Located deep in the forests south of Heidelberg, and only a stone's throw from the town centre, Hockenheim is another of the historic road race tracks of the 20's and 30's. Originally a huge oval running from village to village, it has slowly be slowed via chicanes and short cuts to the current layout, opened in the mid 2000. Also, sadly, where Jim Clark met his end in 1968.

As with all the remaining road tracks, Hockenheim has been slowed due to the increasing speeds of the modern F1 cars . Huge cornering and flat line speeds were achieved and it was determined that the cars were now just too fast to race safely. Having driven the new layout and being able to bounce on the rev limiter for several seconds in top (the only circuit where I have achieved this) I can clearly state that it really is still a power track, in the greatest tradition, and is also still the "engine breaker" it was always known to be. Your brakes will take a real hammering too!

From the start/finish line you head down to the Nordcurve a fast right-hander with lots of run off, down towards the old Jim Clark curve which is now been replaced with a 120 right onto 45 left combination, the Einfarht Parabolica, the drag down is a great place to overtake in a tvr as you can really use its power. This takes you onto the main hochgeswindigkeits curve, which is actually an effective straight.six cars wide and flat out in top for around 10 seconds. This delivers you to the Spitzkehre hairpin, a major overtaking opportunity and location of some HUGE understeer as we were arriving at an actual speed of 150+ mph! A short straight and into a deceptively fast right-hander at the Mercedes Tribune complex and into the hairpin. Another power blast down the none too short straight and you arrive at the Inner Tribune infield section via the right hand Mobilcurve.. Another hairpin with a chicane are the remnants form the famous sachskurve, also deceptively fast as all the tight corners and hair pins of the infield sectors are quite heavily cambered giving some real grip. Finally we are right at elfkurve past the pit lane access and back onto the main straight again via the opelkurve (or Sudkurve as it was known) for a late brake into the the nordcurve once more. Truly an epic track and a great one for your tvr.

As the track is around four miles long, each of the straights is a "proper" straight allowing you to build considerable speed before the next corner and most of these are quite slow but cambered. This gives a very exciting and FAST lap with lots of overtaking opportunities with most of the track being six cars wide!

This Track is NOT for the faint hearted and does NOT follow the usual Trackday etiquette. I do NOT recommend this for anyone who does not consider themselves highly competent on the track and would advise anyone intending to take part, to check that their insurance is valid for an Open Session Track. That said, this HAS to be up there with the very best of track experiences along with the awesome Nurburg Ring.