Inside the 'Ring

I want to come back to our host, Erich, in Nurburg. As I'd mentioned he's quite a storyteller and has a long history working and racing at the Nurburgring. He'd offered to take us on a backstage tour of the' Ring before we left for Heidelberg Monday AM; we took him up.

We jumped into his Mercedes Benz van and made the short drive to the track. Highlights most visitors never see included a drive through the manufacturer's platz, where many mfrs have facilities, large and small, to tune their street and race cars. We then went down an adjacent twisty 2-lane road which followed the path of the sudschleife, or south ring. This circuit was part of the original track construction and was used through the '70s. It was thrilling to know that this was where the likes of Fangio, Stewart, Rohrl, Lauda and so many other racing greats had driven balls out. I'll include a pic of the last original phone kiosk used by the track safety marshalls along the sudschleife.

The best was for last. Again we headed down back roads and through a gate into what is the original 'Ring paddock. On the stalls you will see the names of the racing greats. These garages, the size of my tiny garage at home, is where their race machines were fettled. Wow!

To wrap, we hadn't sought out Erich's B&B but instead had a huge bit of luck finding him.Read more