The Nurburgring is famously one of the most difficult tracks to drive in the world, if not the absolute most difficult. It’s chock full of tight, difficult corners and long, fast sweepers. It’s also very long and very fast. Many enthusiasts underestimate its difficulty and end up in the wall or worse. So driving a BMW M3, a famously tail-happy car, on the ‘Ring in the lashing rain isn’t on my bucket list. Especially considering that if I were to ever do that, I’d likely never finish my bucket list. However, that’s exactly what Ron Simmons did with The Smoking Tire on board riding shotgun.
Ron Simmons owns RSRNurburg, a car rental service for the Nurburgring. So enthusiasts can rent all sorts of high-end performance cars from RSR to tackle the “Green Hell”. So Ron is a bit of a master of the ‘Ring and isn’t afraid to truly push a car, even in the rain. So he recently took The Smoking Tire out onto the ‘Ring in his Nurburgring Taxi BMW M3.
The Smoking Tire’s Matt Farah sat shotgun with a 360-degree camera, so while watching the video, we can spin the camera around as we so choose. This allows us to watch everything going on, from the view ahead, to Ron’s steering inputs, to Farah’s face as things get a bit sketchy in the rain. It’s a cool video and it shows off just how talented Ron Simmons is as a driver.
The amount of speed he carries through corners and the amount of throttle he uses on corner exit in the rain, in an M3, is almost heroic. And how calmly he manages oversteer in the rain is commendable. You can hear Farah claim how much more throttle or how much faster Ron goes than he would himself, on multiple occasions, and Farah is a good driver. So I can only imagine the sort of expletives I’d be shouting in that same situation.
It’s a cool video and one you should watch if you appreciate what it takes to truly be a good driver and drive quickly, even in awful conditions on the most difficult track in the world.
