My Audi R8 Experience

MY R8 – Audi Sportscar Experience!

Opportunity knocked on my door on Friday.

It was the day after my birthday and I was given the opportunity to take part in the not so well known Audi Sportscar Experience. (A lot) More information can be obtained at www.audi.in/drive

So on a not so bright and definitely not early Saturday morning, I decided to make my way to the Sri Perumbudur MMST Race track, now one of only 3 full-fledged race tracks in India. The traffic was a mess due to the incessant rains which as usual meant Chennai roads were water logged and due to the various constructions (Metro) going on were sometimes non-existent. How I wished I had an all-wheel drive/4WD vehicle with higher ground clearance. (Note to self – check this stat on all cars that I wish to buy!)

I reached the track about 20 mins too late for the session to start, but Shelly – one of the organisers, was very nice and allowed me to still take part. Ashwin Sundar of racing fame was in the middle of a theory session and I soon settled into the theory part of driving in a car on the track. Most of you will know that I instruct on motorcycles at Indimotard’s Throttle Wide Open School usually held at the Kari race track in Coimbatore (another of the only 3 tracks in India), so for me the experience was something that I was looking forward to given the fact that I needed to know the differences in Car physics and unlearn bike physics!

We did a few minutes on over steering – when the car turns more than you want it to and under steer when it doesn’t turn as much as you want it to, followed by methods to compensate for these vehicle dynamics. The fundamental difference is that there is one! This is based on what car you are driving, how heavy it is and in the case of the R8 – what wheel drive it is! The R8 has what is known as Quattro Permanent 4WD which brings in its own component in to the equation (In lay man terms meaning that it will do a lot of the thinking for you!)

So rather than regale you all with technical data which can be found (In German!!) on the Audi Website, I will just go through the points that impressed me – a lay person when it comes to Super cars and why I liked the R8. Having said that – any vehicle that can get me from 0 to 100 in less than 4 seconds, doesn’t really take long to impress (3.9 seconds to be exact! ;))

Since I was late, I spent a few minutes reading through the disclaimer form and then with slight hesitation I signed above the dotted line. I was given an ID card and then asked to head to the cars. One of the instructors pointed to a car and said get in and then all hell broke loose!

I walked up to the car, opened the driver’s door (did I mention it’s a 2 door!) and just stood there gaping for a few seconds. There was no steering wheel, no pedals, NOTHING! What?? I hear you ask – yep, it was after those few idiotic seconds I realised that it’s a Left Hand drive! And I was on the wrong side! Oh well, one learns.

Not successfully hiding my embarrassment, I plonked my phones on the wrong side and moved to the left where the next embarrassment happened! The seat had been pulled up front and my long legs wouldn’t go in. Thankfully each car had an attender and this gentleman graciously pulled a few levers and made the seat go back so I can get in and then he handed me a helmet and a balaclava that I was asked to put on. I then started fiddling with all the small buttons in there and even honked! ;) Next surprise – err – where are the gears?? I then realised that this was a Semi-automatic – and the damn gears didn’t even have the normal P/N/D/1/2 that I have seen in pictures. How on earth would I start the car??

Whilst I was trying to figure this out, an instructor instructed ignorant me on how to put the car into automatic mode, phew I could drive. Before we started one of the other instructors then walked up and checked the radio (Walkie Talkie) and ensured it was working. The model was simple. 3 cars per instructor, all directions would be given by Walkie Talkie with us stopping and having more sessions where necessary. There were 2 batches and our first drill started. What is a drill? – A series of actions that highlight one particular aspect of driving, example – Braking, Steering Control, acceleration etc.

In retrospect, I wish I had had the second drill first but I realise it’s impossible to do it all in sequence. So the first drill I had was a braking drill. The R8 has ABS as everyone knows but perhaps what everyone doesn’t know is how you actually use it. I know the theory that its Anti-Lock Braking system and the fact that it doesn’t let you lock the car up! (Doh!) What I didn’t know was that this system can therefore allow you to steer while braking as opposed to just braking as it won’t let you skid if you swerve the steering wheel.

