They suggest you go for a ride with a professional first before you take your own car out ther as there are nasty surpises (the best known of which is the Adenaur-Forst, famous for 'failing to turn left' incidents'). If you choose not to go slow your first couple of laps. You'll probably be overtaken, so keep an eye on mirrors and stay right. If you fail to move and the car re-ends you, legally, its your fault. Watch out for British drivers who don't know the difference.
Almost every twist in the track was designed to test and challenge the best of the best and the true impact of the circuit can only be felt by riding it. Down gradients of one in nine and up one in six hills cars would wind their way along a tortuous road that encompassed no fewer than four villages, while high on the hill, overlooking the entire circuit lay the ruins of Schloss Nürburg, a twelfth-century fortress. It was a Grand Prix and Formula-1 race track until it was deemed too unsafe at high speeds
Jaguar, Audi and BMW test their cars on the 'ring'.The Nürburgring is ideal for simulating a wide variety of driving conditions, and enables accurate assessment of vehicle behavior lap after lap. The various dips and crests allow analysis of a car's performance under high levels of suspension compression, and the requirement to brake from high speeds gives the braking components a thorough work-out. All materials are subjected to much higher loads than in typical road use, providing a valuable means of testing performance levels and wear rates in extreme situations or under constant load in real-world conditions. Further aspects of study that can be conducted in safety on the track include stability control, vibration and wind noise, cooling and steering response.
Check out this YouTube clip of the Ford Transit doing it. Pretty ill. When I head to Germany for Oktoberfest, maybe Septeber '08 (any takers- I have been wanting to go for a long time!) I am hitting up the ring- i like going fast.