We’ve been getting in the mood for this weekend’s 40th running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours by taking a look at some of the video footage that’s been taken at the circuit over the years. ‘Too long and too dangerous’, the ‘Ring has been the site of some incredible racing. It’s all great footage in general – the only thing I don’t understand is the terrible choice of music on most videos! We’ll start off with a hot-lap on-board the BMW M3 GT2 from 2010 – which looks like it’s in fast-forward mode compared to the cars it’s racing.

Sometimes this kind of thing is unavoidable at the 24 Hours, where there are hundreds of cars with hugely differing cornering speeds and braking distances. This is the crash that the #77 Schubert BMW suffered at last year’s race that flipped the car upside down and over the barriers.

Here’s some footage from the 1981 300km Rennsportmeisterschaft at the Nürburgring: not the 24 Hours, but it has Turbo Capris and BMW M1s so deserves inclusion…

Footage from 1985: BMWs and beards. An incredibly eclectic line-up of touring cars took the start that year, going door-to-door around the Green Hell. Such a difference from today’s planted, aero-heavy GT cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b0u5g8eF5w

Even into the ’90s the Nürburgring 24 Hours was a relatively unknown event outside Germany: but you can see a huge grid of entrants stream through the first corner in this review of the 1990 event, by which time they were using the combined Nordschleife/Grand Prix track configuration. A ‘real man’s place’, especially in Ford Sierra RS500s. Awesome.

Jonathan Moore

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1

Amazing, I am revving up to pack my stuff and go there!

2

The difficulty of the 'Ring seems to come from it's narrow passages, and sudden sharp turns after very long speed straights. You really have to memorize the different stages to successfully navigate this monster. Even then...

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