read on..

He's a superstar both as a cricketer and a person.



-"I have more well wishers than the small section of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium that day. I have to ignore them. I cannot forget the backing I have got from the people all these years just because of this." - Sachin Tendulkar on being booed by his home crowd...

Its a pity how fickle minded indians are.. Every other day some of my friends start contemplating that Sachin is going to retire soon..

-Asked specifically if he was contemplating retirement, he replied, "I am not interested in this question".- You HEARD that..

How could the media even think of such a question, probably they don't know the force that Tendulkar is.. Arguably the most famous cricketer if not the most popular..

PS: Sachin supports his watchman's family after the watchman's tragic death. you say, big deal, he's got the money. but how many of us spare even a rupee or two for the
beggars on the street? More importantly Sachin didn't do all this for gaining popularity in the name of charity..

Have you Heard of this..

take a look at these pics..




doesn't it look simply great.. jus look at its exhausts!!
It has a Mercedes-Benz AMG 12 cylinder V 60° engine, 602 HP.. 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds!! Credited to be the fastest car around the Top gear race track to date.. of course the bugatti Veyron is in a league of its own and hence wasn't considered..But still the Pagani Zonda is faster than a Ferrari or a Mercedes or a Porsche and pretty good looking too, what else do you want..

Traction Control

Yup, this technology has been around for a long time now and its usage is not restricted to race cars alone as many of you would know.. of course you can always google any upcoming technology and familiarise yourself with them, but i felt blogging it would ensure i register the info properly in my memory. I browsed a number of websites and am presenting the gist.. So here we go...

Traction Control created a flutter when it was introduced first, as most automotive techs are, in the F1 circuit.. You'll know why as you read on.. While driving a driver needs grip in three conditions, accelerating, decelerating or braking, and cornering. Three techs which are pretty much inter-related are the Anti lock braking system(ABS), Electronic Stabilization Program(ESP), and Traction Control(ARS,abbreviated to its former german name). Now, we can consider ARS to do something just opposite to ABS.
ABS enables provision of maximum grip during braking, often when braking from high speeds the wheel may begin to skid. Sensors available transmit this to the ECU (Eletronic Control Unit) which keeps wheels rolling to negate skidding. Traction Control is the opposite as mentioned before. It helps to get maximum grip during sudden acceleration and cornering. Imagine an F1 car on the starting grid. when the 5 lights go out it has to accelerate suddenly.. More often than not the wheels lose grip and spin freely. this is where ARS helps. It reduces the wheelspin to get more grip. Remember those black rubber strips down the race track.. All that is a result of more grip , more friction due to ARS..
Moreover it also helps during cornering. While cornering the sensors sense the rate of travel of the road beneath the engine and compare that to the wheelspin.. if the grip is less, the wheel would spin a lot more than it should actually travel..
Confusing? to be more clear, say the the circumference of a wheel is 10 units. It makes 10 rotations in a given interval, and the car travels a distance of say 80 units during the same time.. Theoretically the car should have travelled 10*10=100 units.. but due to less grip it travels just 80 units. this is sensed and the info is sent to the ECU. The ECU reduces the wheelspin lending more grip..

Now do you comprehend why ARS created a flutter when it was introduced in the F1 2002 season.

The reason, it anuls the requirement of any driving skills. The skill lies in balancing the car through the corners with the optimum power..without ARS too much power would lead to wheelspin and crashing into the tyre walls, too less would lead to slower lap times.. With ARS all that differentiated the teams was the Engine and the Aerodynamic Design.. Not suprisingly Ferrari has been winning all along, and the naive fans have been heaping adulations on Schumacher!!