This is a lap of the “Green Hell” with Sabine Schmitz on the 5th of September 2010. It was great to have Sabine as our driver, and a huge thanks to her and BMW RingTaxi for the thrill of being driven at high speed on a track that takes many years to learn. We had so much fun, and highly recommend it to anyone going to Germany, that likes the Nurburgring, and isn’t game enough to bring their own car, or hire a track day car. And we can’t help but congratulate Sabine for saying the line “I tell you something, I could do that lap time in a van”, which ultimately led to Jeremy Clarkson being beaten around the ‘ring by Sabine in a Ford Transit van. I hope to come back in a few years and do it again! Worth flying from Australia for
BMW F1 Nurburgring Nordschleife – Nick Heidfeld onboard video (note: video is mixed footage of all 3 laps) The 24433 km variant was used: Nordschleife + GP Strecke: Mercedesarena/kurtzambindung (so not the full GP track). Laptimes were 8:12, 8:30, and 7:29 (new record). The previous record for this 24km layout was 8:06 (Jurgen Alzen, Porsche 996 Turbo VLN, at 11-6-2005). Note: Heidfeld’s 7:29 CANNOT be compared to the old records of Lauda (6:58) and Bellof (6:11), because the track is now a different length: In the days of Lauda is was 22,8 km and Bellof drove it on the 20 km layout. Also did Heidfeld slow down at the 2 main straights, for fotoshooting. The car was modified with short gears, allowing only a topspeed of 275 km/h. They also used Brigestone Demo tires, “these have no grip”, according to Heidfeld. This video is a montage with the slow-down parts removed, and shows that Heidfeld COULD have driven a 6:40 lap that day. BMW engineers even estimate a 5:30 lap would be possible if the restrictions would be removed.
Uwe Alzen at the wheel of the BMW M3 E92 during Qualifying for the 2010 edition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Also, at the end of the clip, an incident involving the two Audi R8 LMS
