Modern Supercars Are Too Fast For The Nurburgring, Says Walter Rohrl

Lately we've seen some truly weapons-grade lap times from production cars around the Nurburgring, and the German king of speed says safety concerns are now more real than ever

Matt Kimberley

16 Nov 2017

Modern supercars are getting too fast for the Nurburgring, says rally ace and general Porsche legend Walter Rohrl.

The man who famously said “a car is just fast enough when you stand in front of it in the morning and are afraid to unlock it” is no stranger to speed, being Porsche’s development driver, twice World Rally Champion and the very man who coached the other Matt at the launch of the latest GT3.

Modern Supercars Are Too Fast For The Nurburgring, Says Walter Rohrl

When the 70-year-old says something is too fast, it’s probably wise to listen. Speaking about some of the faster sections of the Nurburgring, where the 911 GT2 recently set a truly bonkers 6m47.3s lap, he pointed out the absolute lack of margin for error.

“You have no room for mistakes, that’s the bad thing. On the speeds like in [the GT2], you go Schwedenkreuz at 183mph and Fuchsrohre at 168mph, and I know all the accidents which have been on these places in the last 20 years.”

Fuchsrohre saw a huge crash for Koenigsegg in 2016, when an ABS sensor failed at high speed on a One:1 as the company went for a lap record.

Rohrl says the lack of downforce relative to modern supercars’ speed capabilities means they’re just not safe enough. The 911 GT2 produces up to 416kg, way more than most supercars, but much less than less powerful racing cars that lap the Green Hell in around the same sort of times.

He also says that the increasing risk is not why he’s given up his own quests for lap times on the famous Nordschleife. Apparently, it’s actually because increasing Autobahn traffic has doubled his commute…

Source: Drive.com.au

Comments

So, based on his comments the solution would be for manufacturers to create much more downforce for their cars.

I agree with Walters comments but would like to add that its unskilled drivers with more power than they can handle who cause the problems,not the cars.

Not necessarily. If the cars are becoming capable of x speed through a certain section of the track, the test drivers and record setters are going to have to push it right to that x speed which will be leaving less and less room for any line difference or change in the mechanical ability of the car. If it reacts poorly to a bump - game over. If the brakes fade by 5% game over etc. The slower cars all allow for much more time to correct and room for error. On the road etc it’s 100% the driver

In Japan there was the gentlemans agreement over HP until about 2004 where manufacturers agreed not to exceed 280hp engine output. Some bent the rules a little (R34 GTR) but generally it was stuck to. Having been in all of my friends Porsches/Audis which had anything from 380 to 480hp I’d have to say that 95% of the time the extra power is useless on the road. My own car has around 280hp and very rarely do I feel like I wish it had bucket loads more.

very true you don’t need 400bhp to sit behind a nissan micra or vw polo 80% of the time. I think my 230 bhp is great everyday (front wheel drive as opposed to your probable 4wd stagea). But on the other 20% of open road on the weekend amount is welcome