Malaysia

landofsmiles · #1 01-04-2007, 12:19

I'm going on sunday. Not much of a fan these days...much prefer Drag Racing, 6000hp ground shaking motors get my juices flowing more than those little 800hp screamers...and not had much interest in F1 since the Mansell/Senna/Prost days (James Hunt days were even more enjoyable)...but have never been to F1 before and have a free Grandstand ticket thanks to some lads I did a favour for when they were in Thailand.

Anyone been to Sepang before and got any tips? Is there a train station at the track that the train from KL Sentral to the airport will stop at?

Dr. M. · #2 01-04-2007, 12:55

hi los,
been to F1 race 3 years ago. it's fun but very hot out there!
there is a train(KLIA express) from KL sentral to the airport.
from there you have to take a shuttle bus to the track.

cheers! M.

Sepang International Circuit

Nanook · #3 01-04-2007, 16:17

Have fun LOS. Don't forget your earplugs. You're gonna need them. Went to many F1 races in the past, but the last one was Francorchamps 1998. Then you had to pay for the training already like about € 120 or so.

My best memory still is the Monaco GP back in 1994. My Buddha, you could hear the Ferrari V12 screaming all over the place.

boggler · #4 02-04-2007, 23:57

Yeah Sepang is good but only drawback is there is no local driver and pricey by local standards. Apart from that you should have a blast!

Come on Lewis!

jimbulljag · #5 10-04-2007, 04:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by landofsmiles

I'm going on sunday. Not much of a fan these days...much prefer Drag Racing, 6000hp ground shaking motors get my juices flowing more than those little 800hp screamers...and not had much interest in F1 since the Mansell/Senna/Prost days (James Hunt days were even more enjoyable)...but have never been to F1 before and have a free Grandstand ticket thanks to some lads I did a favour for when they were in Thailand.

Anyone been to Sepang before and got any tips? Is there a train station at the track that the train from KL Sentral to the airport will stop at?

I'd like to hear how this was. Can you see much from the grandstands? I was staying up Saturday night watching the race and it looked mighty hot and steamy. This may worthwhile to add to my songkran 08 plan...HKT -PP-KL? Unless they add F1 to Singapore.
Jim

Nanook · #6 10-04-2007, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbulljag

I'd like to hear how this was. Can you see much from the grandstands? I was staying up Saturday night watching the race and it looked mighty hot and steamy. This may worthwhile to add to my songkran 08 plan...HKT -PP-KL? Unless they add F1 to Singapore.
Jim

ON Dutch TV, they mentioned that there are plans to organize a F1 race in Singapore and (believe it or not) a night race.
In 2008 they want to experiment with a GP2 night race and if all goes well, then in 2009 a night GP in Singapore.

Am curious in which part of town they will do that. The small streets of Chinatown? Geylang?

Nautilus · #7 10-04-2007, 15:11

I think someone did a test run there using a normal road car i think, not sure which F#1 driver.

Should be in the CBD, or downtown shopping areas? Not really familiar with Singapore Roads, take the MRT most of the time.

landofsmiles · #8 10-04-2007, 19:57

We were in Grandstand C2 which is back to back with the Grandstand overlooking the start/finish so right where they hit the fastest speed, 330kph, and almost immediately after passing us at fullchat they slowed down to 80kph for the last corner. Hadn't realised they popped and banged so much when slowing...you don't hear that on the TV. We could also see across to more of the circuit below the "hill". I reckon we could see about 20% of the circuit...nothing like the 70% it said in the leaflet.

The Porsche race was fairly tame and 10 laps was plenty enough. After that there was 2 hours before the F1 race. Very little do do apart from get a hotdog and look at the overpriced "Official" merchandise...250Ringgit for a Ferrari shirt (probably made in Thailand) and quality no different to the knockoffs here for 500baht. In fact the 2 lads I was with were wearing Thai Ferrari knockoffs...which caused a few comments when we were in the casino at Genting in the night as they played along saying to anyone who asked that they worked for Ferrari

But 30 minutes before the race one of the lads pulled off quite a coup. A week ago when they were on PhiPhi they'd met a guy who worked for F1 and he'd said to let him know when they were at the track and he might be able to do something special for them. So they'd texted him when we arrived but only got an answer from him 30 minutes before the race telling us to meet him at the entrance to the pit tunnel. When he met us unfortunately he'd only been able to get 1 extra pass and as there wasn't much time only one of the lads, Adam, got to go on a pit lane tour

His dad is a major Ferrari fan and while he was in the pits sent him a text saying he was there and got an answer back saying "the fcuk you are!" but later Adam sent him some pics to prove it.

The race itself...well the speed and the noise is awesome but after just a few laps already there are one or two stragglers so from then on it means there's a car passing every few seconds andso it's impossible to hear the commentary for the rest of the race. This means, unless you buy the eardefenders with the inbuilt radio, you spend most of the remainder of the race watching the big screen to find out what is going on and who is where.

Also, for me anyway, after a few laps of 20 cars screaming past, the buzz from the speed and noise wears off and becomes very monotonous and quite frankly boring. We didn't see a single overtaking manouevre and the only "action" was a BMW that did a spin and reversed into the kittylitter and another BMW that coasted past us with a dead engine.

I'm a motorsport fan and have done a fair bit myself...hillclimbing; sandracing; bangerracing; sprinting...but to be honest found the F1 race pretty boring after a few laps. I went because I had a free ticket and I doubt I would go again if I had to pay! However, if you want to see F1 I believe the Sepang race is the cheapest on the tour to see....cheapest tickets were 200Ringgit to sit on the hill. I think the cheapest ticket for the British GP is 99 pounds.

For me there just was very little actual "racing"!...and no entertainment between the races.

steve w · #9 11-04-2007, 22:35

so you wouldn't go again then?

landofsmiles · #10 12-04-2007, 00:55

Highly unlikely I would go again. Last few years the cars have become far too easy to drive with all the aids which makes for boring processional racing. 20 and 30 years ago it was much more exciting when they drifted and understeered into the corners and they needed to be driven aggressively.

Nautilus · #11 12-04-2007, 06:50

I went to the race on the 1st year. After that i have not watched the race, even on TV.

Sepang is freaking boring.

I really hope Singapore gets to Host a race and do something special. The small island down south always comes up with something nice.

paulf1 · #12 15-04-2007, 06:40

My seats are on the front of the grid (start line) at Indy the sound when they start the race is unbelivabe..........but after the race starts kinda boring!!