Let me explain, as my nice instructor did. Think of driving down a highway faster than you should! now think of a 2 wheeler with 2 adults, 2 kids and one baby suddenly coming across from nowhere (remember when it happened to you ?) Well, in a non-ABS car, you would slam the brakes, twist and turn the wheel and of course start praying. Normally what would happen is that your wheels lock up and then you skid as the wheels have no traction and you are trying to avoid them by steering. It’s a mess.

In the R8 (with a lot more practise) you can actually steer out of the way while braking. So our drill was to start and accelerate like no man’s business, enter a predefined area, brake and turn out of the area – without knocking down the traffic cones that were places strategically to mark the braking area, the turn off area and importantly the imaginative 2 wheeler with kids.

The first time was nice and easy as this was the first time I was ever in an Audi with a V10 Engine with over 5000 cc of displacement. So like the instructor said, it was a walk in the park – did I mention that he also said that at this speed I don’t have to worry as the loaded 2 wheeler had just zoomed off as I was so slow.

The second and third time, I was really on the gas and shall we just say that whilst I figured out the logic of what I was doing, the world is a little less populated now! 2 motorcycles less and a few traffic cones less.

Moving on…. The second drill we had was Slalom driving which was to give us an idea of the steering capability (which as I had mentioned, had I done this before maybe no crashes with imaginary motorcyclists!) The experience that I got on the steering exercise made me realise how heavy the car actually is – about 1700 Kgs! And therefore the stability it has is phenomenal. The steering is quite meaty, ergonomically designed and makes you feel you are in control. You don’t have to do many turns of the steering wheel to do a complete 360. Thankfully I didn’t kill anyone (imaginary or otherwise) in this drill.

We had a small break and then we went out on to the track. Yay!

The instructor car was in front followed by 3 students. And the first lap was just to explain to us the actual entry, apex and exit points and to generally show the students the “perfect” racing lines. The good thing about this experience was that the instructor was good enough to drive and also instruct the students via the walkie talkie in the car, so we knew where we were off line, where we had to step on the throttle and where to start braking etc.

On the straight, the car right behind the instructor would move out and let the other cars come in closer and the first car would become the third. This enabled each person to have a lap right behind the instructor car which added to the students value add.

We had another pit stop, where refreshments were brought to the car and we re-energised. Did one more session on the track – 3-4 laps at higher speeds, instructor led. After which there was a debriefing where we could ask questions and then we closed for the day.

It was a great experience and honestly if I could afford it I would go for the next levels, but let me just say it doesn’t come cheap! My experience with the R8 clearly opened up my eyes as to why these cars were so expensive, and it’s not just because they are “branded” or have immense amounts of power. The experience included the wipers coming on automatically when rain water splashed the windscreen, the dehumidifiers working perfectly well to ensure that vision is never affected, the grip/traction at high speeds on curves was mind-blowing. The car itself with its comfy seats, the joystick gears (which was quite easy to understand when you got the hand of it and the semi-automatic gearbox. And let’s not even talk about the adrenaline rush due to the acceleration.



Phew, all in all a Saturday well spent. Now time to think.


Pictures can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ AudiR8Experience

RTMC X!A and Munnar - My ride.

Woke up unusually early after a long ride and figured I would just put some thoughts down.

As usual, it was a kick ass ride for me. Left from Tambaram alone at 650 am on Saturday as Lakshmi refused to pick up his phone!

However, since I was alone and importantly since the weather gods were very nice, I was able to belt it to Trichy. And I mean like really belt it. The boring straight highway roads obviously helped and I think it took me like 4 hours to reach Trichy and meet the rest of the gang there.

Then went on to Dindugul and the 100K odd from Trichy to Dindugul only took an hour and 15 mins. It was starting to get hot so had to bear in mind that I was on a cast iron as well so reached there and had a long break while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up. Here we lost one person! Priyan we assumed had a seizure on his cast iron 350 and so Rajith and I went back in search of him and let the other guys ride on.

