[Tejas@perioimpl]

Press Release from Porsche India:

Challenging drive event takes place at MMRDA grounds

Porsche India showcases Cayenne and Macan off-road capabilities

Mumbai. The Cayenne and Macan’s off-road credentials were put to the test at a drive event organised by Porsche India. Taking place at the MMRDA grounds, Bandra Kurla Complex, the experience featured a range of scenarios that replicated conditions in which an SUV is required to leave tarmacked roads.

Starting with a road drive along the iconic Bandra - Worli Sea Link, participants were able to experience the sporty performance and day-to-day usability of both Porsche models. This was followed by the off-road element on a purpose-built track, which featured a range of challenges including gravel traps, log crossings and deep mud terrains.

With the course also featuring simulated hill descents, drivers were able to activate the Porsche Hill Control (PHC) in both models. This system keeps the speed of the car constant on downhill gradients, limiting it between 3 to 30 km/h, by braking on all four wheels, whilst the Antilock Brake System (ABS) remains active to prevent them from locking.

During the slush drive section of the track, Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV) in combination with the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) and Porsche Stability Management (PSM) systems, provided improved traction in the Cayenne and Macan. Thanks to the rear-axle differential lock, the PTV Plus system makes a positive impact by reducing rear wheel spin through targeted locking and braking interventions.

The Blue Macans, Photo Courtesy: Saurabh Jadhav.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The first post was the official press release. Now let me tell you the event story from our point of view.


As a lot of you must have noticed, 90% of my threads start as:

"It all started with a phone call"

Well, not this one.

This one started with an email.

It was a simple one liner sent to our contact email address mentioned on the website:

"Hi, looking to organise an offroad event for the Porsche dealership, contact me on XXXXXXXXXX, Regards"

This is something that is our forte and Porsche was one of the few brands that we had not worked with in the past and we were looking forward to it.

A phone call later, a meeting was organised at the showroom.

I'm a stickler for time and rarely arrive late and if i'm early, i'll wait in my car till a few minutes before the meeting time.

However, this was one time that i reached 15 minutes early and decided to wait in the showroom just so that i could gawk at some beautiful machines around me.

No matter how many times that you see one or have driven one, these are still a piece of art, calling out to be stared it.



Meeting goes well. I meet up with the Business head as well and have a nice chat over some coffee.

They forward me briefs from Porsche India, protocols, and past event details from other cities.

Next up, brainstorm ideas with the team and come up with a plan.

Track design is our forte and everyone knows that. But what people don't know is how comprehensive our briefings are made.

Our brief will cover every aspect of the event, the build, the equipment, the event flow by the minute, protocols, contingency plans, redundancy plans, etc

These at times go upto 100 pages and there has not been one time that our briefs haven't been appreciated.

We put in a lot of hard work to make this and we're extremely proud of it.

So after a few days of deliberation, our brief is ready and we mail a pdf to them as well as carry a few spiral bound copies for the next meeting which would also have the events guys involved.



We always file our briefs, in case of additions. Here's a pic we clicked for our instagram account along with the vehicle brochures that we always request for, to understand the vehicles:



I think they were so happy with our presentation that they gave us a little goodie bag after the meeting

[Tejas@perioimpl]

They also offered me a Cayenne to keep for a few days before starting the track build so that i can understand and get familiar with the vehicle.

So i park my Pajero in their basement:



And have a shiny new car waiting for me. The first thought that goes through my mind at that time is, "Oh, you're gonna get so muddy in a few days baby"

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The Venue

Porsche brief was simple:

The event has to take place bang in the centre of Mumbai.

Our customers and prospects will not travel to distant suburbs / lonavala.

Track should thrill the participants but should not be unsafe

Track should utilise the capabilities of the vehicle to the max (within limits of course)

Track should be doable by first timers as well

People familiar with mumbai know that finding real estate at reasonable costs is extremely difficult.

Finally after a lot of hard work from the Porsche admin guys, MMRDA grounds at BKC was shortlisted.



What we were shown was this ground. During the recce we were told that we could use this entire space.














So much space for creating a track was mouth watering. We knew we could easily run four to five cars on the track very safely and our creative juices started flowing.


Based on this, this we submitted our first sketch super imposed on google maps.

*certain things are USP for us and therefore we cannot attach those files*

As i mentioned earlier, we are very comprehensive in our planning.

