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Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

jalopnik.com

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Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#21

Post by eigen »

joncrane wrote: post #6

Some people just capture the imagination and she was one. I'm not sure what it was about her. It wasn't just that she was a woman and a very fast driver, which are both abundantly true. She was a great ambassador for motorsport in general and almost a mythical, legendary presence at the Ring. She apparently ran a bed and breakfast near the track with her husband after her hardcore professional racing career was over…

i believe her parents owned, and she grew up in, a hotel in Nürburg.

https://www.am-tiergarten.de/de/hotel-am-tiergarten-nuerburg...

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#23

Post by saalweachter »

annoyingnoob wrote: post #22
ProAm wrote: post #12

If you havent watched her take a van around the ring in a smidge over 10 minutes it is worth a watch. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiC03_wVjc

The part I like most is that she has so much fun doing it.

The amusing thing to me is that, googling what a good time on the Nurburgring is, it looks like the fastest (street-legal) cars are high 6 minutes, and 7 minutes will still get you into the top 10.

So a passenger van is only 50% slower than the best-in-class. It's probably only 20-30% slower than your typical "fast car".

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#24

Post by mhh__ »

saalweachter wrote: post #23
annoyingnoob wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part I like most is that she has so much fun doing it.

The amusing thing to me is that, googling what a good time on the Nurburgring is, it looks like the fastest (street-legal) cars are high 6 minutes, and 7 minutes will still get you into the top 10. So a passenger van is only 50% slower than the best-in-class. It's probably only 20-30% slower than your typical "fast car".

Its only 2x the lap time of the 919 Evo!

https://youtu.be/PQmSUHhP3ug A "car" so fast the footage looks sped up

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#25

Post by dageshi »

apples_oranges wrote: post #18

I find it a bit scary (not in a bad way) how similar we all seem to be, if this story makes it to the front page

Top Gear was the most popular tv program in the world for some number of years, not a surprise a lot of people were familiar with Sabine.

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#27

Post by MarcusE1W »

saalweachter wrote: post #23
annoyingnoob wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part I like most is that she has so much fun doing it.

The amusing thing to me is that, googling what a good time on the Nurburgring is, it looks like the fastest (street-legal) cars are high 6 minutes, and 7 minutes will still get you into the top 10. So a passenger van is only 50% slower than the best-in-class. It's probably only 20-30% slower than your typical "fast car".

For context the whole thing came about because Sabine has coached Jeremy Clarkson to get a Jaguar Diesel around the track in under 10 min. He made it just and some comments from Sabine lead to the second challenge to do it in a van.

So she was 8 seconds slower than a Jaguar driven by Jeremy, who drives for a living :-)

Definitely try to find some snippets of those episodes, very entertaining

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#28

Post by MarcusE1W »

robotnixon wrote: post #11
mellosouls wrote: post #4

Yeah, very sad - I was a little surprised that Top Gear didn't make a little more use of her over the years after that famous item; as an occasional guest presence she would have been a nice (and amusing) ego-deflating counterpoint to the very blokey, British energy.

It was after the Clarkson/Hammond/May era, but she was a host for a few years on the show

I think on Sunday the BBC will show a TopGear Sabine special

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#29

Post by sandworm101 »

mellosouls wrote: post #4

Yeah, very sad - I was a little surprised that Top Gear didn't make a little more use of her over the years after that famous item; as an occasional guest presence she would have been a nice (and amusing) ego-deflating counterpoint to the very blokey, British energy.

>> ego-deflating counterpoint to the very blokey, British energy.

Comedy isn't math. Counterpoints look good on paper but Clarkson understood that counterpoint quickly becomes compromise. Adding a female presenter would also be dangerous. The image of three oldish guys chasing a younger female around a track, or across europe, would be dangerous. Top Gear doubled down on the blokey behavior and that lack of compromise made the show what it was.

Re: Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51

#30

Post by flurdy »

Hamuko wrote: post #20
mellosouls wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know that she'd been a regular presenter; I stopped watching after that era - but I'm glad she was eventually part of it in a more central way.

She wasn't really a "regular presenter". After the trio left, they basically had a rotating cast of presenters, of which she was one of. But the show got absolutely pummeled by the critics.

Once they got rid of Chris Evans, the show recovered somewhat. With Mat LeBlanc, Flintoff etc. Though not back to the Clarkson stratospheric viewing figures, but I really liked the LeBlanc seasons.
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