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INTRODUCTION
To the best of my knowledge the Nurburgring is the only circuit in the world that bestowed a title upon those who excelled on it. Quite when the term Ringmeister was first coined is lost in the mists of time, but it came about because the Nurburgring was a circuit unlike any other, snaking for more than 14 miles through the Eifel Mountains in a bewildering series of twists and turns, climbs and falls that left the driver both breathless from its complexity and thrilled by its challenges.
To call such a circuit a level playing field would appear to be a fine contradiction in terms but essentially, that is what it was, for the Nurburgring provided a constant and unequalled challenge to several generations of racing drivers. Many were able to shine there, but only a handful really dominated the circuit and made it a showcase for their remarkable skills. The members of this exclusive club are my Kings of the Nurburgring.
Surprisingly, there has never been a book, in English, about this fabulous circuit. Clive Stroud, my publisher at Transport Bookman, Ltd., is frequently asked for anything on the Ring but, until now, has had nothing to offer, so he suggested that our next project, after Sportscar Heaven, should fill the gap. That also seemed appropriate as the Nurburgring played a large role in three of my previous books, Racing The Silver Arrows, Rosemeyer! and Shooting Star/Dick Seaman.
Rather than just ramble through the circuit’s history I decided to present it through the achievements of the drivers who had become acknowledged as Ringmeisters. This would embrace both Grand Prix and sportscar racing via the German GP, the Eifel GP and the 1000 Kms (with, as it turned out, the Marathon de la Route and the 500 Kms thrown in for good measure). The circuit’s name was originally written as Nurburg-Ring (and occasionally Nurburg Ring) and then as one word, which is why it is in two versions on the cover. Just for the hell of it, I have used Nurburg-Ring in the early chapters up to and including the war years, and Nurburgring thereafter.
So what makes a Ringmeister? In my opinion, to qualify for the title a driver must have won at least one major race on the Nordschleife, but winning one race does not automatically make him a Ringmeister. In addition he must have put the circuit’s myriad challenges together like a jigsaw puzzle, lap after lap after lap and on the very edge of disaster.
So what makes a Ringmeister? In my opinion, to qualify for the title a driver must have won at least one major race on the Nordschleife, but winning one race does not automatically make him a Ringmeister. In addition he must have put the circuit’s myriad challenges together like a jigsaw puzzle, lap after lap after lap and on the very edge of disaster.
My choice may well cause some controversy, as readers will have their own ideas as to who should be included in any such list, and I will surely be accused of omitting several ‘obvious’ Ringmeisters. However, I felt I had to be ruthless in my selection, otherwise the value of the accolade, which is unique in motor racing, would be diluted, so I have restricted my choice to 14 drivers. By coincidence, the Nurburgring is 14 miles round, or thereabouts, so I have one driver per mile, which provides a nice symmetry.
Selecting my Kings of the Nurburgring was not the work of a moment. I spent many happy hours poring over race reports, delving back into history via the bound volumes of The Autocar, The Motor, Motor Sport and Speed for the 1920s and 30s and adding Autosport and Motoring News in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Reading three or four reports of each race gave me a firm idea as to who my Ringmeisters must be. And it was not just the drivers and their races that interested me, but also the history of the circuit itself, for the Nurburg-Ring was a truly remarkable feat of engineering, made even more so by the fact that it was wrought in the midst of the depression that gripped Germany in the 1920s.
From the beginning, motor races had been run on public roads or specially-built circuits such as Brooklands, Monza and Montlhery. No-one had ever contemplated building a road specifically for racing, which was precisely what was envisaged by the remarkable man who became known as the Father of the Nurburg-Ring, Dr Otto Creutz, the Landrat/Commissioner for the Adenau District in Germany, in 1925.
The story of the Nurburgring is a fascinating one. After establishing itself as the greatest road circuit in the world in the 1920s and ’30s, the Ring survived the perils of World War Two and retained its reputation throughout the 1950s and 6os. However, at the end of the latter decade it attracted a great deal of controversy, as the ever-increasing speed of the cars made many drivers decide that the great circuit was unsafe, so much so that the German Grand Prix moved to Hockenheim in 1970.
