Coimbatore Track Day - 28 Oct 07: Reports & pics

raghuram.cg · 29th October 2007, 14:21

Can anybody put up some pics and a brief report please....
Before we have a detailed report from the pros.

BTW was it raining in CBE during the track day?

kb100 · 29th October 2007, 14:30

Absolutely ZERO rains, and amazing weather - cloud cover with nice cool breeze through out the day - couldn't get better!

raghuram.cg · 29th October 2007, 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb100

Absolutely ZERO rains, and amazing weather - cloud cover with nice cool breeze through out the day - couldn't get better!

And I backed out in the Nth moment thinking it would rain a lot

. guess I should never believe the Meteorological dept any more...crazy guys they always predict worng

.

shazikon · 29th October 2007, 16:57

Raghuram, you missed out on loads of fun man.. on the track and on the way to the track..it was awesome fun driving from Bangalore to CBE via Sathy ghats.. and after getting down from the ghats the rains and the fast drive was awesome.. but comming back to Blore was a real pain.. we should have never taken the krishnagiri route..

patriot1947 · 29th October 2007, 17:14

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0041.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0015.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0012.jpg

patriot1947 · 29th October 2007, 17:22

The speed harrie touched on the straights when i sat shot gun with him.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0030.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0086.jpg

The gurus:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0021.jpg

raghuram.cg · 29th October 2007, 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazikon

Raghuram, you missed out on loads of fun man.. on the track and on the way to the track..it was awesome fun driving from Bangalore to CBE via Sathy ghats.. and after getting down from the ghats the rains and the fast drive was awesome.. but comming back to Blore was a real pain.. we should have never taken the krishnagiri route..

Ya i know, this is exactly what I am feeling right now---> "

"

brraj · 29th October 2007, 17:58

Hi shazikon,

When did you reach home? i reached at 11.30pm. I was lucky enough to escape 2 big traffic jams. I didnt cross 40kmph from mettur to krishnagiri and once i crossed krishnagiri it was fun to drive, I was accompanied by lot of vernas, taveras who were trying hard to overtake me but no way...

I really have to thank MICHILLINE pilot precedas for the grip they gave while hard braking in wet conditions.

pawan · 29th October 2007, 18:07

a timing of all the cars would be good how was the 1/4 mile.

Raps · 29th October 2007, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by brraj

Hi shazikon,

When did you reach home? i reached at 11.30pm. I was lucky enough to escape 2 big traffic jams. I didnt cross 40kmph from mettur to krishnagiri and once i crossed krishnagiri it was fun to drive, I was accompanied by lot of vernas, taveras who were trying hard to overtake me but no way...

I really have to thank MICHILLINE pilot precedas for the grip they gave while hard braking in wet conditions.

Hey Raj,

We reached around 12.15am, we slowed down till Mettur, then we started hitting 80-100kmph regularly, but we rather slowed down enroute to Krishnagiri as it was really a bad patch. Myself and shashi were driving on and off.

Cheers,
Pradeep

agentsmith · 29th October 2007, 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawan

a timing of all the cars would be good how was the 1/4 mile.

The cars weren't timed at all. After getting a hang of the track, I was looking for somebody to time me, but couldn't find anybody. Maybe, we could work out something for next track day, get a stop watch, or something more elaborate for people, who want to time their laps, especially, to check how the new mods on the car are doing.

kb100 was talking about having a lap-timer, but I didn't get to see it.

As for the quarter mile, we didn't have much cars, that were likewise powered (a couple of swifts, and coupe of getz), that were still around till the end of the track day. The ikons from bangalore, left early. The quarter miles weren't timed either. Didn't have proper equipment. All the cars that participated in the drag were from CBE (I don't know the names of the owners). Could somebody from CBE post results of the drag with names of the owners?

Jay · 29th October 2007, 21:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazikon

comming back to Blore was a real pain.. we should have never taken the krishnagiri route..

