Q.Driving my daily driver on the Buddh International Circuit

[QUOTE=MotuSid;n15062]Anyway, the only things I could do to give my car a bit of a boost on the track was to make sure everything was in working order, get good quality fuel (93 Octane, not too expensive and would make at least some difference) and REMOVE UNWANTED WEIGHT. If you take that last point seriously, I should have myself replaced with [USER="20"]NikilSJ[/USER] for best performance - anyway, my car's yearly service had just been completed so I asked the guys at the garage to give it a thorough look over. Tyres, suspension, brakes, transmission, engine-oil, coolant, belts etc. were looked at properly. Then, to their amusement, I asked them to take all the seats - except of course the driver seat - off. [/QUOTE] I don't think that would have helped as you are definitely the better driver among the two of us. Like you said, I do wish you had someone to take you out on a lap in your car before you took the hot seat. I like all the weight saving measures you did to your car. It looks like a completely different machine altogether at least on the inside. When I saw the lap times, I was glad you could beat that Mini Cooper, but then I read this.. [QUOTE][FONT=arial][SIZE=13px]I came dead last - don't get excited about me beating the Mini Cooper S, the guy did not know how to drive and he was stopped by the stewards after the third lap for dangerous driving. Shame.[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE] Still, it's a good lap time for a puny little Maruti without any modifications whatsoever. Looking at upgrading anything on the car now? [USER="135"]JOY MRC[/USER], personally, I'd suggest you try the MMRT first. I like that track more than the BIC. Sure, the BIC is one of the best and fastest track in the world. But nothing can beat the thrill of driving around the MMRT as you have limited or no run off areas at all. Also, since BIC is humongous, the cars don't look that fast when you are viewing them from the pit lane or any of the stands. That's not the case with MMRT though. At the MMRT, you have to be constantly on your toes and the bump just before the start-finish straight is one of the most scariest, hair-raising experience you can get. I had the opportunity to drive a BMW 530d on the MMRT a couple of years ago and boy do I still remember every lap I could squeeze out at the time in my mind. Later, one of the instructor took me out on a BMW M3 - the one with the V8. We were going sideways on almost every corner. It was the most fun I've had out on the track. The second being my passenger lap in [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER]'s Laura at the BIC before this track day.

[QUOTE=JOY MRC;n15153]I hope I can do it too someday.[/QUOTE] Sure you can, Vik Kryptonite (in the first sheet)/Vivek (in the second sheet) drove all the way from Bangalore with his wife to attend this track day. Was driving a Laura vRS TDI.

Brilliant write up [USER="18"]MotuSid[/USER] .The Enthusiasm can really be felt reading it.Taking your own car to the track is indeed a dream come true moment.I hope I can do it too someday.You can be my Sifu by then :)

[QUOTE=kaiserketkar;n15127]To take a stock car and push it to the limit on a F1 track![/QUOTE] I would have loved it if I had more time and some guidance though - I should have kept the front passenger seat and asked a track veteran like [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] or [USER="154"]Prithwi@NASA[/USER] show me how it's done. My inexperience of driving front-wheel-drive cars on track was very evident.

[QUOTE=Arjun;n15094]So your experience was something more like a Star in a reasonably priced car[/QUOTE] Haha, that's a bit too much. [QUOTE=Arjun;n15094]The Zen seems to have come around just like another day at work[/QUOTE] Oh yeah - except for some niggles over its life, the Zen has been carrying on strong for almost twelve long years.

[QUOTE=Roshun;n15090]That's an excellent write up of your track experience[/QUOTE] Thanks for the compliment, it just flowed out one boring evening at work [QUOTE=Roshun;n15090]Driving your daily driver on the track is a brave thing to do, considering just a few laps of the track can shave off nearly 5000 km of life from your brake pads and tyres.[/QUOTE] My tyres are are doing fine now, brakes are experiencing a bit of fade now though that could be because of wet roads too. Let's see [QUOTE=Roshun;n15090]Of course, for a car like the Zen, it's easy to push it to its limits on this circuit[/QUOTE] Yeah, you can oush it to its limits on normal roads - that's the beauty of it [QUOTE=Roshun;n15090]My current crop of vehicles would all be clowns on the track :-D[/QUOTE] That would be fun though, I felt like I was clowning about too that day

Wow [USER="18"]MotuSid[/USER], that's a dream for most of us here... to take a stock car and push it to the limit on a F1 track! Awesome write up!

[URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/18"]MotuSid[/URL] So your experience was something more like a Star in a reasonably priced car segment of Top gear when the rest if the circuit was full of stigs in sports cars. No matter what your position was, its still a great experience, and your car did stand strong. With most of the cars showing brake issues on the track , the Zen seems to have come around just like another day at work. Good job.

That's an excellent write up of your track experience [URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/18"]MotuSid[/URL]. The enthusiasm shines through. Driving your daily driver on the track is a brave thing to do, considering just a few laps of the track can shave off nearly 5000 km of life from your brake pads and tyres. Of course, for a car like the Zen, it's easy to push it to its limits on this circuit, as the track is capable of handling nearly twice the Zen's top speed. I would like to own a track worthy car someday - my current crop of vehicles would all be clowns on the track :-D

