[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sabareesh

Thanks Mahindra for giving us such a marvelous experience.

Absolutely. This event was reminiscent of the Great Escapes from the nineties. Great job, Mahindra & gang. We look forward to many more.

A substantial benefit of such an event is : We end up with an additional trail for our own indepedent events.

Then Mr. Hari Singh (5 times National Rally Champion) who was representing JK Tyres took the center stage

Prior to the start, Hari Singh was talking to some guys about the track's difficult sections. I initially didn't take this seriously, only to stand corrected later.

8 - 9 vehicles including my CJ500 and Allan's 550 lost the route as we took a wrong turn.

Ouch, weren't you guys referring to the tulips? They were exceedingly well laid out and easy to understand. Those 5 pages were our only support on the 50 km drive alone.

This place proved to be the most time consuming patch. Most of the 4x4 Scorpios and Getaways got hit badly, their claddings and foot boards got ripped off. It was a slippery descend with boulders underneath where the driver had to use 1st Low and maneuver the vehicle towards right to avoid a crevice.

This patch is going to be a rock star in another month, once the monsoons have created havoc. I gotta add, the patch would have only been more difficult by the time you got to it. I mean, that's 80 Jeeps which have just abused that track before you got to it.

Originally Posted by pdev29

GTO,

its good that mahindra did not fool everyone this time and a real 4*4 trail was given

Can we get some more action pictures..

You can say that again. I'm glad that passion emerged victorious over practicality on this MGE.

[xtreme power]

SORRY TO BREAK THE HAPPY BUBBLE

BUT I THOUGHT THIS EVENT WAS PATHETICALLY ORGANISED

here goes
reached the starting venue by 8ish along with gto
see a number of vehicles already present, finish with registration, get my number 44, head off for breakfast and then for the briefing which was an hour late but still im not compalining
want to state two points that were made at the briefing
1. there is a change in the tulip cause of heavy rains last night (what change and where not mentioned)
2. there will be a mahindra service vehicle after every 10 vehicles (shall get to this later)

the lead car leaves followed by a bunch od participants, this gang included gto and were off
i think after a bit cars were leaving in any order so i just followed the bolero in front of me
got out from the resort and hit the main road

this is where it all went wrong

now the tulip chart showed left but there was a sign on the road showing right
the guy in the vehicle in front was all confused, so was i
suddenly there was a gush of wind and now the sign on the raod showed left , VOILA

the bolero guy took a left and zoomed since now the tulip and the sign was matching
i waited for a second and looked behnd, there were 26 vehicles behind me, all waiting for my decision since maybe my car looked the pro types

NOTE : no service vehicle in that lot of 25 and no organisers at this certain point to direct us, this point being only about 600 mts from the starting point

anyways i take the left followed by the others and drive for about 2 kilometers reading the tulip
up ahead find the bolero guy saying that no cars have gone by and that its the wrong route( he had asked the villagers)
so we all take a u-turn and drive back the way we came now at that spot the arrow showing left had turned up straight meaning right
so we go straight anyways,
some vehicles never took the u-turn some did
i dont no
im not going to go in more details
i and some others took about 12 u-turns that morning, some left for home
some tried their own ways
i never saw a single service vehicle
at about 1 in the afternoon went back to the starting point,
found a volunteer and took him with me
the sign where the tulip showed left, was actually the first change and right was the intended direction
this could have been easily mentioned in the briefing and maybe a volunteer kept there since it was so close to the starting point

i reach the trail later
its 2 and there's a jam of about 50 vehicles caused by a getaway
wait for about 10 mins and see a small hill to my left with some mad climbs , go up it to everyones suprise, have some fun and come down,
take some participants children up the climb, winch a scorpios up,
left my vehicle for people to pose for pictures next to it and left back for bombay.

i was personally very dissapointed
i had prepared what has come out as an awesome awesome vehicle in four days flat from what was all scrap
shall post pictures

the route as told to me by people later was very nice and challenging
but i think the event lacked in terms of organisation
others might have had a smooth sail but for me and a few it was quite hell driving up and down searching for the right route

spirits not broken yet
shall definitely try the goa great escape too

p.s - my vehicle was awesome
thanks to my team who prepared it in so little time

[randeep04]

Hi Allan,

Never mind what happened, seems you also had your own little fun. How did the Jeep fair? What I've heard is that Mahindra events are well organized ya. In fact one Rajasthan Great Escape was organized along with my cousin and another in Punjab, They both turned out to be amazing events.

