OT: Who is going to the Montreal GP in June?

[mirror70]

Maybe we should set a time and place to meet and get hammered?

By hammered, of course I mean "discuss fine English literature."

[Tommy D]

Fine English Literature in Quebec? :o :D

Some friends and I were talking about making a trip up there, but to date, nothing has been set in stone...

[mirror70]

I was thinking Fine French Literature was an oxymoron, so I said English instead. :D :D

If you want to go, make arrangements asap. Right now, the only rooms available in the city are a few dorm rooms at McGill. I'll be spending the weekend at a sorority house :eek:

[willywhit]

mirror , post dates and a link . I'd be up for a roadtrip to montreal.Superbikes! Saint Kate St! Brador! Can you camp at the track? I've been to Laguna Seca back in '98 for the Nationals and World Superbike , not competing just camping, grilling and discussing alot of ( uuuuurp!) brewing methods and ways to make your bike go faster. Nothing like waking up sunday morning to the sounds of Superbikes practicing just outside your tent. I can speak enuf drunken pigeon frogtalk to get by. "un bier, s'il vous plait.":rolleyes:

[mirror70]

It's actually a Formula One race, not superbikes. Same idea, just much louder and much faster.

You cannot camp at the track. You'll need a room somewhere. You can, however, hear the race from the city.

The link is www.grandprix.ca .

[Enzo]

Not going to Montreal, but I am headed to Indy for the US Grand Prix!!!! Can Schumi make it a clean sweep? The season is still young, but so far I'm amazed by the Ferraris' dominance and durability. On the other hand, the McLaren's season has been awful.
I can't wait to hear those Ferraris screaming around the track!!! The sound of an F1 car is pure ecstasy!

[willywhit]

Formula 1, eh? Even better. We try to watch F1 every Sunday morning on SpeedVision. Always rooting for the Brasilians (although Rubens isn't my favorite and Ferrari dominates too much).Too bad more Americans don't get it. Drinkin' tons of Bud and watching Nascar just don't compare to F1 and Cart. BTW, does anyone here on BOL race "shifter carts" ? I met a couple from ECES 2003 at Stratton who race carts in Canada, I think.Prob can't make Montreal tho. BIG Ride in NH: http://www.mvtr.org/events/classic2004/classic2004.htm

[mirror70]

Doesn't F1 Boston have an outdoor track near you? The outdoor track has shifterkarts.

[NMU Alpine Boarder]

No Montreal for me. I will probly be at Indy though. I am still not sure if I want to give Tony George my $$$ after the $H!T he pulled back in January by trying to buy C.A.R.T. F1 by far is the premier series in the world. To feel the cars as they scream down the straight is unbelievable.

[Aisling]

bob, scooter friends strike again??

lol

i gotta get me one of them

[mirror70]

I'm in grandstand 12. I was in 22 last year.

[Jeffrey Day]

Hey Mirror,
Don't leave us hangin'! How were the views in section 22 last year and how are they going to be in sec. 12? My buddy Bob J. is trying to convince me to go up with him and he's looking at Sec. 24. How is that section for action?

Thanks and happy trails!

[mirror70]

From Sec 24 You'll be able to see the cars braking for the hairpin and then going through it. They actually come up to grandstand 21 doing a bit over 180mph, and in the length of that grandstand slow to 30ish for the hairpin. This means you could potentially see overtaking under braking as well as glowing brake rotors (although most teams run large enough rotors in Canada that they don't glow - at least not like they did in Bahrain). Last year there was also a minor accident here involving Rubens, iirc. Every grandstand also has a clear view of a jumbotron so you can watch the race going on on the rest of the track.

