In the Audi pit, a quick briefing on safety, driving techniques and the track by Aditya Patel was followed a quick cup of coffee and then a dash to grab a helmet and a balaclava. There would be a dozen laps around the circuit. That was good news for sure but what was better was the choice of cars at our disposal – the sweet and nimble TT, the wonderful S5, the ultra powerful estate RS6 and the fabulous RS7.
With Aditya leading us in a convoy that kept going faster and faster we were never unsure of our lines. Audi had also helpfully placed cones to mark the turn-in point, apex and exit at each corner. So in effect it became a matter of joining the dots as we stitched one corner to the next, first in the TT then in the RS6 and then finally the RS7 for me. Although the power outputs for each one of these is more than enough to scare the average Joe witless, what I found on the track was that these cars are amazingly easy to drive. You expect a 230-PS sportscar to be fast and at 560 PS things can only become furious, right? Well, the TT is fast and the 560-PS RS6 and RS7 have fearsome acceleration but with Audi’s signature quattro permanent all-wheel-drive technology working in close collaboration with a host of other techno-gadgetry, you don’t find yourself completely out of depth in these machines, which is saying a lot.
In the TT of course it’s a fantastic experience since you can get on the gas pretty quickly and the car just sorts itself out, irrespective of whether you’re on the hairpin that is Turn 2, the tight set of left-right flicks through Turns 4,5 and 6 or the sweeping parabolica. With the RS6 and the RS7 things are trickier, courtesy the extra weight and with more than double the power at your disposal. You’ve got to brake earlier and set up the car for a nice smooth entry, wait till the car comes around the apex and then get on the gas as soon as the car has straightened out. While on the TT the acceleration coming out on to the back straight is really fast, the acceleration with the bigger cars is tunnel-vision fast. The numbers on the speedo reading of the head up display of the RS7 faster than I could count on my head before I found myself braking really hard just after the bump at the end of the back straight.
Twelve laps later I found myself grinning wider than I ever had. Once the rush of adrenaline and the boyish excitement had died down a little I also realised that during the course of just over 61 km (the circuit is 5.14 km long), I had gained a wealth of experience. I now had a much better idea of what 560 galloping horses truly felt like, which meant I had much greater respect for the car and its abilities. I knew how hard I could really brake, which could potentially be a life-saver in an emergency and I also had a fair idea of how hard I could turn into a corner, which also meant that I knew just how hard I could swerve to avoid a potential crash.
On the whole, it was a wonderful Friday spent. Apart from a set of laps around the Buddh with a genuine racer as our guide, each one of us there came back with fresh knowledge of what we could (or couldn’t) accomplish with our driving abilities and how hard we could actually push ourselves. We also learnt how much these modern cars are really capable of and it gave us fresh perspective because you suddenly realise that you will reach the limits of your own abilities far quicker than the car will lose its own. But most importantly, it was a day of learning mixed with a huge dollop of fun an excitement.
