| The Nordschleife, today
the only circuit used, contains only 4 km of straight in its 22.18 km, and that straight
is interrupted by humpbacked bridges. Apart from the broad Startplatz between the
pits and the huge grandstand, is is of normal road width; cars blast down to the wide
sweep of the Sudkehre and back behind the pits to the slightly banked Tribunenkehre
or Nordkehre where they sweep left and vanish from the grandstand view. Plunging downhill through the Hatzenbach
and Quiddelbacher Höhe in the forested Hocheichen valley, up past the Flugplatz
and the Schwedenkreuz, the road writhes its way down to the Fuchsröhre,
then up again to Adenauerforst. A series of fast curves then brings cars in a
downhill rush to Adenau Gate, then they climb past the cliff-like walls of Bergwerk,
plunge through a valley, then steeply uphill to the Karussel. This is the most
famous corner on the Ring, turning almost a full-circle, with a concrete-banked ditch on
the inside. (Carraciola's mechanic Wilhelm Sebastian is credited with discovering the
time-saving method of using the ditch as a banking in 1928-29.)
After the Karussel a long,
winding climb follows to the Höhe Acht, then dives down twisting and turning to Brünnchen,
through the fast Pfanzgarten bend and on to the Schwalbenschwanz double turn. Up,
then, to the Dottinger Höhe and a left-hand sweep onto the home straight with its
humpbacked bridges, a last 120 m.p.h. curve under the Autoniusbruche and so back
to the start and another tortuous 14.17-mile lap.
From the German
Grand Prix by Cyril Posthumus |