Here are a few pics (bandwidth warning) I took from 22 last year. In the space of this grandstand, the cars went through an entire gear.
Pic 1 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6131400.JPG)
Pic 2 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6131464.JPG) (you get to walk through the pits of all 3 trailer races - this was Formula Renault 1600)
Pic 3 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6131474.JPG)

I haven't sat in Sec 12 before, so I'm not certain what I'll be able to see. I think I should be able to see the opening straight (although at that distance, without a whole lot of depth perception), the Senna curves (possible opening lap pile-up) and then the short second straight. I actually walked through this grandstand last year after the race (at the end, everyone rushed the track so I got to walk a full lap - it was very cool) and have some pics of the views from a few different grandstands, but they are all on film somewhere.

Another option is to go with General Admission. You don't get a seat, but you can walk almost the whole track and sit anywhere along it. If you want to get really close to the cars as they whizz by, this is your best option. Don't expect a whole lot of picture ops unless you have good reflexes and sub 1/3000 shutter speeds. With the general admission pass, you still get to walk through the pits of the trailer races.

Hope that helps, at least as a start. Feel to free to ask more questions as you think them up.

[mirror70]

The links are fixed now. I swear the cause of the typo was my keyboard!

As far as I know, the only rooms available in the city right now are dorms at McGill. Those are CAD$60/night and they require a 3 night reservation. It sucks to have to pay for a couple of extra nights, but even so, it ends up cheaper than a regular hotel room. I think they may even have internet access, too, but you'll probably be out all day for the race and then all night after that. I've never stayed in one of the rooms before so I don't really know a whole lot about them. The past few years I've ended up staying in a McGill sorority house :D

Link for the dorms: http://www.mcgill.ca/residences/summer/bmhrvc/

I have two rooms booked that I don't think I will be using (staying in a sorority again). If you're definitely going, I can give them a call tomorrow and see if they'll transfer the rooms, or if not we could probably work something out.

I don't think we've met before. I was at ECES but spent most of the time alone making sweet love to a demo board of one manufacturer or another. I did see you, however - that carbon fork looked really neat.

I'll post a few pics I took a couple years ago with the GA tickets. Just gotta track them down. Not sure where I put the 35mm ones, so you'll have to settle for blurry digital ones (my shutter only goes to 1/800).

[CarvCanada]

I live one km from the track yay! I have a telescope and I can watch and hear it from my house on the mountain!
I'll be down there though!

I Love F1!

[mirror70]

Pics from General Admission:
Jordan F1 into Turn 8 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6080627.JPG) (note the faintly glowing brake rotor)
Jaguar, also turn 8 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6080626.JPG)
A Can-Am car I can't identity, turn 7 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6080643.JPG)
A Ferrari 360 spins coming out of turn 2 (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6080654.JPG)
Straight leading up to the hairpin, warm-up lap (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6090823.JPG)
Same position, race lap (http://www.tuckerdogdesign.com/productivity_software/P6090861.JPG)

On the last pic, check the EXIF tag and do a little math. The shutter speed was 1/500th of a second. In that time, the car moved about one sidewall, and the sidewall is about 7". That works out to about 198mph.

From my view in grandstand 22 last year, I could watch them brake for the hairpin. They stop so frikkin fast that the fact that they're initially going darn near 200mph simply doesn't register. All you see is a car explode from the trees and then go 40-50mph for the hairpin. Unreal.

[mirror70]

Staying outside of the city is possible, but I don't really know what your options are for doing that.

When you stay outside of the city you miss out on half of the experience. When 300,000 people invade a city, great things are bound to happen. :) In previous years, car clubs have had streets closed off so they could have car shows, BMW has setup an outdoor nightclub, the drivers have given outdoor press conferences, etc etc. There's also always the odd chance of running into someone involved in F1 - last year I ended up having drinks with some of Renault's mechanics.

For Saturday I'm not really sure what time you should get to the track. The qualifying format is new this year, so I don't really know when the crowds will be there. On race day, you want to get there in the morning and claim your viewing location (unless you would rather walk around). You should probably pick this location on Saturday. There will be stuff going on all day long on the island, so don't plan on just showing up for a couple hrs and then leaving - while you could do that, it would be a waste.

