[darklord]

Lewis Hamilton to burn rubber in his McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 car on Marine Drive on September 16, 2012

Motor racing fans will witness Lewis Hamilton burn rubber in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 car on Sunday, September 16, 2012 (evening), just a week before the Singapore Grand Prix 2012 night race. The venue for this drive will be Marine Drive in South Mumbai.

Lewis will drive along the curves of the Queen’s necklace that will be made to look like a Formula 1 race track, complete with grand stand and pit garage.

[infotech58]

The road there was not in a good shape until few weeks ago; one could feel the uneven surface of road even in a car with good suspension set up. I guess they'd have to fix the road surface before they could try something like this.

[PPS]

Some stretches of Marine Drive are quite uneven at present! Had also read in TOI a couple of weeks back that the entire stretch of Marine Drive is going to be resurfaced.

Not sure which event is going to take place first, the resurfacing or the F1 drive!

[ninjatalli]

Unless they plan to do this in the night, I wonder how they are going to manage the traffic for this "event". Apart from the issues in managing the crowd at the event, this is going to create a lot of headaches for people using that road.

[Akshay1234]

I'd love to see this. It won't look like an F1 car by the time Marine Drive is done with this.

[aplang1]

Originally Posted by darklord

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-...e1-922138.aspx

Originally Posted by infotech58

Originally Posted by PPS

Not sure which event is going to take place first, the resurfacing or the F1 drive!

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

....

Originally Posted by akshay1234

.......

The road towards the seaside on the way back from Nariman Point is in pathetic condition!! The best alternative they have is to drive it on the pavement/promenade!! That surely will be a spectacle to watch!!! No traffic diversions required!

On a serious note, I did read about the Marine Drive in the newspaper. Here is one article about the same

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/repor...w-look_1732417

Now my knowledge on this topic is limited, but isn't 15 crores too less for the entire stretch?

One more thing that needs attention is that a senior official said once the cement layering is done there will be no water absorption so negligible damage to the road. Is he indirectly saying that since there is no drainage and the cement layer has 0 gradient, please don't be surprised if you see cars skidding and aquaplaning?

[S2!!!]

It seems very unlikely. If you guys remember, a couple of years ago Gulf had brought down an Aston Martin DB9r for the same purpose but ended up being driven at Bandra Reclamation. Even though that car was displayed at Intercontinental, Churchgate, it was transported to Bandra as Marine Drive was in bad shape then, and is in a worse shape now. So if these guys do end up getting the F1 car here, I am quite certain that it would be driven on the Sea Link or somewhere Bandra side.

[PlatzdaTurbo]

I hope it does NOT happen.
Was in town last night itself and the road is horrible. Not acceptable, not passable...horrible. No other word for it.
An f1 car on that kind of surface spells nothing but trouble and should anything go wrong it will forever be a deterrent for f1 teams to stage such events in our city.
Lets the money-minded goons in the BMC with their 'pothole tracking system' (ya right , the biggest craters are inside their skulls) get their act straight and resurface the entire stretch and then such events could be contemplated.
The traffic snarls and chaos this could cause is a separate story all-together.
Why not just stage it on the reclamation promenade + sealink ?

[buz]

As someone mentioned, the promenade is far smoother than the road (it happens only in Mumbai)! Sea-link is an obvious choice and a longer stretch as well. I think the Worli Sea face is quite smooth and has an equally good promenade to host the spectators. If the speed breakers can be smoothened with long inclines, it could very well be done.

[Rehaan]

Marine drive has gone from being one of the best roads in Bombay to one of the worst roads in Mumbai! Its really terribly inconsistent with too many uneven joints and patch-up jobs, including some huge humps.

Anyway, here's the last time a Formula 1 car was driven in Mumbai:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-m...onwards-7.html

cya
R

[libranof1987]

Is this going to be similar to the gig they did on the NICE road in B'lore? That drew huge crowds!

Hamilton performed quite some antics (in the car I mean) after the drive as well.

Originally Posted by infotech58

The road there was not in a good shape until few weeks ago; one could feel the uneven surface of road even in a car with good suspension set up. I guess they'd have to fix the road surface before they could try something like this.

Already?! Can't we expect quality in any thing in India? :P

[akshay380]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Marine drive has gone from being one of the best roads in Bombay to one of the worst roads in Mumbai! Its really terribly inconsistent with too many uneven joints and patch-up jobs, including some huge humps.

Anyway, here's the last time a Formula 1 car was driven in Mumbai:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-m...onwards-7.html

cya
R

That was a day to cherish for a just-started-working kid like me. I did not know the route and a cop asked me to join him and took me to the venue. Met DC later for a short while. Did not sleep whole night, the noise of V10 reverberating in my ears.

[GTO]

News item updated in the opening post. It's Lewis on the 16th September.

[Rosso Corsa]

Today's TOI features a front-page advertisement about the event. Known as "SPEEDFEST", it will be a series of events from 11th-16th of September, with the Marine Drive run scheduled for the last day. The other events include Car Simulators and a 'Pit Stop Challenge'.

Looks like the AD Agency is unaware that an F1 car seats just 1 person. The advertisement mentions "Win a chance to ride with Lewis Hamilton" although an F1 car is illustrated speeding down Marine Drive.

Perhaps he's planning to drive an F1 car first, and then a SL65 along with the lucky Vodafone customer.

[Rehaan]

The bummer with driving an F1 car on bad roads is:
1) It can't go fast
2) Because it can't go fast, it exceeds ideal operating temperatures (f1 cars rely on air flow for cooling)
3) Because its hot, they don't revv the engine all the way to redline - and this makes me sad :'(

Of course there are several other factors -- but this is one of the main ones that they had to contend with the last time the Red bull F1 car was in Mumbai (video below). Of course, this was along with that stupid government imposed speed limit issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Psyjp6JFNc

Pics & Report of Hamilton driving the AMGs at the Chennai track:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...msc-track.html

^ This was EXACTLY 2 years back - 16th September to the day!

cya
R