Anyways awaiting pictures of your monster.

Cheers !!!!!!!!

Randeep

[Sabareesh]

Originally Posted by Sabareesh

To be continued....

During most of the Winching actions at the 1st obstacle, one thing which I noticed was absolute negligence in terms of safety and discipline.

a. The service team, mahindra employees and myself were shouting our lungs out at the people who were standing next to the winching line, we were repeatedly warning them that the winch wire when snapped might be as good as a lethal weapon but no one bothered. They were standing right next to the winch wire within a feet's distance.

Check the illustration :-



God forbid, if the winch wire had snapped, it would have caused a serious damage. Fortunately, nothing of that sort happened.

b. Despite of repeated advice given by service teams, most of the people were littering the trails. We could see biscuit wrappers, empty mineral water bottles, paper bags thrown all over. In fact, my friend got so pissed off with a getaway driver that he went and gave him tongue lashing for doing such blunders. The Getaway driver silently got off his vehicle and picked it up. In fact, 5 - 6 vehicles in our convoy stopped and picked up litter dropped by others and disposed it off properly at the finishing point.

c. Most of the vehicles stopped midway during an ascent or descent for photographs.

@GTO, remember that steep climb just after the river crossing ? Almost all scorpios and boleros in the convoy stopped and posed there for a photo. Imagine stopping at a slippery ascent for a stupid photo shoot, that's ridiculous.

d. During the last stages, due to wheel spins by 2WDs, the muck was dug so deep that even tractors got stuck. We were told to take a detour, Mr. Naresh Bhosle asked me to lead the convoy as ours was the only 4x4 JEEP apart from the service vehicles amongst the Scorpios and Boleros. His advice was "You have the best tires for mud (NDMS) on your JEEP. Do not cut the tracks so that the others can use it for descent. Use low range 1st or 2nd gear till you reach downhill"

A service engineer accompanied us in the JEEP along with a tow rope in case any vehicle gets stuck. The Red team was present in the middle and end of the convoy. By the time we started, it was almost 6:30 PM.

While descending, the service engineer in our JEEP was chatting with us. He said that he learned to drive on a CJ500D while he was a trainee. He had done many great escapes with it. His only comment for JEEPs was "iska muqabla koi kar sakta hai kya ???"

The CJ500D has gained a new respect in my eyes. I used to love it earlier but now, I respect it for what it took me through.

I, as an off-roading rookie couldn't have cleared this terrain on any other vehicle without damage.

LONG LIVE THE JEEP .

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Sabareesh

a. The service team, mahindra employees and myself were shouting our lungs out at the people who were standing next to the winching line, we were repeatedly warning them that the winch wire when snapped might be as good as a lethal weapon but no one bothered. They were standing right next to the winch wire within a feet's distance.

Almost all the teams that are on 4x4 Scorpios are basically driving a Mahindra owned Scorpio given to sponsors for the day. In other words, most of them are first timers, and have never driven a 4WD vehicle before. And they think 4WD driving is no different than 2WD driving, so they refuse to listen to driving instructions thinking they don't need it.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by xtreme power

BUT I THOUGHT THIS EVENT WAS PATHETICALLY ORGANISED

Sorry that it turned out this way for you, Allan. Lets go back in 2 weeks and complete your great escape. What say?

now the tulip chart showed left but there was a sign on the road showing right
the guy in the vehicle in front was all confused, so was i
suddenly there was a gush of wind and now the sign on the raod showed left , VOILA

Navigation 101. ALWAYS follow the tulip. It's easier to put a signboard the wrong way than have an incorrect direction in a tulip chart that's been printed 200 times.

its 2 and there's a jam of about 50 vehicles

You know what? I'm going to make a suggestion to Mahindra. Either one of the following:

1. Such (tough) terrain'ed Great Escapes ought to be 4x4 only. No 4x2's allowed.

2. If, for business reasons, 4x2's have to be permitted, the 4x4 Jeeps should have priority in starting order. Yesterdays event could have been filled with 4x4s from no.1 - 25, and there on all the 4x2's.

p.s - my vehicle was awesome

My lower jaw dropped when I saw it first on the highway. Very tastefully done up Jeep.

