Frequently Asked Questions
The Nürburgring Nordschleife opens regularly for public driving sesssions. Normally these are weekday evenings and all day on Sundays and holidays.
In addition to these public sessions for normal traffic, there are also private trackdays. These are private events, open to limited numbers. Typically you will find one or two events per month throughout the season.
IMPORTANT:
- If you can't see the day you want to drive in the list of public openings, then it's not open to the public on that day.
- If you're looking for a date in a long time in advance and that whole month shows no opening times, then it hasn't been published yet.
- Have patience. Rent4Ring does not control Nürburgring opening times and cannot guarantee any published times or take responsibility for short notice cancellations.
We offer two rental packages:
- Arrive&Drive is including fuel and lap tickets for the public sessions. There is no need to refuel the car before you return.
- Basic is just for the car. It does not include any tickets, fuel or entry fees. You must refuel the car before you return it. This rate is best for experienced visitors who already have laptickets from a previous visit or a season pass.
Those are the only differences.
Our Arrive&Drive-Packages are the easiest and most convenient way for your Nurburgring self drive experience. All you have to do is to come to our shop, sign the rental agreement and take the keys for your rental car.
We will take care of that as well as for providing the Nordschleife lap tickets included in the chosen package. The prices for all our packages as well as all other rental tariffs are listed here.
The timings should be given to you when you've finished booking your car. But normally it looks like this:
- 60-90 minutes before track/session opens: Arrival at Rent4Ring, completion of paperwork and payment.
- 30 minutes before track opens: first Briefing begins. If you miss the start, you will have to wait for another briefing at our convenience. You may lose track time.
- Nürburgring opens: If you've not arrived and not contacted us, we will rent your car to the first person walking through the door.
Always keep an eye on the opening times as they can often change with no warning. We don't control the opening times.
We provide a map on our website.
Just type in this address to your GPS-device:
Burgstrasse 1, 53520 Nürburg.
We are located in the heart of the Nurburgring: In Nurburg, a bit less than one kilometer away from the main entrance to the Nordschleife (Doettinger Hoehe).
VERY IMPORTANT:
Nürburg or Nürnberg? Every month we deal with one or two customers who have gone to Nürnberg (Nuremberg). This is approximately 400kms and 4-hours of driving away from us. Nürburg is a small village with a massive track around it. Nürnberg is a massive city with a small street-circuit built at the old Nazi parade grounds. Don't be confused.
Public transportation. The trains will only get you as far as Ahrbruck (from the North) or Mayen (from the East). These stations are still over 20kms away and the bus services are sporadic at best. Ahrbruck is a very small station in a small village and it might be hours before you see a taxi. We always recommend hiring a rental car either from the airport or Köln main station.
Let's be really honest; we know that the Eifel weather can be rubbish. We've seen snow falling in June, we've seen it sunny in December. But there's a normally a pattern, with August being the best month for the weather. April, May and June can all be quite wet with a chance of fog. Same to be said for September and October. From November to March it can snow at any time, or be clear. Or be frozen.
If you then consider the traffic conditions, the number of visitors driving the track and think about how many closures there will be on the average Sunday of public driving, you get a graph like this:
- The GREEN line is our guess at your chances of having the track open, clear and without closures and too much traffic.
- The YELLOW line is our guess at the chances of having perfect weather; dry, sunny and clear
- The RED line is our best guess at when to visit; an average of the green and yellow lines!
Important notes:
- Notice that we think the chances of the track being open are around 5% from December to February. The weather being drivable is also very unlikely. That's why we shut-down from December 1st to March 1st every year.
- If the weather is good enough to drive, the track is normally very quiet in March and November.
- There are exceptions to the average curve we've imagined above. BIG holidays like Easter and May Bank Holiday will always draw huge numbers. Opening the 'ring for full days of public driving for 2, 3 or even 4 days will pull in lots of visitors and concentrate them into one weekend.
You can take passengers with you on the Nurburgring without registration and without any additional charge. All of our cars have two seats, one driver and one passenger.
We don't sell extra laps in advance. If you drive extra laps you will be charged for them when you return the car. On a basic rental you would pay just for the extra distance. With an all-inclusive you will need to pay for the fuel and lap tickets as well.
The best way to experience the Nürburgring is with a professional instructor on the passenger seat. Whether it's your lap #1 or lap #1000, we have instructors available who can help you get the most from your time on the Nordschleife.
Typical prices are €50 per lap during tourist driving, or €149 per hour on private events.
Coaching is not always possible during Touristenfahrten though. Please give us a call or send an email for further information on prices and available dates.
Our rental prices already include BASIC insurance with an "excess", or maximum liability. This "excess" is your liability, your responsibility.
Maximum liabilities with BASIC insurance package:
Suzuki Swift: €8000
BMW 125i & MINI: €10,000
Important: Nürburgring barriers, charges and recovery are NOT covered in the standard, BASIC, insurance.
Maximum liabilities with PREMIUM insurance package:
Suzuki Swift: €4000
BMW 125i & MINI: €5000
The PREMIUM insurance package covers Nürburgring barriers, charges and recovery inside the excesses listed above.
IMPORTANT: We ask for your excess payment up front, as a "kaution" or deposi, to be held on a credit card while you're driving.