Thats the reason i took us through Sathyamangalam route while going to CBE. On the way back we ( Anush & I ) took the Sathy route and boy what a drive it was. If you think the drive to CBE was good then the way back was even better. Anush, who took the Krishnagiri route on the way to CBE was also of the opinion that this route was way better than the Krishnagiri route. Very Little traffic almost till Mysore, Saw some deers too on the way.

Took a break for 45 mins at Chamarajnagar and another break of 30 mins at Maddur CCD and reached B'lore at 12:30.

v1p3r · 29th October 2007, 21:57

You guys reviewing the track day or the drive back?! Lol.

Ours was eventful. I slept while we crawled towards Avinashi. Then we stopped to eat. Then we had a flat, luckily right in front of a Maruti service guy, who was still open. Then Stumpy's car developed some major problem. He kept blaming the tie-rod ends, which had been replaced, until he discovered it was the driveshaft.

Anyway, then we drove back carefully and reached early morning.

quicksilver · 30th October 2007, 01:19

It's about time we had a short report, so here goes... My appologies in advance, I an unable to extract the pics and video from my camera so they will follow later. This post will only have my long, boring report.

Sat (27th Oct 2007) 7:00PM

Called Rahul and found out they were driving down, not planning to reach Coimbatore before midnight. My car needed some minor last minute adjustments so I had to take it to the garage.

Sunday (27th Oct 2007) 7:00AM

Woke up before the alarm went off (rarely do I do that

), called the Bangy boys, no response on the phone... start panicking. Can't afford to have the special guests waiting.

8:00AM

Call from Rahul, says he is on his way, will be in Race course CCD in 10 mins. Now it is my turn to rush, to get some weight off my car. Meanwhile, got a call from the Pro's and requested them to proceed to the track.

8:30AM

Driving towards CCD, I see agentsmith's red OHC going in the wrong direction. Flashed my lights and honked, he acknowledges and takes a wrong turn!

Assuming they know where they were going, I drive on to meet with the others. Reaching there we realise that v1p3r had taken agentsmith on a search to find (not so surprisingly) "Food".

We wait for a short while for them to show up. They do in 10 mins, and then go back again. We decide to head off to the track.

9:30AM

We arrived at the track by 9:00 AM, 30 mins later than planned but the weather is cool and breezy, which makes up for the lost time. After the round of registrations and tech checks, we finally head out to the pits.

10:30AM

This is where the surprise awaits us. We have on track Sanjay Balu and Gopi, both here to help the lads with their techniques. Both of them were patient enough to wait for us and then start off with the briefing. They offer to take 3 people per car on to the track to show us the lines. We hopped into Sanjay's car and the other batch got into Gopi's car and we were shown the lines to take and the techniques to get the cleanest lap possible. (Not many of us followed this, which is a different story, of course).

After about 5 laps on Sanjay's (B16) Civic and Gopi's VTec, it was time for everyone to hit the track. I started the formation lap and almost hit a 7' long cobra. Thankfully we were driving slow and I could avoid it (it seemed to have been particularly interested in Rahul's Baleno though).

Just before the first session was over, we were joined by a very special person, Mr. Vidyaprakash in his Mazda Miata. He is someone we can rightfully call the godfather of all petrol heads in Coimbatore. It was fun to watch him carefully warm up the car on the track and then push it to it's limits. His lines were flawless (I had the priviledge of following him for a couple of laps and could see him drive precisely).

Shortly after, we were joined by some more interesting people, Arjun Balu and his friends driving Gopi's Miata. Arjun took to track on Sanjay's Civic after we requested him to show us some action. Easily he set the fastest lap of the day (hell, we don't even know what time he did, but it was easily well below 1:24).

He then showed us what the Miata could do on the track. V1p3r had a ball, first with Arjun on the Civic and then on the Miata... I wish someone had captured the look on his face when he got out of the car.

