A Few Laps Around the Hockenheim Ring

Our departure from Germany is fast approaching, but before we left, we thought it would be fun to head down to Baden-Württemberg and take a few laps around the Hockenheim Ring - the German Grand Prix track. Last year, for my birthday, my wonderful girlfriend (now fiancé) gave me a gift certificate for a few laps around the Ring with a professional driver in a Porsche GT3.

We spent a night in Stuttgart and visited the Mercedes museum then drove up to Heidelberg the next day, a quant little town on the Neckar river near Hockenheim. The next morning we headed over to the track. It was raining pretty hard and we were a little worried that we would get rained out, but apparently, they don't have any qualms going 200 km/h around a soaking wet track with tourists in the passenger seat.

Once we arrived, they suited me up with a helmet and gave a short orientation in German (which I only partially understood). Then they strapped me into the car, a mid 2000s Carrera-body GT3 - a high-performance track-ready version of the 911 complete with plastic windows, roll bars, built-in hydraulic lift, no interior (i.e., no carpet, radio, AC, door panels, etc...), and Recaro racing seats which are way too small for a normal sized person, let alone me. The driver, Günter, introduced himself briefly, started the car, and we were off.

As we exited the pit and Günter stepped on it, I felt a bit of a strange shimmy. Something went wrong with the rear left wheel and we had to pull over. The help-car came by and after about 10 minutes, Günter thought he had the problem fixed. Unfortunately, about halfway around the track, the problem resurfaced and we had to pull off. We headed back to the pits where Günter and his team spent about an hour trying to fix the problem. I kept telling myself, it wouldn't be a true racing experience without at least one mechanical problem and a long pit stop.

When the car was put back together, they strapped me in again and we took off, only this time I was worrying that the rear left wheel was going to fall off. However, my worries were quickly drowned out by the deafening roar of the engine behind me. There were no more mechanical set backs and we took three full-speed laps around the track. Being an Formula 1 course, there were many twists and turns, and we took all of them just a little bit faster than I was expecting. We also reached over 200 km/h on the straights despite the rain. The speed and precision with which a professional driver can drive a car around the track, even in wet conditions, is staggering. I never get queazy or get motion-sick, but three laps is probably about all I could have taken without a little practice.

Here's a video Jo took of me crossing the starting line:

And here's the whole thing from a first person perspective:

This was a blast. I would highly recommend trying something similar if you ever have the chance. A truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, courtesy of Jo.

- Nick