Calgary Herald

Nurburgrin­g delivers thrills, rewards

Porche 911 C4S, Cayman S are up to the task

- DEREK MCNAUGHTON

NURBURG, GERMANY — The danger becomes evident late in the afternoon. Entering a corner at Germany’s Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe, I spot the crumpled remains of a Honda S2000 — both airbags deployed, the front and rear destroyed. The driver is standing by a steel barrier, which bears the scars of not just this impact but others that have come before.

Suddenly the gravity of what I am doing — piloting a Guards Red 2013 Porsche 911 C4S around this track at speeds that top 260 km/h — takes hold. For some reason I say “sorry” for the driver who has totalled his S2000.

I also realize I could very well have been him.

Focus, I tell myself, focus — saying it out load for impact. The $130,000 Porsche quickly passes the wreckage and we are soon back at speed, the exhaust of the 911’s 400-horsepower flat-six absolutely destroying the tranquilli­ty of Germany’s Eifel forest on this warm and sunny summer afternoon.

This forest, about two hours northwest of Frankfurt, is home to the world’s most incredible public road, a road that — for good reason — is on the so-called bucket list for everyone who loves cars or simply wants to drive the most challengin­g course on the planet. Fast, scary and hard to learn, the Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe is as much a course used by manufactur­ers to test and measure the performanc­e of their cars as it is a meandering ribbon of Armco and graffiti-laden asphalt, where anyone from the club racer to the tourist can bring his or her car, pay a toll, and try not to kill themselves.

But despite its “public” status, the Nurburgrin­g is very much a full-blown racetrack. As was witnessed by the unfortunat­e Honda driver, there are accidents every day at the Nurburgrin­g. On the first day, the Honda and an M3 were wrecked. On day two, a GT3 hit the Armco so hard it broke the barrier. Two GT3 RSs also got banged up, as did a 911 C2S driven by an auto journalist in my group.

There are also deaths at the ring. While no one seems to have official figures, over the years, “this track has claimed over 200 lives,” Top Gear’s Jeremy Clark- son said in a 2004 episode.

Note to self: Don’t screw up. Look where you want the car to go. Focus.

Opened in 1927, the Nordschlei­fe today runs 20.8 kilometres through 300 metres of elevation changes, encompassi­ng roughly 75 left-and-right bends. Yet no matter how many YouTube videos have been watched or how many hours have been spent playing Gran Turismo, nothing prepares you for the real thing, for the way the track tugs at the car, both up and down and side to side, or for the way corners have a way of appearing where a straight was thought to be. Drivers quickly earn a new respect for gravity when the track falls away during hard braking, or when things are off camber and the car is carrying too much speed.

Depending on the car, and driver, it can take as little as six minutes and 48 seconds to complete one lap of the Nordschlei­fe — if you are Michael Vergas in a Radical SR8. If you are Porsche factory driver Timo Kluck, who is my instructor and who I am following on the track, a lap in a 991 Porsche 911 C2S can be completed as quickly as 7:37 — the fastest a bone-stock C2S has ever gone.

The Nurburgrin­g also encompasse­s a Grand Prix course, built in 1984, making the entire complex like a shrine to the great sport of auto racing, with plaques, posters and photos strewn about the place as though it were its own hall of fame. It still echoes with names that are the stuff of racing legend, such as Jackie Stewart, who dubbed the Nordschlei­fe the ‘Green Hell’ (or Grune Holle), but many other greats, including Stirling Moss, Jacky Ickx, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher. Everywhere we go are reminders that this is automotive heaven.

As I follow Kluck around the track, trying hard to memorize each turn, and position the 911 on the proper line, we begin to build speed as the day progresses. This day, organized by a German company called Sport Auto, will see approximat­ely 20 groups (one of which is for Porsche AG) of drivers, with six cars per group. Most of the groups are European drivers who have paid about $3,000 to be part of the Sport Auto program, and will be taught how to drive the Nurburgrin­g using their own, track-oriented cars, many of which are Porsches, including GT2s and GT3 RSs. There are many other great cars, including Nissan GT-Rs, McLaren MP412Cs, BMW M3s, Audi R8s. Every- where I look, there is more sexy sheet metal.

Passing is not allowed in this program until the latter half of the day when all hell seems to break loose. Suddenly, GT2s and 911 Turbos fill the rear-view mirror out of nowhere, or some hothead in a GT-R passes on the right. But then I notice that our laps, which took more than 10 minutes to complete at the start of the day, have been reduced to less than nine minutes, though I should not be keeping track.

And despite the beating the 911 is taking, it continues to perform flawlessly, the Pirelli tires providing serious grip, the front end devoid of understeer, the PDK transmissi­on helping to flip gears at the precise moment every time — the carbon-ceramic brakes never once feeling inadequate. And this from a car I collected at the Frankfurt airport, packed my luggage into, and then drove to the track without anything more than a check of the tire pressure.

Still, there is a constant reminder of danger. Skid marks off the track are everywhere. Spectators have gathered at one challengin­g corner in the anticipati­on something nasty might happen, or simply to see some of the awesome cars. Despite the risk, the pull to go faster and to complete another few laps remains irresistib­le. Panged by worry when the car wobbles over a crest at 175 km/h, at other times filled with confidence pushing past a GT3, I am making the 911 go as fast as I think it can, yet Kluck, my instructor, continues to pull away whenever he wants — and he’s driving the same car.

He knows the danger, too, but he also knows the limits of the 911 — a car that seems perfectly suited for the Nordschlei­fe. This track, like this car, both encompass equal measures of awe and beauty. Both are meant to be driven hard, and both should be treated with the utmost respect.

On the second day of the Sport Auto program, I was asked to give up the 911 C4S for a Cayman S equipped with a PDK and carboncera­mic brakes. I was reluctant because the 911 had felt so good and I had become well aware of how it could tackle this crazy course.

But after two laps of the Nurburgrin­g, I came into a deep appreciati­on for the Cayman. While it felt almost as fast as the C4S, it was noticeably nimbler. I think I was as fast as the day before and, like the 911, the Cayman S simply pounded away at the track, corner after corner, without a single issue.

 ?? Dino Eisele/studio Dino Eisele ?? Fast, scary and hard to learn, anyone from the club racer to the tourist can bring his or her car, pay a toll, and try not to kill themselves on the Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe.
Dino Eisele/studio Dino Eisele Fast, scary and hard to learn, anyone from the club racer to the tourist can bring his or her car, pay a toll, and try not to kill themselves on the Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe.

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