[pole_position]

Rocking pics and crazzy videos!! I had fun watching
I know its not the place, but I am now torn between a fairly maintained Willys 1960 [Original Petrol engine] and/or a MM550(still hunting). Honestly I am scared to to take Willys off-road :P

[Parm]

looks like many of you strayed into indian army land!

those army men checking some one's ID card and wondering how so many of 4x4s landed up in a NO GO area!

[randeep04]

@Parm,

Good to see you back after a looooong silence man.
Hope all's well at your end.

Cheers !!!!!

[0333]

around the time when this trail was discovered someone mentioned there being a NSG/BSF training camp in the area, maybe that explains the surprise i.d. check.
thank god one particular NIOC off roader recently abandoned the original army registration for a civilian registration on his ex-dp 550. otherwise there would have been alot of explainig to do and those "privileges" at the toll booth would really start to seem less appealing

[gd1418]

Friends, with permission I'm posting here the views of Subhashish Sarkar (henceforth referred to as SS) who with Vaishali, his wife (henceforth referred to as V) accompanied Roshun somewhat reluctantly since I could not make it as I was working on Saturday.

OTR as witnessed and experienced by SS

I've been living on the edge lately. There - I've gone ahead and admitted it. Of course, when I say "living on the edge" it is all too relative to my own middle-aged, sedentary, 9-5 life, and by no means needs be compared to acid-charged hot-rods, who's idea of breakfast would be hanging upside-down at the end of a bungee rope, munching a burger. Nope. The following, all accomplished in one short, hectic week, qualifies me for it in my own books:

1. Tearing up and down some B roads in the Aravali's on a Quad (ATV).

2. Tearing about somebody's farmland on a Honda Monkey at 2am.

3. Falling off article #2 on three seperate occassions in 45 minutes, each time accompanied by the same young lady, bruised within an mm of the shin bone.

4. Wrapping the sordid week with my first ever serious off-road been-there-done-that!

I'm a bad bad boy. But mercifully, I had V with me on all occassions, so my marriage is safe. For the moment. But forget th rest. Let's work on article#4..

I had kind of hoped to recover from jangled bones and all that jazz over the last weekend, when on the way home on Friday, RP called with an invitation to join TBHP+JEEP THRILLS combine OTR meet. My constitution disagreed lustily, but the last dregs of adrenalin in my circuits gave an equally lusty affirmative, and before I realized it, V and I were sitting in Vader at 5 in the morn, rubbing sleep out of our eyes, trying to stay on the road.

We transferred to 'Fox at RP's and then continued as a threesome to the rendezvous on the highway outside Gurgaon. I didn't know this group from Adam's and RP was barely aquainted on the TBHP forum, so when the 'rides' for the day started trickling in, we were almost embarrassed to be there in the gleaming cherry 'Fox. Willy's, CJ's, MM's, all in authentic battle fatigues started rolling up, making us look way too 'over-dressed' for the party. We were the upstarts, right until a gleaming silver BMW X5 hauled up! And then came a beautiful red and white Landie Defender followed by a spanking new Endeavour Thunder (the 3 litre one). Ok. Not so bad now.

The slow roll to the OTR track had RP, V and me crack loads of nasties within the confines of 'Fox. While DF was champing at the bits on the smooth asphalt, the rest simply trundled on at a show-rally pace and we even considered stopping over for a quick Mac on the route and catching up with the convoy later. All too soon, it was terra-bashing time!

You can't effectively describe an OTR activity in words. What can you say except these once docile cars, simply went berserk and started clambering up and down impossible looking gradients on loose soil and pummelled vegetation and rock alike 5 kilometers into the earth! The initial glee at being let loose on the 'proving grounds' had a couple of 4x4's ground themselves soon after start on rocky ledges, and winches came out like wool from a sweater, dragging these erring beasts off with action that had me wincing in agony. What I can tell you guys is a comparo I was constantly doing to tell the difference bewteen our own Scorp and the rest of the bruisers.