Happily, the Nurburgring authorities spent a great deal of money that year carrying out improvements, as requested by the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and in 1971 the Grand Prix was back in its rightful home. But not for long, as speeds went on rising and in 1976 Niki Lauda’s almost fatal crash ended Grand Prix racing on the Nordschleife forever. The 1000-km sportscar race continued to be run, but that came to a halt after the 1983 event, as a ’new’ Nurburgring, was being built in the shadow of the old, which was finally deemed too dangerous for Grand Prix and sports-car racing.
The marvellous Nordschleife survives today, but is used mainly for testing by car and tyre manufacturers. Races are still held there, to be sure, and countless enthusiasts pit their skills against the circuit that helped forge the legends of the men who are my Kings of the Nurburgring. However, no modern Grand Prix (sorry - Fl!) driver has ever raced there, and none will ever earn the title Ringmeister, a title which would set him apart from his peers.
My choice may well cause some controversy, as readers will have their own ideas as to who should be included in any such list, and I will surely be accused of omitting several ‘obvious’ Ringmeisters. However, I felt I had to be ruthless in my selection, otherwise the value of the accolade, which is unique in motor racing, would be diluted, so I have restricted my choice to 14 drivers. By coincidence, the Nurburgring is 14 miles round, or thereabouts, so I have one driver per mile, which provides a nice symmetry. Selecting my Kings of the Nurburgring was not the work of a moment. I spent many happy hours poring over race reports, delving back into history via the bound volumes of The Autocar, The Motor, Motor Sport and Speed for the 1920s and 30s and adding Autosport and Motoring News in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Reading three or four reports of each race gave me a firm idea as to who my Ringmeisters must be
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is dedicated to my friends Bernd and Helga Schneider, of Cologne, and with good reason. Early in 1992 I received a letter from Bernd, saying how much he had enjoyed MON AMI MATE, my biography of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins. I replied and he wrote again, saying, ‘I understand from your letter that you intend to come over to Germany soon. What about staying with me in Cologne on your way to Stuttgart? That would mean a lot of advantages: good rest; good food (my wife is a good cook) and a trip to Hemmersbach Castle where Taffy von Trips lived.’
In the event I went to Stuttgart first, then took the train to Cologne where Bernd met me on the platform, clutching his copy of MON AMI MATE so I would recognise him. That was the beginning of an enduring friendship with him and Helga and their children Roland (who scanned many illustrations from his father’s archive) and Bettina, a friendship which has proved invaluable in the production of this book.
Bernd started going to the Nurburgring as a schoolboy and recalling the thrill of sitting on the hillside on the run-up to the Karussell and hearing the cars blasting through the forests long before they came into view still brings a beatific smile to his face. That schoolboy has since become President of the Cologne Automobile Club.
Over the years Bernd has been an avid collector of Nurburgring memorabilia and has acquired an unmatched fund of knowledge of the circuit. All this he made available to me, feeding
me information, photographs (including two rareashen's-teeth colour pictures of the 1939 Eifel GP), translations and introductions while Helga (who is indeed a fine cook) fed me with lunches and dinners on my frequent visits to their home. Bernd proved to be a tireless researcher and the prize of his enquiries was the discovery that Dr Otto Creutz's daughter was living near Stuttgart. Frau Gisela Herbstrith turned out to be a charming and vivacious lady of 82 - going on 55 who was delighted to learn that I planned to write about her father’s achievements and insisted that
I mention her mother, Hedwig, too. She produced her parents’ photo albums and Guest Book from the 1920s and allowed me to make copies of certain things of interest. Although she was only a child when the Nurburgring was built, she provided much valuable information about her father and his remarkable project.
Back home, my research was simplified by the fact that all the magazines I mentioned in my Introduction are now owned by Haymarket Publications and I must thank the firm’s former Chairman, Simon Taylor, for giving me access to them. By virtue of its very location in the Eifel Mountains, the Nurburgring is a circuit like no other and in order to bring its true flavour and the achievements of my chosen Kings to life I felt it absolutely necessary to quote - often at length – from the reports of the day. It was equally important to credit the writers responsible, for without their colourful and insightful comments a book such as this would be much the poorer. I am most grateful to Peter Foubister, Managing Director of Haymarket Autosport and Classic Publications, Ltd., for giving me permission to do this. And I must thank Simon Taylor for allowing me, yet again, to raid his own library of magazines on many occasions.
