Suzuki Ignis 1.2 at Kari
Spent an afternoon lapping the Kari speedway in the Ignis. The car is a manual transmission running on MRF race slicks with an exhaust, intake and a 7100 rev limit. The track temperatures were expectedly high and the best lap time I managed was a 1.30 flat. The track has had some layout changes since 2020 and is 2.3kms in length with a shortened main straight.

Kari track layout
The Ignis felt great to drive around the track. The DGR coilovers provided terrific body control for corners and direction changes and the MRF slicks, while a tad oversized at 205/50/15 gripped immensely well. The sparco sprint buckets were essential in making sure the body stayed in place while going fast and the well laid out pedals were terrific to use especially for heel toe shifts. Suzuki gearboxes have always been slick and working the gearbox was immensely pleasureable and more so as the track was tight. Braking was another area where the car excelled with the rotors and pads doing a superb job without any fade the whole afternoon.

A breather after a pounding

set for a few laps
F30 BMW 330i at Kari
This was another day with the bmw at Kari. The car had bilstein B12 suspensions that lowered the car by 30mm and were street spec. Otherwise the car was stock. Unfortunately, I hadn’t serviced the car and that meant we had very poor brakes right from the beginning. Another mistake I made was not having the right octane fuel. Had to run regular 91 RON pump gas from a local fuel station and that meant we were down on power too. The car managed 1.25.2. The DSC wasn't switched off fully during the runs.
I changed the michelin ps4 tires to 18 inch 235/40 mrf racing slicks and it did a 1.21.1 with regular 91 RON gas. With a proper diet of 95 RON, am sure a second could easily have been dropped. The laps were a nightmare without brakes. Would love to go and check how a well serviced car on the right fuel performs. But thankfully, I have a benchmark to now look at when I go there fully armed.
The driving also had to be adjusted accordingly in the rwd as getting too early on the power was making the car drift out. The throttle and steering usage had to be extremely smooth to keep the car in line unlike the fwd Ignis which was quite forgiving to brutal throttle and steering inputs.
As expected, had just few 100km left on both the front and rear pads by the end of the day. Had to drive gingerly to make it back home safely. Many of the bmw logos flew off during the laps and need to be procured.

all set to go out
Another car that was around was a terrific looking Honda Brio 1.5 with 17 inch racing slicks, sparco buckets, roll cage and uprated brakes, custom suspension and camber setup. It is one hell of a car to drive around the track and is so useable that the owner daily drives the car in Bangalore. I managed a 1.27.8 with this car but it can go a lot quicker than that. It needs a bit of time getting used to the power delivery and handling to extract a good time.
Just to put things in perspective, autocar India had tested the Audi RSQ8 SUV here and done a scorching time of 1.13.691 with the very talented Aditya Patel at the wheel. The 600hp, 800nm behemoth has set the production SUV record for the track.
Highlight of the day
Met the septuagenarian D Vidyaprakash at the track and he had come to test his new Audi TT with some 700km on the odometer. The highlight of the day was being taken out for a spin in the TT with DVP, as he is fondly known, effortlessly throwing the TT in all directions, lighting up the tires and having a blast. Well, before I forget, he had come to test the KONI fsds that the car had. It was running regular street tires which probably melted under his driving. I have never met someone who is seventy eight and who can drive like that. That was truly the highlight of the day for me. His reflexes are in superlative shape perhaps due to all the sharpening he subjects it to on track.