Burton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, may have his eye on an ambitious new project. According to reports swirling around the web, Smith (whose company owns and operates tracks like Infineon Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, among others) aims to create an accurate reproduction of the famous Nürburgring just outside of Las Vegas. While speaking during an interview on Sirius XM Sports, the executive mentioned he had already been in talks with the Governor of Nevada, the Nevada Bureau of Land Management and "some Germans" about the project. It's estimated Smith will require some 8,000 acres to bring the track to reality. It's a good thing Las Vegas is surrounded by an expanse of largely vacant desert.
The rumored plans call for the track to be constructed around 10 miles from the strip. Unfortunately, the facility probably wouldn't play host to sanctioned races like the real McCoy. Instead, the reproduction would simply be for private individuals to have some fun and manufacturers to test their wares. Throwing an element of brutal desert heat onto an already challenging road course could certainly make for a useful development tool. Keep your ears pinned for more information
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/12/exact-nurburgring-copy-under-consideration-for-las-vegas/
JFX001
SuperDork
3/21/12 11:18 a.m.
I wonder how many skeletons* they are going to find....
*EDIT
Donebrokeit wrote:
Repost 
Damn - even did a quick search here to check. My bad. 
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
But this is 'Vegas - nothing is real.
Hey I hope with all the talk this thing will be built , road trip 
hell make it a dirt version. Baja Nurburgring.
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
The chance of me getting to drive on a Vegas copy of the 'Ring is order's of magnitude higher than me ever getting to drive on the real one...........outside of a video game.
z31maniac wrote:
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
The chance of me getting to drive on a Vegas copy of the 'Ring is order's of magnitude higher than me ever getting to drive on the real one...........outside of a video game.
I'm not saying I wouldn't have a E36 M3 eating grin from ear to ear as I drive on it, and I will if its made,
Josh
Dork
3/21/12 8:22 p.m.
Hmm, recreating a wooded mountain road course with 1000 feet of elevation change on dead flat land in the middle of the desert should be no trouble at all...
So weird. While I think the term "bucket list" is gayer than gay marriage, I was thinking tonight that I need to find a way to make a lap around the ring happen.
Oh, and I support the construction of racetracks even if they are carbon-copies. The whole thing seems unlikely to me. Anyone who is automotively aware enough to know what the ring is and have the desire to drive it (i.e., not Joe NASCAR Dirt,) probably is capable of coming up with enough scratch to justify a trip to Germany and rent a car.
And anyone who's wealthy enough to own a
pile of racetracks is smart enough to figure that out.
Las Vegas is the place where people think it's a good idea to spend 1.5 billion dollars on a "replica" of Venice. So a little racetrack shouldn't be difficult at all.
Duke
UberDork
3/21/12 9:12 p.m.
monark192 wrote:
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
But this is 'Vegas - nothing is real.
And I was just wondering if it was going to be a perfect copy of the 'Ring - except at 3/8 scale.
Duke wrote:
monark192 wrote:
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
But this is 'Vegas - nothing is real.
And I was just wondering if it was going to be a perfect copy of the 'Ring - except at 3/8 scale.
THAT would be cool. Put a pitch & putt course in the middle, and have big ti**ied german brat & beer serving cart girls.
Josh
Dork
3/21/12 9:32 p.m.
poopshovel wrote:
THAT would be cool. Put a pitch & putt course in the middle, and have big ti**ied german brat & beer serving cart girls.
In fact, forget the racetrack, and the pitch & putt...
Joshua
HalfDork
3/22/12 12:56 a.m.
ThePhranc wrote:
Not a fan of this idea. Build a new and different track that has its own charms and character.
I agree completely. Why make an exact copy when you can make one with similar difficulty but maybe slightly longer? I'm tired of seeing all of these cookie cutter tracks springing up, not to mention the stupid F1 tracks they keep building.
Joshua wrote:
I agree completely. Why make an exact copy when you can make one with similar difficulty but maybe slightly longer? I'm tired of seeing all of these cookie cutter tracks springing up, not to mention the stupid F1 tracks they keep building.
You're right. The 'Ring isn't big enough for Las Vegas.
1:1 copy of Isle of Man circling the city! That's the ticket!
EvanR
Reader
3/22/12 1:25 a.m.
Josh wrote:
Hmm, recreating a wooded mountain road course with 1000 feet of elevation change on dead flat land in the middle of the desert should be no trouble at all...
Clearly you've not been to Vegas. LVMS is about 6 miles from my house - I know the area fairly well. Anybody who told you the Vegas Valley is dead flat hasn't been here either. On my drive home tonight, I went through 300m of elevation change. That's darn close to 1000'.
As for woods: Heck, all that takes is trees and irrigation and a couple dozen years.
Josh
Dork
3/22/12 1:51 a.m.
I've been to Vegas, although I didn't go far from the strip. What I saw was not green rolling hills, it was a huge flat expanse with mountains sticking up around the edges. I can't imagine the cost and difficulty of carving 14 miles of rolling hills out of that. But if somebody does it, I'll be sure to visit if I ever make it to Vegas again :).
Duke
UberDork
3/22/12 8:00 p.m.
poopshovel wrote:
Duke wrote:
And I was just wondering if it was going to be a perfect copy of the 'Ring - except at 3/8 scale.
THAT would be cool. Put a pitch & putt course in the middle, and have big ti**ied german brat & beer serving cart girls.
And race Legends-style cars there!
