Car and Driver: Las Vegas May Get a Taste of Germany with a N?rburgring Replica

Mr. Nice

Mr. Nice

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Las Vegas is one of the most popular tourist cities in the world. It has everything: gambling, a copy of the Eiffel Tower, a replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza (the Luxor?s is actually larger than the original), and its own versions of New York and Venice. If Bruton Smith, the CEO of Speedway Motorsports, can make it happen, the city will soon have a copy of the N?rburgring in its own backyard, too.

Smith said in an interview with SiriusXM Sports last week that he has been asked to duplicate the entire ?13-point-something-mile-long? track somewhere near the city. He has had meetings with the governor of the state since the proposal was made about three years ago.

A specific location for the project hasn?t been decided, but Smith said that the track will not have any affiliation with the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a track owned by Speedway Motorsports. He said the N?rburgring would be no more than 10 miles from the speedway and that the Nevada Bureau of Land Management has offered 8000 acres to the project. We have no idea how they will accurately recreate the elevation changes, and it?s not likely that a replica N?rburgring built in the desert would have the same microclimates as the original, but Smith seems confident he can build it nonetheless.

Unlike the real N?rburgring, the Nevadaring (or would that be Vegasring?) isn?t intended for use as a racetrack. Instead, it would be a location for manufacturer testing and also could be made available for individuals to use, just like the German version. This would add a whole new appeal to Las Vegas. If Smith builds it, we will come.


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I don't care if this is a stupid idea, if it's not authentic, blah blah blah.

If Smith builds it, we will come.
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This is all that needs to be said. I will make it there some how, some way.
 
We have no idea how they will accurately recreate the elevation changes, and it?s not likely that a replica N?rburgring built in the desert would have the same microclimates as the original, but Smith seems confident he can build it nonetheless.
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The elevation changes are the most defining element of the Nordschleife, without them, the track would lose almost all of it's character. I'm sure that with 8000 acres of land and unlimited funds you could build something much better then just a replica of the N?rburgring. If the land has decent characteristics, why not built something that suits the place.
 
dontblogaboutus said:
The elevation changes are the most defining element of the Nordschleife, without them, the track would lose almost all of it's character. I'm sure that with 8000 acres of land and unlimited funds you could build something much better then just a replica of the N?rburgring. If the land has decent characteristics, why not built something that suits the place.
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That's how I feel. If money is no object, bring in some experts and build an entirely new track that would rival the real 'ring, not a copy.
 
I will drive there from Detroit when its built.

The European FGers have their Ringmeet. Now the Americans will have one. I we all gather there on opening weekend. Viper should bring his Viper (if he will have it by then :p).
 
If they build it (hopefully with either SAFER barriers or better yet with enough space around the roadbed that barrier walls are irrelevant) I think I will load up one or both of the bikes in the back of the truck and tow the Series III out behind the Ford. And then run all of them around the course.

dontblogaboutus said:
The elevation changes are the most defining element of the Nordschleife, without them, the track would lose almost all of it's character. I'm sure that with 8000 acres of land and unlimited funds you could build something much better then just a replica of the N?rburgring. If the land has decent characteristics, why not built something that suits the place.
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If it's the area I am thinking of, it's pretty much just flat wasteland so you'd have to construct elevation changes anyway.
 
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Yep, I hope they do this, it will finally give me a reason to cruise up to Vegas. Besides the hookers of course.
 
First I thought: Wait a minute, it's not the 1st of April yet.

Then I thought: Okay, Las Vegas. Home of the loonies. But probably the only city in America, that still has a surplus. Why not? If they have fun with it... But this looks like a pretty big thing to build, to put it mildly. Recreating the big pyramids of Giza in 1:1 scale would be easier and cheaper, I'm afraid.

If you have a flat desert area and want to recreate the Eifel mountains (are they also going to plant trees??), it is quite a task. It may not seem so bad on a Playstation but in real life the ramps and slopes of the Ring are a lot steeper, higher and deeper, than it seems on the monitor. The track has an overall difference in altitude of 290 meters. We'd be talking about earth movements in the magnitude of the Euro Tunnel or even more here.

So to be honest, I think that this Bruton Smith character has probably never been to the N?rburgring for real and has no idea what he's talking about. His vision might be tempting and technologically possible and he might even get the necessary billions to build it (there are many crazy people in the world, who have more money than brains) but how is he planning on ever turning that into a profitable investment, if you exclude the public and only offer it for testing purposes to the car industry? I mean, not even the real N?rburgring is profitable, for crying out loud!

So for car testing purporse, hm? For which cars? There's the simple fact, that the U.S. car industry actually doesn't need a N?rburgring for testing purposes, because they offer only two or three models, where a Ring testing makes sense and it would probably still be cheaper to fly those over to Europe to Ford's or GM's European divisions for testing on the real Ring.

And if they decide to open it up for the public anyway, it would never be a true copy, because it would be too dangerous for safety-obsessed America :p All the American car enthusiasts would get, is a watered-down version without any risks or dangers.

But I have another idea: Why not re-create the entire German autobahn network in the desert and allow people to drive there without a speed limit? That would probably become more profitable :D
 
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MacGuffin said:
So to be honest, I think that this Bruton Smith character has probably never been to the N?rburgring for real and has no idea what he's talking about.
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Mr. Nice said that he was asked to do it
Smith said in an interview with SiriusXM Sports last week that he has been asked to duplicate [the Ring]
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not that it was his idea. I suspect the whole thing if it's a genuine project and not just an attention getter, is about the same thing as the rest of Vegas is - getting people into the town and getting them to throw away their money at the gambling tables. That is, it's not intended to make money in and of itself.
 
They tried to implement a casino and an amusement park to the real N?rburgring. It is a huge failure.

Not saying, that Vegas couldn't be more successful but for the necessary investments you could probably better buy the original Ring and offer a fly-in-and-go-out in 3 days for Americans and it would be more profitable.
 
MacGuffin said:
They tried to implement a casino and an amusement park to the real N?rburgring. It is a huge failure.

Not saying, that Vegas couldn't be more successful but for the necessary investments you could probably better buy the original Ring and offer a fly-in-and-go-out in 3 days for Americans and it would be more profitable.
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Except for the fact that even in that scenario, it would likely be cost prohibitive for said Americans to bring their cars or motorcycles along with them. For many, that puts a damper on it right there.

As for the watered down version - the only changes I could see happening if implemented properly are that the barriers won't need to be so close to the track and can be another option besides fatality-inducing slabs of metal.
 
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