The best Nürburgring fails of the year

It’s December! So 'tis the season to be jolly… and laugh at people falling off the Nürburgring. Oh yes, it’s that time of year where your social media feeds are filled with nothing but compilations and top ten lists. Well, here’s another one. A particularly crashy one.  

As ever, the Nordschleife has delivered the goods once again. With 2017 being a particularly fertile year for smashing Nurburgring records (shout outs to the Lamborghini Performante, Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Honda Civic and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio) every man and his dog has hit the Green Hell to try and prove they’re faster than manufacturers’ hottest hot shoes. 

See, the ‘Ring is one of the great crucibles of motorsport, 12.9 miles of hallowed German tarmac. And also the scene of a significant proportion of Europe’s automotive crashes. The Nurburgring, remember, still runs ‘Touristfahrten’ open trackdays, in which any member of the vehicle-driving public can pitch up, pay a fistful of Euros and take a lap of the fearsome circuit without even a safety briefing.

This, predictably, ends in rather a lot of car-barrier interfaces. And, for your viewing pleasure, one enterprising YouTubist has gathered together many of the best/worst/cringiest shunts into one wince-inducing 18-minute masterpiece.

Hit play above to witness all kinds of carnage. Props to the guy in the five-door Civic getting more than a healthy bit of lift-off oversteer. The man who got snap-understeer in the Jaguar F-Type. The person who put their Volvo on its roof at Turn 1. And all those boys and girls who continued lapping their cars once they’d detonated, leaving a lovely oil trail for bikers to slip over on.  

Some of the crashes are, let’s be honest, predictable. Some are unlucky. In quite a few, it’s nigh on impossible to see quite how it all went so wrong. Don’t forget the driver at fault pays for barrier damage at the ‘Ring. Per metre. Some of these unlucky souls are facing some serious repair bills. That’s before repairing the huge dents to their dignity...

So take a break, put your feet up and treat yourself to nearly 20-minutes worth of drivers whose ambition exceeded their talent. And tell us your top shunt in the comments section below.