The Green Hell
The name Jackie Stewart gave it, which stuck.
Herranderssvensson — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lothar Spurzem — CC BY-SA 3.0 de · MAbW — CC BY-SA 4.0 · MAbW — CC BY-SA 4.0
Yes on announced tourist-driving days, with a valid licence, a roadworthy car and a fee per lap. But note: the circuit is legally treated as a one-way public road, meaning liability for any accident is yours, and many insurers exclude it explicitly. Crashes are common and the corners cannot be learned in one lap. Anyone without track experience is better riding with a professional in a ring taxi than driving themselves.
An annual endurance race held in May or June on a course combining the Nordschleife with the modern circuit, close to twenty-five kilometres long. More than a hundred and fifty cars of different classes run at once, and over two hundred thousand spectators attend, camping around the track. It is among Europe's largest motorsport events and its atmosphere is closer to a festival.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
A racing circuit in the Eifel mountains, containing the Nordschleife — the Northern Loop — regarded as the hardest and by far the most famous racing circuit in the world. The numbers explain why: it runs about twenty kilometres eight hundred metres, holds more than a hundred and seventy corners, and has an elevation difference of over three hundred metres between its highest and lowest points. It was built in 1927 across natural terrain without levelling, so the track follows the mountain rather than the other way round. Jackie Stewart called it the Green Hell, and the name stuck. After Niki Lauda's near-fatal crash in 1976 it was dropped from Formula One for its danger, and a shorter modern circuit was built beside it. What makes it unique today: at announced times the Nordschleife opens to the public — anyone with a driving licence and an ordinary car can pay a fee and drive the track. There is nothing comparable anywhere in the world. The circuit also hosts a twenty-four-hour race, and holds a racing museum.
The name Jackie Stewart gave it, which stuck.
On announced days it opens to the public at a fee per lap — unmatched anywhere.
After it the circuit was dropped from Formula One for its danger.
The Eifel mountains, about a hundred kilometres south-west of Cologne