You’ve heard of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, you may have even heard of the Nürburgring Sudschleife. But have you heard of the Nürburgring Müllenbachschleife? This is a specific section of the Nurburgring circuit used predominantly for drift competitions and RallyX events.
In this article we will look at this section of track in detail, what it is used for, and how you can drive it in both virtual and real life.
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What is the Nürburgring Müllenbachschleife?
The Müllenbachschleife is the southern-most section of the Nürburgring grand prix track. It is its own circuit loop, shortcutting a large part of the GP track to make up the shortest configuration of the Nurburgring circuit. The Müllenbachschleife is 0.9 miles / 1.5 km long.
It consists of six distinct corners, 3 of which are used when the full GP track is in use (corners 1, 5 and 6 on the map below) and 3 of which are unique to the Müllenbachschleife (corners 2, 3 and 4).
As we talked about when looking at how long the Nurburgring is, there are lots of different circuit configurations. One of those is the VLN layout which uses the entire Nordschleife combined with most, but not all of the GP track.
In this layout the part of the track that is not used is the Mullenbachschleife. Instead the cars follow the layout of the GP Sprint Track, as seen on the image below. The cars double back on themselves at turn 5 in this track map before they ever reach the Müllenbachschleife.
Why is it called the Nürburgring Müllenbachschleife?
The Nordschleife is named as such because it is the Northern Loop (Nord Schleife) of the Nurburgring circuit. Back when the circuit was built there was also a Sudschleife, named this because it was the Southern loop of the track.
So it’s no surprise that the Müllenbachschleife is the Mullenbach loop of the Nurburgring circuit, in this instance the Grand Prix circuit. Looking at a map, we can see the nearest town to this section of the circuit is Müllenbach. Hence it is named the Nurburgring Müllenbachschleife.
What is the Müllenbachschleife used for?
The Nurburgring Müllenbachschleife is small, and the section of the track at the top of the loop that cuts back through the infield to join the circuit up is very narrow and lined with armco. As such, the Müllenbachschleife itself does not lend itself to racing or trackdays. Except for when corners 1, 5 and 6 on the map at the top of this article are used when the full GP circuit is active.
The Müllenbachschleife section of track is predominantly used for drifting. Specifically, it is the circuit used for the Nurburgring drift cup. Check out this video to see the drifters in action, and how tight the infield section at the top of the circuit is.
The track layout map below shows that the corners on the second half of the circuit are used for the drifting competition. There have also been times in the past when the circuit has been used for drifting in reverse.
Additionally, since 2021 the FIA World RallyX event held at the Nurburgring has used this section of track. Whilst the RX circuit doesn’t use the whole loop, it instead incorporates some of its own dirt sections, it does still use the majority of the Müllenbachschleife.
Inspiration for bringing the rallycross back to the Nurburgring could well have come from a few decades earlier. The 1989 Race of Champions was held at the Nurburgring, specifically on the Müllenbachschleife. It was the first time the side-by-side layout had been used for the Race of Champions, or for any competitive form of motorsport for that matter.
The 1989 ROC was for rally cars and drivers only, and was won by Stig Blomqvist with Walter Röhrl as the runner up. Check out the video below for some late 80s rallying nostalgia.
How can you drive the Müllenbachschleife?
There’s only a couple of ways you can get access to drive on the full Müllenbach Loop in real life. One is to enter the Nurburgring drift cup, as mentioned above.
The second would be to take part in the Nurburgring Formula Academy. This program offers various levels of driver training in the Nurburgring Formula 4 single seater race cars. The Academy predominantly uses the Müllenbachschleife as the circuit on which the training takes place, splitting it in to different corners before joining it all up.
Alternatively, you can keep an eye out for when there is Touristenfahrten on the Grand Prix track. This will not incorporate the whole Müllenbach Loop, instead it will use the full GP track, but you still get to drive on most of it.
Müllenbachschleife in driving sims
The driving simulators I know of that allow you to select the Müllenbachschleife as the circuit layout are:
- RaceRoom
- Project Cars 1 & 2
- iRacing
- Assetto Corsa (PC only using the mod posted in the comments of this Facebook post)
Spectating and camping
If you are heading to one of the main race events that uses the full GP track you may want to spectate in this particular area of the circuit. Looking at the full GP track map below, you can see that Grandstands T5B to T10A cover this section of the track.
Additionally, if you are a hardcore fan and are going to be camping at the Nurburgring for either a big race event, tourist driving or just a nice holiday with the family, the official Camping am Nurburgring campsite is directly adjacent to this bit of track. It even has direct access to the spectator areas around the edge of the circuit.