We didn’t find him and decided to head on to Kodai. Rajith and I were belting our way from Dindugul to Vatlagundu and hen the issues happened. First - I had airlock issues so petrol cap was not tightened fully, I would ride and then periodically open up while riding and managed reasonably well. Second - Rajith and I were off-roading on the dirt patches! and his Givi rack clamp gave way 2 times. Third - Third time around the case fell off. I was behind him so picked it up and put it on my tank and we rode. Fourth - One off road stretch, the combination of the points above meant my tank cap flew off!! :(

We didn’t find it despite some intense searching. Rajith fitted his rack back and we also caught up with Priyan or he caught up with us. Used a plastic cover and insulated the petrol opening. called Hari and told him to bring a tank cap to Kodai as he was in Madurai with Sakthi and Jothi.

Restarted the journey to Kodai. At Vatlagundu found Dead dog, Brij and Partner. Brij useless fellow came in his dubukku car! as he was scared of the fuel strike! Dead dogs bike was towed to a mechanic( Dead dog - we need to train you in towing and being towed!) Rajith had told the rest of the boys to carry on BUT our friend Sailesh did not see the message till the rest of the boys almost killed him for waiting SO long at the foot hills. (sorry guys - next time just kill him!)

We couldn’t sort the bike so Rajith and I carried on. Note - Rajith had high fever and was still belting it. Halfway through, we took a break and I took the lead as riding in the hills is quite stressful for the guy in front.

Eventually reached the resort, had a nice high tea and crashed. The party went on and I won’t go in to the details of shantanu crying and all here!

(next day was chilled out, and then party again!)

Monday morning, the plan was for a few of us to do a non-Madbull ride to Munnar though most were Madbulls. Woke up at 9 am. left at 11 AM! as the guys were loading excess booze in to every car possible. The Chennai group left around the same time.

Lakshmi, Jothi and I then left after getting the clutch of Lakshmi’s hybrid bike sorted. We took adventurous route to Theni that meant we did not have to descend the ghats the normal way! It was an awesome experience. Some bits like Nagari, some very beautiful stretches. 4 wheelers don’t use this route at all. But it was a really good experience!

Reached Theni and then waited for the cars to catch up and then the bikers headed off. We did some good speeds and the climb up was awesome. Stopped halfway to Munnar and took some pics at an unusually windy place. The wind was so strong the bikes were shaking when on stand.

Continued on to Munnar, tanked up and went to a resort. No mobile reach at all, so those who had to make calls had to roam the hills to get a reach.

Had a good evening and then was up at 7 to leave, but Lakshmi was still sleeping and the others had (very unusually) gone trekking!!! Rajith who had left to Ernakulum came back via Munnar and reached the resort at 9 am.

We had breakfast and left around 1030. Rajith, Lakshmi and I were riding. Rajith came up with an alternate route that I had had no idea about but decided to do it anyway.

We rode through some very good winding ghat roads. This route is not for cars as the speeds will be dismally slow. It is exciting though.

 (Bra - you useless fellow you would have LOVED this route! but you decided to

be a sissy and do a gunfight and come by car!!!!)

We were doing only speeds of 30-40 as the bends were so close together! We came through some wildlife sanctuary - and the Annamalai tiger reserve. Givi problems again but sorted it. I cannot stress how nice this ride was despite the heat.

 

Reached Karur, Lakshmi’s bike had a carb issue after a nasty bump on an unidentified object. sorted it and carried on to Perambalur. Then Rajiths bike had some electrical issues which we also sorted. Nice scenic roads on the plains. Unusually good state highways with marking and paint etc. Hit the highway at around 630 I think.

 

Took a nice long break at a hotel on the highway. Left at around 730 I think. I was in the lead as Lakshmi only had parking lights. Rajith brought up the rear. This formation riding was awesomeness! 3 bikes moving as one unit. words cannot describe this at all. the mind-set of the 3 riders, the consistent speeds, the impromptu signalling, each looking out for the other. to quote David: BLISS.

we did 100KM in 1.5 hours. stopped for chai, fixed my bikes indicators. rode to Vaigai mess and reached there also pretty fast. had a nice dinner, called all our respective contacts that we had to call had a good break and then took off.

Rajith led. I swept. Finally at exactly midnight we stopped for chai near Saidapet. And then we split up.

Awesomeness would be an understatement. I was initially upset that I did not do a night ride on Friday but yesterday made up for it big time!

