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

joncrane 5 years ago |

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 and by all accounts she was an absolute treasure to stay and socialize with if you were staying in the area.

RIP.

eigen 5 years ago | |

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

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

downut 5 years ago |

I'm 59 and a 2x cancer survivor myself and it just makes me so angry that such talent and joy for life gets taken. It is the way of the world.

I had never seen that video and it made me laugh out loud about the idea of being passed by a van. That sort of thing has happened to me twice, and each time, I did laugh out loud.

The first time I was driving a Prius over, and then down the Tehachapi grade in the middle of the night. I was maintaining 90-95 mph. I got passed by a U-Haul van. Hahahahaha. I love it.

And then I was on the two lane road from Tecate to Ensenada. Standard mountain driving. Don't remember the speed exactly but I was definitely going double the speed limit, driving a Tundra. I got passed on a blind curve by a full size Mexican passenger bus. Once it was over I laughed. Can you imagine the people in those front seats?

So boy that video brought back the memories.

ProAm 5 years ago |

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

annoyingnoob 5 years ago | |

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

saalweachter 5 years ago | | |

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".

MarcusE1W 5 years ago | | |

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

mhh__ 5 years ago | | |

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

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

agd 5 years ago | |

This was my favourite top gear moment. Great to watch!

dopamean 5 years ago | |

Incredible. What a driver.

travisgriggs 5 years ago |

The Ford GT episode was the first TopGear bit I ever saw, that single viewing led to my entire extended family becoming ardent viewers.

Life is so quixotic. Sabine's passing deeply saddens me. The idea of her vibrant personality dealing with cancer is so dissonant. Though I guess I can choose to see it as provident that in this case, her inate bubbliness was a tool that hopefully gave her a leg up during the more miserable moments of the journey. Perspective I guess.

I'll be headed into work in just a few minutes. Every time I overtake someone in my F150, I'm going to yell "faster , faster, get out of my way" in my best German accent.

vr46 5 years ago | |

Please go track down her in a FWD Golf GTI Clubsport with Rory Reid as they sprint around the ring overtaking a million quid’s worth of supercars. Brilliant!

“LOOK! There are enemies!!”

RIP Sabine, loved her brilliance and sense of humour.

mellosouls 5 years ago |

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.

injb 5 years ago | |

She definitely appeared again at least once. I think it was the stunt they did with the double decker buses.

robotnixon 5 years ago | |

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

mellosouls 5 years ago | | |

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.

Hamuko 5 years ago | | |

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.

flurdy 5 years ago | | |

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.

MarcusE1W 5 years ago | | |

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

sandworm101 5 years ago | |

>> 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.

pwarner 5 years ago | |

She could have been a main presenter for sure.

sschueller 5 years ago |

My recollection is that she beat Jeremy in a van and that is how I will remember it. Sorry Jeremy.

SyzygistSix 5 years ago | |

She may have been a handful of seconds slower but watching her pass expensive sports cars in a delivery van and yelling at the Ford GT pace car to "Go faster!" was priceless.

She had a sparkling, exuberant personality and the world is a richer place for her having been in it.

joncrane 5 years ago | | |

I think the pace car was a Dodge Viper but yeah it was awesome.

apples_oranges 5 years ago |

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

dageshi 5 years ago | |

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.

cyberlurker 5 years ago |

Terribly sad news about a wonderful person. I am happy to see jalopnik on HN tho.

WanderPanda 5 years ago |

Didn't know her, thanks for posting! I wish I had taken a taxi drive with her when I was at the Nürburgring

Edit: Falls hier jemand des Deutschen mächtig ist, sehr unterhaltsam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBLix7DVGw

chrisbennet 5 years ago |

Very sad.

r34lp0w3r 5 years ago | |

Indeed. RIP. :(

fattybob 5 years ago |

Ah the mix of sadness and joy in remembering her reading the posts here, she will certainly be missed by everyone that ever enjoyed driving and motoring shows I believe

andreskytt 5 years ago |

Our heroes are passing away, on by one. It’s time we became our own heroes.