It's pretty simple - the older 'jeeps' showed off what they were invented for in no uncertain terms. Light and rugged, they were like little ants, scurrying all over the hills with assorted noise for company. The petrol engines made a proper show of it, screaming out their lungs while at it, while the diesel CJ's and MM's went about the same with a slightly gruff-er manner. The Beemer, initially looked way out of depth (it was the only automatic) and had trouble pulling it's huge girth about terrain where the shorter wheel-bases excelled naturally. But Hemant (the owner) gamely admitted that this was the X5's initiation to anything rougher than a rain-puddle, and all too soon discovered that fiddling with a few buttons on the dash, changed the character all together! I rode in the X5 for a good time after this and was bloawn away by how effortlessly the auto-tranny harvested the massive power to haul the beast up imposssible crevices. At the same time, couldn't help noticing that the suspension felt miles below the floor-board and not as direct as a Scorpio, leave alone the hard as nails Willy's! Not sure I liked the sensation of 'disconnect'. This machine is better off on the highway after all, but will manage to get you out of trouble if asked. Just don't ask too often.

My last experience with the Endy Thunder was anything but happy (ref to my log from Lahaul Spiti last year). Once on top of my car wish-list, it had rapidly found it way to the bottom after my 4x2 Scorp fared better than the Endy on a round-route from Spiti. I shall eat crow now. This time around, the Endy showed that in capable hands, it's exactly what Ford meant it to be. It's still nowhere as nimble as the smaller war-cars, and it's massive wheel-base and mile-long bonnet can leave you stranded and blinded on steep inclines with a sharp apex. But there's no questioning the power from the 3L. Let down by poor MRF HT boots, the Endy nonetheless huffed up slopes with nonchalance, where the track permitted it's width. Not enough to displace the Land Rover Defender from it's perch on my wish-list though, and the seeming disdain with which the lone Landie dispatched all this terrain, made the match almost boringly one-sided. It came, saw, conquered and left. Almost with a bored expression.

Finally, our very own Scorp (though, I wouldn't be too quick to appropriate and club DF with the rest of us 4x2's). There was a marked difference between how the Scorp behaved from the rest of the motors. Where the smaller jeeps were all lung-power and dust storms (massive wheel spins, coming out of extra heavy inputs of gas to drag out reserve power), 'Fox completed almost all the tracks with a most gentlemanly disposition. No drama. Point the slope, trundle over it. Minimum wheelspin, minimum fuss. Just a whole lotta growling. The Borg Warner shifted without gnashing of the mechanical units. Click, hum and ho-hum. The massive width prevented Rosh from trying just one alley, where the Scorp just wouldn't fit (even the Beemer and the Endy backed off), but 'Fox just skulked around in the background, doing it's job quietly, even while the foreground looked like a carnival of jeeps whizzing up, down, sidewways and everywhich ways.

Massively fun. Can't wait till next time. Special vote of thanks to the members of TBHP and JT, who graciously accepted us non-owner of 4x4 in their midst. Made some good friends in the process, not the least of whom is the indomitable Laxman from JT. 56 years old and with 4 stents in his heart already. But did that stop him from giving V a joyride of her life in his snorkelled MM540, or from flinging his MM over a 4' drop not once but thrice for the benefit of the camera? Guess again! Salut Laxman. You're an inspiration. And you too Hemu, for committing nearly a crore worth of machinery to the badlands of Aravallis.

Cheers!

SS

Flickr: Suvolens' Photostream

[Ym-enjn]

Originally Posted by Parm

looks like many of you strayed into indian army land!

those army men checking some one's ID card and wondering how so many of 4x4s landed up in a NO GO area!

Correct Pram, thats real army and not look alike like our gang.. !! It wasn't serious at all, yes they were very surprised to see that how had we come there and so many as there was no road.. lol. Then they wanted to see our IDs for safty as they do research and blasting there. BTW we were well outside the ristricted area.

Their second surprise came when we again vanished into the no road territory... there was a simple road too but who wants to go from there..

[rhandle]

Oh I am missing it. NIOC is surely the best place to be. I have already lost two OTRs thanks to Force motors. Hopefully it would never happen again as they promise me to give it this week. Think about it 4 months still waiting for the number.

The best part of NIOC is there is no differentiation. And everyone out there is to help you. I am still to meet many members as the first time I went all the mods were out on corbett trip.

Next time I hope to be there am missing too much of learning.

Yogesh thanks a lot for the nice pictures and the videos. Fantastic write-up bro!

[GoSlow]

GD1418 - excellent write up. Now we have some literary expert amongst us as well

Rahul - the NIOC misses your Gurkha too bro!!

