Having recently starting planning next years trip to the legendary Nurburgring I got a bit concerned when I was sent some information about changes to the system by its new owners.
Basically you can no longer take a car on the Tourist or Public driving days that has: Full bucket seats, a non padded roll cage, installation for HANS neck and head restraint devices and snap-off steering wheels.
I'd imagine that most people who have a car this is track usable and road legal either have done some of these, or are planning on installing something in the near future. So if you want to hit the 'ring this could be a problem then....as could the 250 Euro fine for breaking the rules.
However, Bridge-to-Gantry.com went on to explain the new rules in plenty of detail and they made sense
It's all in the detail, it says "Full" bucket seats meaning ones that only allow straight on vision, used in proper, dedicated race cars kind of like that Bride seat there. It restricts vision, simple.
Roll cages, HANS devices and the full bucket seats are things that indicate your car is in a different realm of use. The open days at the 'ring are for anyone: cars, bikes, MPVs even camper vans and buses - it's technically a toll road, not a test track for a semi-race car. The Nurburgring management believe that these sorts of equipment are going to encourage potentially dangerous race-type driving around others and I think that's fair.
As for the snap off steering wheels -supposedly it's because of the likelihood of people using unreliable, fake eBay type items causing an accident, on top of the race-type driving. Of the banned items I already know a few people with these, so it could be a problem for many
So it's not all doom and gloom, you just have to read the fine print and understand it. I hope others are as cool about this as me, it make sense.
More on our Nurburgring trip soon no doubt!
Chris
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