If that sounds harsh, consider the following points:
- In your own car, or a regular airport rental you probably don't have any insurance at all!
- Our excesses are lower than our competitors because we put a lot of time and thought in to your safety. Our briefings are extensive and we don't try and 'upsell' you into the fastest car possible.
Yes, you can! We currently offer one right-hand drive MINI Cooper S.
Please make sure to specify during the booking process that you wish to rent a right-hand drive car. Perfect for drivers from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and more! (Right-hand-drive means the STEERING WHEEL is on the right side of the car)
The minimum age is 21 years. Drivers must have held their license for 2 years.
Please note: The german road traffic regulations specify that the minimum age for children sitting on the co-driver seat is 12 years or a minimum hight of 1,50 meters. Our Nordschleife rental cars do not have rear seats.
On some special dates, we do offer race taxi co-drives during Nurburgring Trackdays and even VLN practice. This is a fantastic opportunity to experience the Nordschleife at race speed with a very experienced driver. Please contact us for available dates, prices and further info.
There are three very different situations to talk about here.
- The Nordschleife doesn't open that day at all: If you arrive, pay in full and attend the briefing, but the track never opens then we will refund you 100%. This situation happens several times a year, normally due to snow, ice or fog. That's why it's our standard practice not to release the cars to customers until we know the track is open.
- The Nürburgring changes the opening times: If the track opening hours are changed at short notice, you can ask to downgrade your booking to a package more suitable for the time available. For example, if a half-day session is rescheduled to an evening session on the same day. If you then drive more laps, just pay the extra lap charges at the end, or the original package price. Whichever is best value.
- You don't drive all of the laps in your package: This used to be a problem, but not anymore. Now we have a new pricing system. You only pay a basic rental rate for each car. This gives you the car for unlimited time, but only the first lap is included in this basic price. You take the car out and drive as many laps as you like, without time limitation as long as the track is open. When you return the car, you will have to pay for the number of laps you have driven.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The rental is not time dependent anymore. You book a car always per day, regardless of how long the advertised opening time is. This way, you never loose anything and you will never be stressed while renting our car.
Some first-time Nürburgring visitors might think that a 200hp MINI Cooper S is too slow to have any fun on a race track. They're VERY wrong. The MINI is our most popular rental for very good reasons. It's both fast and fun to drive. Experienced 'Ringers and first-timers both love it.
And if that doesn't convince you, here are some more good reasons why you should start with a MINI Cooper S at the Nürburgring:
- On your first 10 laps it doesn't matter if you have 100bhp or 1000bhp; you can only drive as fast as your track knowledge allows.
- First-time Nürburgring visitors (of all skill levels, including pro racers) often have less fun in the fastest cars and will switch to slower cars within a few laps.
- Professional racers learning the track will normally take a slower car for their first 20 to 30 laps, before stepping up to the bigger, faster cars. We're talking about international-level factory drivers who are racing LMP and GT cars.
If you're sensible, accept your own limitations and promise not to try and go too fast, then we might consider renting you a faster car for your first laps. But we'll always suggest the MINI first!
Unlike some other rental companies (with very high insurance excesses, and cheaper cars), it's not interesting for us to rent you a car that's too fast for you.
It is not mandatory to wear a helmet during tourist sessions, though we would always recommend one. Helmets are free to use for our customer, and clean balaclavas are available too.
Helmets are normally mandatory for trackdays though.
We accept VISA, MasterCard, Maestro and Electronic Cash as well as cash payment.
- During public hours the track is a public road.
- Overtaking is only on the left side.
- Slower traffic drives on the right.
- The racing line is not a priority.
- Yellow lights mean danger ahead. Yellow flags mean slow to 30kmh.
As of 2013, videos cameras have been allowed for personal use. Cameras must be mounted inside the rental car, and we ask that they are mounted safely and professionally!
Please bring your own camera!
This is one reason why we choose to run dataloggers on our cars. If the car breaks and it's not the driver's fault, then we will pay for the recovery and find a suitable replacement vehicle with no charges. If it's the driver's fault (for example mis-shifting and over-revving the engine, or damaging the car on a high kerb) then the driver would have to pay to repair the car, up to the maximum liability in the contract.
Over-revving is only possible on our manual gearbox cars, of which we only have a few. On our automatic and DCT paddleshift cars, it's not a problem.
To be clear, all modern cars have 'rev-limiters' which are systems to kill the spark and fuel, to prevent you accelerating in one gear to too high a speed. Naturally our cars still have this system intact. Without this, you could accelerate in first gear until the engine span too fast, at which point it would catastrophically fail.
"Why doesn't the rev-limited prevent over-revving?"
Because, simply put, people make mistakes. And under the pressure of driving the Nordschleife, surrounded by traffic, driving an unfamiliar car, the mistakes are more common. For example, selecting 2nd gear instead 4th at over 130kmh. This results in the motor turning at around 8000rpm, about 2000rpm above its safe limit.
Fines are collected to pay for the rebuilds and repairs to these motors.
Important note: If you have no practical experience driving with a manual gearbox on a racetrack, please dont try to learn it on this, the most difficult racetrack in the world. Make things easier and safer for yourself with one of our many DCT or paddleshift equipped rental cars.
