Motorkhana is a low-cost form of
motorsport. It involves manoeuvring a car through tight tests as quickly as possible - one car at a time - on either dirt or
bitumen surfaces. This usually requires sliding and spinning the car accurately while maintaining speed through the test course.
Some reversing is usually included. The majority of competing cars are small, front wheel drive, hatchbacks as they can handbrake slide round the cone or flag and the front wheels can still drive the car.
Each test takes from 15 to 60 seconds to complete and is defined by flags. Hitting flags or going the wrong way incur time penalties which are added to the total time. A day’s competition – an event – usually includes up to 8 to 12 tests. Vehicle speed rarely exceeds 60 km/h (37 mph) but the tightness of the tests ensures the driver is kept very busy.
Most competitors use normal road cars but some use specially built vehicles (motorkhana specials) which are much lighter and have specialised braking systems to facilitate the spin turns. Some motorkhana specials use modified automatic transmissions to facilitate rapid gearchanges between first and reverse gears. They usually use racing
slick tyres for bitumen and concrete surfaces.