[Steeroid]

Nice to hear that you guys are having fun out there. Unfortunately cant see the pics as I am currently in a place where any of those photosharing sites are prohibited.....

Look forward to a FULL tour report.

[n_aditya]

Man u guys had a lotta fun... the pictures are awesome... the black vtec looks like a real killer.... the bikes are way too cool... nice report and pics... thanks guys...

[Sideways]

Thank you all for the fantastic turnout. We couldnt have pulled this one off without you guys. I hope you all had a good time. I would appreciate your feedbacks both negetive and positive so that we can incorporate changes for the next track day.

I am truly overwhelmed at the response and enthusiasm shown. i would like to thank all team Bhpians form Chennai and bangalore who turned up at the track. look forward to seeing you all at the next one. Thanx again.

Note from Mod - pls PM sideways with specific feedback to avoid confusing the thread

[sAP]

Originally Posted by ajmat

One of India's A1 GP drivers and an instructor at Silverstone - Karun Chandhok!!! Very nice guy - no airs and most important no nonsense

Thanks Ajmat. Want to appreciate Karun Chandok for that briefing, for introducing me to Ayub Khan for the pace-run request and for personally showing me where the finish line is!

sAP

[v1p3r]

Hey

Just woke up ... anyway....WOW!

What a weekend, all the saving up and running around to make sure I could get my car, so worth it. As usual, after a track day, my mind is blown!

Big shout out to Mohnish, whos tyres, wheels and universal filter I ran on Sunday. My tyres were chewed, and one blew, so we switched for the day. The Baleno was MUCH quicker off the line with just a filter, considering I was running 40mm extra treadwidth, so performance airfilters DO perform!

Well, I won't bore you with details, but I got a couple of blinding laps in, only to get pipped by 0.2 secs by Mohnish. Also, spun off at 120 kmph twice!

Chennai crowd, Sawan, Farhaan, JD, Karun, Praveen, Ayub, Krupesh, and Rohan, and all those who I met, THANK YOU!!!

[sAP]

Here are a few:

1. A detailed track layout on the notice board
2. Publish best lap times of each vehicle (on all sessions)
3. A souvenir for every participant (a paper plaque perhaps?)
4. A locker facility

sAP

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by sAP

Here are a few:

1. A detailed track layout on the notice board
2. Publish best lap times of each vehicle (on all sessions)
3. A souvenir for every participant (a paper plaque perhaps?)
4. A locker facility

sAP

Noted. Thank you. Will take it up in the event de-brief

Please note: - As mods have sugested, kindly PM me with your comments.

[v1p3r]

Monster on the prowl




Coffee Break: The old and the new




I'm on a long and winding road...




The price of fun...and those are 205s...




Honda vs Suzuki...the battle continues...

[v1p3r]

The Baleno didn't disappoint on track. Even with my ragged driving style, I clocked 1.23.368...Mohnish, with a much smoother style, got in a 1.23.129...body roll is evident, but the Baleno is sprung to be comfortable on almost any terrain, so it's a happy tradeoff.

The torque and power are evident, and if you don't have the right throttle inputs, your inside tyres are always scrabbling for grip. And with my trigger/throttle-happy driving style, I'm always shredding tyres through the corners... On the straights, the Baleno keeps up with the Vtec because of the gearing...the shift points are suited to the last corner and the straight after...

The Vtec didn't do so bad, as some posts suggest. OHCs are scheduled for a suspension revamp around the 40k mark, so the wallowing rear was always expected. Anyway, a lot of respect for Ajmat, who put his car where it matters, on track, not on talk.

[Samurai]

This must have been an amazing experience.

Just wondering, I see many cars driving with their window down. Won't wind-drag matter here? I thought aero-dynamics would suffer if your windows are down during racing.

[v1p3r]

Samurai, the experience is U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-E-A-B-L-E!!! I went back, with some doubts, thinking that this time the novelty would have worn off, but it's all good! Highly recommended, even as a family holiday, which is what some people made of it!

The windows are 80% wound up, because in case of a topple, people tend to stick hands out, and break them. The 20% opening helps in ventilation, since no one uses ACs on track. And with maximum speeds of 150-160, I don't think aerodynamics play a major part.

[Mpower]

For safety reasons it is recomended that the window be down. In case the cars rolls over, you can climb out without having to break it open.

But its catch 22 because your head can also pop out during a roll. That is why, in Nascar (and other tin tops) you have to have the window down and a window net to hold your helmet in.

[Edmund]

Whoa V1p3r sounds like you and everyone else had a ball of a time, we need some action here too!!!

[v1p3r]

Ajmat, just re-read your post, with the bit about how the City sucks on track. Truth be told, it was the only other car I really wanted to drive on track, after all the threads comparing it to the Baleno. I guess I have to wait a while longer...

BTW there was another black OHC. Pretty much dead stock. The guy was also clocking 1.23.xxx...it's down to the rubber and driver...both the drivers had track experience before, so I wouldn't say the car is too bad on track.

[mclaren1885]

Date : 4th feb 2006 ..
Time : 2:30 AM ..

Just left from my house in a maruti 800 to pick up a freind from TGIF , and then head to v1p3r's place so that we could leave to chennai .. 4:15 AM , psycho , vasu ,v1p3r , sunil and myself regroup near the K.R.Puram cable bridge and head to chennai at 4:30 AM ...

The journey was quite ok , with heavy fog at a few stretches .. Constant speeds of 100-120 km/hr in the conti(psycho and vasu) and the baleno(v1p3r , sunil and myself) .. Breakfast at palamner , which took most of 30 min .. Psycho happened to lock the conti keys in and closed all the doors manually .. Soon after breakfast we took to removing the key and in the next 5 mins we were off on our way to chennai .. Reached the track at 9:30 sharp , only to be greeted with a big warm smile from JD.Madan and Karun Chandok .. Then we wait for the old mens gang ( read rudra , ajmat and jaggu) to arrive .. Briefing started off at 10:00 , a bit off schedule .. This is where we indians are bloody brilliant .. Even a brilliant track event such as this one couldnt get out of bed early and head to the tracks ..

