THE RING AND I

They say you can never truly learn the Nürburgring Nordschleife, regardless of how many laps you do. evo's deputy editor puts that theory to the test with possibly the ultimate training school

- JAMES TAYLOR

THEY SAY SIX LAPS IS THE DANGER ZONE at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Because after six laps, you think you know the track. Guess how many I've done up until now? Yep. Mind you, my six laps were spread over two years, and the most recent of them was in 2018. That's about to change.

It's before 8am on a Tuesday morning and I'm standing on the Nordschleife's Döttinger Höhe back straight, the mile-and-a-half-long stretch between the infamous 'bridge' and 'gantry' landmarks. My much-needed cup of coffee is sitting on the rear wing of a Porsche 911 GT3 and I'm listening to a briefing from an instructor whose Ring lap-count is in the thousands. Shortly I'll be following his wheeltracks in the GT3, to try to learn this most unlearnable of circuits in as much depth as possible. Ahead and behind us are nearly 200 other drivers receiving separate briefings from separate instructors, about to do the same. The event is called Perfektionstraining, and it's all a bit surreal. Not least because by tomorrow afternoon I'll have increased my lap-count by about 500 per cent. Fingers crossed.

'They' say a lot of things about the Nordschleife, the Nürburgring's mountainous 13-mile northern loop constructed in the 1920s. Is there a stretch of tarmac in the world spoken about with more reverence, or more heated opinion? Given the depth of folklore and mythology about the place, it can feel at once like a must-visit mecca and a place so intimidating it's best avoided. It's easy to understand both viewpoints. The consequences of getting it wrong at the Nordschleife are as heavy as it gets, and of late there have been an eyeopening number of high-profile accidents and, tragically, fatalities at public Tourist Drive days. I feel caught between both camps: drawn to the Nordschleife's flame and all too aware of its dangers. If, like me, you're a relative newbie to the place, perhaps you feel the same.