go Karting at Smaaash Mumbai Sky Karting

Smaaash Mumbai Sky Karting Review : Voltaic Wallop


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Wheezy engines, burnt elbows, daftly designed, uselessly small tracks and karts that fail half the time – karting as a sport in India is far removed from what really makes it such a thrilling activity for racing enthusiasts. Even with all its infrastructural flaws, however, karting is one of the most accessible respites for those willing to engage in a motorsport activity. As for racetracks, they are rarer to find and race on for general public in this part of the world than spotting an extinct breed of pangolin. In essence, if you’re a driving / riding / racing enthusiast, your options to savour the thrill of motoring in an unchained environment. are extremely limited

The recently inaugurated Smaaash Sky Karting track in Mumbai, featuring a world class facility, top quality karts and boasting India’s first multi level track is an oasis in this parched desert for the desiccated mind and soul of a racing fanatic. The call from the good blokes at Smaaash to sample the facility, inaugurated by none other than one Sachin Tendulkar came as a lovely surprise to us.

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The new facility replaces Smaaash’s earlier Sky Karting setup, which was situated on a rooftop, and was pretty darned cool by itself (read the review here : Minion Rush). The new installation, however, takes the experience to a whole new level with much superior karts, a longer track, multi-level layout and world-class infrastructure. We landed up in the parking lot of Kamla Mill Compounds on the said date – the location for this mini racetrack of sorts, to experience what arguably would turn out to be some of the best spent few hours in recent times for us.

Gearing up

The experience begins with you drawing your wallet and parting with some money to book yourself a slot. If you have doubts, you can take a virtual tour of the facility through the screen placed before the ticket counter that lets you understand the setup in detail. Slots are available for 3, 6 and 8 minutes. You can wait for your turn in an open air cafeteria that serves a variety of beverages and snacks.

Once it’s your turn, you name will be called out by the crew at Smaaash, and you’ll be required to be present at the briefing area along with other participants. The crew at the briefing area would then explain everything that’s important to the participants, while also answering doubts / queries, if any.

What impressed us was the attention to hygiene and the quality of gear the team at Smaaash has put together for the customers. Unlike other Karting grounds where the customers have to make do with sub-standard, dirty safety gear, you get top notch HJC helmets, along with a hair net to keep things safe and sanitary. You are provided neck braces to prevent a whiplash injury. Those who are casual enough to arrive in bathroom slippers, or the PYTs who walk in in their stilettos can avail of shoes for no extra cost. Since there’s no heat emanating from these electric machines, you don’t require the once essential elbow protector. Just put on your helmet and the neck brace, and you’re good to go.

The Karts

Smaaash has upped the ante in karting business by equipping its Sky Karting facility with the latest generation all-electric karts from Sodi, Spain – one of the better known names in karting. The all-electric, top of the line, RTX range of karts offer superior acceleration as compared to their engine powered counterparts while also being noise, vibration and pollution free. Electric power means you get to experience a deluge of torque right from the word go, resulting in stronger acceleration.

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These electric karts have another advantage in having the weight of the battery packs distributed in all four corners for a lower centre of gravity and better stability. Unlike the industrial looking karts that most of us are used to in India, these ones actually look pretty cool, while also offering fore-aft adjustability for seats and rake adjustment for the steering wheel.

A top speed of 55 km/h might not sound much, but that number is about 30% better than how fast most of those petrol powered karts can go. Add much superior acceleration to the mix, and on a short, tight track, that speed is sufficient to challenge your abilities to the hilt, offering enough scope to hone your skills and improve your timing with each passing lap. Accelerator and brake pedals flanking the driver bay are marked in green and red respectively to make even the noobiest of the noobs understand where to apply pressure to start and stop. A button on the right of the cart needs to be pressed in case you wish to engage reverse gear.

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These karts have been programmed to run for a maximum of eight minutes. Power is fed through special quick charge ports which recharge the batteries in a jiffy. On full blast, the karts would run for as many minutes as they’ve been charged for. So for a 8 minute runtime, the karts will have to be charged for as many minutes, ditto for smaller durations.

Smaller kiddie karts are also available for children, which are obviously less powerful while also being easier to manoeuvre owing to the lighter weight.

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For the purpose of safety, the karts have 4 different modes to restrict the amount of power on tap. For example, complete novices, including those who don’t know how to drive properly can be allowed on the track in Mode 1, which significantly restricts the performance of the karts. Those with basic driving skills can drive out in mode 2. However, to be allowed to race in Mode 3, which is just mildly slower than the all-guns-blazing Mode 4 (Pro mode), you need to post a lap time of less than 43 seconds. Mode 4 isn’t generally allowed, unless Smaaash is conducting a tournament where all the participants are professional kart racers.

The track

The highlight of the new Sky Karting track, apart from its multi-level layout, is its hi-tech spring loaded barrier system. Unlike traditional karting tracks where you have old tyres forming the barriers, Smaaash Sky Karting has deployed what’s known as the Protex Barriers. These shock absorbing, spring loaded barriers offer great safety for the racers by absorbing impact energy in case of an unintended crash.

Another big advantage is these barriers’ ability to push the cart back onto the track with the rebound, preventing them from getting stuck. You can check out this amazing barrier system in action below.

