A track test is the perfect measure of how fast a car is in absolute terms. Straight-line performance is all very well, but to know how genuinely quick a car is in every sphere, there’s no better measure than a purpose-built track. That’s precisely why we at Autocar India have been taking a bunch of India’s best driver’s cars down to the track in Chennai for half a dozen years now.

Helping us keep the figures consistent and quick is our other yardstick, India’s best driver, former Formula 1 pilot, and current AutoGP driver, Narain Karthikeyan. His speed, consistency and overall skill make it possible for us to measure each car on a common scale.

This year, we chose quite a disparate bunch of cars, all selected because we thought it would be fascinating to see what times they would do. We had a couple of practical yet fun everyday cars, a super saloon and a couple of bonafide sportscars.

Also in the bunch, a couple of specially prepared track cars. This year’s ‘special’ entry raised some eyebrows as well; Mahindra’s electric car, the e2o, was clearly out of place here, but we just had to see what time it would do.