The loss of the Ring!

In news that'll be sure to make James May happy the Nurburgring has filed for bankruptcy.

I can't say for sure what impact this will have on the world of cars. For motor racing it's quite profound as many race series go there including Formula 1. The loss of one of the most prestigious names in the world can only be bad for the industry.

As for the normal road car industry I'm citing two things that could happen, if anything at all. The first is more cars handling not quite as well. A lot of premier brands use the ring as their test ground, most notably Aston Martin, to lose that test ground could be devastating for the companies that use it. Of course there are other places they could go to do their testing but the Ring will always be that special place that allows companies to test every apsect of handling and see how their cars compare to otehr top brands. For instance, Nissan probably wouldn't have been able to make the GT-R such a legend if it hadn't been for the Ring. To see it go will be quite sad.

The other effect could be that performance cars will ride better. The Ring, depsite its length and varying elevation changes is actually a very smooth track, one of the best maintained in the world. So when a car goes there for testing and a driver goes round the track he sets the car up for handling and forgets about the effect this will have on real world ride quality. The reason being as far as he's concerned the car rides like it's driving on a marshmallow.

This is why James May has often criticised using the Green Hell as a testing facility. What effect does have on the industry as a whole? Not much if I'm honest, normal cars just don't get tested there. What effect does this have of the performance car industry, who knows, but I reckon you will see a change in the future.