12:00 Noon

The first round of breaks taken, I decided to rest my car. I had also had a spectacular (well, stupid really) spinout and decided to rest the car for a while and have it checked. Had some discussion with the veterans and realised there were minor things I can do to improve my time. Few of the tips seemed so simple but prooved very helpfull later on. Things like the right seating position, heal and toe, early turn vs. late turn, not crossing my hands on the steering wheel etc. I could have shaved off atleast 2 secs after following these and my personal best on the track was 1:29 (yea, thats true.... with an indicated top speed of 145KM/H on the straights). More than the speeds, I was able to learn how to do a clean lap.

I wish more people had used the knowledge of the professionals as they were on the track primarily to help us out. May be the lads felt a bit intimidated to approach them...

1:30 PM

Lunch time. Harrie was kind enough to go get the food for the lads. We could not get a clear head count and after several attempts, we just decided to get what ever we could and share it amongst everyone present. He came back an hour later with some nice parotta and chicken curry. Food sure tastes good when you are hungry. Thanks for your help Harrie.

2:30 PM

Back on the tracks, this time I was driving my friend's NHC. This car is almost stock except for the green cotton filter with a dynamisation kit. For all that is said about the NHC, we found the car to be good. It was very strong through the corners and the only part where it was a bit slow was on the straights. The mid section is where this car looses the battle compared to my OHC. Hopefully with headers and freeflow this can be the ultimate sleeper car. Who would have thought I'd ever say this about the NHC?

The afternoon session was interesting, with cars trying to improve their lap timing and others just trying to make a point. v1p3r did some real hard runs on Harrie's Mivec but that 1:28 was a but elusive (as discussed before, the car had massive oversteer and was said to be almost impossibe to get a clean lap). Rahuls car (mostly stock with just the CAM and Race Dynamics ECU) was very fast too. He was shifting at 5000 RPM and the car still felt very quick. I could not time him too but am sure he would figure among the top 2 of the day (leaving the professionals out... obviously, they were on a totally different league).

Some major drama and spinouts later, we decided it was time to run the drags. I felt my car had been pushed enough for a day so I sat out. AgentSmith, hope I did not disappoint you pal...

I was tired and dehydrated so decided to leave the track by 5:00.

I have not named a lot of people here, partial reason for that is I am very bad with names, please excuse me.

I thank Rahul for taking the initiative and getting the first approval to conduct a track day with regular saloon cars on the KMS. My gratitude and special thanks to Sanjay for readily accepting our invite and spending the whole day on the track. It was an honour to have others like Mr. Viddy, Gopi, Arjun on the track.

It was a day well spent and I really feel pity for the ones who could not make it to the track this time. Next time, keep aside your procastrinations and just head to the track. Nothing can beat this experience friends. Thanks for reading this long boring report, I will make up for this by posting some pics and video soon.

v1p3r · 30th October 2007, 01:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by quicksilver

v1p3r did some real hard runs on Harrie's Mivec but that 1:28 was a but elusive (as discussed before, the car had massive oversteer and was said to be almost impossibe to get a clean lap).

Actually, I did get about 3 1:28s with Harrie sitting next to me, timing me. But I was aiming for 5 consecutive laps at 1:28. I think the rear tyres could have been a bit better. G-IIIs are quite a letdown, especially compared to the Neovas up front.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Cars will be out on track by 9. Those who come late are the losers.

I was smiling to myself when I read this. Sure enough, we started only around 11 am.

