Last weekend, a BMW M2 and a Porsche GT3 RS collided at speed on the Nürburgring, resulting in a Michael Bay movie-style explosion that devastated both cars and a bit of guardrail. Incredibly, both drivers exited their cars on their own. But the security camera footage and dashcam clip of the crash are harrowing.
Germany’s Nürburgring is a uniquely sacred place to those of us who love cars and driving. It’s used for racing, developing (and then benchmarking) the world’s most elite vehicles, and incredibly, it’s also open to the public. On touristenfahrten (tourist drive) sessions, anybody with a safe car (or, under rare conditions, a motorcycle) can rock up and challenge the Green Hell’s 12-plus miles, 73 corners, and 984 feet of elevation changes.
To drive on the ‘Ring is a spectacular privilege I don’t want people to lose, but this incident illustrates just how dangerous recreational driving with strangers in traffic with big speed and skill gaps can be.
Dashcam footage from the Porsche and the CCTV clip of the corner where both cars hit each other have been circulating around the internet for the last day or so, and of course, there’s much chatter about who’s at fault. There are a zillion random uploads now, but this one strings all the clips I’ve seen into one quick video:
After trawling through quite a few comments and Reddit threads, many people want to blame the BMW driver. But having watched the internal and external-view videos a couple of dozen times, I think both pilots erred and misread the situation. Easy to do at speed, even for an experienced driver in a capable car.
The BMW should have maintained better situational awareness and realized another, faster car was bearing down on them to apex the corner. Generally speaking, track day rules tell us one must yield to a faster driver in such a situation.
That said, during a tourist session on the ‘Ring, faster drivers also need to carry an elevated sense of situational awareness and recognize when a slower car might not see them. Ayrton Senna’s “if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver” attitude doesn’t apply.
As we can see from the Porsche’s onboard footage, the GT3 RS comes up on the BMW at a snakey spot where it would have been a little tough to catch the speeding car in the rearview. My read on the BMW’s body language, if we can call it that, is that the blue car didn’t see the Porsche at all.
Then, when the Porsche went for the inside pass, the BMW went for the same line without seeing the other car, sending both vehicles into the barriers.
So yes, the BMW should have given way. But I can also see how its driver didn’t realize they had a car behind them at that particular moment, and the Porsche should have waited for a safer place to pass. Though if this gets cited in any official investigation, keep in mind I’m just a dude re-watching through grainy social media clips.
I haven’t been able to find any comments from the BMW driver directly, but the person driving the Porsche has addressed the incident on social media and even stated he’s done with track driving because of it. Here are screenshots straight from his Instagram story:
A media spokesperson for the Nürburgring Nordschleife sent me the following in regards to the incident, confirming both drivers lived to climb out of their cars. Here’s the official statement verbatim:
“Last Saturday evening, during the tourist drives, an accident occurred involving two vehicles. The people were able to exit the vehicles on their own. The safety systems of the Nürburgring Nordschleife – including guardrails, digital monitoring, and operation coordination – functioned well. Regardless of this, such incidents are always internally reviewed as part of our safety management. Further information falls within the responsibility of the police.”
Finally, some aftermath photos have been shared on Facebook:
Unfortunately, this crash highlights just how dangerous things can get when cars at very disparate paces are sharing a track. But I guess it’s also a very good ad for Porsche and BMW’s safety systems. Be careful out there!
What’s your take? Drop us a comment or contact the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.
Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.