Briefings done and and we are asked to get the cars in for the tech check .. Having completed the registrations , the tech check done we were all set to burn some rubber on track ..


Session 1 (Cars) : Nitrous rides shotgun as i take the wheels of the baleno .. 1st out of the pits behind ayub , the current track esteem class champion .. We were asked to follow him to learn the lines .. 3 warm up laps and ayub hit hot pace .. Me trying to keep up with him in the baleno ..

All was well until the 4th lap , when into C2 i overcooked the breaking point and spun slightly .. Then hit the track and got on pace only to be pushed hard by none other than the current 1400 class INRC champion Sanjay Agarwal to make some hot laps .. The rally driver got me all pumped up and managed to stay ahead of him for a good 8 laps and even managed a lead over him (earlier he was all over my back falshing lights) .. I knew the baleno was bloody quick around the track & with the last experience decided to go all out .. Got in some quick laps , the tyres already having done a previous event such as this started to struggle for grip around C1, a high speed righthander at the exit of the backstraight with speeds in excess of 100km/hr .. So decided to ease off and let sanjay go past and thought about waiting for ajmat so that i could have a battle and also get to see how the VTEC performed around the track .. Easied of a bit too much and withing no time saw ajmat coming in close , just as i thought i would let him go past on the back straight and then watch the VTEC on track we were flagged off for that particular session .. The e-zen was pretty quick however the baleno was maintaining the same gap around the lap, however the baleno was all over the red VIVA's rearend around the inner section whereas that car sped away on the straights (heard the VIVA had some good mods , more from rdkarthik on that) .. Damn, the session got over pretty darn fast .. The conti didnt do quite well on track , primararily bcoz of the weight factor and had to retire soon ..

Pulled into the pits only to let the bikes session start , it was nice to see poncho , stan and gang hitting on the superbikes and doing some amazing speeds.. That blue, stage II 1000rr does move quick .. Couldnt watch much of the race as we were busy getting ready for the next session .. V1p3r took over the wheels of the baleno .. Whereas psycho took on the wheels of the sienna ..

Session 2 (cars) : the session started and psycho's gunning the sienna .. Up ahead of us was ajmat in the black VTEC .. The car is bloody quick on the backstraight however it was a bloody handful on the inner section of the track .. To add to that ajmat was hitting in too hot INTO the corners and then sliding/drifting and trying hard to stay on track.. Just b4 C4 , i thought the VTEC broke all loose and would go off the track into the grass and way off it .. Was asking psycho to back off bcoz i could see the rear of the VTEC twitching in all directions , however i must say that ajmat did pretty darn well to prevent the spin off .. Further up ahead we could see the baleno with the blue-boy starting off from where he left off last time .. However unlike the last time our drift-king decided to stick to racing lines , and eventually went so hot into C2 (i think) that he spun off twice up ahead of us .. Once he spun so far that he was way off the kerbs onto the grass and we had the balenos grill facing us .. Coming back to the sienna that we were in , that car had spacers and effectively was a potential danger if one pushed it too hard .. There were more than 5 times when we could feel the left wheels literally taking off the ground .. V1p3r even managed to see the sienna on 3 wheels at one of the corners .. The gear knob came off and psycho was doing a great job in keeping the car from loosing traction .. 1st time on track , and im impressed with psychos confidence and ability to learn quick .. I think it was just before the flaggin off that ajmat shredded his left front tyre and decided to retire the VTEC for the event.. End of session and we came in to let the bikes session start ..


Once that the lunch was over , we realised that the conti wasnt doing well so decided to give it a break for the rest of the day .. So vasu and psycho decided to stick behing the wheels of the baleno and v1p3r and myself called it off for the day .. Soon after lunch , there was another briefing accompanied by a warning to all NOT TO RACE ON THE INNER SECTION as it was getting potentially dangerous with a few trying to dive down the inside and calling for some unwanted risks ..


Session III (cars) : The next session saw vasu and me in the baleno with me riding shotgun , and psycho and ajmat in the track esteems .. Was out teaching vasu the racing lines as it was his 1st attempt at track (he is bloody quick on a 1/4 mile though) .. At 1st he was all confused bcoz of the whizzing past from others cars , so we decided to let the others cars pass until his comfy levels grew.. Soon we began to build decent speeds , but the highlight of that session was to see psycho wizz past us 4 times in ayub's championship winner esteem .. He was pretty amazing and was setting the track atleast ahead of us on fire .. At the end of it , when we came into the pits we heard ayub telling psycho that he was damn good for a 1st time attempt on the track esteems .. The track esteems were so quick that i actually planned to rent them out for myself for one session , but ran out of luck as they were all booked .. So had to sit out of the last car session of the day ..


Session IV (cars) : As we all waited for the last session to start , psycho and monish headed out in the baleno , vasu in the track esteem while the rest of sat on the pit wall and watched the others burning rubber .. We could see psycho pushing the baleno , at once he pushed so hard that at the penultimate corner all hell broke loose and the baleno fishtailed in every possible direction and went on the grass .. Must say that it was a hair raising experience to see the baleno do that .. Later we figured out that psycho hit the rear wheel onto the kerbs and hence the car went out of control and he came into the pits and retired.. All in all it was a wonderful 4 sessions with the cars , with only more promising stuff to come next with the FISSME's ..

Rest of the report coming up .. Need to get some well needed sleep for now ..