December 01, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, — Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim is bidding to build a RM3 billion race circuit in Iskandar, Johor with the Johor royal family and state asset manager Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the Straits Times reported today.
The Singapore daily reported that the project, called Motorsports City, is expected to be completed by 2015 or 2016 in Malaysia’s ambitious southern corridor that provides high-end housing and entertainment popular with Singaporeans.
It quoted sources as saying the race track’s 100-hectare site is located 10 to 15 minutes away from Tuas’ Second Link in the southern state, at the left of a rest stop after the Malaysian checkpoint.
The project will be an integrated facility encompassing a track certified by world motor-racing body FIA, and can hold GT, go-kart and motorcycle races.
Celebrated designers Hermann Tilke and Clive Bowen have been named as those who might design the 4km to 4.5km race track, which will feature, among others, a 1.2km to 1.5km stretch where vehicles can speed up to 300km/h.
Besides the circuit, the project will also contain resort homes, a car museum, an advanced driving school, workshops, a warehouse and a go-kart factory.
A bonded area will be available where well-off car enthusiasts can store their tax-free cars, including left-hand-drive models.
Those who don’t prefer to drive can also enjoy an air-conditioned circuit for radio-controlled cars, and a room with top-notch simulators.
When it is open, car manufacturers will be able to test-drive their vehicles, conduct product training for employees, and hold launches for their customers in the facility.
Motorsports City will house the third major race track in Malaysia after the Sepang International Circuit, which holds the Malaysia Grand Prix Formula One and MotoGP races, and the Pasir Gudang track nearby.
Lim, 59, is a well-known car enthusiast, with a garage of exotic cars which he rarely gets to drive in his native Singapore.
He was recently approached for a similar project in Singapore called Changi Motorsports Hub on a 41ha three-year leasehold site nearby the Singapore Airshow grounds, which is currently stalled.
In August, Lim had acquired a stake in British race car manufacturer McLaren Automotive and had taken a spot on the board of directors along with Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh and the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co.
The businessman, named the eighth richest man in Singapore by Forbes, had recently invested in a multibillion-dollar medical hub, also located in Johor’s Iskandar.
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