Back on track: Nürburgring reopens for business!

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Nürburgring - a popular attraction for many driving enthusiasts and riders from all over the world, partly because of its history and the challenge it provided – like many other non-essential businesses was forced to shut down last month.

Since its opening in 1927, the track has been used by the public for the so-called Touristenfahrten, i.e. anyone with a road-legal car or motorcycle, as well as tour buses, motor homes, or cars with trailers. However, there is good news for those of you who live in Germany - track officials have now announced new health guidelines that will allow the famed and feared Green Hell – a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex - to reopen.

From April 30, "contactless tourist trips" will get underway allowing anyone with a street-legal car to once again lap the testing track - located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and which features a north loop that is 20.8km long and has more than 300 metres of elevation change from its lowest to highest points - in anger.

Tickets will be sold online and visitors will not be allowed to exit their vehicles. A maximum of two people per vehicle will be permitted and in order to prevent people from gathering to watch, the parking lot located near the track's tourist entrance will stay shut. Employees working at the track, where several touring car series still compete, have been specially trained and equipped with masks and disposable gloves.

So, if you've got something like a Mercedes-AMG GT and it's been collecting dust for over a month in your garage, this is the perfect chance to step out of the house and thrash around the track…

Or a corner carver such as the Honda Civic Type R, or indeed any road-legal vehicle you can now once again drive it on one of the most famous road courses in the world. But spare a thought for those of us who don’t live in Germany…