my Baleno: March 2007

This was one chance that I did not want to miss. Especially since I missed the last track day
organised by the Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC) in 2006 at the track at Irungattukottai,
just opposite the Hyundai factory and few kms before Sri Perumbudur.
It is like 30kms from Nungambakkam, just to give you an idea of the distance.

Track Days are events organised by the club to enable laymen like us to have a chance to
experience driving on a real track without any traffic signals or pedestrians playing spoilsport.
Drivers have two options - drive their own street cars on track OR rent cars (race Esteems or
Formula Indian Single Seater Maruti Engine (FISSME) or Formula LG Swifts or Formula LG Hyundais).

So, was eagerly waiting for the 24/25th March'07 weekend. Reached the track around 8:30AM.
Registered for a session (5 laps on the short loop) on the Formula LG Swift by paying 700 as
car rental and 300 for track rental. Well worth every second of the 10-15 minutes spent on the track.

First to go on track were the superbikes (usually 600cc and above).
All brands were there - Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha etc.

Then was a Formula car session. These cars look like the Formula cars we see in F1, but fitted
with either Maruti800 engines or Maruti Swift engines or Hyundai Accent engines. In racing/dragging,
the power to weight ratio is a big thing. A Swift engine that makes 87bhp in a normal Swift weighing
thousand kg has a ratio of 0.087. Now put the same engine in a Formula chassis that weighs just
200kg and see the ratio zoom up to 0.435.

What this means is that the car is now super quick and needs expertise to be controlled. Drive it
like you drive your street Swift and you would end up in the grass or the barriers around the track
or worse could get into a bad spin on track.

Getting into the Formula Swift was tough even for me who is just 67kgs and average frame.
The C.G. is so low that you are almost sitting on the ground with your legs parallel to the ground.
The steering is pretty tight (intentional I guess) and the gears are not as smooth as your normal car.
Since I was the first to be flagged off, I got 2 laps more than the 5 that I had paid for.

On the straight section it is fun - the car roars and speeds like mad. However, could not take my
eyes off the track to the speedometer to check the max speed. The curves are tricky if you do not
take them properly. A guy spun around in front of me at a curve and I could avoid hitting him only
because I had reduced speed while entering the curve.

There were atleast 3 Porsche cars, a Nissan Skyline GT R (700 bhp), a Mitsubishi Evo, to mention
the big names. Ofcourse there were guys racing their normal cars too (Baleno, Honda city, Ford Ikon,
Santro, Palio, Lancer etc etc).

There was also a dirt track where you could drive Polaris All Terrain Vehicles (ATV) for 5 minutes for Rs300.

Pictures :
1) The awesome Porsche Carrera 911 (this car & driver combo beat the pants of all the rest on track).