We got the google maps to tell us the traffic updates along the route at various times of the day and we also physically did those drives to figure out the maximum time we would take in peak hour.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The Build

We were given two days to build the track.

Working hours were 10am to 6pm each day.

The following were the machines ordered:

- 2 JCB back hoes.

- 1 big 110 Komatsu tracked excavator (called Poclain. Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poclain).

- One pneumatic roller.

- Plus local labourers

The plans were ready, and now all that was required was to set it in motion.

BUT MURPHY HAD DIFFERENT PLANS ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WHIMSICAL LAWS

So what happened?

Read on.

We reach the venue at 930am.

By then the contractor had promised us perimeter fencing in place.

When we reach, this is the sight that greets us:



Yes, nothing was ready. Fencing not done.

Machines not in sight.

So we asked the events coordinator, what's the scene buddy:

"Saar, machines are on the way. Thirty minutes"

"Ok, i'm running to the nearby McDonald's to grab a coffee, see you in thirty"

....
....
....

Back after thirty minutes.

"Where are the machines"

"Saar, they got lost, i've sent someone to guide them here. Should be here anytime"

Tick
Tock
...

Tick
Tock
...

One hour later:

"WHERE ON EARTH ARE MY MACHINES??!!!"

"Saar, getting diesel filled, see the perimeter is ready"

Look around and gasp!

"What is this?"

The perimeter is only 1/4th of the area that was shown to us.

"What happened to the rest"

"Saar, this is all that you get. Our guy who showed you the place was over enthusiastic. This is all. Plus we need to leave out 20% area for parking as well according to MMRDA rules."

FUMING i call up the Porsche events team.

They say yes, they just got to know about it and we will have to improvise.

I tell myself, "Take a deep breadth TK, you guys are known to think on your feet and you guys have contingencies and redundancies. Work it out."

My biggest issue is the acceleration and braking zone.

Porsche India specially wanted an acceleration and braking zone to demonstrate the power and braking capability of the car.

Now, i hardly have 250 meters. Not good. Plus i need to factor in safety.

Hmm!

So i do a few demo runs in the car to see braking distance. Put people in the car to make sure inertia of extra load is factored.

After figuring out the braking distance, we double it to factor in safety.

After doubling it, we open up the fenced area to give additional run off area as an added back up.

We at Offroad Junkie will never compromise on safety.

This run off area is further cordoned off and a security team is assigned to make sure it's clear during event days.

Plus the added advantage is that this now serves as a back entrance for service vehicles when the event is not in progress.

By now its lunch time.

I ask the events guy when will the machines come. Give me a real answer.

I finally get the true answer:

- The MMRDA grounds basically have their own cartel of contractors. So you need to hire from only those guys and cannot take outside machinery
- These machines were hired days before and confirmed
- On the event day, MMRDA officials decided that they needed to remove some shanties and de-silt some drains before the monsoons. So they requisition our machinery and there was nothing we could do.

So these machines would only come at 5. Not before.

*Puliing hair out*

By now i'm resigned to the fact that i've lost an entire day and have just one more day to finish the build.

Time wasted, local labour who had arrived wasted.

A quick huddle and we decide to work till late at night.

Thank god the grounds are in a business district and there is no time limitation to work.

Since we had a labourers, we get the track markings done before i head off for lunch.



Told the events guys that i'll be back by 430-5. If the machines come before that he is to start excavating a pit. We tell him the dimensions.

Thankfully, one poclain arrives by 4 and by the time i reach i see some work has started. The first smile of the day forms on my lips.

I just love working with heavy machinery

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Thank god the contractor had his lighting equipment ready.

Since the event was to end at 8pm everyday, we and provisioned proper flood lighting and the towers for them were assembled.

By then a single JCB back hoe had also arrived.

Since budgets were tight, we had to only use material had we could dig up and not get any from outside.

So we employed the big daddy, the poclain to dig and the JCB to ferry the material to the site where the big mound would be.

So day 1, till 11:30pm we only were working on digging and piling.

Nothing more.

Doesn't seem like much work is done, but it's enough. We couldn't fatigue ourselves, cause we knew that the next day was gonna be even longer.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Day 2 of the build

We knew we had a long day and our dear friend Ankit came to our rescue. He was quickly deputised as an additional Offroad Junkie to help supervise the build.

When we reached at 10am, the machines were there.

BUT!