29th October 2007, 14:21	#16
raghuram.cg BHPian Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 198 Thanked: 112 Times View My Garage	Can anybody put up some pics and a brief report please.... Before we have a detailed report from the pros. BTW was it raining in CBE during the track day?
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 14:30	#17
kb100 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangy Boy! Posts: 1,555 Thanked: 21 Times	Absolutely ZERO rains, and amazing weather - cloud cover with nice cool breeze through out the day - couldn't get better! Last edited by kb100 : 29th October 2007 at 14:31.
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 16:57	#19
shazikon BHPian Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 391 Thanked: 24 Times View My Garage	Raghuram, you missed out on loads of fun man.. on the track and on the way to the track..it was awesome fun driving from Bangalore to CBE via Sathy ghats.. and after getting down from the ghats the rains and the fast drive was awesome.. but comming back to Blore was a real pain.. we should have never taken the krishnagiri route..
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 17:14	#20
patriot1947 Newbie Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: coimbatore Posts: 13 Thanked: 0 Times	http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0041.jpg http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0015.jpg http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0012.jpg Last edited by Rehaan : 30th October 2007 at 00:10. Reason: link fixed
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 17:22	#21
patriot1947 Newbie Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: coimbatore Posts: 13 Thanked: 0 Times	The speed harrie touched on the straights when i sat shot gun with him. http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0030.jpg http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0086.jpg The gurus: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...7/DSC_0021.jpg
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 17:58	#23
brraj BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: bangalore Posts: 913 Thanked: 1,282 Times	Hi shazikon, When did you reach home? i reached at 11.30pm. I was lucky enough to escape 2 big traffic jams. I didnt cross 40kmph from mettur to krishnagiri and once i crossed krishnagiri it was fun to drive, I was accompanied by lot of vernas, taveras who were trying hard to overtake me but no way... I really have to thank MICHILLINE pilot precedas for the grip they gave while hard braking in wet conditions.
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 18:07	#24
pawan BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: auckland, new zealand Posts: 868 Thanked: 4 Times	a timing of all the cars would be good how was the 1/4 mile.
	() Thanks

29th October 2007, 21:57	#28
v1p3r Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: BLR / DXB / LON Posts: 5,334 Thanked: 6,896 Times View My Garage	You guys reviewing the track day or the drive back?! Lol. Ours was eventful. I slept while we crawled towards Avinashi. Then we stopped to eat. Then we had a flat, luckily right in front of a Maruti service guy, who was still open. Then Stumpy's car developed some major problem. He kept blaming the tie-rod ends, which had been replaced, until he discovered it was the driveshaft. Anyway, then we drove back carefully and reached early morning.
	() Thanks