Nice riding with those I did. And here’s to many more.

Maggie - as usual, great job of base contact. Despite the advent of whatsapp (thanks ex mbmc shan!:))I think we need to cooperate and utilise the base contact. it was awesome to call him on my solo bits and know where others were and who did what etc. Again, many thanks Maggie.

MAP: http://tinyurl.com/Rtmc11ARoute

A Starter in Paris

Un apéritif à Paris - A starter in Paris

Ok, so I have been back a long time and I still haven’t gotten around to putting up photos or experiences of Paris! So here goes an attempt to try and recollect what all I did. Work had been kind enough to give me an opportunity to head to Paris to meet my bosses and I as usual took the opportunity to do as much as I could in the (very) short time I was there.

Many people say Paris in a day is impossible, I would beg to differ. I believe it is possible, however, well caveated with what type of a person you really are, and what really interests you. For example, if you are gastronomic then the road side cafes, the bistros and the restaurants really will be all you can sample. On the other hand if you are in to architectural delights, then suffice to say that one day really will not be enough to cover even one of the highlights.

Paris has so many things to see and do that it is a bit difficult to choose and you need some guidance from someone. NOT the internet. Now, I am the kinda guy who would prefer to laze around on any of my holidays as opposed to do any sightseeing. So for me to go out and see Paris was a task in itself. Thankfully, I stayed in a very nice hotel called The Palm Opera  and the concierge there was very helpful and told me what to do.

Travel – He advised me to buy a one day ticket called the Paris Visite Travel Card that cost around 10 Euros that allows a person unlimited travel in the zones that you have selected and on most methods of travel. For this amount I thought it was the best as you can use the Metro / RER / Bus / Tram etc. all on one ticket. Getting used to the metro is actually quite easy and you just need to make sure you know which direction you are going to. A person (yours truly) used to the underground in London will find this very easy. So the first thing to do is to get to a train station and pick this up – which is what I did.

I wanted to definitely visit a few places: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre (but it was closed as I had gone on a Tuesday), Avenue Des Champs Elysees and anything else that I could and he suggested that I try visiting the Sacre Coeur.

So first thing he did was said if I don’t want to climb the Eiffel Tower then I should just head to the station called Trocadero so I did. The train journey was uneventful bar seeing a very guitarist busking in the metro. I didn’t realize till later that the Trocadero was also a historical place. Anyway got out at the correct station and simply followed the crowds to find this superb viewing spot that gave me some really good views of the Eiffel Tower. Hung around for a while, while I watched a small stall making some awesome crepes, but didn’t taste it as the queue was really long. 

Strike tower off the list. I had contemplated going there but one of my photos at super zoom showed hundreds of people milling around the base of the tower and I really didn’t have much time.

 

Next stop was the Notre Dame, which was some ways off so rather than get into the same station that was the Trocadero I walked a bit using a tourist map and made it to some other station that would get me to the Notre Dame. I wasn’t too fussed at any of the stations to find the actual place as you just have to follow the tourists, and trust me you know who they are! – they look just like you – lost and holding a camera!

Reached the Notre Dame this in essence is a very old and very famous cathedral. Entrance is free and it is open most days, but like every tourist place in Paris – very very crowded! Took a few photos and then decided to make the tour as well just to see what it was like inside and honestly it is really very impressive. There are huge oil paintings, very nice sculptures and the good thing was that there was a service going on so took part in it and was great to see the huge pipe organ they have there actually being played. It is a bit distracting to have tourists in the cathedral during the actual service but they managed. Took a lot of photos of the outside and as much of the inside I could.

Walked outside the Cathedral and bought myself a sandwich and sat on a bridge nearby where yet another guitarist was busking. Whilst I was wondering what to do next, I stumbled upon an alley way which led to yet another set of alleys that were filled with cafes and pubs and food joints so took a nice long walk around there. These don’t have wide enough paths for vehicles and so was full of pedestrians and to be honest looked like every type of cuisine could be found here including Biryani! Also happened to see a group of guys doing a very funky street dance which was martial artistic in nature. Don’t know what it’s called but I think its Capoeira as I remember the moves. Didn’t think if capturing on Video (doh!) but it was really nice.

