Our favorites from the Nürburgring Touristenfahrten paddock

Probably the best thing about the Nürburgring, considered by many to be the world’s greatest race track? The accessibility.

Most days during the week from spring to fall, you can roll up to the legendary Nürburgring, pay 30-35 Euros (about $32-$38) per lap, depending on the day, and have at it.

No tech inspection, no licensing requirements, no speed limits–nothing but standard German highway rules, like only being allowed to pass on the left.

While the track is open to all comers, the ones who answer the call most frequently are folks you would recognize from any track day you’ve ever attended.

Yes, the Nürburgring still sees its share of tourist families in station wagons, but the average ‘Ring head is taking it fairly seriously. The Touristenfahrten paddock smells of tires and brake pads, and the roar of revving engines and the hiss of bleeding tire pressures hit you from every angle.

We took a few laps in an F30 BMW, much like our own 435i project car, from the Ringfreaks rental shop.

More on that experience later, but while the lapping itself was exciting, walking around the paddock and just taking in the aura was just as exciting. Okay, that’s a little bit of a lie, the lapping was definitely more exciting–but the paddock stroll was a huge part of the experience. Here are some highlights:

Even approaching the paddock, you start to spot some things to let you know you aren’t in Kansas anymore. Porsche 911 GT3 RS parked on the side of the road waiting for their buddies? No biggie.

In 15 years of trips to the Nürburgring, the one thing we rarely see in the paddock is Miatas—except this time. A trio of British dudes drove their MX-5s of various vintages over for a couple of track days, and we spotted at least one Miata of every generation waiting to take to the track.

Our friends at Rent4Ring have their 4-cylinder Supras fully functional in their rental fleet, with some liveries that make them easy to spot on the photo sites.

What’s that, another GT3 RS? Haven’t seen one of those for a good 90 seconds.

Typical pre-lap checks: Tire pressures, a peek at the brake pads, a quick look at the fluids then hop back in line for more fun.

It’s a pretty diverse lineup at the Nurburgring, from twenty-somethings in greasy shirts with dirt under their nails to folks well-established after many more laps around the sun. Regardless of age, all of them speak the common language: A love of track driving.

There’s some pretty hardcore machinery in the paddock as well. Lots of fully-caged high-end track machines with 100tw tires.

Hey, look, more GT3s and a GT3 RSs. Something about being in a track paddock that has exponentially more GT3 RSs than Miatas feels weird and unnatural.

Our mount was a 2.0-liter, B48-powered, F30 BMW 3-Series from Ringfreaks. These cars are prepared to the VT2 class specs for the Nurburgring’s endurance racing series and feature full cages, racing seats, six-point harnesses and coil-over suspension. For rental days, they’ll run standard summer performance tires, though we felt right at home in the F30 after hopping out of our F32 4-series project car back home.

GR Yaris alert! Lots of folks bringing fun and interesting machinery to toss around the 150-ish turns on the Nordschleife

When was the last time you saw a whistle-clean fully caged VW Corrado? Yeah, we didn’t think so.

Okay, now we feel more at home. Mustangs at track days take away some of the sting of missing our families and pets back in the USA.

Not everything at the Nürburgring just rolled off an assembly line, like this vintage Porsche 911 which is a rarity at the ‘Ring in that it’s not a GT3 RS. This early ‘70s example was clean and well-prepared, but had wear and repair in all the right spots to let you know the owner drove it the way it was designed to be driven.

Check the forecast before you head to the track. Looks dry? Let’s throw on the semi-slicks and have some fun.

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