[Tusker4x4]

Originally Posted by GoSlow

GD1418 - excellent write up. Now we have some literary expert amongst us as well

Rahul - the NIOC misses your Gurkha too bro!!

great writeup.

Our SLS MOD has that effect in the group. He has the ability to pep up everyone. Wait till you get to knw the other MODs better. Each has the ablity which is seldom seen in normal people.

It is an amazing group indeed. HATS OFF TO NIOC !!!!

[gd1418]

Just to set the record straight, I wasn't there at all at the OTR. It was my dear friend and a fellow Scorper - Subhashish, who was there with his wife in Roshun's 4x4, and this is his narration.

I merely reproduced it with his permission..

Originally Posted by GoSlow

GD1418 - excellent write up. Now we have some literary expert amongst us as well

Rahul - the NIOC misses your Gurkha too bro!!

Originally Posted by Tusker4x4

great writeup.

Our SLS MOD has that effect in the group. He has the ability to pep up everyone. Wait till you get to knw the other MODs better. Each has the ablity which is seldom seen in normal people.

It is an amazing group indeed. HATS OFF TO NIOC !!!!

[desertfox]

What a narration. A Diary version would be.

Wake up call at 5.30 AM, early ? Boy its dark outside. Quick shower, lug along the heavy bag of rescue equipment. Light a Cigrette - jump in the Jeep. Meet at Signature tower. Groan, road blocked, turn. Metro you know.

At the meeting point _ A wine shop, closed, .

I am the first, then Roshun. GPW, MB, Hey a BMW X5 , will he take it off road ?

Where's Yogesh ? Did he bring the Puri's from Jaipur ?

Toll gate, the first crossing, a break in the tar road, Hmm here we go offroad. A climb negotiated, bad ground, wrong judgement, stuck. A rescue, on our way, many climbs, group photo, local support, cat calls!, we line up on a cricket pitch! pictures - the guy is a pro Digital SLR and all.

More dune crossing, climb, descent, gullies, nallahs, wallows, crests, hills, thorns, Sabrina tree ( whats the story ? ) lovely breakfast. Ready for more ?

Off again, more climbs, loose sand, narrow gorges, scrub, BMWs doing well. Stop, The Army guys chat to us. Harsh sun, lets turn back.

More Food, Introductions, Hilarious. Look at Laxman and Rabinder is no less. Some talk.

I have a flat- Laxman has a compressor. Problem solved.

Goodbyes, Handshakes.

When is the next one ?

Where's the puncture shop.

OH what a day. Beautiful countryside and a great drive.

[Parm]

Originally Posted by randeep04

@Parm,

Good to see you back after a looooong silence man.
Hope all's well at your end.

Cheers !!!!!

Hi randeep, thanks for the concern. things are fine at my end.

anyway nice to see the OTR and specially hats off to the owner of the X5, man he did what i have never seen in Dubai....an X5 off the road!

looks like everyone enjoyed the trip.

Originally Posted by Ym-enjn

Correct Parm, thats real army and not look alike like our gang.. !! It wasn't serious at all, yes they were very surprised to see that how had we come there and so many as there was no road.. lol. Then they wanted to see our IDs for safty as they do research and blasting there. BTW we were well outside the ristricted area.

Their second surprise came when we again vanished into the no road territory... there was a simple road too but who wants to go from there..

its good to know that nothing serious happend after you guys strayed into army land.

the usual checking and verification is a part of their routine drill and trust me i have gone through a similar experience and that time we were not part of a large group like you guys!

keep off-roading!

[randeep04]

Shahid,

YOU ARE SELLING YOUR CJ3B?
I THOUGHT YOU LOVED IT MAN?
Anyways I guess you realized that it was JUNK, only that could be the reason to sell it. Dont take me wrong but this site aint the right place to advertise a 4x4 0r an offroader as there are many here and really know the amount they need to spend on a pre fixed 3B.

Cheers man Hope you strike it !!!!!!!

[desertfox]

I am getting something better for OTRs, the CJ3A LHD from Allahabad.

[vishwaschettri]

OTR expense

Food ~500 rs
Diesel ~700 rs (Jeep Half tank)
Petrol ~200 rs (bike half tank)
repairs ~540 rs (puncture)
washing ~250 rs (both jeep & bike)

total - Rs 2190 for 4 people.

I say comparable to a meal and movie at a multiplex. And any day better than that .

So when's the next OTR?

cheers
vishwas