Whilst continuing my walk I came upon another street and some nice water fountains. This was called the Fontaine Saint Michel also another historical monument constructed in 1858. At this place I came across a Piano Busker and he was awesome. He was sitting in the middle of the square and belting some tunes away on a real piano. I did manage to get some videos of this guy and will get around to putting it up sometime once I figure it out! I think I spent a lot of time here and even bought a CD of his as the music was really quite nice.

After this it was off to the Avenue Des Champs Elysees. Now, all I knew about this place was that it was a famous street. I realized later that this is one of the most expensive streets in the world property wise and has some of the big shopping brands. The ones that you and I possibly can’t afford – I can’t actually! However it was good fun walking along and seeing some of the stores that they have and again street side cafes and bistros. It was here that I got to also see the Mercedes Benz Galerie.  This was an awesome experience and unfortunately even the souvenirs were way too expensive here.  The best part of this was the showcase of cars from across the years.

Brilliantly enough, very close to this was a Peugeot showroom as well so took a wander around this place as well. Saw some super nice looking cars here. After this was done it was off to see one the most famous architectural masterpieces of Paris – The Arc De Triomphe.  Again for the artistic or architecturally inclined this is really good to see. All I did (as usual) was just walk around take a few photos and then decide – oh well – what next! ;)

With light going down, I was all done with what I wanted to see but decided to take my favorite concierges advice and head to the Sacre Coeur Basilica which basically means The Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre. I took a route to the correct station but was misguided to the actual cathedral not through the normal route but through back alleys and steep steps up to reach this famous basilica which was on top of a small hill. This turned out to be a good detour though as I came across some more street plays in French! And some really nice restaurants that were in the square near the basilica.

Got some nice pictures and then came across a view point that showed me a nice view of Paris. More busking and generally people chilling out on the expansive steps and lawns with some nice French wine.  Did the usual photo taking and then proceed to head back towards the station to get back to the hotel. On the way to the station came across a lot of souvenir shops and was quite pleasantly surprised when someone asked me in Tamil if I was a Tamilian! Most of the shops are owned by Tamilians/Srilankans and I was advised to go to Saravanna Bhavan if I wanted to get some good veg Indian food.  Obviously didn’t go. Headed back to the hotel and saw a nice restaurant called Le Corail Brasserie  by the side where I decided to get some food. The good thing was that one of the waitresses was able to speak decent English and was able to suggest a good meal for me. So had some nice Duck and then proceeded back to the hotel to ensure that I was early for the important meeting the next day.

So there you go, Paris in a day! Possible and doable.

I would have thought this was the end of my Paris sojourn; however my meeting was so good the next day that I was asked to head back to Paris the following week and so the next section continues.

On my second trip, which was equally short, I didn’t have much time this around as well, but happened to stay in a hotel called Edouard VII which happened to be a boutique hotel situated right bang in the middle of the city with some awesome views of the famous National Opera (L’Opera Nationale) and very walkable distance to the Louvre.  

So this time around I managed to do the short walk to the Louvre. This museum is famous for a couple of things (at least) – 1 – the Mona Lisa hangs here. And 2 – this museum has the famous Louvre Glass Pyramid that features in Dan Browns – Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately it was a Tuesday if memory serves me right and that meant the museum wasn’t actually open. Thinking about it and seeing the actual size of the museum I believe that even a week here would not do justice if you were interested in history. For me, if I had seen Mona, that would have been good enough.

Once I finished with the Louvre and the customary photographs, I headed on in search of Escargot! I had missed it the last time and as snails were a specialty I actually walked and looked for a restaurant that had these. I finally found a nice small restaurant called the Café de L’Olympia that had an open air area and enjoyed eating these fishy things! J The waiter here was very helpful and even showed me how to eat them. He was especially nice to say that the steak that I wanted was actually raw meat and therefore I may not find it quite palatable.

Headed back to my hotel and took a few pictures from the balcony and then called it a day.

Phew, there it is. Done and Dusted. Now to figure out how to get the videos online.

If you survived this far, thanks for reading and I hope you now know that Paris in a day is definitely doable for a guy like me ;)