2018 Volkswagen Ameo Cup

The 2018 season of the Volkswagen Ameo Cup kicked off with first round held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Volkswagen invited us to watch the actions of the Round 1 unfold up close. Apart from that, they also lent us the standard Ameo TDI to drive around the Kari in order to experience the handling capability of the compact sedan which the carmaker is so proud of. Now I have never properly driven on a race track before (if you don’t count Real Racing 3) and so, I was really excited about this session. And even though we only did sighting lap behind professional race car driver, Karthik Tharani, I still got to experience Kari at its purest.

Ahead of the driving session, Rayomand Banajee (race coach for the Ameo Cup driver’s along with Karthik) gave us a briefing about the Kari. He taught us about racing lines and also instructed us on how to hit the perfect apexes around the corners.

Following that, we were greeted by a line-up of Ameos gleaming in the morning sun. The assembled journalists were divided into pairs and Rayo took the steering wheel first with rest of us sitting as passengers, as he drove us around to familiarise us with the track. He instructed us on braking points, turn in and how to drive properly around a race track without ending up in the dirt; and boy was he smooth!

At our disposal were Ameo TDIs with either a five-speed manual or a seven-speed DSG transmission. I was very keen to experience the butter-smooth shifts of a DSG on a race-track but I ended up driving the manual variant instead.

Driving around the Kari in the Ameo

As I exited out of the pit lane, the first corner arrived quickly. That day I learned that you need to carry an appropriate speed to master the corner. All I had in my mind was Rayo’s word about outside-inside-out. But things got interesting right after, since one needs to run slightly wider in order to hit the tight apex of the right-hand corner. If you don’t go wide before the entry, you’ll need mid-corner corrections with a combination of body roll and slight sideways action. The Ameo had just the right amount of feedback from the steering and I was able to take that corner sweetly. After clearing that corner, its pedal to the metal as you easily hit the following apexes and run straight for the chicane. And the manual gearbox I was driving was quick and I was already in fourth gear before the first chicane.

The first chicane proved a bit tricky to me. As I learned later in the session, it was because I was very late to brake and had to downshift before steering the car into the left-hander of the chicane. As I was carrying slightly more speed than required while exiting the chicane, I ran wider and my left wheels veered out of the curb. I made the same braking mistake on the second chicane but this one was not as tight as the first, and with the stiffer setup of the Ameo, I was able to drive out without making a fool of myself.

The next set of corners at the Kari was dubbed Mickey Mouse by Rayo. I don’t know why, but the following parabola is fast and tricky. Tricky because it’s a double apex right-hand corner where you have to abandon the first apex and take the second one in order to maintain the racing line. The Ameo had a considerable amount of body roll here and I even heard tyres screech. But precise handling helped me keep the nose pointed where I wanted to go. The same tricky apex technique was to be followed on the left-hand corner before entering the main straight. During one of the faster laps, I was carrying slightly more speed in this section and had to brake while deep into the corner, but the Ameo remained composed and prevented me from making a fool of myself once again. On the main straight I finally could hit the fifth gear and bury the right foot.

Driving around the Kari, amateur drivers like me can learn things like – the braking points before the tight corners; one should not be hesitant in smashing the brake pedal to achieve the right corner speed. Having a good handling car like the Ameo helped a lot on a track like Kari. The German compact sedan has just the right amount of stiffness and the engine was always in the right revs to send the power to the wheels, whether it be exiting quickly out of the corner or speeding on the swift straights. There was no evident turbo-lag and the engine responded at every twitch of the throttle. And the steering needs a special mention as it was one of the most precise ones I have ever driven.

Taxi ride

Volkswagen Motorsport also arranged taxi rides in the Ameo Cup car. We have driven the Ameo Cup car and you can read all about it here. The Ameo Cup car was very dynamic and very capable in the right hands. But then VW Motorsport smugly brought out the Vento TC4-A “race car”. After a taxi ride in both the cars, I learned how docile the Ameo Cup car is compared to the maniacal Vento TC4. As I disembarked from the Vento TC4, stunned and shaking my head, Sirish Vissa, head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, smugly remarked, “That’s the difference between a cup car and a race car”. The Vento TC4 was brutal and unforgiving. It was bare boned and kicked you everywhere at every possible opportunity. Karthik was very much in control of the TC4 but even a slight miss in concentration and I saw the Karthik struggling with additional inputs to keep the beast on a leash. I hope to see the Vento TC4 in action soon.

Pictures by - Volkswagen Motorsport India