They reached early.

They decided to take the initiative into their own hands.

They thought that we were only digging ditches.

So wherever we had marked areas for obstacles, they dug it up.

So the articulation pits, the side inclines were all big ditches when we arrived!

MR MURPHY!!!!

So they next one hour was wasted in filling it all back.

While the filling was happening, we decided to take a few snaps:







We started work on the big mound as well:



By now one ditch was getting finalised:



Time to test clearnaces. The Macan being the lower specced car in terms of clearances was to clear it all. After few adjustments she does fine:









The Cayenne is also tested just in case:




Aesthetics comes last.


At this point let me mention one thing. The Cayenne is a superb vehicle. A V6 monster. But the Macan is a brute. 400hp, 550N and a super power to weight ratio. The turbo petrol is a dream machine with a very sweet purr to the exhaust note as well. Absolutely loved her!

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The heat is extremely killing.

We have our usual heat beating devices ready:

- Coleman ice box packed with water mixed with electrolytes

- Umbrellas

- High SPF sunblocks

- UV sleeves

- Caps and googles.


However from time to time we do take a small break in the AC. If you do a lot of in and out of AC it's actually bad for your body's thermostat. However, at times we needed a 2 minute cool off!




Some time pass while relaxing:




Once the obstacles are final, we get it rolled with a pneumatic roller.



There was a bit of internal discussion with our team on how much of our techniques should we reveal but end of the day, we are quite confident of our game and strengths and know that if people go to copiers, they will never get the real product.

The important aspect is to know what machinery to use where.

And more importantly Mr. Murphy is omnipresent.

So when we go for lunch, the roller guy decides to show initiative and tries to roll the side incline. Little did he realise that his roller doesn't articulate and he is a 2wd vehicle with an open differential.

Soon he is stuck and a crane (Hydra) was need to extract him and the JCBs also had to literally lend a helping hand. More time down the drain!

[Tejas@perioimpl]

We leave the contractors to supervise the extraction of the roller.

We are acutely short of time now and need to move on with the build, testing and aesthetics.

We start checking the big mound which will demonstrate the hill climb and descent capabilities of the vehicles.



By now the roller is removed and we start work on the articulation / axle twisters:



The labourers help with the cones and track markings.


Pic Courtesy: Ankit Tank

But wait, we haven't mentioned Mr. Murphy in this post yet!

Yes, the prodigal son returns. In the above pic on the left in the background you can see the roller on one of the articulation mounds. While packing the mound, the roller bursts an oil pipe and is stuck.

It's too late now for spares and the roller is abandoned for the night.

Next day is the event.

An advance team from Offroad Junkie goes to the venue and waits for the roller to get repaired and be removed from there.

Once that is done, they test final clearances and make the final finishing touches till the convoy reaches the venue from the showroom.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The event flow:

Friday: Media day - drives for invited media. Team-bhp was invited but unfortunately the mods had prior commitments and couldn't make it.

Saturday and Sunday: Drives for customers and prospectives.

Basically every one was called in batches of 12 to 15 people. There were four batches per day with a time set for approximately 2 to 2.5 hours per batch.

Here's the invite:



Participants came to the wonderful Porsche Centre in Prabhadevi, Mumbai



After giving their cars to the valet, they headed to the registration desk and got themselves registered, signed the indemnity forms and got "banded"





After this, there were refreshments for everyone: snacks and cold drinks counters.
People could check out the vehicles till all participants arrived.

Once everyone was present (or cut off time reached), they were escorted to the conference room for a briefing.



Initially, they were briefed by officials from Porsche India about the Porsche Travel Club and also the upcoming Porsche Macan 2.0 litre which was claimed to be a sub one crore car ex showroom.



Infact participants were asked to guess the ex showroom price and the closest entry would get an all expenses paid trip for the Travel club. (Lucky draw in case of a tie).

After this we briefed the participants about the flow of the actual event. Tips on offroading, what to expect, etc



The fleet of cars were, a lead Cayenne driven by me, 2 Macans and three Cayennes.

If we had more people, we also had a Cayenne GTS at our disposal.

If the group was even bigger, i'd change to a Panamera to lead the convoy and my car would go to a participant.

Every participant was banded and the drivers would have two bands to differentiate between them and passengers.



Participants were randomly allotted a Cayenne or a Macan unless someone made a special request. Everyone could only drive one car once on the track due to time constrains.

