The Nordschleife, which means North Ring in German, is the most famous of the Nürburgring’s complex of circuits, wending its way around Nürburg Castle in Germany
Inaugurated on 18 June 1927 together with the smaller Südschleife, the Nordschleife immediately became the primary circuit due to its length and technical complexity.
The Nordschleife is also known as the “Green Hell” because of the technical difficulties of the 20,832-metre track through the dense Eifel woods, but also because until 1970 the track was for long stretches bordered only by high hedges which made it even more dangerous.
Racing and winning at the Nordschleife is a unique experience, as it is one of the world’s most challenging circuits: Blind turns, rapid changes of gradient and direction and continuously changing grip assure excitement right down to the last kilometre.
The Nordschleife hosts the Nürburgring 1000 km and the 24 Hours of Nürburgring annually; The latter takes place on an even longer track configuration of 25.378 km, thanks to two junctions connecting to the GP circuit.
This particular configuration of the Nordschleife, which alternates between slow and fast turns, straights and ups and downs, makes for a technically complete race, which is, therefore, an excellent test bench for car manufacturers to judge the success of their work. In 2010, the Ferrari 599XX broke the symbolic seven-minute barrier for the first time on the Nürburgring track, in its classic 20.832 km Nordschleife configuration. Stopping the clock at 6:58.16, it set a then-record for cars derived from a road-going model.
