The Nordschleife

This page has been superceded by the
(somewhat-under-construction-but-still-has-cool-stuff)
Nordschleife page at www.circuitjunkie.net.

The Nordschleife is one of the most incredible racetracks in the world, 13 miles of undulating blind corners, long straights and... ..aw sod it, if you're here you likely already know what it is (if not, well, you know where Google is).

Anyway, for the budding race-driver-wannabee there are various sites around the net where people have posted videos and other helpful bits for getting to know the course. The purpose of this page is to put them all in one easy-to-find place for the two most useful things; course notes, and full-lap videos.

Advice

Many people have written many wonderful things about preparing to drive the Nordschleife. I ain't gonna rewrite it all...

Course notes

For those of you who don't yet know every single bend and turn, there are some places with some decent course notes. Print and study accordingly, perhaps with your favourite racing sim.

Practise, by videogame

Right, much more fun to write a car off in a game eh! Not many games have the full course in all its glory, but here's a few. (well, a few where the course is available; you may need to download it separately):

GTR 2 (PC)

One of the most modern, realistic and fantastic racing sims available. Its just incredible. Doesn't come with the Nordschleife out of the box though, so you'll need my trusty links:

Download the Nordschliefe for GTR 2 here:
http://www.mrmenmods.org/gtr2_nords.html

GT Legends (PC)

Take the realism, driving model and joy from GTR 2 and replace the cars with some sweeeet '60s and '70s classics and you have GT Legends. Fantastic game. Nordschleife for download. Soo much fun in a Corvette C3 :)

Download the Nordschliefe for GT Legends here:
http://www.mrmenmods.org/gtl_nords.html

Gran Turismo 4 (Playstation 2)

Comes with the race version of the Nordscheife out-of-the-box, and chances are you already drive one of the cars in the game! The start/finish area is different to the tourist course, but the rest is the same.

Grand Prix Legends

Old '90s game by Papyrus, set in the 1967 Formula 1 season; the last before 'wings' and sponsor liveries were introduced. Still a very realistic game, and includes the Nordschleife. Bloody hard though.

Full lap videos

Many places around the net have a couple of full-lap videos. Many also have a few short clips. For the wannabe race driver, here's a list of all the full-lap videos we've found so far: