Brake, Turn & Floor it! | Skoda Slavia Monte Carlo At The Buddh International Circuit

If you are a car enthusiast, you must have seen some form of racing in your life. Be it F1, Nascar, or even WRC, watching those cars go around the track at unbelievable speeds can ignite a spark within you. A spark that makes you want to do the same, and push a car and yourself to the limits. 

I’ve had that spark feel like it was turning into a flame inside for decades, but I've never had the chance to shout “flame on!”. But I finally got a chance to let it out when I was invited to drive the Skoda Slavia Monte Carlo at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC). Yes, I know it's not a sports car, but it is a dynamically sorted sedan with a powerful engine that can give you an exhilarating feeling with its quick acceleration and stability around corners. 

Brake. Turn. Accelerate. 

Knowing how to do these three things properly can differentiate an experienced driver from an amateur. I have been driving and reviewing cars for a while now, but it was my first time on a track, and I needed to learn how to do them perfectly.

Luckily, I had an experienced instructor with me, who taught me the importance of these things in the first lap. He pushed the car around the track like it was a piece of cake. It felt like the Slavia was doing what he was thinking, following his every command without asking any questions. 

But why are these three things so important? Why should you follow this order? What can go wrong if you don’t? Let me explain. When you’re on a track, you’re going at high speeds, sometimes in high triple digits, and not just on the straights. Taking a corner at such high speeds can be dangerous, so you have to brake before you approach the corner.

Once you finish braking, only then you turn the steering wheel, as doing both together can make the car unstable, and you can lose control. Once you have finished braking, and taken the turn, then you press the accelerator, and ride the corner like a pro.

Braking while turning or turning while accelerating can make the rear slip out, which is never a good thing. So you always need to follow this order perfectly, and after the first lap, it was then my turn to do it and we switched positions.

Are You Scared?

Asked the instructor, as we came out of the pit lane and onto the track with me behind the wheel. And yes, I was. It was apparent from my loud heartbeat and nervous sweating but I was hoping no one would notice. So I decided to take it slow in the first lap, and get an idea of the track and the car’s response to my inputs.

The second lap was where things changed. I started to push the car and hit high speeds on the straights. Nothing feels better than the sound of an engine roaring as you floor the pedal and leave the wind behind. Your entire body gets pushed into the seat and you experience forces you’ve never felt before. 190kmph on the back straight of the BIC, the fastest I’ve ever been in a car I’ve been in control of. 

And then you see the turn. You ram the brake pedal as hard as you can while holding the steering wheel with all your strength. As you turn and start taking the corner, sometimes at over 100 kmph, the roar of the engine fades away and gets replaced with the screech of the tyres. If beauty had a sound, this would be it.

When you’re on a track, and pushing the car along with yourself to the limits, you stop thinking about everything. Your problems vanish, and it's just you, the car, and the open road. Nothing feels better than the connection you make with the machine, and the car starts to become an extension of your body.

So. Many. Cones.

After my experience on the track, I had to do one more thing before calling it a day. Skoda had prepared a stability round with the Slavia, and it involved three things: Slalom Test, Autocross, and Moose Text. Here is how these things went in the Slavia.

Slalom Test: In the Slalom test, I had to navigate the Slavia in between cones, without touching a single one. I started slow, kept it under 40 kmph to get an idea of the spaces between the cones. Once I was ready, I started to push the sedan, and the stability of this machine left me surprised. It went through the cones like it was nothing. Yes, it can feel a little nauseating, but if you can keep your breakfast down, you’ll have a lot of fun. This showcased the stability of the Slavia when pushed to its limits.

Autocross: A maze made of cones was the next challenge for the Slavia, and after experiencing the Slalom test, I was ready to go as fast as possible. Quick acceleration, sudden hard braking, and tyres screeching – what took minutes to do on the track, happened here in mere seconds. I wish we had more sedans like the Slavia. Quick, agile and lots of fun.

Moose Test: The moose test is more difficult to describe but essentially it involves simulating moving out of the path of a sudden object in your lane when you are traveling at high speed. You take a quick evasive turn to drive around the obstacle and then another quick turn to get back into your original lane. It’s a quick maneuver done at around 60kmph and again showcases the Slavia’s agility and stability in getting you out of a sticky situation.

I always wanted to go to a race track, but in my mind, it would have always been to watch someone else perform. However, my first time on a racing track was completely different. I wasn’t watching from a distance, or cheering for a driver. I was in the car, on the track, doing what I love the most – driving.