April 26, 2010

A Lap Of The Green Hell

This viddy has been floating around the web for a while now, and been in my collection for almost as long, but I've never actually put it up here.  Quite simply, it's in-car video of a lap of the Nordschliffe at the Nurburgring, aka 'The Green Hell,' aka the greatest circuit on the planet.  Nearly 21km long, over 100 turns.  At one time, F1 cars drove here though not 1976, the year Niki Lauda had his hideous accident.

Just sit back, turn up the volume, and marvel at the magic of Hans-Joachim Stuck and his BMW M3 GTR.


There may have been faster laps (in fact, someone just turned a lap in 6:58, driving a Ferrari 599XX), but none of them could be as wonderful as this one.  The sound alone makes me feel kinda tingly.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:54 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 142 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Sweet jumping baby Jeebus. Amazing.

You just know that at one point early on, he's thinking, "Get that #@$%ing Porsche out of my WAY!" It's the only time he has to actually dog anyone for any significant length of time.

Posted by: GreyDuck at April 26, 2010 07:34 PM (7lMXI)

2

In addition to the engine sound, there's some sort of higher pitched sound in there. It seems to track the ground speed up and down; it doesn't change when he's shifting.

Is that tire noise?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 26, 2010 08:00 PM (+rSRq)

3 That's the transmission, sequential transmissions whine like that, I believe that it has something to do with the way the gears are cut.  

Posted by: David at April 26, 2010 08:18 PM (rlE2m)

4 David is correct, it is the way the gears are cut.  In this case, they're straight cut, or "spur" gears.  Pretty much every car in the world has straight-cut gears, it's just normally called "reverse."

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 26, 2010 08:45 PM (Cpxcy)

5 I also thought that maybe it was a supercharger whine, but it appears that the M3 GTR didn't have one.  It's got a 444hp V-8 alone.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 26, 2010 08:56 PM (Cpxcy)

6 GT-R http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9KXIPCQYC4

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 26, 2010 09:28 PM (/ppBw)

7 While stationed over there in the early 70's I drove this and the short course several times. Scared the bejeebers out of me. 

Posted by: vonKrag at April 27, 2010 09:19 PM (bVdAF)

8 You're a much braver man than me, vonKrag.  Of course, I'm a duck, so take that for what it's worth.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 27, 2010 10:57 PM (Cpxcy)

9 I don't think it would be scary if you drove it slow enough. Can't be too bad if you stay under 55...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2010 12:47 AM (+rSRq)

10 But then what's the point of taking a car onto the Nordschliffe?

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2010 06:22 AM (Cpxcy)

11 What was even better(?) is the car I drove was a 71 Ford Capri. I rebuilt it after a wreak, roll cage, rear IRS from a Jag, Konis and very, very hot 302 pumping out 400 at the crank. Stupid fast car with a OK suspension and brakes. Ghod I'd love to get it back though I'm too fat to drive it right. 

Posted by: vonKrag at April 28, 2010 02:51 PM (bVdAF)

12 The Capri looked kinda like a muscle car had inappropriate relations with a VW Bug.  From the press comments of the time, it sounds like you did the right thing by putting in a better suspension, though.

Hell, if Jochen Mass liked it enough to race one, it probably had some good points to it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2010 05:05 PM (Cpxcy)

13

What's the point? To say you'd done it.

(There was a kind of trashy movie in the 1970's called "Steel", starring Lee Majors. It was about high steel workers. One young guy trying to break into the team of older, more experienced steel workers. At one point he says, "I worked on the World Trade Towers."  One of the old guys responded, "That's pretty good! What did you do?"

And with a smug smile he said, "Laid carpet.")

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2010 05:08 PM (+rSRq)

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