Detour Pit Stop #30: Bilster Berg circuit, Germany
When friends with petrol running through their veins and suede racing boots for shoes plan a road trip to Germany it inevitably involves a lap or ten of the Nürburgring, and a circuit map bumper sticker.
Yet halfway between Cologne and Hanover is another circuit that will torture tyres, test brakes and – best of all – stand the hairs on the back of your neck to attention.
Bilster Berg was built in 2013 as a private members club where drivers with a need for speed could pay a costly membership fee, slip on their fireproof pants and take to the FIA-standard circuit.
From the very first visitors, word spread that it was like a concentrated version of the Nürburgring, a Green Hell in miniature that threw 44 crests and compressions at man and machine, with gradients of up to 26 per cent downhill, and 20 per cent uphill. If you’ve walked or cycled up a 20 per cent hill, you’ll appreciate just how daunting this will seem when first encountered at high speed.
Today, you don’t have to be a member of any club to get your kicks on the kerbs of ‘Berg. Track days which are open to you or I are available throughout the year. And this being Germany, all manner of precision-tuned Audis, BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches will be circulating and taking things in the sort of serious manner only the Germans can.
I’ve driven the circuit a couple of times, the last session during the launch of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Considering its length – 2.6 miles – Bilster Berg packs in a roller coaster of a ride. It’s like a slightly longer, more challenging Cadwell Park, another favourite circuit of Detour – and if you haven’t been to Cadwell, then sorry but where have you been?
Admittedly, like Cadwell, there are areas where the crash barriers loom uncomfortably close into view. And admittedly, again like Cadwell, the contrast between the fast stuff and the slow stuff is just the thing for testing your new pair of brave pants. But this, and the changing topography, is what makes the best circuits stand out from the rest.
So next time you plan that road trip to Germany, remember this: 380 miles east of Calais is a place that promises to be better policed than a public day at the Nürburgring but delivers, turn for turn, mile for mile, almost as great a thrill. They do bumper stickers, too.
Words James Mills Twitter | Instagram
Photography Bilster Berg