Even with five cars, we would have atleast twenty runs on the track in each session minimum to accommodate each participant to drive.

Convoy rules were also explained.

Cars were flagged off by the senior management.



During the drive to the venue, the participants could drive the vehicle themselves on the 13km journey and would be accompanied by a sales executive who would explain all the features of the vehicle.

We also had licensed walkie talkies in each car to enforce discipline. It's difficult to avoid flooring the throttles of these cars on the sea link.



After this long drive, the convoy would reach the offroad venue at bandra kurla complex.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The obstacles.

As soon as the cars entered the venue, they made a sharp left and lined up against the wall parallel to the road. The lead car would then start a demo run. While doing the demo run, we would be explaining over the walkie talkie exactly what we are doing and why. With each car having a walkie, everyone hears this briefing while looking at the action.

Getting out of the car after a demo:



Next, the salespersons alight the vehicle and the instructors from our team get in.

Bands are verified, participants asked to adjust seats & mirrors and belt up before firing up the engine. Again all offroad modes are explained.

Only for the media drives we weren't in the cars since they wanted to shoot all angles and of course the automotive media "didn't need coaching".

But we were on the walkie all the time making sure they were adhering to limits:




Acceleration and Braking Zone

The first obstacle of the day.

This is basically to give a feel of the power of the vehicle. Due to the short distance of the course, max speed achieved was ~60kmph.



Participants were told to hit the brakes when they see the double cones. Plus there was a board too and also the instructors would tell them.

We told them to use both feet and panic brake. We wanted them to understand the good braking capabilities as well as understand how an ABS feels under their feet.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

After the acceleration and braking run was over, participants were asked to engage offroad mode.

The Cayenne has two height settings and in offroad mode by default raises itself by one setting. You could further raise it to maximum height.

The key we were telling participants is to feel the torque and go as slow as possible. Any car (even 2wd) could do it at speed. Here we told them to keep the rpm as low as possible and try to crawl up slowly.

Here's the GTS climbing up:


Here's the view as you climb (15' high poles were placed to guide the drivers since one can't see the track while climbing):


Reaching the top:



The Cayenne diesel cresting the mound:






And she reaches the top:




The Macan at the top:



The view of the track from the mound:



At the down slope, the hill descent features were activated and the car would slowly crawl down by braking to the set speed. From here it would go to the next set of obstacles, the rumblers:

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The next set of obstacles were the rumblers - basically just inverted speed breakers followed by a sharp u-turn into chicken holes (exaggerated pot holes - with cross axle articulation challenge).

Basically during my brief i would say, "we've tried to replicate Monsoon Mumbai roads for you minus the taxis and rickshaws. Budgets didn't allow us else we would definitely have a few cows and jaywalkers on the track to dodge as well!"

[Tejas@perioimpl]

From the the chicken holes you had to line up dead straight and climb on to a side incline on the face of the mound.

During my briefing i used to make a joke about this one. I used to call it the negotiator obstacle. At the incline, the first time passenger really feels scared about toppling. The angle was around 35°.

I used to say, "This was the obstacle where we re-negotiated our deal with the Porsche guys. Took them on the side incline and stopped and said, let's talk or i turn upwards ... basically the key to side sloping is to keep the steering straight or turn into the direction of the 'perceived topple' if scared but never in the opposite direction - or upwards - that would be a sure shot topple"

This drives the point home quite well.

Lining up to the obstacle:



The Grey Cayenne negotiating the obstacle:









The Cayenne GTS:









The exit that leads to the next obstacle, the double deep ditch:



View of the exit from the car:

[Tejas@perioimpl]

The Deep Ditch.

Quite exciting for people to see the cars disappearing underground, reappearing briefly and disappearing again.

You enter the ditch slowly, level out and climb again. But as soon as you crest, you have a descent immediately into another ditch. There is a small mound at between the ditches.

No matter how many times one has seen the cars in action, when you are in the car, it still is little surprising how soon the descent comes up again.

People loved this one and appreciated the torque of the vehicles that you could gingerly crawl up and balance on top without speeding and loosing control.

Entry into the ditch:








In car view from the ditch:



The climb before the second ditch. The grey Cayenne in action:











It's great to see the concentration of passengers on this climb. Here's a gentleman in a red Cayenne: (and the smile after the track is priceless!)





The Macan in action: