EDITORIAL

These days, you can become intimate with every devious twist, blind corner and plunging descent of the Nürburgring Nordschleife's 12–odd miles from the comfort of your own office chair.

Type 'Nordschleife' into YouTube, and it returns about 12,600 hits. You can ride with Walter Röhrl in a Porsche 911, with Derek Bell in a Bentley Continental Supersports, or with some bloke from Croydon in the Mercedes saloon he hired fraudulently at Köln airport.

Of course, nothing beats a stab at the real McCoy, and the bars of this world are full of heroes who claim sub–9–minute laps in their hot–hatches. Despite the fact that on public days, you have to come in and queue for the ticket barrier as part of each lap; and track–day organisers blow a fuse if you hurtle down the straight at 185mph with a stopwatch in your hand. (Watch out for that bump just before the bridge — it can lift you right off the deck.)

As all 'Ring–goers know, 7 minutes is a sort of Holy Grail — a glass ceiling (or should that be floor?) that even full–blown race cars struggle to break. Enjoy, then, this week's video of road tester Raffaele de Simone bullying a Ferrari 599XX round in 6 minutes, 58–and–a–bit seconds. Though our resident Ringmeister reckons he backed off too early for Schwedenkreuz...

Back in the UK, our Editor enjoys a rather more leisurely drive in a very special Aston Martin. Bet he could teach that Derek Bell a thing or two, if only they'd let him take it round the 'Ring.

Talking of the boss, Steve Wakefield is away at the Monaco Historics but will be back next week.

Charis Whitcombe Associate Editor cw@classicdriver.com

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