was in reality made up out of two different tracks, the Nordschleife and
the Sdschleife (the North- and Southtrail) linked together by a third,
the Start- und Zielschleife. Today only the Nordschleife remains, the
Sd- and Start/Ziel giving way to the new track built in 1982-83.
Combining the 22.8 km of the Nordschleife with the 7.4 km of Sdschleife
and the 2.2 km of the Start-und-Ziel gave a total lap of 28.3 km. This
was used for Grand Prix for the first three years, but from 1931 only the
Nordschleife was used.
The Nordschleife. At over 22 km, a crueling lap with more than 170 bends.
A difference in altitude of 300 meters, and at places an angle of
inclination up to 11 %.
Once described by Jackie Stewart like this:
'The Nrburgring was bad enough at just over 14 miles to a lap, it was
leaping and jumping, taking off and flying a long way some 13 times per
lap. You went to the 'Ring' with a car stacked up with bump ***s to
stop it grinding itself to nothing by bottoming out.'