The Green Hell: A Personal Journey Through the Nürburgring’s Legendary Track

The Green Hell is what the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring is frequently called, but with one painful exception, for me it was always a little green piece of heaven. I first saw it in 1966 when on an obscure German rally a lap of the ’Ring counted as the last special stage.

My co-driver John Davenport was deposited in the magnificent old SportHotel to write and finesse our pace notes for the other stages while I set off in our rented VW Beetle to learn the track in the pouring rain. One thing I’d learned from my rally experience and which would prove even more useful at the Nürburgring was that I have an almost photographic memory for roads.

My 25 wet laps in the Beetle left me in love with the track and in awe of such names as Caracciola, Rosemeyer and Fangio and what they’d done there. I had the feeling the Nürburgring and I were going to get on very well together from the first moment I drove it. For me, it was always a wonderful place.