I gave the test at CR Park to the most disinterested bunch of people, had an afternoon appointment , reached half an hour before time, test didnt begin till half an hour after it, that too after I told the Autocar guy to push these folks.
The person taking the simulator test was good and nice, but the simulator is a super expensive junk machine. Stupid machine kept giving lane change errors when there were none, often I would ask the instructor what these meant and most of the times, he was blank. Anyway, I also stalled the car once in the test. The simulator had a car flying over the footpath. Now thats real life for you. No lady crossing the road though, was missing her.
Now onto the practical, this was taken by an instructor who seemed frustrated with life. First they took me to a car which was narrowly parked in between 2 cars and had a car perpendicular to the back just to ensure reversing is a pain in the you know what. Did the reverse perfectly and entered a residential lane ahead.
In the residential lane , was asked to parrallel park, which too i did perfectly, although there was a lot of space in between the 2 cars (1.75 cars worth). Now is the classic part, the car suddenly dies and the instructor marks it in the notes.
I crank it, no effect, crank again, accelerator to the floor, no effect. Try after 10 seconds and it finally lives. The isntructor looks at me as if I drained the battery or something in 2 minutes of driving with alternator on :P
Then as I am used to hydraulic brakes of my Maruti 800, the power brakes on Estilo were pretty hard, I made a joke about how the brakes work good. To this, the instructor rudely and angrily told me to move out fast (there was a car approaching, but the instructor insisted and i moved out). I understood the instructor was pissed off with me and wouldnt select me.
Then while driving I hear the Instructor say tch tch, I wonder what the problem is, apparently "27 ki speed pe 3rd gear is not done". I told the instructor I trust the sound of the engine and car feedback to change the speed (is it possible to look into the speedo all the time during driving) and the car was moving perfectly without a hint of jerking. Anyway, i do the downshift for satisfaction and hear the engine overrev at the speed and engine braking happening. Would have loved to look at the instructor but didnt want to be marked for distraction.
The viva was also stupid, what will you check in the car before going out ?
I named a large number of things including tyre pressure, engine oil, brake oil, all lights etc. Nothing to the instructor's satisfaction.
No chance of making it to the 3rd round, wont be surprised if the instructor marked me as an idiot.
Sorry for the double post mods, please merge with previous if possible.
I forgot to mention that the Autocar guy told me that they have called
almost everyone to the simulator round. He said everyone, I added almost.
Also, after my test I saw a person with score 58 with his name on the sheets scheduled for later in the day. Even the person after me was banging the car here and there in the simulator. Had no car control (rotated the steering like crazy) and yes, he had come on a bike
, probably joined the contest because he got an ad to do it.
So yes, it IS a big publicity stunt.