The Ultimate Experience

WHEN they say, “Gentlemen start your engine,” at an AMG Ultimate Experience Asia track event, they are referring to the typical gentleman than your average hardcore racer.

The AMG Ultimate Experience Asia is a series of events aimed at sports car enthusiasts in South-East Asia.

That includes everyone from individuals enamoured with motorsport to clients of large corporations who will, for a fee, be able to compete behind one of 35 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG Racing Edition cars at about 10 events per year.

The events are being staged in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by Front Row Investment Holdings (S) Pte Ltd in cooperation with DaimlerChryler South East Asia Pte Ltd. The series of lifestyle events began in March.

The SLK55 AMG Racing Edition lets you dice around the racetrack making you feel like you’re an F1 contender.

If it looks pretty much like last year’s Formula One safety car, that’s because the design of the 265-kW/360-hp eight-cylinder roadster is based on it. That’s the car driven by F1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander throughout the 2004 and 2005 Formula 1 seasons.

Being the only car in F1 that is never overtaken, the safety car needs to be able to lap at speeds of up to 240kph so that the race cars tyres do not cool too much and the engines don’t overheat due to inadequate airflow.

Few other cars have the torque, the high-speed composure and the reliability to make the grade.

The car includes suspension, brakes and a cooling system that have been specifically turned for the planned “AMG Ultimate Experience Asia” lifestyle event; plus numerous light-weight construction feature which provide exhilarating handling dynamic.

Around 25kg have been saved simply by using the carbon-fibre roof with its plastic rear window and dispensing with the vario-roof mechanical and hydraulic system.

Additional lightweight construction measures – including forged wheels, an optimized AMG sports exhaust system, omission of insulating materials, lighter door linings as well as fibreglass – reinforced plastic bucket seat – compensate for the extra weight of the braking system, the larger 80-litre racing tank, the roll cage and the fire extinguishing system.

All these measures lighten the kerb weight to considerably less than 1,500kg.

During our laps around the Sepang F1 circuit, we found none of the rawness of fussiness that one associate with racers. There’s actually air conditioning among the refinements.

Barring the roll cage and the omission of one seat, there is enough of the original interior dash and centre console to convince you that you’re in a Mercedes,

The 5.5-litre engine has phenomenal pulling power around corners and the power comes in very early. The car has a very chuckable, forgiving nature what with the traction control system cutting in to temper some over exuberant antics.

It feels like almost a second however before the gear changes cut in when you actuate the paddle shifts behind the steering – something you just learn to adjust to.

All in all, it would be nice to take one home but the custom designed SLK55 AMG Racing Edition can only driven on private racing tracks.

Guess we’ll just have to wait for the limited edition road-going version that Mercedes-AMG plans to launch soon.

New Series Hopes To Score With Football Fans

A NEW motor racing series combining fast cars and football could bring in extra millions for clubs like AC Milan and Barcelona if it kicks off as planned next year.

‘Superleague Formula’ organisers went public with their plans yesterday, proposing an initial six race season from August 2008 with some 20 single-seater cars competing in the colours of leading soccer clubs.

They aim to expand eventually to a maximum of 17 races, mostly in Europe and at circuits familiar to followers of Formula One and MotorGP.

Four clubs – European soccer giants AC Milan, Porto, PSV Eindhoven and Greece’s Olympiakos – have signed up already to a project that offers them revenue through licensing agreements, sponsorship and TV rights.

“An average top club could raise between 14 to 18m euros (RM81m) in the five years of the contract that we are aiming for Spanish sports marketing specialist Alex Andreu, who has developed the idea with Briton Robin Webb, told Reuters.

Superleague said others currently in talks included Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Inter Milan, Argentina’s Boca Juniors, Brazil’s Flamengo, Mexico’s America, South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings and China’s Shanghai Shenhua.

Manchester United and other British clubs have been approached. Turkey’s Galatasaray, Germany’s Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund, Gothenburg of Sweden, Belgium’s Anderlecht, Frances’s Olympique Marseille and Lyon are also on the list of candidates along with Lokomotiv Moscow.

“We think that by combining these two large sports we could become a real potential big even in the years to come,” continued Andreu.

