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The Nurburgring is one of the world’s least forgiving tracks, and that’s without slippery fluids spilled all over it. This clip shows just how bad the 12.9-mile Nordschleife can become when a track is slicked with oil.
A video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday by “AA Nordschleife Media” shows almost five minutes of cars attempting to go around the Nordschleife’s “Brünnchen” corner—better known as “YouTube Corner”—but failing spectacularly because of an unusually slippery track surface. In the clip, several drivers spin their cars—some easily recovering, some completely losing it—and two BMWs are severely damaged after coming in contact with the track’s Armco barriers. Who dropped the fluid? No idea, but it’s possible the culprit had no idea his car was leaking. And this is a prime reason why there are technical inspections at race tracks. For open tourist sessions (touristenfahrten), cars are not required to be tech’d before being put on track.
In the video, there is a BMW E30 M3, a Porsche 991 GT3, a Nissan GT-R, Ferrari 488 GTBs, and tons of other cars—basically your normal Saturday at a Nordschleife touristenfahrten session—that nearly lose it going around the slick corner. At around the 1:35 mark. A man in a blue shirt, who appears to have hopped out of a grey E30 M3, runs to the center of the corner, stands on the grass outside the Armco barrier and starts waving his arms in the air in what was an honest attempt to warn speeding drivers of the impending danger.
This is a very bad idea.
He stood outside the barrier and is nearly struck by an out of control E46 BMW 3 series. The car slides the point into the apex and hops the curb—straight for the samaritan. But he’s got the reaction time of a cat, and hops the barrier fast enough to avoid getting smooshed. But that was a damn close call.
Guys, there are three lessons here.
1. Don’t bring your oil-dropping car onto a racetrack.
2. Pay close attention to flaggers while on a racetrack.
3. Do not stand outside the track barrier at a racetrack.
