The month of November has been a personal festival of speed. It all began with the Audi R8 launch in Delhi. This mid engined supercar that churns out around 500 bhp from its 4.2 litre FSI engine finally made its way over to Indian shores.
I have been a fan of the car since the first time I saw it roll out for public viewing in Paris in 2006. At a gala evening event the world finally got to see how Audi makes a supercar, and there is no doubt about it now that the R8 has become a living legend.
The Indian launch was no letdown either. Audi, it seems is oblivious to the fact that there is an economic crunch in place and spent lavishly on one of the most spectacular car launches i've ever witnessed in my short career as an automobile journalist so far.
However the icing on the cake was that the day following the launch, I found myself behind the wheel of this supercar on a handling course built for the purpose by Audi in Greater Noida, UP. I managed to clock about 1 hour behind the wheel of this car, and though I didn't get to push it as much as I would have liked to, I did manage to burn some rubber...and what a feeling that was!
That was that....I was a fan, and the R8 goes down in my books as a dream car that I intend on owning sometime soon! However, even before I could truely soak in the total experience of the R8, I found myself on assignment in Aamby Valley to take part in the Porsche World Roadshow.
So, here I was again, in speed heaven with the entire 2009 range of Porsche cars available for a days' worth of hard driving on various tracks! I had my hands full I tell you, The Cayenne GT3, the Cayman S, the 911 Turbo as well as the 911 PDK....just feeling those acceleration figures...instead of just reading about them is a total eye opener.
I have been a fan of the car since the first time I saw it roll out for public viewing in Paris in 2006. At a gala evening event the world finally got to see how Audi makes a supercar, and there is no doubt about it now that the R8 has become a living legend.
The Indian launch was no letdown either. Audi, it seems is oblivious to the fact that there is an economic crunch in place and spent lavishly on one of the most spectacular car launches i've ever witnessed in my short career as an automobile journalist so far.
However the icing on the cake was that the day following the launch, I found myself behind the wheel of this supercar on a handling course built for the purpose by Audi in Greater Noida, UP. I managed to clock about 1 hour behind the wheel of this car, and though I didn't get to push it as much as I would have liked to, I did manage to burn some rubber...and what a feeling that was!
That was that....I was a fan, and the R8 goes down in my books as a dream car that I intend on owning sometime soon! However, even before I could truely soak in the total experience of the R8, I found myself on assignment in Aamby Valley to take part in the Porsche World Roadshow.
So, here I was again, in speed heaven with the entire 2009 range of Porsche cars available for a days' worth of hard driving on various tracks! I had my hands full I tell you, The Cayenne GT3, the Cayman S, the 911 Turbo as well as the 911 PDK....just feeling those acceleration figures...instead of just reading about them is a total eye opener.
So, as I sat sliding sideways in the back of a Cayenne, while a crazed German driver showed me how to drift an SUV on an unused runway, it dawned upon me that this is what life is all about. Pushing it to the limit, living at the speed where the world around you becomes a blur, yet you remain in control. It was speed heaven.
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