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¿Alguién vio ayer las noticias de Telecinco? En su sección de deportes se habló de este circuito español. Todo un complejo hotelero que ofrece como oferta de entretenimiento la posibilidad de disputar carreras en un circuito formado por curvas legendarias. El circuito es propiedad del dueño de Ascari Cars, está formado por curvas históricas de otros circuitos, está homologado por la FIA! y se organizan carreras de coches históricos (allí vi un Ford GT-40 rojo). Claro que hacerse socio vale uno 30.000€...
La polémica viene porque se ha edificado sobre un paraje natural en Ronda. Muchos lo consideran un atentado paisajísitico. Para opinar, aquí teneis un artículo, en inglés, (lo siento):
quote:
Motoring: Features Archive
September 21, 2003
Features
Fastest holiday on four wheels
By Joseph Dunn of the sunday times
Picture the scene: sundowners on sun-loungers on a hotel balcony overlooking a valley in southern Spain. Below, there is a swimming pool and a cocktail bar surrounded by palm trees and brightly coloured umbrellas.
In the distance you can hear a faint mosquito whine, which increases in volume until it becomes a rumble, and then a roar that rattles the ice in your mojito. Glancing up, you catch the flash of a 5000cc V8 supercar screaming down the back straight of a racetrack at 200mph. Fifty feet from your terrace.
Welcome, as the company brochure puts it, to the world of Ascari, the first “race resort” in the world. At the launch party last week guests such as Damon Hill, four-times superbike champion Carl Fogarty and members of the Dutch royal family were blindfolded as they boarded a bus that took them to the secret resort location outside the historic town of Ronda.
There they were showered with champagne, fine food, and repeated promises of a new era in high-octane holidaying. The resort, it was solemnly said, would combine “trees with tarmac . . . relaxation and exhilaration . . . ying with yang. . .”
In fact, the blindfolds were removed to reveal that the hotel has yet to be built. And although the track and clubhouse are in place, there is concern that the huge financial outlay — £25m so far — will prove difficult to recoup. Impressive as the project is, it has all the trappings of a grand folly.
This doesn’t seem to worry the resort’s Dutch owner, though. “It is the way to go,” says Klaas Zwart confidently, sitting on a deck chair beside his racetrack. “Where else are people going to be able to drive their supercars the way they should be driven? This is the original race resort and others will follow.”
He has the purse strings and a whim to indulge his passion that rival that of Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club. Like Abramovich, Zwart made his fortune in the oil business. And like the Russian who has transformed English football, Zwart hopes to revolutionise the luxury holiday market.
His is a vision where the rich and famous can race their lightning-fast cars around a state-of-the-art racetrack while their wives and girlfriends lounge by the pool. He has plans for a private race academy — serviced by experienced track marshals and technicians — where guests can learn to drive former Formula One cars.
The whole project, including the hotel — complete with five-star restaurant, swimming pool, sauna and cinema — will cost him more than £56m. It will cater exclusively for the rich, famous and beautiful. “We want the right sort of people here,” he says on more than one occasion. And if it all sounds like a schoolboy fantasy, then that’s probably because it is.
Zwart is himself an accomplished driver. He won the EuroBoss championship last year, a series in which enthusiasts race former F1 cars, and has also competed in Le Mans and at Spa. “Driving an F1 car is better than anything I can imagine,” he says, “better than sex, better than flying an F-16. It’s the best thing on earth. I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.”
Zwart founded Ascari Cars, a small supercar manufacturer based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 1994. He took the name from Alberto Ascari, the Italian who dominated grand prix racing in the early 1950s. In 1999 he formed Team Ascari which has competed in the FIA sportscar world championship, Le Mans and Daytona.
The operation — which barely breaks even — convinced Zwart that he needed to supplement his hobby with a profitable business and the idea of a race resort was born.
“I wanted an exclusive car club so we weren’t competing against the likes of Ferrari and Porsche,” he says. “The idea here with the resort is that people who own a supercar or want to drive one can come here, relax in an exclusive environment, enjoy the standard of service they are used to, and, when they want, drive very, very fast.” He adds that many celebrities want to drive fast on a racetrack but are too embarrassed to do so in public.
Driving fast at the race resort will not be a problem. The track is designed to be one of the fastest in the world. Built to FIA standards, it’s the longest racetrack in Spain, where the recent Hungarian Grand Prix win by Fernando Alonso has meant motor sport is enjoying a surge in popularity.
“It’s no Mickey Mouse circuit,” says Carl Fogarty, eyeing it from beside the swimming pool. Although he admits that “four wheels aren’t really my thing”, he is impressed by the layout. “It’s just right,” he says, “it looks like Klaas has taken his favourite bend from every race in the world and put it into his track.”
In fact, that is exactly what the millionaire Dutchman has done: it features corners based on the blind Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch and Spa’s Eau Rouge.
One night at the hotel will cost from about £560, but depending on what sort of package is chosen the full cost will spiral to between £3,000 and £14,000 a day.
Providing, that is, that the hotel is ever built. The 50-acre site is in the middle of a nature reserve, leading to problems with local officials, who have yet to even grant planning permission for the hotel. Evidently they do not concur with Ascari’s view that the racetrack “sways smoothly through this secluded valley as if it was always meant to be there”.
It may also be a sign of the increasing financial strain that the launch also saw a hastily added invitation for guests to buy shares in the venture. For a cool ¤1m (about £700,000) they were offered the chance to become a member of the “most exclusive automobile club in the world”.
Zwart claims that he already has two names down, including a famous rock star, but declines to give any names, saying only that they will be “the right sort of people”.
“There’s always a risk in doing something,” he says, “but I’m not the sort of person that avoids risks, you need big balls to go around the Spa at 200mph and I’ve never been scared yet.”
And besides, if you can afford to live out your fantasy in the Spanish sun, why not do it? “You only live once,” says Zwart, as his assistant calls him to inaugurate the track he owns with a lap in the supercar he built, “and you can’t take it with you.” The only question is, will anyone join him for the ride?
Aquí teneis el web: usa una presentación en Flash: http://www.ascari.net.
Espero que nadie malinterprete mi intención: no es hacer publicidad gratuita, sino plantear un debate. Es un atentado paisajístico?
HEALTH WARNING:
This record could be hazardous to the health of cloth-eared nincompoops. If you suffer from this condition, consult your doctor immediatly.
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HEALTH WARNING:
This record could be hazardous to the health of cloth-eared nincompoops. If you suffer from this condition, consult your doctor immediatly.
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Polémica: Ascari Race Resort
Nov 13 2003, 11:55 PM
pca Polémica: Ascari Race Resort Nov 13 2003, 11:55 PM
