2013 Cadillac ATS testing at the Nurburgring

2013 Cadillac ATS testing at the Nurburgring

Speedway Motorsports, which owns and operates eight different racetracks around the United States, is looking to add a new track to its portfolio.

Only it's not talking your average Bristol Motor Speedway or Texas Motor Speedway.

What it's talking is an American Nurburgring. And what better way to bring the Nurburgring to America than with the Nurburgring?

Instead of just building a touristy model of the Nurburgring - like what Vegas did with the Eiffel Tower and Egyptian pyramids - Speedway plans on building an exact replica of every nook, cranny and hard right of the actual Nurburgring track. We assume the company is just planning on the building the more celebrated Nordschleife, but it may throw the Grand Prix Circuit in for good measure.

On a clip we picked up on Jalopnik, Speedway CEO Bruton Smith told Sirius XM Sports that the company has been in talks with Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, the Bureau of Land Management and some Germans. 

The plan as it stands now is to convince the BLM to donate some 8,000 acres of land to the project - something that shouldn't be that problematic in a state with more public land than any other in the lower 48. If and when Speedway gets the land, which would be located a few miles from the existing Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the company plans to use aerial topography, photos, hard records and German engineering to build a precise replica of Green Hell. Smith said that the idea came from Germans, so Speedway will presumably work closely with those that know the 'Ring best.

With Las Vegas Speedway right down the road, Nurburgring LV wouldn't host any competitive events. Instead, it would take on the Nordschleife's role of manufacturer testing and private track time. That's a thought that the American automakers and driving fanatics should be drooling over. And as Smith pointed out in his interview, overseas automakers would probably be happy to have a year-round 'Ring replica in the desert for when the actual 'Ring is buried in snow.

Nurburgring

Nurburgring