Südschleife  The Nürburgring "Südschleife" (south loop) was a German motor racing circuit which was built in 1927 at the same time as the world-famous Nürburgring "Nordschleife" (north loop). The "Südschleife" and "Nordschleife" layouts were joined together by the "Start und Ziel" (start/finish) area, and could therefore be driven as one track that was over long. Races were held at the combined layout only until 1931. The "Südschleife" was used for the ADAC Eifelrennen from 1928 until 1931 and from 1958 until 1968, as well as for the Eifelpokal and other minor races. The "Südschleife" was rarely used after the "Nordschleife" was rebuilt and updated in 1970 and 1971, and was finally destroyed by the building of the current Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit in the early 1980s. Today only small sections of the original track remain. The shared start/finish area of the Nürburgring complex consisted of two back-to-back straights joined together at the southern end by a tight loop. The entrance to the "Südschleife" lay on the outside edge of this hairpin and was signposted as the road to Bonn. It immediately dropped sharply downhill and under a public road before winding through a heavily-wooded section. Tight corners soon gave way to fast downhill sections with flowing bends until, at the outskirts of the nearby town of Müllenbach, the track turned sharply right northwards and began a long climb up the hill. At the end of this run came a right hairpin turn which led to a long left curve around the bottom of a hill. This led onto the back straight of the start/finish area. At this point it was possible to continue onto the "Nordschleife" or take two sharp right-hand turns in order to enter the starting straight once again. Photographs of the track in use show that trees and hedges were not cut back in many areas, being allowed to grow right up to the trackside. Although the "Nordschleife" had very little in the way of run-off areas, the "Südschleife" seems to have had none at all, which was likely to have been a factor in the choice of circuit for major events.