CNG Special: Features

Somewhere in the folds of the Western Ghats, where the Mumbai-Pune Expressway peels off from Lonavala into quieter country, a piece of land is being reshaped into what will, by this time next year, become Maharashtra’s first race track. Except to call it just a race track undersells the ambition entirely. What is rising here, on the grounds of the Nanoli Stud Farm, is a race resort, where cars are not just driven or raced, but lived with.

The Dhunjibhoy family has owned this land for decades, ever since the Nanoli Stud and Agricultural Farm was set up in the early 1990s. Khushroo Dhunjibhoy has spent a lifetime around shipping and thoroughbreds, and it is that same instinct for breeding something exceptional that he and his son, Zahir, have turned toward motorsport.

Their plan is not a bare circuit with a pit lane bolted on. It is villas, high-end rooms and a clubhouse built into the same grounds as the horses. There will also be a 100-car garage with humidity control to protect exotic machinery from the heat, sun, dust and monsoons. The paddock and pit buildings will be state-of-the-art, with a hospitality deck that gives you a bird’s-eye view of nearly half the circuit. The circuit itself, designed to FIA Grade 3 specs by Driven International out of the UK, will eventually stretch close to three kilometres, with the option to split into shorter east and west configurations, depending on what the day calls for.

None of that exists yet in finished form. What does exist, right now, is the base layer. The dirt has been laid and compacted to a finish so smooth, it could pass for a rally special stage, which is roughly how we decided to treat it.

The obvious car for an afternoon like this would have been something with four-wheel drive and a reassuring amount of ground clearance. Something like an Urus or an RS Q8 – the kind of SUV that turns loose surfaces into a non-event. But ‘obvious’ has never made for a good story. So instead, we brought a Lamborghini Sterrato, which is, in essence, a Huracán that someone at Sant’Agata decided should grow up into a WRC car.

The Sterrato is not a styling exercise with some plastic cladding glued on. Lamborghini jacked the ride height by 44mm, fitted bespoke Bridgestone all-terrain rubber wrapped around 19-inch wheels, widened the front and rear tracks, and reworked the all-wheel-drive system and suspension geometry so the car can absorb a rutted surface without snapping its splitter off in the first hundred metres. Underneath sits the same naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 found in the rest of the Huracán range, here tuned to 610hp, still screaming to over 8,000rpm with no turbos to soften the theatre. Only 1,499 Sterratos were built before Lamborghini closed the production run, and of those, 15 made their way to India.

The example driven here belongs to Dinesh Thakkar, who was not only generous enough to hand over the key for a day, but also had the distinction of setting what can be considered the first recorded lap at Nanoli Speedway. 

His time of 2m34.80sec won’t be the quickest, but it’s a significant milestone for a circuit that is yet to officially open.

Mechanically, the Sterrato retains the naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10, producing 610hp and driving all four wheels through a dual-clutch transmission. On paper, it remains very much a Huracán. In practice, the changes in character are immediately evident.

On the compacted dirt, the first impression is one of adaptability. Turn-in is not as immediate as it would be on tarmac, but the front axle bites with a reassuring consistency. The real shift comes under power. Where a standard Huracán demands restraint, the Sterrato encourages exploration.

The recalibrated driving modes, particularly Rally mode, allow for controlled slip. The rear steps out progressively, and crucially, predictably. There is a fluidity to the way the car moves, a willingness to rotate that transforms the experience. It is less about outright speed and more about managing balance.

The additional suspension travel plays a defining role. Over the subtle undulations of the track, the car remains composed, absorbing variations in the surface without unsettling the chassis. It allows you to commit earlier, carry speed through sections that would otherwise require caution, and rely on the car to work with the terrain rather than against it.

The V10 is natural aspiration at its best. It sounds absolutely brilliant; the sharp throttle response allows you to precisely meter every one of those 610 horses, and every tap of the throttle feels utterly engaging. Under the sonorous wail of the V10 is the muted rattle of gravel ricocheting off the underbody, giving the full effect of a WRC car.

For Thakkar, setting that first lap was less about outright pace and more about being part of something that will only happen once. Once the tarmac goes down, no one will ever again get to slide a supercar through Nanoli’s corners on loose dirt. That window closes the day the asphalt trucks arrive, which made every lap feel like it mattered a little more than it should have for what was, on paper, just a test session on an unfinished track.

What Nanoli represents, once finished, goes well beyond a fun afternoon for a few car nuts and a Lamborghini. Mumbai’s supercar owners have long had money and machinery with nowhere proper to use either. The city’s roads are hostile to anything with a low chin, and Pune offers little better. A circuit within striking distance of both cities, built to international standards and backed by a family that clearly does not believe in doing things by half measures, could genuinely change how western India’s car culture behaves. This is not simply about building a track. It is about creating an ecosystem. The members-only model ensures exclusivity, but also fosters a focused community. For enthusiasts in Mumbai and Pune, long constrained by infrastructure, this represents a fundamental shift. It’s a controlled environment where cars can be driven to the max without fear of speed cameras or speed breakers.

The tarmac will come soon enough, and Nanoli will become a proper circuit with lap times and lap records and all the polish that comes with a finished facility. But for one afternoon, before any of that, it was just a dirt track, a Sterrato V10, and the kind of first lap that only ever happens once.