Thinking of heading over to the Ring? This DIY Guide from Australian Motor magazine (first published in February 2006) is a handy introduction. It is pretty basic but does cover as much as you can expect given the format. Written from the perspective of flying from Australia to London and taking the road trip through France and Belgium, some of the more important things are covered, such as Nordschleife overtaking protocols and nearby fuel options. Although, now over two years old pretty much all the pricing mentioned in the article is out of date. In a sign of just how far fuel prices have come in that time, the cost mentioned to fill their Mk5 Golf GTI (AU$100) is not too far off the AU$94 it cost me to fill my wife’s GTI a couple of weeks back! On pricing, a single lap ticket for the Ring is now €21 (approx AU$35) and a litre of 95 Octane fuel costs around €1.40—which means you’re looking at almost €80 (AU$135) to fill a GTI at Döttingen in August 2008.

There are six spreads in all to complete the article (see below for the others) and if you prefer you can download a PDF of the article (7mb). For a more comprehensive guide to the Nürburgring check out Ben Lovejoy’s definitive website. Before popping my Nürburgring cherry I read this article and Ben’s site several times over and can highly recommend both. You may also wish to take a peak at The Nordschleife Line: Presented by BMW GmbH.

(Thanks to Bryan for the scans. And cheers to Ross from the Ringers forum for the fuel check.)