Video: Car hits bike on Nurburgring Nordschleife

Rider on BMW S 1000 RR at Nordschleife open track day collides with car at 105 mph, bounces off armco and makes lucky save

The great thing about the famed "Nordschleife" ("North Loop") section of the Nürburgring is that on certain days of the week, the facility is open to the public. For a nominal fee, you can do a lap of the Nordschleife in any road-legal vehicle. The course is 12.9 miles long, with more turns than you'd want to count. Sounds like the ultimate track day, right?

There's a catch: you have to share the track with everyone else, meaning you are on the track with all kinds of cars. In this onboard video from a BMW S 1000 RR rider, that close mix of cars and bikes running at speed on the track at the same time nearly resulted in what could have been a very nasty crash for the BMW rider. Just as the bike is passing a car, it moves over on the BMW rider, colliding with him and forcing him off the track into the grass, where the rider ends up bouncing off the Armco barrier that lines the course. By a mixture of skill and luck, the BMW rider manages to stay upright, and live to ride another day, albeit with a change of underwear and a bit more caution in selecting passing zones at the Nordschleife.

For those of you not familiar with the Nürburgring Nordschleife's public course days, it's not an absolute free-for-all. There are strict rules on numerous aspects of running on the famed 12.9-mile course. Passing on the right is prohibited, even if the vehicle in front of you is going through a left-hand turn. There are some sections of the course that sometimes have speed limits, and you cannot do multiple "flying" laps; you are always required to slow for the "Pitlane" section where you have to pay your toll and wait in line again for your next run. And if you cause or are involved in an accident that requires repairs to the circuit, an ambulance call, or a complete shutdown of the circuit, you are responsible for all costs...meaning you could take a major financial hit for a lapse in judgement at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.