This week two different automakers announced Nürburgring records: Chevrolet setting a record for the fastest American car with its Corvette ZR1X, and BMW setting a record for the fastest wagon with its M3 CS Touring. That got me thinking about my favorite Nürburgring lap videos
and racing footage, and about the countless times I've raced the Nordschleife in video games. And that got me thinking about today's question.What car do you want to drive on the Nürbugring? Whether you've never even been
to Germany before or have lapped the track hundreds (or thousands) of times, I want to know what kind of car you'd next want to drive on the Green Hell. I think this is actually a pretty hard question. Sure, the record-holding Mercedes-AMG One is unreal, but no way would I want to drive that at Nürburgring with my minor track experience and zero 'Ring experience. There's a reason most driving schools at the track start you out in hot hatchbacks or similarly "slow" performance cars.
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My Choice
Still, this is a hypothetical, and I'd like to believe I could drive something faster — let's say it's on a tourist day, and I'm not really pushing it. In that case, I want to drive a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren around the Nürbugring, and it's all because of Gran Turismo 4. The final driving challenge in that game, the famed Mission 34, puts you in a silver SLR at the 'Ring, where you have to chase down five Mercedes sports cars that have gotten a head start. In order to complete the mission you need to pass the car in first place, a 1954 300SL Gullwing that has a head start of 123 seconds — and you only have one lap to do catch it. You also have to sit there in the pits and wait for those two minutes as the other cars go ahead one by one.
Road & Track called Mission 34 "the hardest challenge in video game racing." Fans on message boards asked if it's even possible to complete the mission, and others shared vital tips on how to do it. I remember many late nights with friends trying to complete the mission, passing the controller off every few tries. It was extraordinarily frustrating, but still so much fun. Even now, as a much more experienced racing game enthusiast, Mission 34 is extremely hard.
It helps that the SLR is such a cool car, one that I still adore to this day. Sure, it's not the sportiest or most track-focused out of that era of supercars, but it looks unbelievable and has a fabulous supercharged engine that makes amazing noises from its side-exit exhaust tips. And it has doors that go up. Now, I definitely don't think I'd be able to accomplish that challenge time in real life, at least not without tons and tons of practice. But man, would I love to relive those memories. Being able to lap an SLR around the 'Ring would be awesome, even if it's just a slower scenic drive. I mean, look how fun it looks in the above video!
So, readers, what kind of car would you like to drive around the Nürburgring? You've gotta tell us the why, too.
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