I have also quoted from several autobiographies and biographies and my thanks to the following publishing houses for giving me permission to do so:
HarperCollins Publishers: A Turn at the Wheel, by Stirling Moss and Challenge Me The Race, by
Mike Hawthorn.
Haynes Publishing: My Racing Life, by Juan Manuel Fangio, A Racing Driver’s World, by Rudolf Caracciola and Alf Francis Racing Mechanic, by Peter Lewis.
Motor Racing Publications: Stirling Moss by Robert Raymond.
Thanks also to Mrs Bette Hill, who kindly gave me permission to quote from Graham’s autobiography, Life at the Limit, and to Mrs Betty Peddie (Jim Clark’s sister) for allowing me to quote from Jim Clark at the Wheel. I am happy to say that seven of my Kings of the Nurburgring are still with us and I am most grateful to Sir Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Vic Elford, Sir Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx for their memories and comments about the world’s most demanding circuit, which they mastered with such insolent ease. I was intrigued to learn that whereas six of them loved the circuit and rated it the best ever, the seventh hated it and was always greatly relieved to return home unscathed.
Initially, my seven Kings posed a dilemma: which of them should I ask to write the Foreword? No matter whom I chose, the other six would doubtless feel miffed at not being asked, but my problem was solved when Bernd introduced me to Frau Herbstrith. As the daughter of the Father of the Nurburg-Ring she provides a unique link to the creator of the circuit over which my Kings reigned, and once she had happily agreed to do the honours there could be no complaints.
One of the many great things about the Nurburgring is its visual beauty. Luckily, from the beginning, most photographers were well aware of this and framed their pictures accordingly, placing the cars in the context of the grandeur of the scenery. I determined, therefore, to show this and, where possible, with pictures that have not been seen before. For this I have to thank a number of people, beginning with Maria Feifel and Stan Peschel of the DaimlerChrysler Classic Archive in Unterturkheim; Klaus Parr and Jens Torner at the Porsche Archive in Stuttgart; Lothar Franz at the Audi Archive in Ingolstadt and, of course, Bernd Schneider, who made his private archive available to me.
Under the baton of Peter Higham, Haymarket Publishing has done a remarkable job in preserving the photo archives of The Autocar, Autosport, Motor Sport and Motoring News. I am most grateful to Peter, Tim Clarke, Kevin Wood, Kathy Ager and Ian Marshall for their unfailing help.
Other sources were Jim Sitz; Alexis Callier; Neil Corner (The Robert Fellowes Collection); Motor Presse; Frau Gisela Herbstrith; Karl-Gunter Peters; Bernhard Volker; Franz Turnwald; Manfred Forster; Gunther Molter; Annette and Hans Joachim Retterath; the Adenau Museum; the BP Photo Archive; the BP Video Library; DDAC Motorwelt; Ullstein Bilderdienst; Goodyear Dunlop; Don Grant; Mick Woollett; Heinrich Esch; Quentin Spurring and Brian Joscelyne. Nigel Dutt was kind enough to send me some colour photos taken by his late father, Charles Dutt, in 1961. Having twice commissioned Michael Turner’s superb paintings for previous books I now make use of them again, as well as several of his excellent colour photographs.
Thanks also to Alan Mann and Ian Scott Watson for their memories of Jacky Ickx and Jimmy Clark. Bill Kaye and Duncan Adamson at Blowup did their usual excellent job of scanning and far away in New Zealand Mark Holman has, once again, proofread my text. (Nothing like having a friend on your doorstep!)
A very large 'thank you' is due to Brandon Wang who, a few years ago, enabled me to enjoy a wonderful Nurburgring experience - a couple of laps beside Ringmeister Tony Brooks in the very
Aston Martin DBR1 which he and Noel Cunningham-Reid drove to victory in the 1957 1000 Kms. Unforgettable!
