Quote:
|
Nice to see you post this thread.It brings back old memories of the MASA rallies which were regularly covered by the Indian Auto and Car & Bike International the 2 Auto magazines of that time.I think there used to be a MASA Monsoon rally , with sections run at night.It would be run mostly along the regions of Uran , pen , roha and sometimes even mahabaleshwar in later years .I still remember the drivers like Farad Bhatena , Vikas Chudiwala , Sam katgara , Sunil shanbhag , Dileep dessai , Hormazd sorabjee and many more in their premier padminis. there was also a guy called Mr. Punjabi in a MM54
|
Yes, those were the good ol' days. Rallies run with night stages, a separate monsoon event, A1, AIA and AIIA Fiats. Vikash in his Dr. Coolz Fiat and Sunil the gentleman driver. It was the Indian Auto Journal in those days, launched in September or October 1986 with the Himalayan Rally covered. Headed by Gautam Sen with Hormazd as the photographer. And Car & Bike International came much later, headed by Adil Jal Darukhanawala.
Quote:
hhhmmmm...MASA'94 was supposed to be debut of Zen in Indian rallying scene. I worked hard to get homologation done and get the certificate in hand just before the rally. Turned up at the event to be told that homologation is valid only 90 days after issue....so sat out the rally as supporter.
Maniac Rekhi debuted in this event as Yellow's driver for the first time so gave him service support. And then drove all the way back to Delhi in continuous 15 hour drive stint. Was that mad.
|
I think I remember that - that year the rally went to either Lonavala or Nashik, I don't remember now. Wasn't yours a yellow Zen? OT: I think you later took part in one of Tutu's events and had a spectacular crash?
I still remember the first event I had marshalled though - in 1986 when we had gone to the Konkan - I was at a village called Diveaghar where the rally was passing through the night. I had my car and with me was Vilas Sunkersett and two of my friends. The village itself was less than a kilometre long with one narrow road passing through it. The rally cars had to pass it in no less than 4 minutes. I left my friends (without the car!) at one end while Vilas & I took up position at the other end (in the car!) It was freezing and as we had setup very early, we went to sleep. We were awoken by a snarling Fiat coming in the opposite direction - Cyrus Gandhi in his white A1A, huge air dam ready to attack the village
- we stopped him and I guess he found his way the right way around!
My friends were frozen, standing as it were throughout the night with a stopwatch and a clip pad!
The cars were flagged off from Mhasla in the dark of the night and in those days, you could hear them being flagged off all the way in Diveaghar!
I was recently in Diveaghar and man, that village has grown!