Interesting to see what sort of laptime the release.

From Autosprt Web site

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/57331

BMW Sauber's F1.07 will become the first Formula One car in 31 years to tackle Nurburgring's legendary Nordschleife circuit.
German Nick Heidfeld will be doing the driving in the event, scheduled for 28th April.
Heidfeld's run around the 22-km track will be the highlight of a full day in the Eifel mountains with the BMW Motorsport racing arsenal.
"This day is our way of saying thank-you to the fans for their support," said BMW boss Mario Theissen. "BMW is a longstanding partner of the Nurburgring.
"With BMW Driver Training, BMW Adventure World, our 'Ring Taxi' rides and the Performance Center all based at the circuit, this is a kind of second home for us - as well as the scene of victories in all disciplines of racing.
"The Formula One car's laps of the Nordschleife will be the highlight of a day devoted to BMW Motorsport.
"Nick's demonstration will not be about setting records, but a tribute to a unique race track - one which is inextricably linked to the heritage of BMW Motorsport."
The BMW Sauber team will be joined at the Nurburgring by drivers and cars from the World Touring Car Championship. There will also be a large exhibition featuring BMW racing machines.
BMW works drivers will take passengers on a tour of the Nordschleife in the BMW M5 Ring Taxi, a BMW 320si WTCC or the Z4 M Coupe.

sounds like fun

I look forward to seeing the results. Will be interesting to see what changes or setup adjustments need to be made to suit the irregular driving surface.

first Ice now this? atleast this is really cool

Totally freaking awesome :buttrock

BMW's f1 on the snow wasnt too much of a surprise, i remember when Hakkinen did a "rally" stage in a McLaren a few years ago too.

Though this will surely be absolutely awesome to watch. The track surface (bumps and all) at the ring is far from suited for F1 cars of today, i cant imagine hitting the bumps in a car that is mere mm's if not cm's from the ground at certain speeds.


When the last time a car of this calibre hit the ring?

Though this will surely be absolutely awesome to watch. The track surface (bumps and all) at the ring is far from suited for F1 cars of today, i cant imagine hitting the bumps in a car that is mere mm's if not cm's from the ground at certain speeds.

Prototype cars do it.

When the last time a car of this calibre hit the ring?

Prototype cars do it. Obviously, since F1 is the most technical of all race cars, nothing of this "caliber" has driven the ring ever, but modern Prototypes are very similar to a couple season old F1 car with a body (i.e. better aero in some ways).

Let's get right into it then:

Lap time guesses?

i cant wait to see the F1.07 in the carousel.

Let's get right into it then:

Lap time guesses?
5.xx :dunno

Is it on Youtube yet?

heheheh

Prototype cars do it.

Prototype cars do it. Obviously, since F1 is the most technical of all race cars, nothing of this "caliber" has driven the ring ever, but modern Prototypes are very similar to a couple season old F1 car with a body (i.e. better aero in some ways).

As in production road car prototypes? That's easy to setup, and any street car should get around fine.
I don't recall seeing LMP's on that track.

F1 cars are designed to be super low. The chassis, suspension pickups and geometry, and aero are designed for only a few MM's of ground clearance and glass smooth surfaces.
The 'Ring hardly being that, it will be interesting to see how well the F1 car does. Don't doubt it can set a record lap, but not at it's full potential.

I dont know how well Nick knows the track but I would love to see Hans Stuck rip up that track in the F1 car :)

Thats going to be badass. Something tells me suspension damage is imminent.

i was going to say Hans Stuck also!!! though its been a while since he race in F1...ages ago.

Prototype cars, essentially open-wheelers with a body on them, have a lot more lee-way in suspension setups than an f1 chassis would, primary it needing to be sucked into the ground for its ground effects to work at their prime. Either way, im sure the ride height will be visibly noticeable.

Im predicting 5xx too.

I dont know how well Nick knows the track but I would love to see Hans Stuck rip up that track in the F1 car :)

Stuck on the ring in the current F1 car would be glorious

I dont know how well Nick knows the track but I would love to see Hans Stuck rip up that track in the F1 car :)

Stuck is a great driver, but he would be slow in a modern F1 car without a LOT of training According to some folks over on Rennlist, Nick knows the track quite well, as he often takes his street car out for a rip around the track. He'll be much faster than Stuck...while I love Stuck, he's a bit old to put a modern F1 car through it's paces.

Interesting to see what sort of laptime the release.

From Autosprt Web site

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/57331

BMW Sauber's F1.07 will become the first Formula One car in 31 years to tackle Nurburgring's legendary Nordschleife circuit.
German Nick Heidfeld will be doing the driving in the event, scheduled for 28th April.
Heidfeld's run around the 22-km track will be the highlight of a full day in the Eifel mountains with the BMW Motorsport racing arsenal.
"This day is our way of saying thank-you to the fans for their support," said BMW boss Mario Theissen. "BMW is a longstanding partner of the Nurburgring.
"With BMW Driver Training, BMW Adventure World, our 'Ring Taxi' rides and the Performance Center all based at the circuit, this is a kind of second home for us - as well as the scene of victories in all disciplines of racing.
"The Formula One car's laps of the Nordschleife will be the highlight of a day devoted to BMW Motorsport.
"Nick's demonstration will not be about setting records, but a tribute to a unique race track - one which is inextricably linked to the heritage of BMW Motorsport."
The BMW Sauber team will be joined at the Nurburgring by drivers and cars from the World Touring Car Championship. There will also be a large exhibition featuring BMW racing machines.
BMW works drivers will take passengers on a tour of the Nordschleife in the BMW M5 Ring Taxi, a BMW 320si WTCC or the Z4 M Coupe.

