The Nurburgring gets a lot of credit as the most daunting racetrack in the world, at least for four-wheel cars (i.e. There’s a strong argument for the Isle of Man TT course). The Ring’s Nordschleife layout is comprised of nearly 13 miles of perilously narrow asphalt running up, down, and around the Eiffel Mountains in Germany. As a visitor, you can run tourist laps in a Ring rental car, but that’s not enough for many; the German VLN series races on the long Nordschleife with fire-breathing GT3 machinery. With classes ranging from mildly modified hatchbacks to purpose-built GT cars, things can get a little hairy, as this BMW M235i Cup driver found out at this year’s eight VLN round last weekend.
Things go awry for the FK Performance Bimmer—which races in a popular class of same-spec M235i cars—when it encounters the white Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG003. It’s hard to say exactly what happened, but it looks like the BMW driver didn’t see the SCG trying to pass on the inside. It was probably an example of the Glickenhaus driver expecting one thing while the BMW driver didn’t see the super-racecar and the silver-and-orange M235i clatters first into the left-side Armco and then crosses the track upside down to his the other wall. Despite the tremendous accident, the FK Performance BMW driver walked away unscathed.
If you’re unaware, the Glickenhaus SCG003 is a race car project funded by Ferrari P4/5 owner James Glickenhaus. It’s roughly based on the one-off P4/5 that he commissioned and the idea is that the SCG003 could drive on the road to the racetrack, where with some preparation it can become a GT3-class (or quicker) racecar. Because it’s purpose-built and not directly an evolution of a manufacturer’s car, it has yet to be homologated by the FIA to run in a specific class, so it runs the VLN series in the SPX “exhibition” class. Despite the contact with the BMW, the Glickenhaus car finished fourth place overall—its best result to date—in the four-hour VLN race.
I think ANY race track in the world would be a daunting prospect for any car with less than four wheels……….