Storm in the valley

Heavily modified Honda City packed with NOS, Maruti Zens with monster motors under their small hoods and various other exotic four wheelers and two were out to prove their mettle at the Valley Run 2013. 

The cars and bikes, in their respective classes, fought furiously as they went about setting their best times. Participants had one practise run before giving their best shot next time out. Once the Christmas tree lit up, it was furious action. The pressure though was quite clearly on the machinery as the final standings were decided on the basis of only the elapsed time. Hence, the riders' and drivers' reaction times didn’t play a pivotal role on the drag strip and took out some of the drama of the competition. 

The two-day event organised by Elite Octane drew over 200 participants from all over the country. Participants came from as far away as Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The Indian cars were split up into various categories based on their displacement, state of tune and modifications. There was everything from a Tata Nano to a Rolls-Royce Phantom that took to the strip. But the serious contenders were the super tuned machines in the ProStock categories with B Bala Vijay’s Honda City clocking a blistering time of 13.54s. Of the exotics, Dr Amjad Khan’s Nissan GT-R was given chase by the 911 Turbo of Amish Shah. However the GT-R’s 11.26s time remained the benchmark of the event.  

The crowd also waited patiently for the demo run of the 320bhp MTT Y2K turbine bike. There was no mistaking the Y2K for anything else as the whine from the turbine engine was impossible to ignore. The Y2K’s full bore run lacked drama as the bike built speed progressively before disappraring into the distance. It felt truly at home on the runway at Aamby Valley.