A dedicated circuit was proposed around 1925, south of the Nideggen public road circuit used for ADAC Eifelrennen races. The layout was designed by the Eichler Architekturbüro from Ravensburg, led by architect Gustav Eichler. Construction began in September 1925. The completed track opened on 18 June 1927 with motorcycle races — won by Toni Ulmen on an English 350cc Velocette — followed by car races the following day, where Rudolf Caracciola won the over-5,000cc class in a supercharged Mercedes-Benz "K". The track was also opened to the public in the evenings and on weekends as a one-way toll road.
The original Gesamtstrecke measured 28.265 km and combined the Nordschleife with the 7.747 km (4.814 mi) Südschleife, joined by the start/finish area. From 1929 onward, major Grands Prix were held exclusively on the Nordschleife. The fastest time around the full Gesamtstrecke was recorded by Louis Chiron in a Bugatti at an average speed of 112.31 km/h.
Prior to World War II, the Nürburgring hosted 13 editions of the German Grand Prix from 1927 to 1939. Pre-war Ringmeisters included Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari, and Bernd Rosemeyer.
After the war, racing resumed in 1947. From 1951, the Nordschleife was the main venue for the German Grand Prix within the Formula One World Championship (with the exception of 1959, when the race was held at the AVUS in Berlin). A new generation of Ringmeisters emerged: Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, and Jacky Ickx.
On 5 August 1961, during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, Phil Hill became the first driver to complete a Nordschleife lap in under 9 minutes, recording 8 minutes 55.2 seconds (153.4 km/h) in the Ferrari 156 "Sharknose". In 1953 the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring endurance race was introduced, counting towards the World Sportscar Championship. The 24 Hours Nürburgring for touring cars was added in 1970.
By the late 1960s the Nordschleife had become dangerously fast for contemporary F1 machinery. In 1967 a chicane called Hohenrain was added before the start/finish straight to slow pit-entry speeds. In 1970, following the fatal crash of Piers Courage at Zandvoort, F1 drivers threatened to boycott the Nürburgring unless major changes were made. The German Grand Prix was moved to Hockenheimring that year.
In response to the drivers' demands, the Nordschleife was reconstructed for 1971: bumps were smoothed, sudden jumps at Brünnchen were removed, Armco barriers were installed, and the racing line was straightened, reducing the corner count. The German Grand Prix returned for six further years, 1971 to 1976.
Further safety work in 1973 slowed the Kallenhard corner by adding an extra left-hander after the Metzgesfeld sweeper. Despite these changes, the circuit remained fundamentally incompatible with F1's growing demands: by the 1970s the German Grand Prix required five times the marshals and medical staff of a typical F1 race, which the organizers were unwilling to provide. The track's vast length also made effective television coverage almost impossible.
Niki Lauda, who in 1975 had become the only driver to lap the full 22.835 km Nordschleife in under seven minutes (6:58.6), proposed that drivers boycott the 1976 race. The other drivers voted against and the race went ahead. On lap 2, Lauda crashed his Ferrari at the left-hand kink before Bergwerk after a new magnesium rear suspension component failed. His car, still heavily fuelled, caught fire. Lauda was saved by fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Harald Ertl.
The crash exposed the circuit's inability to provide rapid emergency response across its length. The old Nordschleife never hosted another Formula One race. The German Grand Prix moved permanently to Hockenheimring from 1977, and the German motorcycle Grand Prix left for Hockenheim after the 1980 event.
In 1981 work began on a new 4.556 km GP-Strecke built around the old pit area. Simultaneously, a bypass shortened the Nordschleife to 20.832 km (12.944 mi). This shortened version was used for racing in 1983, including the 1000 km Nürburgring, while the new circuit was completed nearby. During qualifying for that 1983 race, Stefan Bellof set a lap of 6:11.13 in his Porsche 956, averaging 199.8 km/h. That record stood for 35 years until Timo Bernhard surpassed it on 29 June 2018 in the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, covering the slightly longer modern layout in 5:19.546 at an average of 233.8 km/h.
The Nordschleife operated in a clockwise direction and was formerly known for sharp crests that sent racing cars airborne at multiple locations. Its 174 bends (pre-1971) averaged 8–9 metres in width.
Flugplatz ("airfield"): Named for a small airfield once near the track, this section featured a short uphill straight that suddenly drops, followed by two fast right-hand kinks. Chris Irwin suffered a career-ending accident here in a Ford GT sports car in 1968. Manfred Winkelhock flipped his March Formula Two car at the same section in 1980.
Fuchsröhre ("Fox Hole"): A flat-out downhill passage through a forest, with approximately 2–3 metres of grass between the track and Armco barriers backed by trees — regarded as one of the fastest and most confined sections on the circuit.
Bergwerk ("Mine"): A tight right-hander approached after a fast section, responsible for several serious and fatal accidents. Carel Godin de Beaufort fatally crashed here. Lauda's 1976 accident occurred at the left kink immediately before it, now known as the Lauda-Links.
Caracciola Karussell ("Carousel"): A 210-degree banked corner with a concrete surface. Rudolf Caracciola reportedly pioneered the line by hooking his inside tyres into a drainage ditch; as more drivers copied the technique, the corner was eventually remade with purpose-built concrete banking. The corner is named in his honour.
Pflanzgarten ("Planting Garden"): A high-speed section composed of multiple jumps including the Sprunghügel. British driver Peter Collins died here during the 1958 German Grand Prix. Mike Hailwood and Ian Ashley suffered career-ending accidents in the 1970s. The adjacent section was renamed the Stefan Bellof S after 2013 in honour of Bellof's 1983 record lap.
Südschleife: The 7.747 km south loop, built simultaneously with the Nordschleife in 1927, was used for the ADAC Eifelrennen from 1928 to 1931 and 1958 to 1968, as well as minor events. It was rarely used after the 1970–1971 Nordschleife reconstruction and was destroyed by the construction of the GP-Strecke in the early 1980s.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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