of bumpy public roads outside Brno, but that course is no longer used while Italy has the 15.5-mile Pescara road course, nowadays all too rarely raced on.
Nürburg is unique, and the Germans are justly proud of it. It all began as a means of alleviating the crippling unemployment in the Coblenz-Cologne areas, credit for the idea going to Dr. Creutz, who was District Councillor of the rural Eifel district west of the Rhine. Several far-sighted civic dignitaries in the area, led by the Oberburgermeister of Cologne, one Konrad Adenauer - until recently, Chancellor of the West German Federal Republic - supported Creutz and made strong representations to the German Government to back the project financially. They argued that the unemployed had to be paid anyway, that a racing and test circuit would provide the German car industry with a permanent testing base which it greatly needed, and that it would open the poor but very attractive Eifel district to tourists.
To their credit, the Government agreed to assist the City of Cologne and other local corporations by contributing a sizeable proportion of the 15 million marks needed to put down some 18 miles of circuit through virgin country in the forested Eifel mountains, and on September 27, 1925, Dr. Fuchs, Supreme President of the Rhineland, laid the foundation stone of 'the first German mountain speed and essay track'. Within its tortuous boundaries stood one of the Rhineland's oldest castles, the ruined twelfth-century Schloss Nürburg, so they called the circuit the Nürburgring.
In its full 17.58-mile length, including both the 14.17-mile Nordschleife and the 4.8-mile Südschleife it contains no less than 172 corners of infinite variety, 88 being left-hand and 84 right-hand. The two schleifen share the same dual parallel strips on a high plateau, containing the grandstands, timing boxes, paddock, pits, and other facilities, all loftily overlooked by the Schloss Nürburg on its own mountain.
Describing the Nürburgring always provides a vigorous exercise of superlatives, and sometimes expletives from those learning its intricacies the hard way. Sir Henry Birkin said 'It is an absolute switchback, the abruptness of the corners, their frequency, and the undulation of the road being quite without parallel'. Said Raymond Mays 'I went to bed wondering if I should ever learn that bewilderingly intricate circuit. .. There are fantastically fast downhill stretches, several blind pieces where you climb sharply and the road disappears into the skyline. . .'. Said Mike Hawthorn 'The fantastic twists and turns are as difficult to negotiate as they are to pronounce. ... I'm told there are 172 corners. I didn't stop to count them...' Said Tony Brooks 'My favourite circuit. ... You don't find yourself coming up to the same corner every three miles. . . . But it is also very tough . . . the most fatiguing circuit of all . . .'. Said wellknown motoring journalist W. F. Bradley 'The dominating impression is that a drunken giant was allowed to reel around the Eifel mountains, and then road contractors followed in his tracks'. To describe it in full detail corner-by-corner would almost fill this book!
The Nordschleife, today the only circuit used, contains only 4 km of straight in its 22.18 km, and that straight is interrupted by hump-backed bridges. Apart from the broad Startplatz between the pits and the huge grandstand, it is of normal road width; cars blast down to the wide sweep of the Sudkehre (South Curve) and back behind the pits to the slightly banked Tribunenkehre or Nordkehre (North Curve) where they sweep left and vanish from the grandstand view.
Plunging downhill through the Hatzenbach and Quiddelbacher Hohe in the forested Hocheichen valley, up past the Flugplatz and the Schwedenkreuz (Swedish Cross), the road writhes its way down to the Fuchsrohre (Foxhole), then up again to Adenauerforst (Adenau Forest). A series of fast curves then brings cars in a downhill rush to Adenau Gate, then they climb past the cliff-like walls of Bergwerk, plunge through a valley, then steeply uphill to the Karussel (Merry-go-round). This is the most famous corner on the Ring, turning almost a full circle, with a concrete-banked ditch on the inside. (Caracciola's mechanic Wilhelm Sebastian is credited with discovering the time-saving method of using the ditch as a banking in 1928-29).
After the Karussel a long, winding climb follows to the Hohe Acht, then dives down twisting and turning to Brunnchen, through the fast Pflanzgarten bend and on to the Schwalbenschwanz (Swallowtail) double turn. Up, then, to the Dottinger Hohe and a left-hand sweep on to the home straight with its humpbacked bridges, a last 120 m.p.h. curve under the Antoniusbuche (Antonius Beech) and so back to the start and another tortuous 14.17 mile lap.
Such a course demands complete concentration and fitness from a driver. In truth, he (or she) can never practice enough. Its mountainous location makes rain and fog frequent hazards, aggravated because they may visit one point of the circuit and not another, so that a driver has always to be wary. There are steep drops, trees and banks to trap the errant car, while the massed overhanging pines drip on to the course and delay drying. These same pines, imparting what American journalist Henry Manney once called 'a general air of impending doom', also contribute to the Rings matchless scenic splendour.
The Germans take their Grosser Preis very seriously. Thousands upon thousands trek to the Ring the day and night before the race, camping in the sloping meadows and woods bordering the circuit. Clad in the lederhosen, bush shirts and Bavarian hunting hats with little feathers or badger's brushes that make up the uniform of the average Teutonic open air lover, they pass the hours singing round their campfires, while the local taverns and cafes ring with drinking songs, and the noise of arriving traffic goes on all night, until at last the dawn, generally rather chilly, creeps over the Eifel and der Tag has arrived. That brings many thousands more to queue for the car parks, while yet other thousands have already taken up their positions around the course. The grandstand opposite the pits alone holds 10,000 people; another 20,000 fill the enclosures around the Startplatz, and 15,000-20,000 gather in the Karussel area.
This tremendous mass enthusiasm pervades the entire place with that indefinable 'racing atmosphere' which the short British circuits so manifestly lack. In the vast Start rind Ziel area countless multi-coloured flags flutter; there are stalls selling milch, wurst, schokolade, frankfurters, bier, racing postcards; countless advertising devices adjure one to use Continental, Dunlop or Fulda tyres, Bosch plugs, Gedore spanners, or to trink the ubiquitous Coca-Cola. Balloons taking the shape of a Varta battery or one of Dr. Hiller's pfefferminz or Edel-drops hover and bob above the busy scene; there are hordes of police and armletted officials wielding the usual German efficiency - too much of it sometimes - bands play, loudspeakers bray, and everywhere are people en masse. It is a heady atmosphere, and when at last the cars come swooping up one by one through the tunnel from the paddock and make for the pits or the grid, excitement really mounts, and one begins to understand why Nürburg attendances are so high.
[Edited by John Cross on 07-28-2000]
|