30th October 2007, 01:19	#29
quicksilver BHPian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Coimbatore Posts: 455 Thanked: 12 Times View My Garage	Track day report It's about time we had a short report, so here goes... My appologies in advance, I an unable to extract the pics and video from my camera so they will follow later. This post will only have my long, boring report. Sat (27th Oct 2007) 7:00PM Called Rahul and found out they were driving down, not planning to reach Coimbatore before midnight. My car needed some minor last minute adjustments so I had to take it to the garage. Sunday (27th Oct 2007) 7:00AM Woke up before the alarm went off (rarely do I do that ), called the Bangy boys, no response on the phone... start panicking. Can't afford to have the special guests waiting. 8:00AM Call from Rahul, says he is on his way, will be in Race course CCD in 10 mins. Now it is my turn to rush, to get some weight off my car. Meanwhile, got a call from the Pro's and requested them to proceed to the track. 8:30AM Driving towards CCD, I see agentsmith's red OHC going in the wrong direction. Flashed my lights and honked, he acknowledges and takes a wrong turn! Assuming they know where they were going, I drive on to meet with the others. Reaching there we realise that v1p3r had taken agentsmith on a search to find (not so surprisingly) "Food". We wait for a short while for them to show up. They do in 10 mins, and then go back again. We decide to head off to the track. 9:30AM We arrived at the track by 9:00 AM, 30 mins later than planned but the weather is cool and breezy, which makes up for the lost time. After the round of registrations and tech checks, we finally head out to the pits. 10:30AM This is where the surprise awaits us. We have on track Sanjay Balu and Gopi, both here to help the lads with their techniques. Both of them were patient enough to wait for us and then start off with the briefing. They offer to take 3 people per car on to the track to show us the lines. We hopped into Sanjay's car and the other batch got into Gopi's car and we were shown the lines to take and the techniques to get the cleanest lap possible. (Not many of us followed this, which is a different story, of course). After about 5 laps on Sanjay's (B16) Civic and Gopi's VTec, it was time for everyone to hit the track. I started the formation lap and almost hit a 7' long cobra. Thankfully we were driving slow and I could avoid it (it seemed to have been particularly interested in Rahul's Baleno though). Just before the first session was over, we were joined by a very special person, Mr. Vidyaprakash in his Mazda Miata. He is someone we can rightfully call the godfather of all petrol heads in Coimbatore. It was fun to watch him carefully warm up the car on the track and then push it to it's limits. His lines were flawless (I had the priviledge of following him for a couple of laps and could see him drive precisely). Shortly after, we were joined by some more interesting people, Arjun Balu and his friends driving Gopi's Miata. Arjun took to track on Sanjay's Civic after we requested him to show us some action. Easily he set the fastest lap of the day (hell, we don't even know what time he did, but it was easily well below 1:24). He then showed us what the Miata could do on the track. V1p3r had a ball, first with Arjun on the Civic and then on the Miata... I wish someone had captured the look on his face when he got out of the car. 12:00 Noon The first round of breaks taken, I decided to rest my car. I had also had a spectacular (well, stupid really) spinout and decided to rest the car for a while and have it checked. Had some discussion with the veterans and realised there were minor things I can do to improve my time. Few of the tips seemed so simple but prooved very helpfull later on. Things like the right seating position, heal and toe, early turn vs. late turn, not crossing my hands on the steering wheel etc. I could have shaved off atleast 2 secs after following these and my personal best on the track was 1:29 (yea, thats true.... with an indicated top speed of 145KM/H on the straights). More than the speeds, I was able to learn how to do a clean lap. I wish more people had used the knowledge of the professionals as they were on the track primarily to help us out. May be the lads felt a bit intimidated to approach them... 1:30 PM Lunch time. Harrie was kind enough to go get the food for the lads. We could not get a clear head count and after several attempts, we just decided to get what ever we could and share it amongst everyone present. He came back an hour later with some nice parotta and chicken curry. Food sure tastes good when you are hungry. Thanks for your help Harrie. 2:30 PM Back on the tracks, this time I was driving my friend's NHC. This car is almost stock except for the green cotton filter with a dynamisation kit. For all that is said about the NHC, we found the car to be good. It was very strong through the corners and the only part where it was a bit slow was on the straights. The mid section is where this car looses the battle compared to my OHC. Hopefully with headers and freeflow this can be the ultimate sleeper car. Who would have thought I'd ever say this about the NHC? The afternoon session was interesting, with cars trying to improve their lap timing and others just trying to make a point. v1p3r did some real hard runs on Harrie's Mivec but that 1:28 was a but elusive (as discussed before, the car had massive oversteer and was said to be almost impossibe to get a clean lap). Rahuls car (mostly stock with just the CAM and Race Dynamics ECU) was very fast too. He was shifting at 5000 RPM and the car still felt very quick. I could not time him too but am sure he would figure among the top 2 of the day (leaving the professionals out... obviously, they were on a totally different league). Some major drama and spinouts later, we decided it was time to run the drags. I felt my car had been pushed enough for a day so I sat out. AgentSmith, hope I did not disappoint you pal... I was tired and dehydrated so decided to leave the track by 5:00. I have not named a lot of people here, partial reason for that is I am very bad with names, please excuse me. I thank Rahul for taking the initiative and getting the first approval to conduct a track day with regular saloon cars on the KMS. My gratitude and special thanks to Sanjay for readily accepting our invite and spending the whole day on the track. It was an honour to have others like Mr. Viddy, Gopi, Arjun on the track. It was a day well spent and I really feel pity for the ones who could not make it to the track this time. Next time, keep aside your procastrinations and just head to the track. Nothing can beat this experience friends. Thanks for reading this long boring report, I will make up for this by posting some pics and video soon. Last edited by quicksilver : 30th October 2007 at 01:24.
	() Thanks