Who in hell would buy a USF1 toaster? Can't make toast with hot air. USF1 hand dryer I can see, but a toaster? No.
Easy to find the site - just follow the trail of broken dreams and it will lead your there directly. Or just keep nose open for BS, follow to source and there ya are If all else fails, Peter Windsor knows the way. Hell, he might even be on-site selling t-shirts (or toasters)
Oh come on, you know want nothing more but to see this project succeed & you just don't want to admit it. No doubt it's going to be a "down to the wire" build but try to have faith that this project gets completed in time. This is going to be a excellent economic boom for central Texas & I'd like nothing more to have some sort of involvement.
Will, I haven't a clue if this thing is going to make it or not. However, it is my understanding that many of the naysayers were hoping that the USA F1 was going to come to that new country club track (I forget the name), which was recently built in New York. Apparently, negotiations got hot and heavy at one point, but they got left at the altar. Personally, I hope it makes it because I'm hoping (probably against hope) that they'll let us have some club races in the off season. Dale
Interesting. Sounds like you are talking about Monticello which would have been an awesome place. Logistically ideal for the teams: after Montreal pack it all up and drive South then do the US GP a week later and fly out of NY
Why does that scenario sound familiar? I think some folks may have been watching too much "reality" TV. Those shows where a band of plucky guys go up against impossible odds and unmeetable deadlines but always prevail. Don't happen that way in the real world quite so often.
Yep, that's it. From the little I've heard, things got hot and heavy, but Bernie apparently belongs to the **** em and forget em club. Dale
...after being best buddies with Bernie for a while, and traveling to a few F1 races to have meetings with the old coot
Except said "worker bees" aren't there. Very little is there. Think about it this way. Let's say you are the King of America (or Bill Gates) and the AustinGP is your baby. What would you have going on *right now* at the track? Well, first, take a look at these: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/2009abudhabigrandprix_yasisland-29.jpg http://v2.cache4.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/20363593.jpg?redirect_counter=1 http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/2009abudhabigrandprix_yasisland-28.jpg That's Yas Marina under construction. Yas Marina took 2 years and $400mm to build. Notice there are, what, maybe hundreds of pieces of construction equipment on site? Many hundreds of workers on site too. And essentially unlimited funds, and all of the permits and paperwork was slid right through by the higher-ups involved. Now, Austin has half the time to build the whole track as Yas did. They have, what, a few dozers and earth movers on site? If you were the aforementioned King of America and money and permits were a non-issue, you would have hundreds of people on-site. They would be doing serious work. Electrical would have been started months ago, as would infrastructure improvements. Austin has a little 2-lane road, needs a power substation, a huge build-out of sewer/water and more - basically it needs everything that Yas needed. I am amazed anyone actually believes it's real. It's so much more obviously a farce than even USF1 was. Not in 2012, not ever.
This venue isn't going to be anything close to Yas. It was designed to be the absolute best in the world, an unequivocal display of wealth and opulence. These facilities won't take anywhere near the time to build. I stand by my comment that our friends from south or the border can out build that hell out of the pakistanis and indians that built Yas. The only people I'm worried about are the rednecks driving the heavy equipment taking their sweet a.. time.
They still need to build a track and all the infrastructure. That includes pits, buildings for management, officials, storage and all the other facilities. They also need the roadways, electrical, water/sewer, etc. The "opulence" you talk about doesn't add to the time so much as it adds to the cost. It takes a certain amount of time to get the parts necessary to build a power substation, and to grade what's needed on a 900 acre site. The bottom line is that if the money was in place, there would be hundreds of people on site, lots of pieces of equipment, roadwork would be happening, as would electric and water infrastructure. That ain't happening - because the money and permits aren't in place. All the stuff about how Texans can get it done, about how the track will be more simple than Yas, about the city paying fees, etc, all of that is just excuses covering up the obvious. The project isn't funded, and there is simply not enough time to do what they need to do. We're already talking about cutting into the 90-day inspection window, making a simple track instead of a world class one, pushing off infrastructure improvements until after the first year, etc. We're already cutting every corner and giving every ounce of leeway to Tavo and the project, and they haven't even started construction yet. The whole thing is 10x the farce that US F1 was.
As stated by SRT: The project isn't funded, and there is simply not enough time to do what they need to do. This is the heart of the matter driving the lack of activity, people working and ultimately progress. Someone in the 'know' should state what the status of finances are.
True. If someone in Austin has the financing data post away. Hard to take this seriously otherwise. Knowing Bernie if this track is not opulent he will not be happy. Its all about a YAS Marina type facility to begin with. He has pounded on Silverstone for being less that amazing like all the other new circuits. That takes money. Show me the money
Tracks are not as heavy an electrical load as one might think... The street circutis come in and out wiring it up with temporary power units like a big Circus...