Kings of the Nurburgring has been superbly designed by Simon Loxley, on the recommendation of Mick Walsh of Classic and Sportscar. My thanks to them and finally, to Clive Stroud, who has taken on, with equal distinction, the mantle of publisher at Transport Bookman worn by his late father, Frank.
Chris Nixon,
January, 2005.
FOREWORD
How much would it have pleased my father, Dr Otto Creutz, that after so many years the Nurburgring has not lost any of its fascination. His efforts were not in vain. His vision has been fulfilled.
Chris Nixon’s wonderful book, Kings of the Nurburgring, tells the complete story of this magnificent race track, which my father built as Landrat of Kreis Adenau.
I am certain that the Nurburgring will continue to enthrall motor racing enthiusiasts for many years to come.
Gisela Herbstrith
Nurburg
DER NURBURG-RING
A HISTORY 1925-1983
PHASE ONE : 1925 -1939
‘Do you wish to be thrilled? Do you want to feel speed in excelsis; to motor as you have never dreamed possible? Strap your goggles on tightly then; button up your coat. Climb in beside the grim, unsmiling driver in his huge Mercedes. Keep out of his way; one arm behind him, the other gripping the side of the body. Tuck your feet away, too, somewhere in the dark maze of the cockpit, where air pressure pumps will bruise your shins and the brake adjuster will scrape your calves.
No time to withdraw now. You're off, gathering speed so fast that your head is forced back by the rush of air. In a few seconds the car is rushing towards a wall of trees. You hold your breath and hang on for dear life. It is a left-hand curve and because it is a left-hand drive car, you feel that you will «get it» first if it overturns.
But the brakes grip reassuringly, the tyres screaming on the concrete. Then the car heaves its bulk round and you are flung against the driver as he forces the car into the right-hand loop. You come out of it slightly sideways and, as the whine of the supercharger rises to a shrill scream, you tear down a narrow stretch of concrete parallel to the starting straight and only separated from it by a narrow strip of grass.
Whoosh! Those were the backs of the pits, and here is that rather terrifying-looking banked curve to the left. But you take it fairly slowly, only to gather speed on yet another bend to the left.
“Splendid!” you shout in the driver’s ear.
“Wait!” he replies.
Down, down, down! Faster and faster! Help, the man’s mad! A hundred miles an hour down a 1 in 10 hill with a downhill turn at the bottom! We are round. The car gav
e a kick of its tail, we seemed to float a bit, but here we are, ringing the changes on second and third gears, swooping up the Quiddelbacher Hohe and round the Flugplatz where, as the name suggests, we seem to shoot straight off into the sky. Then down again, steeper and steeper descents, sharper and sharper turns.
The road seems never straight for more than a hundred yards at a time. For four crazy miles this dizzy downhill dash continues. We don’t know where on earth we are: just hurtling, rather uncomfortably, through space. Suddenly we swing round a sharp right-hand turn, banked just a little to help us, and we look right down on the roofs and streets of Adenau, gleaming wet in this beastly drizzle that stings one’s face like a whiplash and soaks one to the skin. We know what to expect. So does the crowd that huddles in the rain on the hillside. We plunge down, steeper than ever, but decelerating. At the bottom the car jumps sideways like a live thing as we shoot over a bridge. Then a short swoop and, just like a zooming aeroplane, we climb a 1 in 10 gradient on so sharp a turn that we see only the leaden sky ahead of us. “That’s where Junek was killed two years ago!” our driver bellows as the engine roar drops between two gear changes.
A short dip, and a seemingly vertical concrete path confronts us. Not up that, surely} - No, we slide almost sideways to the right at the bottom, and climb steeply. Had we gone straight on we’d have been on the 1 in 3.5 test hill!
Now we’re for it! Diving right into the ditch!
Nothing can save us! But round we go in safety and
tear downhill again. That was the Karussell – the “merry-go-round” -the only really artificial-looking turn on the Nurburg-Ring and so designed to prevent the drivers overshooting the hairpin bend and rolling over and over, till death claims its own, down the steep, rocky hillside.