There are many ways to test if someone is a true car enthusiast. For some, you can’t be a true car enthusiast if you’ve never driven an original Mini. For others, car enthusiasts need to know all the differences between a Ferrari 348 GTB and a Ferrari 348 GTS.
Many of these claims are completely unfounded, but when I drove it around the Nürburgring on a recent trip to Germany, I was pleased to add another accolade to my resume as a car enthusiast.
First opened in 1927, the Nürburgring is one of the longest race tracks in the world, with its most popular Nordschleife stretching over 13 miles. Over the years it has played host to the European Grand Prix, the World Sportscar Championship and various Top Gear challenges.
With its considerable elevation changes and tight corners, the circuit was considered a challenge even by the greatest racers of all time; Jackie Stewart nicknamed it “the Green Hell” and reigning Ring champion Sabine Schmitz said, “It’s a lot of fun to scare people on this track.”
So when Carly, a manufacturer of vehicle scanning equipment, offered to take me on a tour of the course in her Ring Taxi, I wholeheartedly accepted the offer.
Located about an hour and a half from Cologne, the first thing that struck me about this course was its sheer size: before reaching the start line, we passed under a seemingly ordinary bridge.
“That was the Nürburgring,” the bus driver said. Somehow, we had driven underneath the circuit and were now in the heart of the world’s most famous race track.
But we’re not alone: there are at least four villages within the track, which makes it feel a little odd, like apartment blocks in the middle of Silverstone.
One of the coolest things about the Nürburgring is that it’s technically a one-way toll road: tourists can turn up in their own cars, pay €30 (£25) and zoom around the track.
But if you don’t feel like driving, you can always pay a little extra to take a ring taxi – in my case, a BMW M5 CS, a sporty saloon that’s slightly lighter than the standard model but still packs a very impressive 626bhp.
The result is a practical five-seater car that can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in just three seconds and reach a top speed of nearly 190 mph.
We can’t say for sure if we really pushed this BMW M5 CS to its limits, but on our first stretch of the Döttinger Hohe the speedometer reached 205 kilometers per hour (127 miles per hour).
But it was the corners where it really felt fast: the Nurburgring has a whopping 154 corners, all of which a driver needs to memorise if he wants to post a decent lap time.
Perhaps the most infamous of these is the Carousel, a 180-degree banking angle built out of concrete unlike any other part of the Nürburgring. The constant turns, potential altitude gains and sudden bumps can certainly be unsettling.
Rather worryingly, one of the most notorious sections of the course, the Adenauer-Forst, has been nicknamed the YouTube corner due to the number of times amateur racers lose control there – in fact one driver crashed as we were going around the course, causing all traffic to be backed up on part of the course.
We were around the circuit in about 10 minutes and, although very grateful that we had skipped dinner, we were happy to have completed our Nürburgring journey in one piece.
Once you’ve taken a lap around the Nürburgring, it’s no wonder it’s so highly regarded by car enthusiasts around the world – it’s a challenge for any passengers, but great fun for all the driver.