Race Resort Ascari
The purpose built playground in the sun
Klaas Zwaart is living a petrolhead dream. Having made his millions in the oil business, he now enjoys a life blessed with all manner of petrolheaded extremism.
He set up a company specifically to achieve his dreams and that company is Ascari. It's built a 400bhp BMW powered supercar for Zwaart and a privileged few others. It's built and run a Le Mans car and it's run Zwaart's Benetton and Ferrari Formula One cars in the EuroBOSS series. For the last few years Ascari has also had another supercar project on the go - the KZ1. That car is coming to fruition now and had featured in the press recently. The first completed demonstrator is now expected in the coming months.
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However, the most ambitious project of all - and the one which can made every enthusiast's heart buldge with envy is the Ascari Race Resort.
Zwaart enjoys his track driving so much that he's had his own dream circuit built. Two hours south of Malaga, off a mundane piece of road is a narrow gate leading into petrolheaven.
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50 yards past that gate, over the crest of a small rise, is a sweeping bend of perfectly smooth and fresh tarmac. To the outside of the bend there's no armco. There's no spectator seating. Here is a track for drivers and drivers only.
The 3.3 mile circuit has just been completed and it's stunning. Zwaart selected his favourite corners from race tracks around the world and had them replicated for his Spanish playground. The tarmac's smooth, there's loads of run off and there's a dedicated staff of track marshals complete with brand new trucks, lifting gear, JCBs etc. Not a tired transit van in sight.
A full skid pan has also been built and sections of the track also have sprinklers to the sides allowing wet weather test conditions to be simulated.
Resplendent in the Spanish sunshine is a brand new pit complex with spotless floors, immaculate toilets and shower facilities and more staff on hand to answer your every query.
There's still building work to be completed as the full plan is for hotel/apartment accomodation to be available on site allowing wealthy petrolheads to fly in via helicopter and enjoy a few days driving before flying out again.
As with any race track, it's still subject to concerns about noise and local news stations were reporting on noise levels only last month, but with ex Formula One cars using the track it's no surprise that the sound carries a little!
The pit straight
The facility is unique however and having spared no expense in building his dream resort, Zwaart can now look forward to endless days of hooning in the sun.
What a joy to see someone enjoying their wealth in this manner...
Additional pictures courtesy of Ian Kuah
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The circuit looks nice and the facilities sound top notch, however, I have a feeling this may be an elitest resort, and you'll pay for the privilege. Lets hope I'm wrong.
EuroHoon 2005 springs to mind straight away 
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