It's not often top-flight race car drivers show signs of emotion. Less so that they turn all eloquent on us. Seasoned Formula One followers doubtlessly have a personal Top Ten of meaningless ramblings made at post-race debriefs, where a driver might remember to bow his head to get the sponsor’s cap in a shot but conveys precious little in the way of personality.

So when I flick through the visitors book at the end of a perfect day at Race Resort Ascari, I’m surprised to find the succinct entry of one Mr. F. Alonso: “Unusual, exciting, beautiful.”

These may not be the kind of words associated with modern motorsport and its various global stages, but then just like the talents of double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso, Race Resort Ascari is on another level altogether.

Nestling unobtrusively amid the life-enhancing properties of Spain’s Andalusia region, the rolling landscape unfolds into haggard mountains and ancient, listed Spanish oak groves. Overhead, white wisps of cloud drift silently by and the calming breeze soothes worries away.

In anyone’s book, this is one of the most perfect parts of the world. But if you’re a real car enthusiast, then welcome to heaven. Race Resort Ascari is a far cry from stereotypical motorsport venues the world over.

The driving force behind auto racing’s equivalent of the seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel is the only Formula One champion no one has ever heard of, Klaas Zwart. A successful engineer involved in the hardware side of the oil industry, Zwart has poured much of his life into racing, most recently winning the 2006 EuroBoss championship for pre-2001 F1 cars.

“I had been wanting to do this for years,” Zwart said. “I even got to the point where I bought land near Aberdeen [Scotland], near my business. But the weather, bureaucracy, and location ended up putting me off. It had to be somewhere breathtakingly beautiful. Somewhere I would be happy to invite friends to.”

It soon became clear southern Spain ticked all the boxes, and after viewing more than forty locations in his search for motoring nirvana, Zwart spied the perfect plot from his helicopter.

Today it is a work in progress. The awe-inspiring race circuit—loosely modeled around some of the favorite corners Zwart has raced flat-out, like Spa’s Eau Rouge—is complete, as are the tastefully constructed pit garages and the lavishly appointed Cortijo clubhouse.

A state-of-the-art business facility, submerged sympathetically into a hillside, is nearing completion. Along with a workshop and museum, it will also house what is expected to become one of the world’s ultimate car collections. Members can arrange to leave their cherished supercar, classic car, or race car at Race Resort Ascari, where a dedicated team will prepare it in advance of their arrival, fine-tune it during track time, and even—heaven forbid—repair it on their departure.

Not that they’ll want to leave. The winding 3.4-mile circuit is right up there with Germany’s legendary Nürburgring for thrills, and better than most circuits we’d care to mention. Technically demanding, it dips and dives, climbs and rises, tightens then opens, and throws banked corners and yumps (airborne sections) at man and machine with unrelenting fury.

Stabled in the immaculate pit garages are Lotus Elises, BMW 325ti junior touring cars, and Radical SR3s. I elect to begin my education of Ascari’s racing lines in an “intermediate setting,” the baby Bimmer, acutely aware that the inline-6’s power goes a lot further when the car is stripped of everything but two race seats and harnesses.

Its up-rated suspension and cold slick tires rumble out of the pit lane. The diff whines and the race brakes squeal under load. It doesn’t roll, pitch, or dive; it just feels rock solid. At a circuit like this, where you have twenty-six direction changes to memorize—plus the associated brake, turn, apex, and exit points that come with them all—it’s good to find that while fast and agile on its feet, the BMW is benign and forgiving when you inevitably do get things wrong.

The circuit flows with a vengeance that requires operating room concentration levels. There’s not a moment when you can rest idle and take in the wonderful scenery. Hairpins, yumps, banked bends, flying kinks, and chicanes make it a thrilling—and technical—ride. Driving this track takes real skill. And that simply adds to its lasting appeal. You won’t master this place in a day.

As a preview of what to expect, intrigued enthusiasts can buy a one-off Experience Day, where they can drive the circuit’s Elises, Radicals, and 325ti models. Refreshingly, instructors move the day along at your pace, and with your needs in mind. Novices and experts alike will feel at home.

But why leave it there? If your budget and—more significantly—body can take it, why not sign up for a Le Mans-style experience in a 600-brake-horsepower Ascari LMP900? Or for the ultimate brain-shaker, try the 750-brake-horsepower F1 Benettons, part of the resort’s Formula One Experience program. “Driving a Formula One car is the greatest feeling in the world,” Zwart said. “Nothing can compare.” Zwart is an accomplished pilot and sailor, so that’s not just a PR-friendly plug.

Matthew McGahan and the McGahan family are early adopters. Approaching the end of their first full season of membership, Race Resort Ascari has them hooked. While Matthew perfects his racecraft in his own Porsche 911 GT3 and Radical race cars, the rest of the family are pampered (massages and beauty treatments) or occupied (quad bikes and karts) according to age group. Even the grandparents have come along to watch. Oh, and to sit poolside, sipping cocktails. Matthew sums it up: “Until now, there has been no way of indulging yourself in your love of cars and motorsport without excluding the family. This is unrivaled.”

Membership to this car-connoisseur club with a difference costs $162,000 for a thirty-year membership, plus an annual fee of $6480. Big money to you and me, small change to high rollers and self-made millionaires.

At those prices, Race Resort Ascari is clearly not your typical tickets-at-the-gate setup. However, it buys fifty days a year at one of the world’s greatest circuits. Better still, if you can bear to part with any, up to twenty of those days can be presented to guests.

When the boutique spa hotel is finished at the end of 2008, with its ten individual villas, infinity pool, mountaintop bar, golf driving range, clay shooting, and endless other seven-star-rated luxuries, Race Resort Ascari will truly be able to lay claim to being the ultimate members club for enthusiasts.

Zwart is adamant that the appeal of his creation lies as much in the welcoming feel and inclusive nature as it does in the challenge of the track and the race cars. If the hotel lives up to the standards of everything else to date, he has left the competition standing.

But it’s not just about the technical accomplishment. There’s more to it. The circuit has a certain something, a certain mystique. Call it soul. Yeah, soul, that’s what this place has—a rare thing for a modern circuit.

When I quiz Zwart about his lap record of 1 minute 49.7 seconds around the circuit, he tells of how an ex-Formula One driver in the same unofficial race was physically sick inside his helmet from the effects of pulling 3.9 g on one Daytona-style banked corner.

I ask him if he’d be prepared to issue a challenge to WINDING ROAD readers: free membership to anyone who can beat his lap record in his ex-Benetton, V-10 F1 car. Zwart laughs, takes my hand, and shakes on the deal. “I like the sound of that. I’m pretty sure I could shave another half a second off anyway.”

If you fancy your chances, you know what to do.

RACE RESORT ASCARI
www.ascari.net
Carretera de Campillos, km 10 29400 Ronda, Spain +34 95 218 71 71