John mentioned a race car rental place for the Ring. Anybody have a website or cotnact info? Thanks, Bruce
There is one in Muellenbach on the left hand side as you exit the town in the direction of the gas station (3 km from the track). Looks like they rent BMWs as well. But I dont have their name. if you rent the M3, the deductible is 10000 euro. are you planning a visit? John
You say ouch perhaps, but I know the owner of rent-racecar, and see the wear and tear the m3 goes thru (3rd engine rebuild now). The owner may not give a ring newbie the M3 right from the start. But a 325 or 318. Reason being, unless the driver can prove experience, he has had too much bad experience of newbies coming on track and thinking they can run it like they do their home track and then couple that with a 321 hp car and its a recipe for disaster. When I rented the M3, I did not balk at the 10000 euro deductible. Eventhough it is always possible to crash, I was confident that I had a high chance of not crashing. There is always a risk that remains, but for me, I thought I could take that risk. At Easter, I couldnt get the M3 (one was sold, and the remaining M3 was already taken) so I took the 325. At first I was disappointed that I had to run a 192 hp car (and it probably had less than that), and sometimes it did some stange things, e.g. 1 lap I could only get 160 kmh up Kesselchen but then on another lap it did nearly 190 kmh (indicated) and that wasnt down to my choice of line. but despite that all, I actually had good fun in it. So what if it was not so fast on the straights, the ring also has a lot of curves, and there you can go as fast as you want. I think I was averaging 8:30-8.35 BTG times in the 325. Not fast by any means, but atleast its better than Jeremy Clarksons lap time The deductible on the 325 was 5000 euro. They also have E90 320si, but I wouldnt bother because the cage is terrible if you sit close to the steering wheel. Then they have some 318s but I didnt try those. If you want to try front wheel drive, there are also some Golfs with 230 hp. John
Understand how it would be easy to wreck and have to write off a car. The amount of money needed to cover operating expenses is expressed in the rental price not the deductible. Does he have insurance on the cars? Does that 10k figure represent the deductible that the insurance imposes?
The cars are insured and those are the deductibles. Dont know how much the M3 is worth, but its in very good shape has a KW3 full coilover supsension, stripped, caged, race seats and harnesses and a new engine. The armco bill should be included in the insurance since it would fall under liability. Track closure time perhaps, Im not sure. Liability towards other persons is also in the insurance. If the car is crashed and the damage is under 10k euro, then of course you only pay the actual damage. I think the rental cost is about 600 euro. + price of a 15 lap ticket + gas, in 1 day you may end up spending about 1000 euro. The rental price includes 250 track km, after that you pay 1.30 euro per km. So if you drive 400 track km in one day like I did, then you pay an additional 150 euro. If you buy a Jahreskarte (track pass) then of course that will pay for itself after 60 laps which makes sense if you rent the car multiple days. Track passes cost around 870 euro. All the consumables like discs, pads, clutches, engines , etc. are included. John