I finally did it! [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15063[/ATTACH] It had been a dream of mine to drive [URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/topics/car-and-bike-research/cars-in-india/8435-fun-to-drive-cars-for-under-rs-3-lakh?p=8447#post8447"][B]the Devil's Ride[/B][/URL] on the Buddh International Circuit. Not that I have not driven there before, I have been lucky enough to drive many powerful and fun-to-drive cars on the track over the years, but the right opportunity never arose when I could take my own bruised-and-battered daily driver on the track. That changed earlier last week when I asked [USER="42"]CorsaVeloce[/USER] by chance if any track days were coming up for NASA - the Northern Auto Sport Association boys. And there was one on Sunday - 24th July 2016. So, Vidit got in touch with [USER="154"]Prithwi@NASA[/USER] to let me join the gang headed for the track that day, which he thankfully agreed to. Here are a bunch of people who have spent time and energy tuning their cars and in between comes a stock-car noob with stars in his eyes - romantic people are hard to deal with! Anyway, the only things I could do to give my car a bit of a boost on the track was to make sure everything was in working order, get good quality fuel (93 Octane, not too expensive and would make at least some difference) and REMOVE UNWANTED WEIGHT. If you take that last point seriously, I should have myself replaced with [USER="20"]NikilSJ[/USER] for best performance - anyway, my car's yearly service had just been completed so I asked the guys at the garage to give it a thorough look over. Tyres, suspension, brakes, transmission, engine-oil, coolant, belts etc. were looked at properly. Then, to their amusement, I asked them to take all the seats - except of course the driver seat - off. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15064[/ATTACH] Removing the seats, especially the rear ones meant a lot more of the noise from around the car was audible inside. The fuel pump was constantly whirring in the back, I could hear the suspension at work - it was a revelation. I planned to remove the spare tyre at the track - kept it just in case something went wrong. Went to a trusted tyre guy and got the wheels balanced and aligned, asked them to check the tyres too - though they are brand new anyway. Meanwhile there was a slight issue with the track sessions. NASA was supposed to get two sessions that day - but that was cut down to one, Prithvi had the tough job of deciding which 18 cars, of the previous 36, could now participate in the track day. Thankfully I was not bumped off the list, yay! Reporting time at the track was 9:30AM - at least the air and track temperature wouldn't be too harsh! I borrowed a full-face helmet from [USER="88"]Stig-Wannabe[/USER], cleaned my special driving shoes (soft sole, gives good pedal feedback) and kept a fresh set of underpants out. I wasn't able to sleep too well that night - partly because of the excitement and partly because one of my wisdom tooth had decided to begin its long journey out of the gum. I was up and ready by 6:30, got ready - checked the facebook page where Prithvi was constantly updating the details of the track day and a new update had been posted stating that our reporting time had been shifted to 10:30, which meant we would be on track by 11:30 only. Drat! I headed out by 8-ish, with an aim to reach the track by 10:30. I wanted to have as much fuel on board as possible - the round trip from home till the track was around 150km, and I would be driving flat out on the track. Even after maintaining a steady speed under 80kmph I reached there around 10! We were kept waiting near the first barrier by the guards till Prithvi came along and called up the track guys. My heart was pumping hard by the time we reached the parking lot. I felt puny in the company of cars like Prithvi's tabahi of a Laura vRS. Check out the other cars [URL="https://www.facebook.com/NorthernAutoSportsIndia/"]over at NASA's facebook page[/URL]. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15065[/ATTACH] Got ourselves registered - paid the one time fees and signed an indemnity bond. They give you wristbands, different colours give you different levels of access at the track - the green one gives you access inside the track, but not to drive on the track. The black band gives you the right to drive on the track, a yellow one lets you be a passenger in car that will be driven on the track, the red one lets you bring your own photo equipment and go around the track to take photos. Each access level will cost you a set amount of money. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15066[/ATTACH] The car also needs to have a sticker pasted on it which indicates the session(s) it will be participating in [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15068[/ATTACH] All the drivers have to go through a briefing in the stewards room at the track - it is a crazy place. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15067[/ATTACH] It was time to head on to the track - I decided to head out early (a decision that may have cost me time, in hindsight). I removed the spare wheel also, and kept it just outside the pits [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15069[/ATTACH] ^that photo was taken after the session was over - a bit tired but I was very happy on the inside. I drove a total of 10 laps of the track of which 8 were timed, the time sheet of all the cars on the track are as below [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15070[/ATTACH] I came dead last - don't get excited about me beating the Mini Cooper S, the guy did not know how to drive and he was stopped by the stewards after the third lap for dangerous driving. Shame. I was improving my time though as is evident in the following timesheet [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15071[/ATTACH] I was obviously losing time on the straights - the maximum speed I could touch was 150ish on the odo, which is 142ish according to the GPS. I had trouble with selecting the right gear at the third, fourth and sixteenth turn and the car was understeering like crazy on the first, third, fourth and sixteenth turns. I loved the technical section of the track between turns five and fourteen - which includes the huge parabola section, I can proudly say I did not use the brakes throughout this section instead relying on the throttle to control my speed. The car did not throw any surprises throughout the session apart from one - I was braking after the back straight on to the fourth turn and it suddenly decided to go left, closer to the wall at quite high speeds, I have no idea what happened, but I was in control. The tall gears and the understeer-y nature of the car in general was a big challenge. I should have let everyone start ahead of me, them speeding off in the straights would have given me the space and time I needed to get my lines proper, instead I spent a lot of time making sure nobody rear ended me as they caught up with me before a corner. Well, lesson learnt. I was not disappointed with my car even a bit, I think it is a respectable time considering it was the first time I drove it on the track - given more time I could have improved my time. But the track taught me why my car is best suited for the street - and where it falters as a track car. Anyway, you did very well my love. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n15072[/ATTACH] This was the first time, and will be the last time, I take my car onto the track. I may take in to the track again if I make any modifications, but that is another dream which may or may not come to fruition. For now, I feel ZEN.