Nürburgring – The Playground of Super Cars.

The Nürburgring is a racing track synonymous with speed and stamina; a test track for the top sports cars manufacturers and a religion for car lovers the world over. Built around the village of Nürburg in Germany, this iconic raceway is visited by thousands of enthusiasts every year.

After races in the Eifel mountains in the 1920s were deemed too hazardous, Germany decided that they needed to follow Italy and construct a purpose built raceway to accommodate the growing automotive industry. After its opening in 1927, Germany began to host events never possible before like the World Cycling Championship and their maiden Grand Prix. In its infant stages, the track was also accessible to the public on certain days and times and even for a short while became a toll road. The history was pleasant and unhindered until WWII when it died down for obvious reasons, but the Nürburgring enjoyed a revival in the 1950s. Big racing names began to come to Germany, and the raceway responded by hosting more and more events; branching into endurance car racing and 24 hour affairs.

Fantastic strides forward to the way cars were made in the 1970s made the raceway re-think and re-design their track to accommodate faster and higher performance cars. Bumps were smoothed and corners were improved to give a wider variety of challenges to racing drivers. Unfortunately this proved to be too little an effort, for in 1976 Niki Lauda was almost burned alive in his F1 car after a crash on the course. It was only by the efforts of his fellow drivers that he was saved, and people began to realise that the 14-mile long raceway came with the inherent risk of fire engines and ambulances not being able to reach crashes in time. The Nürburgring lost the Formula One and it was moved to Hockenheimring.

Today, the Nürburgring has been revamped a countless number of times and serves largely as a public raceway. Anybody can arrive at the track and pay €26 to drive the historic asphalt in their own car (or motorbike.) The fastest lap ever completed was in a British Radical SR8 LM, driven by Michael Vergers.

Racing, either legally or illegally, is often the cause of sports car write-offs. Avoid buying a car with a dodgy past by making sure you check it before you buy it.

This article was written by www.mycarcheck.com for the information of people interested in motoring and or buying used vehicles.