Recently we reported that the Nürburgring will be bought by HIG Capital and its group of investors for 60-70 million Euros. However the latest news confirmed that the Nürburgring has been officially sold to a German automotive company, Capricorn Group who put in a last-minute bid to buy the track for 77 million euros, and it is promising to invest a further 25 million euros into the legendary racecourse. The company will take full ownership of the ‘Ring starting 1st of January 2015.
A report stated that Capricorn will launch a new company called Capricorn Nurburgring to handle the new business. Their plans include relocating the roller coaster to another town in the region, scrapping the maligned Ring-card payment system, and remodelling the current Eifeldorf as a Silverstone-style technology park. Capricorn also announced that F1 is the pinnacle of the Nürburgring and the track will remain open to the public.
The ‘Ring was previously owned by the state government. In recent years, the country had invested more than 300 million euros in the expansion of the Nürburgring’s theme park. But the expectations were not fulfilled as the number of visitors was too low for a profitable operation. After the EU Commission put a stop to further grants from the state treasury, the Nürburgring went into bankruptcy in 2012.
It’s great to see that the famed ‘Ring will still be alive and well in the years to come; now if only something similar had happened here in Malaysia, we may still have the old Batu Tiga Circuit in Shah Alam too.
Source: RP Online, Rhein Zeitung, Piston Heads
