[Shivank]

Congrats, Anshuman! For not only driving one of the best sportscars around one of the best racetracks in the world, but also making a lot of petrolheads and aam-janta go green with envy!

Btw, do they teach/allow you to power-slide? Silly question, I know. But still...I for one would love to do just that for 7 out of 10 laps of driving session.

[Smokey Anoop]

Nice audio in the video there. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the same when I drove here in Bangalore. I won't forget it this time when I am at Delhi in the coming week! LHD makes sense as it also a training program for those who wish to make it into Audi Racing Team for future endeavors at LeMans and many more tracks!

I totally agree with Anshuman on the speed aspect. When you are submerged in the V10 growl, the car just whizzes by 250kmph mark without your permission.

[Turbo Head]

Wonderful review Anshuman and just like other meager mortals even I am envious.
Few enquiries to ponder upon :

Is the program still going on ? If not when can we enroll for the same ?
What are exact prerequisites for participating ?
Where can we find out the further details ?

Hope I am not bugging you with too many questions, Thanks again

[Zkalra]

I missed the one this past week but am going for the one in August. For rs5 and r8 owners the cost is 50k

[noopster]

You lucky bum you!

I can't even IMAGINE the thrill of driving a 5.2 lit V10 petrol engine. The pic of the tacho showing the redline starting at 8500 rpm gave me goosebumps, not to mention a speedo going up to 350.

I actually didn't notice the LHD till a member pointed it out. But I guess most of our "track experience" has been on LHD games and adjusting should not have been a big problem, as Anshuman indicated!

98K for half a day of awesomeness is not that bad actually. I mean- people blow more on much less!

Were there any near-disasters? Did people roll off the track? Give us the dirty!

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Wonderful review Anshuman and just like other meager mortals even I am envious.
Few enquiries to ponder upon :

Is the program still going on ? If not when can we enroll for the same ?
What are exact prerequisites for participating ?
Where can we find out the further details ?

Hope I am not bugging you with too many questions, Thanks again

Please contact Audi at drive@audi.in for details on the program

Originally Posted by noopster

You lucky bum you!

I can't even IMAGINE the thrill of driving a 5.2 lit V10 petrol engine. The pic of the tacho showing the redline starting at 8500 rpm gave me goosebumps, not to mention a speedo going up to 350.

+ the super aggressive kickdowns which sent the car flying with big jolt. After the drive, on my way back on Gr.Noida expressway my Laura felt as if it was in limp mode and gearshifts so relaxed.

I actually didn't notice the LHD till a member pointed it out. But I guess most of our "track experience" has been on LHD games and adjusting should not have been a big problem, as Anshuman indicated!

Getting used to LHD did not take time.

Were there any near-disasters? Did people roll off the track? Give us the dirty!

A car from our group lost control twice. I could not understand how can somebody lose control in this car doing sane speeds, the grip levels are phenomenal and handling very forgiving.

[Ace F355]

hahaha, you lucky damned soul... I can see your smug smile while reading this! This was your 1st supercar driving experience, was it? And that too, on a track! Boy, I envy you.

Good going, was it a sponsored event or did you do it on your own? I have driven a V8 R8 on our Delhi roads and can imagine the excitement you must have had while unleashing that V10 beast on a world class closed tarmac like BIC.

Will dig further details once we meet next time!

[malgudi]

Registration for 2nd Session are now open. Just received this in email today
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[madhav14]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Attachment 952543

Accelerating hard in a long sweeping corner with a little more lock than required was so much fun; the rear wanting to pull out, tires protesting and screaming continuously, but the car accelerating and remaining comfortably composed. By the end of the 2nd session, I could tell just by the sound of the tires how hard I was pushing the car (compared to the last session). Not matter how fast I went, the car never protested and always retained its composure. For a beginner like me, the R8 is a truly forgiving car with the ESP on. At the end, I'd experienced the Audi R8 V10 for a total of 20 laps, with 10 in the driver's seat. I probably hit speeds of 220 - 240 kph. Even then, the R8 kept begging me to push harder and harder.

I'm one of the lucky persons who got a chance to drive the Audi TT and Audi R8 on this 12th July on BIC.

I should say I somehow managed to go a little overboard, create a mild horror scene on the track and ended up testing the UNDERSTEER and OVERSTEER concepts together explained by Audi guys on that day.

Here, I want to brief my wonderful experience and also let you guys know the importance of ESP function on such cars:

Reached BIC by 8.30, completed registration formalities and a presentation by Audi explaining about their cars, understeer & oversteer concepts etc.

We were offered 2 cars - Audi TT and Audi R8, 5 laps in each car in the driver's seat and 5 more laps in the passenger seat.

First car was TT and the first lap filled with braking & cornering exercises, we were a little bit slow.
From the 2nd lap, we started pushing the cars hard only to find out that an over enthusiastic girl who got registered for this event was driving the TT like a bullock cart and was no where seen with us.

We stopped for that car several times and that spoiled a lap of ours. However, the instructor was generous to offer the rest of us one more lap and we compensated it by pushing the cars real harder.