Originally Posted by Sabareesh

@GTO, remember that steep climb just after the river crossing ? Almost all scorpios and boleros in the convoy stopped and posed there for a photo. Imagine stopping at a slippery ascent for a stupid photo shoot, that's ridiculous.

I guess it's the herd mentality. One dude stops, everyone else follows.

the muck was dug so deep that even tractors got stuck

Are you talking about the 300 meter field crossing? Oh, it was deep even when I got there. The muck was nearly upto the level of my free-wheeling hub. I took a run-up before that patch, got the Jeep to 40 - 50 kph and simply glided through that patch. No steering control & ended up sideways

The CJ500D has gained a new respect in my eyes. I used to love it earlier but now, I respect it for what it took me through.

Good shape too. I don't recollect any rust on the Jeep.

[beejay]

Any ideas on how many participants lined up for the Munnar MGE. I am going there in a 540, unable to make it to Coorg.

Are there any threads running on the Munnar MGE.
Cheers,

[nitrogary]

hi everyone!
this was my first off road event. we were in a 4X2 scorpio mhawk.
but still managed it till the 300 meter muddy field which gto was talking about. we were the last vehicle who got up there. because of this, when they asked whether we want to turn around, i took the decision. it would have taken 2 hours at least for us to get near the field. it was abour 545 pm at the time. there was no chance we would have finished in daylight. hence the decision. it proved to be a good one.
but, we reached there without much assistance from outside.
the first place where everyone was stuck was a disaster for the backmarkers. there was a mint green xylo in the rally. that car screwed up and removed a 250 odd kg boulder from the track when its axle got stuck. this compromised the path for all the other cars behind and probably ate 3 hours.
anyhow, i was a lot of fun and more than i had expected. for sure, i ll be there next year or the next opportunity. whichever is earlier.

[beejay]

Originally Posted by Cyrus43

@GTO, cyrus here..... I saw the trail on Friday. how was the River crossing amd the downhill trail woth the big rock on the left hand side.

Did you do this in what I think you would have done this in?

[Sabareesh]

Here are some pics from my end.

At the Flag off point




1st Obstacle



Look carefully on the top right side, the crevice is visible. This was the point where almost all 2WDs had to be winched.



Proceeding towards the 2nd Stage, the Getaway seen is a 4WD.



The 3rd stage descent







The river crossing where vehicles were stopped because some stupid bolero and scorpio owners wanted to click pics on the incline.



A scenic view



A long wait at the last stage which was finally canceled as we had to take another route.

[pdev29]

guys can i see some more pics??

@allan wherer are the pics of your jeep??

are you on for this saturday?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by beejay

Did you do this in what I think you would have done this in?

Must be the usual -----

[beejay]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Must be the usual -----

I just thought as much,

I am so stuck to this thread now. Waiting to get to the Munnar MGE.

[Sabareesh]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Must be the usual -----

Originally Posted by beejay

I just thought as much,

For all who missed this post, here it is again....

Originally Posted by Sabareesh

When I was chatting with the red team and some Mahindra employees from Nashik, they were talking about, and praising Mr. Behram Dhabhar for driving some 4x4 vehicle on that terrain in a magnificent way. Despite of all the coaxing and cajoling, no one was willing to tell me which vehicle was it.

Behram sir, please break this suspense, your sentences like "Lets see, maybe next time with..." are killing us.

Behram Sir, please enlighten us

[beejay]

Sabareesh,

Post some more pictures if you have any.

How did the getaway fare. Does it make sense to participate in the same.