The internet loves Nürburgring crashes. Race crashes, prototype crashes, crash compilations—we’re obsessed. But we don’t really talk about what comes next. The price penalty drivers face for wrecking part of the track is probably worth more than the cars.
Car Throttle has evidently started doing animation-style fact videos, and you know what, they’re pretty good. The latest one is on the price tag you can expect in a worst case scenario should you go flying off of the Nürburgring in whatever coffin-on-wheels you could scavenge for the honour.
Think about it. There’s the price of admission to just get on the track (which you don’t get back for crashing), which is 30 Euros ($52) on a public driving day, otherwise known as the demolition derby if YouTube is anything to go by.
Then there’s fixing whatever part of the track you hit. Say you ruined 20 metres of barrier. That’s 150 Euros ($260) for the repairman to come out, with 60.69 Euros ($105) per metre of barrier on top of that. If any barrier supports are damaged, that’s another 79 Euros ($138). The recovery truck another 300 Euros ($522).
Just 30 minutes of time with the safety car is another 82 Euros ($142). Then there’s Germany’s VAT rate applied on top of all of that, which is another 19 per cent of the total.
Despite rumours, there isn’t an automatic fine for closing down the track when crashing because, most of the time, the track doesn’t close for just one small, isolated crash. It would would take a big one, or a series of incidents to actually force a shut down. The ‘Ring is big.
At this point, Car Throttle estimates your cost for damaging the track and getting out of the way is already over 3,000 Euros, or about $5,219. Then there’ll be the final cost of transporting your broken car wherever you need to take it. Then there’s the cost to repair it, if it’s even worth it to bother.