We have ignition..........., acceleration and whoa, even before we are motoring the script calls us to throw down the anchors!
Welcome to the world of the ultimate performance test: the zero - hundred - zero stint, long the purview of some of the world's fastest cars. But given the abundance of petrol-heads at this magazine, we decided to subject 17 of India's top automobiles, (and dare we say it, ourselves!) to this test - AN INDIAN EXCLUSIVE! - which brings into sharp focus the combination of a car's bottom end thrust with its retardation capabilities. The results are mind-blowing! Rev on, er read on....

It has become a sort of a tradition at OVERDRIVE to do what has never been done before, at least in India - and we have always been saving the best for our anniversary issue. Last time around we had the mega fuel efficiency test for cars and the handling tests. This time we have come up with something even more exciting, to set pulses racing and hearts thumping. Ladies and gentlemen, take your seats as we roll out 17 of the fastest cars available in India for the zero-100kmph-zero face-off! There is no better way of testing true straight line performance and the zero-100kmph-zero test has been the benchmark for performance testing - acceleration and braking - the world over.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well our task began more than a month back when we began configuring our Datron laser test equipment for the mega test - trigger off the data recording as soon as the speed ceases to be zero, make sure that the speed is over 100kmph but not over 101kmph when the brake switch is pressed and stop the data recording as soon as the speed touches zero again. Once we had the test equipment configured came the task of locating a strip of tarmac with a well paved surface devoid of any traffic, and of a sufficient length - we figured on at least a quarter mile length, but preferably longer. As it turned out a 400m strip would have served fine but we settled on one much longer even though it was a good 50km out of Pune. VRDE was out of the running because after the spy scandal there about a year ago, they are very strict about it being a restricted area and no photography is allowed there, except by a photographer designated by them. And since we wanted to capture the excitement and action of the ultimate performance test, we had to look for a place other than the one where we do all our testing.

The methodology for the testing was quite simple - well at least it did sound quite simple till we did some dummy and practice runs about a week before the actual testing was to take place. The idea was to do four clear runs, two in each direction, take the best run from either side and take their average. The cars would all have near tankfuls of fuel (topping up before starting from Pune, where we checked the tyres, air pressure in them, etc). We would start from a pre-designated point, the co-passenger reading out the speed from the test gear display mounted on the windscreen so that the one driving at that moment could brake exactly at 100kmph. As it turned out, it wasn't the cakewalk it seemed. We could not rely on the car speedometers (many magazines do so in India) as they are usually highly inaccurate, and making the adjustment of stepping on the brakes in response to audio inputs from the co-driver took time to perfect so that we were braking as close to 100kmph as possible, usually before the 100.25kmph mark, which was the next line in the printouts we generate from the equipment at the end of every run.
Then there were all the launch techniques that we had to switch to, from car to car, revving the engine upto the right rpm, easing out the clutch and feeding in the power, to maximise traction and avoid excessive wheelspin. There were of course, no cars in our Indian line-up that we could launch with the side-slipping of the foot off the clutch with the right foot holding the revs right up there in the middle of the meaty portion of the powerband. As much as the braking bit was easy on the cars sporting ABS (anti-lock braking system), it was quite difficult on the rest of the cars, with pressure having to be modulated to just the right degree, enough to bring the car to a halt in the shortest possible time but not sending the car into a free-for-all slide, and ruining the tyres at the same time. And unlike our road tests where we do the brake test from a speed of 80kmph, here the braking was commencing from a higher speed and exposing new facets of many a car's braking character.

Although the track we did the zero-100-zero testing on was different from the track at VRDE with a different surface, the times we got here are quite similar to the ones we get at VRDE. Technically, it is not advisable to compare the times for this test with the others we do at VRDE and the comparison should be limited to the cars tested at this track, if you are just looking for off the cuff comparisons, I'd say that it would not make too much of a difference. We had immense fun putting the cars through their paces and as much fun photographing them in their various guises, and I hope you have as much fun going through the report of the test. So without much ado, let's get down to the brass tacks.