I could account half my life's achievements to Orion Racing India! Probably the major attitude shaping came from ORI! But then everything comes with a price! No no I did not lose my girlfriend because of FSAE since FSAE has been termed as,"When you just cant get rid of a girlfriend!". These things are potential relationship killers! No I did not lose touch with my family as well! I just felt like I'm introduced to a new world and everytime you look at a car or even drive one, your mind just goes like the movies where the mechanism starts animating your mind!
Initially the phase seemed really good! Yea chics were impressed when they see your Business Card and when you keep talking about Germany and stuff! I wasnt doing it to impress them anyway! So finally when you learn a lot application becomes binding! And you finally apply your new found knowledge to those menacing machines and a sense of satisfaction then touches you! Oh yes, your myths busted and probably a smile breaks on your face thinking how dumb you were to either believe whatever someone said back then or not applying general physics to understand the working!
Anyway, Claude Rouelle told me,"The more you know, the more you dont know!". Pragmatists will totally agree with this line! I did too! I attended his seminar and I really have a feeling he's injected me with a concentrated dose of Vehicle Dynamics that now too much application can be detrimental to self, might even cause permanent mental trauma! Infact the fever started ever since I got my certificate that day! On my way back I had taken the Volvo with "Air Suspension"! Wow! The bus was rocking and I was actually thinking about the roll frequency! Everytime the bus braked or accelerated the squatting and diving came to my mind, weight transfer on the wheels, thinking which ones were getting worn out faster!
Funnily this is only the starters! Things are about to get worse! Some of you'll might have serious facepalm moments! Anyway here it goes, I took the purple Kinglong bus once! I was really happy that we had Air Conditioned buses in that scorching heat! However all my happiness was about to be shifted into reverse gear! They were Chinese! Damn! What dampers are they using? I sat in the bus and it zoomed off the stop! Automatic gears! Sweet! Just that the bus couldnt take the load when the momentum broke on braking! Moving on, extra soft springs! Great takes the bump real good, but what about the vibrations then? I'm sure they used the damper to get rid of the Transient state but then the dampers are Chinese! Steady state amplitude becomes too high to make the ride uncomfortable!
I was never a patient of motion sickness! But the extreme roll frequencies just made me one! God, dont they use an ARB? You're sitting in the bus and you can actually feel your blood going from left to right 100 times a second! I could hear my heart beating! Finally I get off the bus only to see the check valve was again Chinese! What a disappointment!
I finally met a friend of mine after a long time! We're sitting at an exclusive coffee outlet and talking. However my mind races like the Ferrari! I could see all cars moving, and suddenly the sky was filled with mathematical equations predicting various damping equations and temperatures and kinds of chassis and what not! Some cars looked stable, some looked they were made for BAJA, some looked like they can be driven only the Expressway! I could hardly have the 500 bucks coffee! My friend's best attempts to talk me out of it were probably the most failed ones in life! I'm observing the tires and my mind smirks,"Ha, he's using JK! He's not going over a year and half with them! Buy Michelin!". Then you have others with real bad weight transfer issues causing even the rims to bend bad! Shit, do they even design the car properly?
Anyway I took a Hyundai car once to some place. These guys actually believe soft is good! Okay I prefer softer springs but not the ones that have their static deflection equal to the maximum compression! Then you feel like you're riding a boat on the road! Streamlined stuff! On the other end of swing balance is Maruti Suzuki! Extra hard springs so that your car remains stable but your ass doesnt! You might actually come out with a sore ass after a long ride! My Indigo has some hybrid of Japanese and Chinese technologies! Initially it was as brilliant as the Japanese tech! Super sexy dampers and springs and stuff! In 1 year I feel I'm riding a bullock cart now, probably worse than Chinese! Never trust Tata, Golden rule of life!
Then I was off to Tiger point once! Where my beloved Indigo got stuck on a steep slope! Shifted into one, revved the engine to 4000 rpm and let the clutch go and boom the car was up the slope! Then I could smell the tears from my engine! And another animation comes to light! The one of the piston rings getting their asses rubbed against the cylinder walls! Aah, they get worn out, engine oil is boiled and my intake charge enters the crankcase! Aah, I'm gonna need some Positive Crankcase Ventilation! Probably a new set of piston rings, a better tension fan belt!
Worst was during exams! I'm waiting outside the cabin of my life's deadliest professor for the deadliest vivas of my life! When my mind should be thinking all about engines, this car walks up near me. I happen to glance at the tires, by now its a reflex action! Apollo! God help him! Then you look at the tire pressure! I'm sure he was running low on it looking at the shoulder! It was like almost pressed to the ground! And the world opens up again! Shit his tire shoulders are tired, what about the contact patch! We should get a pressure sensitive strip! Tire stiffness, all his suspension settings will be screwed!
These are times when I feel I should be admitted to Shutter Island! I have literally gone mad! My life has become something really animated! Hope I can find a good enough damper to kill the transient vibrations! Cheers!
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