That is very interesting, the ring is certainly a minefield - both in driving and bureaucracy!
Having completed my first laps there in 1992, long before it was 'discovered' by Top Gear and then the entire world, things were different then. Very much a public road, very often with Polizei in attendance and occasionally noise testing vehicles to make sure they complied. A close friend had a big accident there in 2004 (medivac'd out to Koblenz, life support etc etc) and I had to deal with the speeding fine presented by the on-site Traffic Cop whilst loading said friend onto the next helicopter from Adenau hospitl. What was interesting is that the fine was only 35 EUR and whilst I at first argued that there is no speed limit up to Flugplatz, he said that he must have been speeding as he crashed - fair point I suppose. Turns out this single piece of paper proved beyond doubt to the his UK Insurance Company that the place was a public road - Mr Polizei was doung us a favour. But times change and that's no longer the case and Touristenfahrten is no longer the fun pastime it once was. I'll only ever drive the place now on a closed-circuit organised day, as we used to run for lots of companies in the 90's, although having lost count of the number of laps logged, I've no real need to add further to the tally. Just shows how careful we all now need to be with insurance poilicies for al aspects of life.
Try getting Travel Insurancre right now as a Brit contemplating a European driving holiday anytime soon for example.....!
