<VV> vette in car video (No Corvair)

[John Oshea]

In 1965 or 66 I drove the Nurburgring in my 1964 Pontiac GTO on the day before Jim Hall raced there in his closed cockpit Chaparral. 

Back then the public was allowed on the track prior to race day. They charged two marks a lap as I recall. In the 60's a mark was worth 25 cents American money. Along with the amateur public out there driving like maniacs there were tow trucks and ambulances circulating at slower speed. The Nurburgring is in a forest and is 12 miles around, so there is plenty of space for hotshots to crash into trees and each other, and there were plenty of accidents the day I was there.

In the video you can see the layout of the track. In the upper right there is a very tight 180 degree turn named the Kleine (little) Carousel. The vette video doesn't do that turn justice. The banking in the turn is so steep if you don't have sufficient speed you will literally slide off the track to the inside. Coming down to the finish line is a very long straight where I wound out the GTO in 4th gear and came close to needing an underwear change when I was done.

Did I go flat out at the Nurburgring on those weak redline uniroyal tigerpaw tires that came on the GTO? I didn't. In the 60's in Europe they were already using excellent radial tires. Pirelli made a terrific set of wide tread high speed tires for the GTO which were very inexpensive at the time and dramatically changed the handling for the better.