“What motor racing brings is obvious; it’s technology, cars, noise, glamour. What football brings is the heart, the passion and the emotions” – Reuters

Prancing Horse Springs A Leak

Finnish ace Kimi Raikkonen (pix) says Ferrari are still concerned about their engine with just four days to go for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Although is appeared the Italian marque had a comfortable win in Melbourne three week ago, after that race it was revealed that his Ferrari V8 developed as small water leak in the closing laps.

The power unit has since been checked but Raikkonen say an engine change – with the resultant 10 – place penalty on the grid – is not being ruled out – a nightmare scenario that he acknowledges would have serious consequences for his race.

“There is some concern.” He told Ferrari’s official website. “We had a slight leakage of water during the last part of the race and the team talk to me slow down, writing ‘cold’ on the（pit board） as the radio didn’t work because of a problem with a plug.

“The engine has since been checked at the factory and they also did some simulation. Now the technicians have the data.
“Obviously we hope that the engine will make it through the whole weekend and that we don’t have to change it before qualifying because we want to completely use our chance.

“If we had to change it, obviously it would be a bit different for us: everything would be much more difficult as we would have to start 10 positions back (from where we qualified).
“Then the aim would be to reach a good result, the best one possible.”

While he still has concerns about his engine, he has none about the competitiveness of the F2007 around the fast, flowing Sepang circuit.
Raikkonen set the best time in testing at the track last week and, in a warning to the chasing pack, believes Ferrari has the speed to build on its strong start to the year.

“I hope that the next weekend will be a positive one for us, just like the one in Melbourne,” he said. “Over the last day we had some very good testing. I drove the car over two year and we were able to collect all the necessary data.

“The F2007 seems to be a really competitive car on every kind of race track and the team continues in every direction to make it even better.

“We have hardly started the championship but it’s already clear that if we want to win the title we have to try to finish always in the points.

“As I said before, the car is running very well, but as long as we are not on the race track, with everybody under the same conditions, you can’t tell.

“As I always say: let’s wait and see how it will work out this time.” – Agencies

Heat Of F1 In The City

BMW Sauber F1 Team brings Asia’s first Pit Lane Park experience to the city centre.

Malaysia will have the first in Asia to get up close and personal with Formula F1, when the BMW Sauber F1 bring the pit lane park experience to Kuala Lumpur during GP week.

The pit lane park – a traveling interactive experience designed to bring people closer to the world of the BMW Sauber F1 team – will offer visitors all aspects of the F1 that they would only normally see and hear from a distance.

Kuala Lumpur will be the first of five scheduled stops on it tours.

Located along Jalan Binjai, right next to the KLCC’s central park, the BMW Sauber F1 Pt Lane Park will be open from tomorrow to Sunday until house everything from a miniature race track, mini grandstands, an F1 training centre and garage, a display of BMW race car and much more.

Amongst the “stars” of the Pit Lane Park will be the racehorse of this year’s BMW Sauber F1 team, the F1.07. Providing audiences with the full spectrum of sound, speed and dynamics behind the world’s most state-of-the-art racing technology, the F1 car will alternate on-track throughout the day with a Formula BMW race car as will as stunt performances by BMW Motorrad, the motorcycle division of BMW.

Apart from viewing the on track action that will see drivers practice start, power down the strip and perform pit stops, spectators will also be able to participate in a series of interactive activities such as the public pit stop challenge and Q&A sessions with BMW Sauber F1 team mechanic and trainers.

In announcing the arrival of Asia’s first Pit Lane Park, Wolfgang Schlimme, managing director of BMW Malaysia said: “The Pit Lane Park experience offers people of glimpse into the precise world of Formula 1 by bringing to them an interactive experience which replicates genuine Grand Prix conditions, from performing pit lane stops, driving F1 simulators and even the chance to have their picture taken in full F1 racing garb.”

“BMW’s vision has always been to give people the chance to go through the entire experience of sheer perfection that is born from the precise harmony between talented people and state-of-the-art machinery. The Pit Lane Park will provide people with a clearer view, and allow them to partake in that vision,” add Schlimme.

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