The length of the track stands at an impressive 430 meters (possibly the longest for such a setup in India). 300 meters of this length is on the ground level, with the remaining 130 meters being elevated. You get on to the track from the pits onto a sweeping left hander, followed by a tight right hander leading you into a left-handed hairpin bend opening up the sight of the start-finish straight. Immediately after the start finish straight, you get a hairpin that leads you onto the elevated level into an Omega shaped curve, after which you descend back onto the ground level.  The downhill straight calls for some hard braking as you’re barrelling down in a small kart, and might end up into the barriers if not careful. The section ahead is the most exciting of the entire layout, and allows you to induce an intoxicating sideways drift to emerge onto a straight that leads you into the covered area of the track. An S bend follows, leading you into the sweeping curve you emerged onto the track from.

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With a professional kart racer behind the wheel, like Malcolm Ilavia, the Operations Manager at the Sky Karting, the track can be lapped in about 35 seconds, give or take a few fractions. However, anything below 43 seconds is considered a good time, and qualifies you to unlock level 3 on your karts.

Get set, go!

Get inside the kart, and you instantly realize that there is reasonably more space in the bay than what you’re used to in your conventional karts. Buckle up, adjust the steering wheel height and the seat to find the best driving position and you’re all set!

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To start off, you’re allowed only a crawling speed to reach the start finish straight. At slow speeds, the steering on these things feels heavy; you might as well be driving a commercial truck from the early 60s with that sort of weight on the wheel. PYTs, especially those of a delicate variety might find manoeuvring these karts quite a task until it catches some speed. Personally, we won’t have it any other way – you don’t get these mechanical steering wheels on productions cars anymore, and what a joy they are to operate! Into the first hairpin after the start-finish line and you’d love the feeling of having to wrangle with the little wheel to goad this tiny beast into a direction of your choice.

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The uphill section is tackled surprisingly well by the RTX karts, its accelerates with zest, and even with my 100+ kg weight trying to dampen its electric spirit, the Sodi kart didn’t appear to be perturbed. The point where the uphill section meets the higher level isn’t meshed in too well, and the Kart has a propensity to go partially airborne at this section.

You can take the sweeping curve ahead almost flat-out while tapping the brake wherever needed for course correction. Wrangling with the obstinate steering wheel, which translates everything happening under the wheels to your palms like a colour copier, you can dial in a bit more turn to induce a mini drift, or feed in those mini corrections to keep just the right line and blaze through the curve. The next sweeper is again one of those bends which once mastered can shave off critical time from your lap time.

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A few laps into the experience, and the drivers among you would start realizing the small mistakes which could be corrected to reduce your lap timings significantly. You keep getting faster with every passing lap. It’s always a great feeling to push yourself, and adapt to excel, but more importantly, you get the right environment to push a machine to its extreme, without putting your own or other mortals’ lives or limbs in jeopardy. If you cannot be fast here, you really don’t have any right to engage yourself in those stupid antics on public roads. In essence, a session at a racing facility like this will let you know whether you really are as talented at driving as you think, while also eliminating your urge to showboat on public roads. Here’s one of the examples why.

The good blokes at Smaaash allowed us ample time with the karts, and by the time I was into my 5th lap, I realized that I was struggling with the grip. No matter how hard I tried to keep the line, the Kart was slithering away. The tyres had heated up after an unrelenting assault, and required to be cooled down before finding traction again. As Malcolm, the man handling the operations at Smaaash pointed out, ‘the best time to race is early morning or late in the evening, on a cool day, for the tyres run cool, and you can post significantly better lap times.’

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We keep scoffing at the professional racers for being too finicky about tyre temperatures all the time, but experiencing it first hand lets you know how critical an aspect it is. Again, you’d almost never be able to push your car on public roads to a level where you manage to draw such critical inferences, and will keep thinking of yourself as a great driver / rider while not being able to understand what’s really going on under the chassis. Hit the track, though, and you’ll feel every nut and bolt.

In all, for the few minutes we spent on a constricted track in teeny carts with their itsy-bitsy power, we got to learn more about driving than what a daylong stint in a 560 hp monster on public roads could teach us. And trust us, we drive those monsters pretty often to know what we’re talking about.

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So may we encourage all you motoring fans to make a trip to a go kart track, or a racetrack, if possible and experience for yourself what pure, unadulterated, on the edge driving is all about. We promise you’ll come back a safer driver.

Heartfelt thanks to Malcolm Ilavia (Operations manager, Smaaash) and Ashok Cherian (CMO, Smaaash) for taking time out and giving us an insightful tour of their fantastic facility.  

Check out the images of Smaaash Mumbai in the mega gallery below

1 thought on “Smaaash Mumbai Sky Karting Review : Voltaic Wallop”

  1. Well, to be honest the old track was way better than this one. In that track, one could overtake, but the small width of the track makes it very difficult. No doubt that new track being an innovative idea and brilliant one but according to me the cars are also not efficient enough as TWICE during my 8 minutes lap time about 12-15 times the kart’s speed reduced drastically all of a sudden without any kind of warning. Being passionate about racing. I’m a bit disappointed with the new track and mainly the speed of the karts. Plus, this speed issue has occurred not only once but also twice, when I asked the concerned authority about this problem, they themselves didn’t know what to reply.

    Anyways smaaash is a really good place. I hope they can make this new track and karts better, and also try considering to take their customers feedback.

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