The race track is on an island. There is no parking on the island unless you're a high roller with passes to the Paddock Club. I have only stayed in the city when I've gone, so I always just park my car near where I stay and then leave it there all weekend. There is pretty decent parking in the city if you need it. Access to the island is via the Metro, and you can get to all of the nightlife on foot.

Traffic in and out isn't bad at all. The only real traffic is at the border crossing. As I learned last year, if you try and get in to Canada at 3am, plan on allotting as long as 25 minutes just for the guard to approve you. Usually, getting into Canada is a breeze and takes at most 10 minutes. Getting back into the US is the hard part. Last year it took, iirc, about 2hrs to get through. That was on the Monday after the race. The year before, we came back on Sun and still had to wait about 2hrs. We always cross on Rt89 (I think it's still 89 at that point) because it's simple. You may find it faster to stay in Canada and cross further east, maybe by Rt91 or even some place in NH. The speed limits in Canada are so frustratingly slow (and radar detectors are illegal) that I just put up with waiting 2hrs at the border.

[mirror70]

Oh, and remember to bring either your passport or birth certificate - BUT NOT BOTH. Coming back into the US a couple of years ago I was detained for around 30 minutes because we had 4 forms of ID for only two people. When we opened the glovebox to get our IDs, the officer saw that there were three passports and one birth certificate inside. He wasn't too pleased. (my friend has dual-citizenship and brought both passports for some reason; I had an expired passport and a birth certificate)

[Aisling]

man i'm jealous, i wanna go!
say hi to Einar for me, Bob :)

[mirror70]

Cool. I'll be there Thursday night through Monday afternoon. I'll probably be on the island from 9-5 every day making friends in the pits.

A bit off-topic and a reach, but.....you're not looking to hire any obnoxious jerks for the summer, are you? I know an "almost graduated" ME who lives in your area and is looking for summer income ;)

[Aisling]

Originally posted by Bob Jenney

Aisling, Einar has been a bit sick lately. He's got a balance issue that they can't seem to diagnose. Started last Christmas and has been on going ever since.

He had an MRI yesterday and we'll see what that yeilds.

oh wow... :(
i hope they can figure out what's going on... did he go to Mass eye and ear to see if it's an inner ear thing ? sometimes a middle ear infection can get missed ... any fevers, etc?

(sorry, the nursing student in me is going into question mode)
please tell him i hope he feels better soon.

[AlexJ]

I am going up tonight and will be there all weekend. We have seats in turn 10. Maybe we will hook up.

Alex

[mirror70]

I'm already in the city. Looks like there are lots of unprotected WAPs for those of you who will be bringing laptops.

Went to the F1 pits this morning. That was filled with tons of insanity and awesomeness. A few of my digi pics are available .here (http://www.cf-cars.com/F1/).

Bob, my cell is ***-***-****. Give me a ring if you want to get some beers this weekend

[AlexJ]

We will touch base with you Sat. afternoon evening. My cell is 917-440-2054 or 413-530-6377. We will be with some people that live in Montreal so they should know some good stuff to do Sat. night.

either give us a call or I will try you.

Alex

[CarvCanada]

haha i live in montreal... i can watch the race from my house with a telescope!

bob jenney, BRING ME SES VIDEOS TO MY DOOR! :)

[JohnO]

Ah Damn it! I havent checked Bomber in 2 months and I just saw this thread on the F1. I am jealous. I have been there 3 times over the last 4 years. I dropped the ball on it this year as the canadian F1 was initially cancelled because of smoking adverstising. I didnt realize it was back on again until it was too late.....ah well there is always next year!

[mirror70]

For those of you wondering what Schumacher's car looks like, here is a really awful scan I got from Ritz Camera (do NOT go there if you want negatives scanned!!)

http://www.cf-cars.com/F1/Sunday/FH020022.jpg

[Jack Michaud]

GP fans may want to subject themselves to the insanity test:

http://www.frenzy.com/~jester/racecar.html

sound required.