Me & my co-driver were competing against each other. He was driving first and I'm trying cross his lap times. Things went smooth with TT and I was really excited about R8 now. As usual, he took the steering 1st and he pushed it real hard that I was literally screaming in the passenger seat.

Now, it's my turn and I sat in the driver's seat with loads of excitement revving the engine, enjoying it's roar and waiting to start. The instructor came and asked to to shift in a left hand drive car as there is only 1 RHD car available and the lady/girl says she can drive only RHD car. So, shifted in that car and we started the lap.

Later, I had to find out in an unusual way that she played with the buttons and turned off ESP by mistake.
In addition to that, I was over-enthusiastic and turned on the Sports mode.

1st Lap was again a cool lap. Though we are going faster than in TT, we are not really testing it's limits. In the 2nd lap, my car was right behind the instructor's car. Being impressed with my driving in TT, he asked all of us to push the car to the maximum limits and asked our car to try to catch up with him.

After exiting a corner, where there is a dead straight, I floored the throttle and this beast was shooting like an arrow pinning us to our seats and scared the hell out of us for a few moments. We touched 230-240 kmph and braked hard for a corner. From there, our instructor's car was literally flying on the track and I'm losing him slowly.

The Horror Part:
In order to catch him, I started being too aggressive (confidence on ESP which I didn't know was turned off). One huge right corner, I was negotiating it at 100-120 speeds and the tyres were screaming as usual, I sensed a bit of understeer and imagined the car track into the sands. Lifted off the throttle, turned more to the right, but the input was not sufficient. The car was at the edge of left hand side of the track. I applied brake a little harder and turned more to right.

That's it. The rear pulled out of the line and the car was almost horizontal on the middle of the track heading the right side sands and other cars are approaching us too fast. My co-driver almost skipped a heart beat. I reacted immediately and turned the steering to left and floored the accelerator (remember the car was in sports mode).

The acceleration was more brutal than I expected, but things were better this time. Car is heading in 60" angle to the left. So, it was a bit easy to manage, turned to my right again gently and with some throttle input, car came in line.

Our instructor was speechless for some time, and then his voice came up in Radio "GOOD CONTROL CAR 1, GOOD CONTROL. DON'T WORRY, YOU ENDED UP TESTING OUR UNDERSTEER AND OVERSTEER CONCEPTS. KEEP UP, COME ON.

After this, I found out immediately that the ESP was turned off, switched it on immediately and had fun for another 3 laps. After the session, we found out that she has turned off the ESP.

Anyways, that was one hell of a memorable day in my life.

Driving those insane super cars at insane speeds on an insane track. It is simply awesome.

[dhruvritzed]

So it was the month of April and as usual, Audi had come up with their drive experience at Budh international circuit and i was on the invitees list owing to good relations with the Audi Delhi south guys as we have been dealing with them since 2011 and our A4 having visited them a lot along with many family friends having purchased on referral.

So, the line up was divided into 3 categories, the A cars, the S/RS and the R8.

The drive experience consisted of only 8 participants in one slot with 4 in 2 groups.

First was the course on the A cars, one trial run consisting of slalom, a 360 and then the braking test, i picked up the new A4 and it was a tight handler, though i did the first trial with ESP off, seriously not recommended, it did well on the course and was very fast, meanwhile I liked the new interiors and was all for it compared to my previous iteration.

Then the same was repeated on the RS7 and boy o boy was it a cannon or something, it almost went out of control on the 360 and hence it was revised to a U turn, course times were lower by almost 10 seconds for all participants compared to the A range and we were told it was the performance version with 610 bhp. One word - brilliant.

Then came the circuit experience whereby we first ran the S5, a powerful machine with 333hp on tap, it looked seriously last gen with its old interiors and looks but it was brilliant where it mattered, on the straight, it easily hit 220 kph on the back straight.
The whole process consisted of 5 laps in the S5 to get us accustomed to different situations on track and hit the max speeds, it skidded, taught us understeer and over-steer easily.

Time for what we were all waiting for- the R8, it was so good, I hit 40 to 200 in fourth itself and the steering of the new generation​ car was so stiff and centered, i felt as if i was driving a go kart, went on to hit my land speed record of 260kph, seriously not recommended outside of the track environment.

It was then followed by the cooling lap and a hearty lunch and goodbye goodies for all participants.

Great initiative by Audi for owners and prospective customers with establishing brand image and for the Halo effect.

[ecosport rules]

Awesome write up

Budh circuit has been on my list for a while now.

Was this a complementary drive invite?
Asking because Jaguar Land Rover does paid drive experiience events.

Thanks

[dhruvritzed]

Yes this is a complementary drive, usually goes out to current owners, Audi club India members and prospective customers with organising dealerships.
P.s land rover experiences are disappointing

[AdiSinghV12]

Originally Posted by ecosport rules

Awesome write up

Budh circuit has been on my list for a while now.

Was this a complementary drive invite?
Asking because Jaguar Land Rover does paid drive experiience events.

Thanks

Jaguar Land Rover recently invited me to a similar event at Aamby Valley where they had a similar setup starting with slalom then braking and then mad couple of straight line speed runs in both F-Type coupe and F-Type convertible and what better can you ask for you can take the roof down and do speeds over 220+ kmph.