Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber at the Nordschleife.!

Originally posted by TT6
Could you be a bit more specific?

Originally posted by TT6
Could you be a bit more specific?

Originally posted by paranoik0
Surely they're either going to do a slow lap, or adapt the car somehow due to the bumps in the track?

Originally posted by baddog
Im not sure how a car will actually GET round, maybe by staying up on the flat outside of karussel? if thats even possible?

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
He also said anyone could drive an F1 car.

Originally posted by mach4


What's wrong with using the banking?

http://nurburgring.o...r/karussell.jpg

Originally posted by baddog


getting on and off it with no ground clearance seems like it might be impossible without bottoming the car somewhere?

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
He also said anyone could drive an F1 car.

Originally posted by jonpollak
I'm salivating like Pavlov's dog

Now....

TV COVERAGE?

Jp

Originally posted by wrighty


(although personally i'd always go for the Caterham classic.......gr8 fun around there ;) )

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
He also said anyone could drive an F1 car.

Originally posted by baddog


getting on and off it with no ground clearance seems like it might be impossible without bottoming the car somewhere?

Originally posted by BuonoBruttoCattivo


bah... it will be on utube in no time.

Although we're powering uphill out of the valley, the car's glorious 5.0-litre V10 once again pushes us up to top speed. We slam into Mutkurve (Courage Corner), a fearsome left-hander over a blind brow: to our right the landscape vaults the barriers and tumbles down into dense scrubland.

"There was no guardrail here, either?" he asks. "Nothing? You'd be doing 190mph in a Formula 1 car here. It would be so easy just to take off."

At the Karussell, Villeneuve enthusiastically drops the car into the famous concrete basin with a satisfying whumph. He's like a giddy kid playing with his new toy and it's clear that he has been particularly looking forward to this moment. He's really starting to push a little more - the M5 strains on the limit as JV pulls it out of the banking. The M5 locks into the groove, dancing from kerb to kerb as the tyres squirm under braking.

For a moment, we're both silent. Jacques tops the brow of a crest and dives downhill into the Wippermann, Eschbach and Brunnchen corners. It's a classic sequence - the corners blend seamlessly together; a place where your exit

from one determines your approach to the next.

"It's beautiful! An amazing track, but I start to forget things from about this point in the videogame," he adds. "Normally, I restart it whenever I crash - so I never finish the last bit!" Hmm, that's reassuring.

...
We begin our second lap. This time the moments of indecisiveness are replaced by growing confidence and longer, steelier bursts of throttle. "Mmm, this car's got good grip," he says, throwing it into the opening series of corners known as the Hatzenbach.


Jacques Villeneuve drives the BMW Ring-Taxi at the Nurburgring © LAT
Like most classic Nordschleife bends, it's a series of slowly unravelling ess-bends that really encourage rhythmic 'feel' over raw technique.

It's also slow and wide enough to enable you easily to ask a little too much of the car and hope you'll get away with it.

"How cool was that?" I say as the car flicks out of the final ess.

"It was great!" he beams back. "I'd absolutely love to race here - it's the best track I've ever seen. And not just because it's long but because every corner is something special. And you just know it would be different in the cold, or the shade, or the rain. It's a living track. It's great."
...
Jacques has started to realise just how complex this place is: "There are a few corners around here where you just couldn't drive at 10-tenths because they're too bumpy; unless you braked early, you'd risk braking with your wheels in the air - and then you'd lose control. You need to keep a small amount of margin, mainly just for all the bumps. Maybe, at the end of the day, you could try it at 10-tenths - but you might get hurt big time."

Could you overtake here in an F1 car?

"It's not very wide," he says. "You certainly couldn't overtake through any of these ess-bends. In fact, you probably couldn't race a Formula 1 car around here at all because there are too many places where you'd just take off."

Originally posted by wj_gibson
Surely all they would need do is raise the ride height to the point whereby such clearance is possible? Can't be that hard. Might take a bit of the cornering speed out of the car, but not by a great deal.

Originally posted by xflow7

Excellent taste!

Originally posted by NineOneSeven
It would great if nick could get near Bellof's lap record in the Porsche. If BMW took the fastest time from them then it would be a PR masterstroke.

I would love to see the like of Honda give it a go.