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Sabine Schmitz, Queen of the Nürburgring, Has Died at 51
- chrisbennet 6y agoVery sad.
- r34lp0w3r 6y agoIndeed. RIP. :(
- mellosouls 6y agoYeah, 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.
- pwarner 6y agoShe could have been a main presenter for sure.
- injb 6y agoShe definitely appeared again at least once. I think it was the stunt they did with the double decker buses.
- robotnixon 6y agoIt was after the Clarkson/Hammond/May era, but she was a host for a few years on the show
- mellosouls 6y agoI 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 6y agoShe 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 6y agoOnce 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 6y agoI think on Sunday the BBC will show a TopGear Sabine special
- sandworm101 6y 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.
- sschueller 6y agoMy recollection is that she beat Jeremy in a van and that is how I will remember it. Sorry Jeremy.
- SyzygistSix 6y agoShe 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 6y agoI think the pace car was a Dodge Viper but yeah it was awesome.
- joncrane 6y agoSome 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 6y agoi believe her parents owned, and she grew up in, a hotel in Nürburg. https://www.am-tiergarten.de/de/hotel-am-tiergarten-nuerburgring https://www.am-tiergarten.de/de/hotel-am-tiergarten-nuerburg...
- cyberlurker 6y agoTerribly sad news about a wonderful person. I am happy to see jalopnik on HN tho.
- ProAm 6y agoIf 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiC03_wVjc
- agd 6y agoThis was my favourite top gear moment. Great to watch!
- dopamean 6y agoIncredible. What a driver.
- annoyingnoob 6y agoThe part I like most is that she has so much fun doing it.
- saalweachter 6y agoThe 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".
- mhh__ 6y agoIts only 2x the lap time of the 919 Evo! https://youtu.be/PQmSUHhP3ug https://youtu.be/PQmSUHhP3ug A "car" so fast the footage looks sped up
- MarcusE1W 6y agoFor 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
- downut 6y agoI'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.
- travisgriggs 6y agoThe 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 6y agoPlease 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.
- apples_oranges 6y agoI 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 6y agoTop 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.
- WanderPanda 6y agoDidn'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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBLix7DVGw
- fattybob 6y agoAh 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 6y agoOur heroes are passing away, on by one. It’s time we became our own heroes.