A gifted driver can learn any track with ease. But the nürburgring isn’t just any track. It demands something beyond innate skill: devotion.
HE WAS THE LAST MAN on the Nordschleife and a faithful servant of the one true goddess who rules over the tarmac and steel within. It was more than 30 years ago, after the track had disappeared from the Formula 1 calendar but long before the Godzilla GT-R and the so-called production-car records. Before the PlayStation brought a digitized version of the Nürburgring’s old North Loop into millions of homes. Before the lawsuits, before the shopping center and its empty storefronts, before the 99-mph roller coaster that operated for a grand total of four days and then closed for good. Before the Nürburgring was a sticker, before it was a brand.
In those days, you found the Ring by accident or through word of mouth or perhaps not at all. There was an old entry down near the T13 corner, mostly invisible from the road. A single marshal stood between you and the track. You handed him your ticket, and he punched a hole in it before waving you on. There were no flaggers, no safety workers, no yellow Bongard truck to charge 200 euros for a 20-minute flatbed ride back to the pits. You were on your own in pretty much every sense of the phrase, among the drivers who still remembered and venerated the old track.
The man is Ron Simons. A successful Dutch touring-car racer with an effortless command of multiple languages and an entrepreneurial bent, Simons had fallen into the grip of an unusual but seductive idea: namely, that the recently introduced Alfa Romeo 75 (known as the Milano on our shores) was the perfect car with which to tackle the Nordschleife.
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Denne historien er fra October 2017-utgaven av Road & Track.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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MR. CALIFORNIA
MEET THE MAN WHO PUT THE STATE ON THE MAP AS THE LEADER IN THE FIGHT AGAINST VEHICLE EMISSIONS.
RESIDENT ALIEN
THE CZINGER 21C LOOKS LIKE IT ARRIVED FROM A DISTANT PLANET. INSTEAD, IT COMES FROM CALIFORNIA, WHICH IS KIND OF THE SAME THING.
FUNNY FACE
THE CURIOUS CASE OF CALIFORNIA-DIAL WATCHES.
THE PROBLEM WITH ROBERT WILLIAMS
TOWARD THE END of our third interview, Robert Williams gives me some advice about overcoming creative blocks. “Phrase it as a problem,” he says. “
Quiet Riot
In the Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai makes the case that an EV can tamp down racetrack noise without sacrificing capability.
The Sound and the Fury
A legal feud over booming decibels put California's most historic roadracing circuit in jeopardy.
HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST STUNT DRIVER
CAREY LOFTIN WAS THE KING OF THE SCIENTIFIC WILD-ASS GUESS
OFFLINE
THIS BURBANK BOOKSTORE IS A REPOSITORY FOR THE WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE INFORMATION NOT ON YOUR PHONE.
THE COURSE OF HISTORY
The West Coast tracks where modern racing was born.
TANK WARFARE
WHAT IF THE WHOLE CAR WERE A GAS TANK?