India’s only ace F1 racer Narain Karthikeyan is not someone who can be cowed down easily. While the F1 demo drive here on Narain’s HRT car has been cancelled after a ‘social activist’ put a legal spoke into the wheel, the Speed King is bringing two Formula 4 cars to the capital.
With two cars -- a Dallara car having 2000cc engine and an F4 Ford drive having 1600cc engine – set to arrive, the city’s racing enthusiasts can watch the F4 racing.
Plus, they will have the added bonus of car stunts by Narain and his former MRF racing partner, Arjun Balu, on August 28, Uthradam day.
The Dallara car with Renault engine is going to be launched in India for the first time, coinciding with the MRF Challenge 2012 on Friday in Chennai.
The legal notice had alleged that the race would send wrong signals about safe driving. When it was received by Narain and tourism ministry officials, Narain and his close friend and promoter, Jose
Pottamkulam, submitted a second proposal of having two F4 racing cars in the city instead of one F1 Spanish HRT car.
“The advantage of having Dallara and the top end entry level car of F4 is that they are cheaper compared to the F1 HRT car, and the expenditure now comes down to less than Rs.40 lakh. The carbon-fibre Dallara car will have a 210 PS 2.0-litre engine which will be mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox,” they said.
Renault and Dallara had built the MRF Formula 2,000 single-seater racer and had a successful test drive today in Coimbatore, where the car was assembled at JA Motor sports. When the Tourism department could not take prompt action against the litigation, Narain had to delay the transportation of HRT car from Frankfurt which was supposed to be sent in via Dubai on Monday morning.
Though Dallara clocks only 250km per hour and the second F4 Ford car clocks 210km per hour, the government will bring out a special ordinance saying that this being a special event, speed limit issues could be waived and special safety provision will be taken by erecting barricades.
Narain’s Spanish Formula 1 team car, HRT, would have clocked 300km per hour when he reached 800 metres. Tourism minister AP Anil Kumar wanted to conduct the original F1 demo drive at a later date, but Narain’s dates were not available due to his next circuit level happening in Berlin in the first week of September.