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.
Our rental prices already include STANDARD insurance with an "excess," or maximum liability. This "excess" is your liability, your responsibility.
Maximum liabilities with STANDARD insurance:
- MINI Cooper S: €12,000
- Toyota GR Yaris: €20,000
- Toyota GR Supra: €20,000
- Porsche 718 Spyder RS: €20,000
- Porsche 911 GT3RS: €30,000
- Ferrari F8 Tributo: €30,000
Important: Nürburgring barriers, charges, and recovery are NOT covered in the STANDARD insurance.
Maximum liabilities with PREMIUM insurance:
- MINI Cooper S: €6,000
- Toyota GR Yaris: €10,000
- Toyota GR Supra: €10,000
The PREMIUM insurance package covers Nürburgring barriers, charges, and recovery within the excesses listed above.
IMPORTANT:
We reserve the right to ask for your excess payment upfront, as a "deposit" or "kaution," to be held on a credit card while you're driving.
Even if this seems unfamiliar to you, please consider the following points:
- In your own car or a regular airport rental, you probably don't have any insurance when driving on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. For many years, even German insurance companies have excluded Touristenfahrten from coverage.
- Our excesses are noticeably lower than our competitors. We invest a lot of time and effort into your safety. Our briefings are thorough and detailed.
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.
All of our cars have two seats, one driver and one passenger. If you don't have a coach, you can take passengers with you on the Nurburgring without registration and without any additional charge. If you need a coach, the passenger will need to wait.
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.
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.
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.
