The Magic Ringdom: themepark planned for the Nrburgring

Some trends in the automotive industry worry us. Seriously. The emergence of car theme parks, however, does not. In fact, it makes us giddy as schoolkids. At Disneyland. With ice cream.

Following the plans for a Ferrari theme park in Abu Dhabi, the F1 theme park in neighboring Dubai (with other locations to follow) and the Cars-themed section of Disney's California Adventure comes the news that developers are planning to turn Europe's most famous racetrack into a theme park, as well. The plans, according to a report from AutoBild, will be centered around a new type of high-speed roller coaster that boards next to the start/finish line, accelerates down a 480-meter straight in parallel to the race track, takes a sharp left turn and runs along "the boulevard" back to the station. It doesn't appear to do any loops, just shoot down the straightaway at time-warping speeds: accelerated by compressed air, the eight-passenger train rockets to 217km/h (135mph) in just two and a half seconds – that's much faster than even an F1 racecar.

In addition to the coaster, several other attractions will be built at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, along with a new 5,000-seat grandstand and a four-star hotel. As if we needed another reason to make pilgrimage to the Ring.

[Source: AutoBild]