Yeah you tell Nick that its not about setting a record...hehe. Once hes out there its a different story.

yeah stuck is a good SPORTS CAR driver. I think the transition from sports cars to Formula cars would be tremendously difficult. No matter how talented you are.

yeah stuck is a good SPORTS CAR driver. I think the transition from sports cars to Formula cars would be tremendously difficult. No matter how talented you are.

he already has made that transition back in 1973 for March Engineering in their 741 Ford and that year he took rookie of the year. so he can drive a Formula 1 car but it would be a huge jump from a 1973 F1 car to a 2006 F1 car.

for that matter its a huge jump from a 1993 F1 car to a 2007 F1 car. i was watching Senna race and i looked at his car, damn these things have underwent a massive change in the last 10 years compared to the earlier years. computers FTW.

he already has made that transition back in 1973 for March Engineering in their 741 Ford and that year he took rookie of the year. so he can drive a Formula 1 car but it would be a huge jump from a 1973 F1 car to a 2006 F1 car.

for that matter its a huge jump from a 1993 F1 car to a 2007 F1 car. i was watching Senna race and i looked at his car, damn these things have underwent a massive change in the last 10 years compared to the earlier years. computers FTW.

Adrian Newey also played a huge role in all those changes since he came from an aeronautical background and understood aero.

Driving a F1 car around the ring in stock form would be suicide, so I'm wondering what kind of engineering solution we'll see to this problem :evil2

Go Nick Go! I think this is as cool as Zonta taking a couple of flyers around Laguna, the track closest to my house.

Sounds to me like a team that has plenty of cash to do marketing...although it'd be easier for BMW to get a team to Nuremberg than for Toyota to get their 3rd string out to Monterey.

hell, look at 2000 vs 2007, the last 3 years have really been aero engineering years.

http://b.f1-facts.com/ul/a/5588

http://news.windingroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Ferrari-F1-20061.jpg

Well this is going down tomorrow. Unfortunately they will avoid the banked "Karussell" section and Heidfeld will be on special "demonstration" tires which are significantly slower than race tires. Also they say the car will have an extraordinarily high right high to account for the bumpy track and will ultimately compromise performance. It still should be a great event. I am interested to see how it goes.

stuck
stuck

Well this is going down tomorrow. Unfortunately they will avoid the banked "Karussell" section and Heidfeld will be on special "demonstration" tires which are significantly slower than race tires. Also they say the car will have an extraordinarily high right high to account for the bumpy track and will ultimately compromise performance. It still should be a great event. I am interested to see how it goes.
These long stretches between races are BS. At least take a vacation with the family rather than drive a bastardized F1 car on an inappropriate circuit.

I was playing GT4 and I have hte nurburgring down VERY well and I put down a 5:23 while using their F1 car. While we obviously no that that GT4 is not real life and not entirely accurate, I do know that it is very close. While in the M3 GTR I started a lap just as hans stuck did in his internet famous in car cam, and put down a near IDENTICAL lap with him, so it should be pretty consistent, unless of course nick heidfeld isnt as good as me ;)

So this is happening right now (it's 11:10AM here in Germany right now, April 28th) and I'm about 550km away. Too far to make it :(.

I went up to the Ring today to watch the BMW F1 drive around the Nordschleife. I'm not into F1, but this was pretty cool. He only went around for 3 laps though.:rolleyes:

I was sitting at Galgenkopf to take pics and video. Here's pics from lap 2 (video from lap 1 and 3 coming up soon:D )

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8806a.JPG

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8807a.JPG

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8808a.JPG

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8809a.JPG

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8810a.JPG

Lap 1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qzq6T1iXZRg

Lap 3

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dpUhZtJ22dQ

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8808a.JPG

Is that a wrecked Z4 GTR?

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/IMG_8808a.JPG

Is that a wrecked Z4 GTR?

Looks like a wrecked 911 to me.

Yeah that is a wrecked 911, probably a GT3. Sucks for whose ever it was. Doesn't look like it was too eventful though, just doing a couple laps. Thanks for the pics and vids DirtBoy.

More here....

all on one convenient page! (http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2007/04/heidfeld-at-ring-report.html):)

rofl.com

More here....

all on one convenient page! (http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2007/04/heidfeld-at-ring-report.html):)


LOL, they used my video as the first YouTube video....:lol3

LOL, they used my video as the first YouTube video....:lol3

You're famous now! :)

i want video

i want video

BMW now have it on their site but amazingly it's not as good as that first youTube (I compiled them HERE (http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2007/04/heidfeld-at-ring-report.html).)

Maybe they will add material to the BMW-Suber site but for now they have no onboards like the youTube clip does.

it's all over streetfire.net, some chopper cams, mounted cams and interviews.

anyone have the time nick was able to post around the track? I know the F1 car was too low to take the right lines on a few of the corners but I bet he was still 1-2 minutes faster than the current lap record.

He didn't break any records. Total time of 8:30-ish, which included the current F1 circuit, I believe. Ran on super hard tires, short gearing (275 kph max), and tall ride height (up 4cm from normal).

Blurb at the F1.com site: http://www.formula1.com/news/6011.html

I was kinda wondering how he'd tackle the carousel. Nick went wide

The lap record is 6:11, set in 1983 by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956.

Heidfelds hard tires, high ride height and pleadings from Theissen to be careful didn't allow him to extract the full potential of the car. Oh, the requests to slow down in various sections for pictures couldn't have helped either. After all, this was mostly a PR thing.

damn makes me wish i pcs'd out of spangdahlem 2 months later just to go and see that.

Wasn't much of a run at the track, an 8:34 (which apparently includes the GP circuit so it's not directly comparable to nordscheife only times.