© 2012 by sOnit, Inc. All rights reserved.

“It’s like, if you walk up behind a vicious dog, if you talk to the dog on the way up, it wouldn’t be caught by surprise, and it wouldn’t do something unpredictable.”
— Sir Jackie Stewart (F1 triple champion on car behaviour, Top Gear)

Auto racing is exhilarating, but it is a costly pursuit. And, as Sir Jackie said, a race car can sometimes behave like a “vicious dog” with a deadly bite. Thanks to a few race engineers and software developers, however, we can now experience the thrill of driving a race car at its limits, without leaving the comfort of our living rooms, and more importantly without risking life, limb, or lolly.

Although PC-based racing simulators have been around since the mid-1980s, it was Grand Prix Legends that set the standard of excellence in 1998, in terms of realism, appearance, and performance. A confluence of technical developments occurred in the mid-1990s that transformed a lowly racing game into a realistic racing simulator: fast CPUs, capable 3D GPUs, decent operating system, racing wheel with foot paddles, and realistic vehicular physics models. Through the years, racing simulators have made great strides in capabilities, each generation more capable and less expensive than the last. Of late, there has been a spate of topping simulators. Even the humble gaming console now has a few titles that might persuade a parsimonious pavement pounder to part with his penny.

I share with you in this book my enthusiasm for the racing simulators, and especially my admiration for the Nürburgring Nordschleife Touristenfahrten—The Ring. Note that this book is not about earning the most gaming points, defeating the on-line opponents through unfair means, or learning how to drag and drift; the emphasis is on traditional road racing.

Being that this is a book about simulator racing, I had to choose a simulator and a car about which to write. For a variety of reasons, I chose Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed (S2U) and BMW E30 M3 Sport Evolution. But, even if you own a different simulator or fancy a different race car, there is nothing to dissuade you from learning about racing components, car set-up, driving techniques, and other generally applicable concepts that I present here.

The Nürburgring comprises of many different track configurations, but the 20.832 km Touristenfahrten variety is the one that grips everyone’s imagination. It is the track upon which the major car manufacturers strive to pip one another with progressively shorter lap times. I devote a good portion of this book to driving this temperamental, serpentine track coiled into the scenic hills and dales of the Eifel Mountains in western Germany. I describe in detail all the corners, the reference points around them, and the racing lines through them. I also show how the corners look from the cockpit. Again, although surface irregularities, trackside objects, and other minutiae are specific to S2U, the more general descriptions of corner layouts and racing lines can still guide you as you pound round the track on your preferred simulator.

This guidebook is for enthusiasts to use on simulators, so references objects, surface irregularities, and other small details mentioned here do not appear on the real track. In real life, this track is a one-way toll road, which, except on race days, is open to the public. A complete novice with just a few Euros to his name can seek glory, at least for a few minutes, by driving a lap round the Touristenfahrten in a hired sports car. If you do intend to drive in a spirited manner on the real track, take instructions from the professionals; do not rely solely on the information provided herein. Or else, you may join the ranks of the Dead Ringers.

Indeed, I have never driven on the real Nordschleife, so I am no Ring Specialist even by the most generous of measures. But, I have been driving the virtual track regularly and frequently since 1998 on nearly every racing simulator that models it. Yet, my enthusiasm for the track has not dimmed. I wrote this book in what little spare time I have to share with you the thrill of driving round The Ring, and the joy of driving on the simulators in general. If my book increases the number of simulator fanciers in some small way, I would consider my mission accomplished, because I believe that a larger consumer base will encourage more software manufacturers to create finer simulators in the future.

With this book as a vector, I hope to transmit a virulent strain of racing bug to you. May the gods of speed save your soul. I bid you good luck, and hope that you will learn to love simulator racing and The Ring.

— Amen Zwa, Esq.