Morning on the Karussell

What better way to ring in the morning (no pun intended) than with the Karussell?

Although being one of the slower corners on the Nordschleife, Karussell is perhaps its most iconic. One of two berm-style, banked corners, the entrance to the corner is blind, although Juan Manuel Fangio is reputed to have advised a young driver to “aim for the tallest tree”; a feature that was also built into the rendering of the circuit in the Gran Turismo 4 video game as well as Grand Prix Legends. The combination of a recognisable corner, slow moving cars, and the variation in viewing angle as cars rotate around the banking mean that this is one of the circuit’s most popular locations for photographers.

Named for Rudolf Caracciola who reportedly made the corner his own by hooking the inside tyres into a drainage ditch. As more concrete was uncovered and more competitors copied him, the trend took hold. At a later reconstruction the corner was remade with real concrete banking, as it remains to this day.

Short but sweet clip to go along with this post (we’ve had it on here before, but apropos of this post, it’s topical)