I know a few people want to go to the ring that haven't yet, and the biggest potential barrier is the cost.
I therefore thought it would be helpful to post up costs so that you can get an idea of how much you need to save.
Firstly, the accommodation. Per person it worked out to about 120 Euros, which is currently near enough £100. Bear in mind that you will be sharing a room for that though! Double the cost if you want a room by yourself or if you are bringing a friend/partner. We had to multiply by four, as we booked two rooms for our family.
We ran a kitty for the shopping. I lost track a bit on that, but IIRC it was about £50 per head, including all food and drink consumed from thursday afternoon until tuesday morning. I'm sure someone else that went can put me right on that if I am miles out!
Secondly, the ferry. We only booked one way, but Dover - Dunkirk was £29. I would imagine that booking a return trip at the same time would give a small discount, but lets round everything up and call it £60 return.
Thirdly, fuel. Everyone will use a different amount, especially in the UK as it all depends on how you get to Dover. Once in Dunkirk, the journey is approx 270 miles each way, takes over 4 hours and in my case used 65 litres of fuel. Motorway prices in Europe seemed to be about the same as average prices over here, with 98ron being £1.40-£1.45 a litre. It is cheaper away from the motorway - at Nurburg it was down to about £1.35 a litre. Either way, 130 litres at current prices was needed for me for the European travelling. That equates to about £180 on fuel to get from Dunkirk to the ring and back again.
Then it is the laps. This year 95 Euros gets a 4 lap card. I did eight laps over three days and that was enough to be enjoyable - not so few I felt cheated, not so many that I became anti social and obsessed! So call that £150 for lap tickets. Also on top of that is the fuel for the laps. I was using approx 12 litres a lap, so I could get 4 laps from a tank. I have heard that others with VR4's were getting fuel starvation on the fourth lap in the past, but I was okay. Either way round, that is near enough 100 litres of fuel, so another £135 on fuel.
In summary:
£100 accommodation per head
£50 food/drink per head
£60 ferry
£180 fuel for travelling in Europe
£150 for 2 x 4 lap tickets
£135 fuel for those laps
That comes out at £675 for one, or £825 per couple. Please remember to add travel expenses to Dover, I haven't included that!
It also highlights that if you can go as a passenger with someone else you can do the trip very cheaply indeed - £150 for food & shelter, plus whatever you agree to donate towards fuel. Although you obviously lose the chance to drive round yourself.
I hope that this info is useful to some - the money we spent was less than I thought.