Learning Nordschleife

[Armie]

Hi There,

I'm planning on learning the layout for Nordschleife as it seems a very popular track for online racing. I was wondering if there is a mod or some way to split the track into sections, as I think it would be the best way for me to learn, i.e. repeat the first mile until I know it off by heart, then the second mile and so on.

If anyone has any suggestions for learning this monster I would gladly accept them.

Cheers
Armie

 

[Giovaneveterano]

Good idea mate.
I'll keep an eye on this thread, it could became interesting

 

[aleph]

I don't think that would be necessary or even practical, as there is a definite flow to the track that would be lost if you broke it down into sections - for instance, a car with good performance in tighter turns would probably lack speed in the long final straight, and what you're looking for is a balanced setup that gives you the best overall time. You can memorize the whole layout in a few hours of practice. Having done that, it would be only a matter of fine-tuning your approach using different cars & setups.

 

[Mr.Mugel]

You´ll repeat the first miles a lot anyway, if you want or not

There is no sections mod I am aware of, but it´s not that hard, start with a stable, not too fast car, maybe GT86 or MX-5ND and do some laps until you know the flow and feel confident, than raise the speed.

Also, there are two nice clips showing good lines and advice, first one is from RSR Nürburg, who mentioned important brake markers, etc. to Kunos to reproduce:

And this one is nice, shows a well paced GT3 lap by Uwe Alzen (Might be commented in german, don´t remember). Shows nicely which kerbs you should or shouldn´t use:

Good look on your journeys through Green Hell!

 

[garyjpaterson]

I remember when first trying to learn the Nords' (was Snoopy's one actually) and getting incredibly frustrated, especially nearer the end of the lap where I was not frequenting to much due to usually crashing before

I tried a lot using slower road cars - and its probably good advice (at least IRL).

But for me, I found using a race car (GT3, GT2) with a bit of downforce and grip really helped speed up my learning of the layout. Might sound silly, but I think it was the fact is was just so much faster - so I was started to remember the flow and sequences of corners much easier.

It doesn't even matter if you're driving much slower than the car is capable of, the fact is you can concentrate on your line, the layout and not be worrying about sliding off at a moments notice.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I don't think that would be necessary or even practical, as there is a definite flow to the track that would be lost if you broke it down into sections - for instance, a car with good performance in tighter turns would probably lack speed in the long final straight, and what you're looking for is a balanced setup that gives you the best overall time. You can memorize the whole layout in a few hours of practice. Having done that, it would be only a matter of fine-tuning your approach using different cars & setups.

It's quite practical. This was a feature in Gran Turismo 5 that let you do individual sections at a time so you could learn each section and eventually string them all together, that's how I learned the track. It's great because say you screw up about 3/4 of the way through the track, now you have to do 5-6 minutes of driving before you even get to that section again and by that time you may have forgotten what you screwed up. The key to learning is frequent repetition, by being able to do just one section over and over until you really know it the learning process is sped up.

 

[Armie]

It's quite practical. This was a feature in Gran Turismo 5 that let you do individual sections at a time so you could learn each section and eventually string them all together, that's how I learned the track. It's great because say you screw up about 3/4 of the way through the track, now you have to do 5-6 minutes of driving before you even get to that section again and by that time you may have forgotten what you screwed up. The key to learning is frequent repetition, by being able to do just one section over and over until you really know it the learning process is sped up.

This is my thinking, although for me its more like 9-10 minutes, not 5-6 minutes.

My attention span is so bad, the other day I was......oh look a butterfly!!!

 

[Keanu Buschmann]

It's easy to learn Drive every day one or more laps. After some days you will know the track Thats how I learned it

 

[aphidgod]

The best advice I can give, really, is to turn off car damage so you can continue with your lap even if you wreck. That way you can see the whole track, even the last third, from the beginning of the process.

It took me a couple of weeks of pretty solid hotlapping to really get it down to the level where i knew what the next 2 or 3 corners were without thinking about it. It's not that bad, if you just commit to doing it and don't get frustrated. (You're going to crash. A lot. It's OK, just pick back up and keep going.)

The track has a fantastic flow, and you'll start to feel it as you get comfortable. Hopefully that will push you to keep going, because it's really rewarding when you have it learned.

 

[jp chemisky]

There is also this good guide named "Nordschleife line" edited by BMW M GmbH. You will find inside good advices on the line, tricky parts of the tracks, bumps to be aware of, and braking points. Really worth to be read

Here one of the link where you can find it :
http://www.audittclub.it/fileTT/bmwm_nordschleife.pdf

 

[Akra]

Those of us old enough to remember the early days of GPL will remember there was a track mod that split that into sections to learn. The old GPL Ring had a lot less reference points than the AC one.

Try learning the Targa Florio

 

[paracletus]

Best to stick with the whole thing - just many hours of practice is all it is. You'll get it down, concentrate on doing clean laps at first, gradually going quicker on the difficult sections.
It isn't as hard as you might think, very rewarding to finally get it.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

The easiest way to learn this mother of all tracks is simply to jump into a (lower power) car and drive it over and over and over.

- use a lower powered car in the beginning (high powered cars lure you much too easy into driving too fast and crashing)
- enable the track section names in Assetto Corsa, learn which section is called how and study this on a map as well to familiarize
- STAY AWAY FROM THE CURBS (at least in the beginning) - there are some very high ones around Nordschleife which can be very vicious and make you eat the fence
- drive races in lower powered cars and start from the back of the field, following AI drivers - you will easily learn the flow of corners this way and know where to drive fast and where to slow down (kind of like a realistic implementation of a race line with breaking points)
- when in doubt, slow down
- never run just one single lap - aim to run 3-4 laps at a time (depending on car a 15 - 30 min exercise) - this will greatly help you to memorize track details you will otherwise easily forget about (like road undulations and certain bumps and finer details)

Have fun!

 

[Armie]

All,
Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated. Just to give you an update I am now familiar with the track up to the carousel but then my mind goes blank after that. Is it just me or do all of the corners look the same after the carousel??? I have been practicing in the Porsche GT4 but maybe I will try a less powerful car. turning damage off was very helpful.....(lots of crashes).

I like a challenge, so after this, on to the Targa Florio

 

[Tberg]

I never understood this 'sections' thing. It´s not guitarplaying. If you fly off the track, clearly you have no feel of the cars limits, and should in general just practice wtf you're doing. If you see a corner you don´t know irl, you should brake, not try it full on or you´d possibly die. Well, that´s what young people do anyway...
You should be able to see where the track is going, but yes, it can be difficult on a singlescreen setup to percieve the track and depth. So, you go slower if in doubt. If you find yourself oversteering and ending up way too soon inside the corner, you remember that for the next lap. And the next corner, and the next corner, and the next corner...
Learning new tracks, I only start flying off and crash when I already learned the track and start pushing it, sometimes over the limit.

 

[garyjpaterson]

All,
Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated. Just to give you an update I am now familiar with the track up to the carousel but then my mind goes blank after that. Is it just me or do all of the corners look the same after the carousel??? I have been practicing in the Porsche GT4 but maybe I will try a less powerful car. turning damage off was very helpful.....(lots of crashes).

I like a challenge, so after this, on to the Targa Florio

Hehe, yeah after the Karussell it gets a bit 'samey' - but stick with it, that's the best bit!

Personally I love the section just after the Kurussell (Hohe Acht) to Youtube Corner (Brunnchen 2), If I could I'd just loop that bit over and over again!

After Brunnchen, you have the fast Pflanzgarten section which scares me with the blind fast bends, then down to the mini Karussell, then you're onto Dottinger Hohe (the main straight).

(Oh, and I still think its worth a go in a GT3 car, since you can get round it (even without pushing) much faster, so you forget less each time you go round. A GT3 car has so much grip and with ABS/TC you don't have to worry about wheelspin etc, you can really concentrate on the track)

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Actually the corners after the Caroussel do not look alike at all ;-)
it helps alot to drive and think of the corners around the ring in sequences instead of single corners.

This helps you in familiarising and "compressing" the brain load. It also helps alot to prepare the car for upcoming corners.

 

[Mr.Mugel]

After Karussel is where the fun begins I can keep the corners apart very well by now, as I´ve walked the section between Karussel and Pflanzgarten 1 a couple of times during VLN races IRL (Next to the track, of course).

I remember though, when I was driving in GTR Evo and with Snoopy's Nords in AC, I had issues there, too. Confusing Wippermann and Brünnchen, Pflanzgarten 1&2, etc. Each of the following corners has their own line, it´s own bumps, etc. it´s fun when you know the track. With the AC model of the track it´s easier, though.

Remember to do a good line through Brünnchen, because that is where the photographers and spectators are!

 

[Dirk Steffen]

The trick about Wippermann / Brünnchen and Pflanzgarten 1/2 is this:

Wippermann entry can be cut nicely over the kerb at the entry and you can push beautifully here to overtake slower cars into the right hand up the hill.
Branches though is a real piece of work - I always go slower here than I must as loosing it in Brünnchen often means eating the fence or at the least doing some landscape work on the lawn through the compression.
BE CAREFUL at the exit of Brünnchen - you may think that it is as easy and fast as the Wippermann exit as the layout is so similar but again Brünnchen is a bit…h and betrays you into wiping out uphill into the right hand.

There is a reason why it is called Youtube corner ;-)

Pflanzgarten is VERY cool - both of them for different reasons.

1) hold on to something this is a BIG drop into a compression RIGHT ONTOP of a breaking zone to get the right hander uphill.
I absolutely looooove this section - always great fun to unsettle the car here and still get the breaking point and right hand corner right.

2) hold your breath this is like running a rollercoaster from the very top aaalllllllll the way down - love this section to death - don't lift the throttle here but be prepared to get through the deadly fast right left right with very tricky curbs that follow - lots of accidents in that super fast section.

Your troubles are not over yet - in my opinion a few most tricky places are still to come, some of them really deadly and with a very slim margin between being fast and loosing it (right hand turn entry after Schwalbenschwanz or the treacherous breaking zone down from whatever fast your car can drive through the few corners right at the end of the lap are just two reasons to die).

Stick to it - once you know the corner flow and stop crashing you will start to become addicted to the ring.
It is by far the very most exciting and addicting racetrack of them all - every single lap, no matter how slow or fast your car.

If Assetto Corsa would only allow one single track and it would be the ring, I still would race it regularly and wouldn't be a bit sad.

I really hope we will see one day a proper simulation of the very treacherous track conditions you can have around the track (remember last time it snowed so bad that the GT3 cars got stuck in Karussel and could not get out of there, so slippery it was).

 

[2112]

Even when you learn the track you are going to hit the walls. Quite often.

Why? You are going to push to go faster as there will always be those out there who you want to catch. I measured my successes, at first, by being able to complete one lap without crashing, no matter my pace. I have been driving that track for years, and even now I consider it a success if I can get three hot laps in without hitting a wall or going off.

Find a car you are comfortable with, stick with that car, learn how to set it up for the track and keep hot lapping it. You will get faster, you will learn every corner and you will be able to drive it capably, as long as you stick with it.

I think the best advice was what one poster said: Drive it at least once a day.

It is now my favorite track and I can spend hours just hotlapping the track on my own.