[gsferrari]

Cameras charged
Cooler box stuffed
Odomos applied

Dichkiyaaaoon!

[xtreme power]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Cameras charged
Cooler box stuffed
Odomos applied

Dichkiyaaaoon!

muddy buddy, your missing the
* wading boots
* face mask
* watch

just kiddin boy

[whicked wheels]

I am getting the mm550. Amits in two minds. I will be leaving by 9.15 and be meeting Amol at lonavala and be meeting you guys at the turn of to karjat. (talked to Kunal about it)

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by xtreme power

muddy buddy, your missing the
* wading boots
* face mask
* watch

just kiddin boy

BTW - Outdoor Travel Gear in wadala (dealers for DSG) have a Balaclava for Rs.300. I just bought one and will be bringing it for the OTR. I also bought a Petzl Tikka2 head-lamp.

Mohan is in right? Will be nice to have that LED light again!

[davids4x4mm550]

Have fun guys, im in the office having a blast :( grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[gsferrari]

First poster back from the Night OTR!

Fantastic experience overall with a very disciplined bunch of drivers. I really liked some of the obstacles but I am not sure if I will have the same opinion when we tackle these obstacles in the wet/slush conditions. I guess we will know at the next recce when we mark the obstacles etc.

Met up with the guys at 10:45 at Panvel McDs but it took us until 1:30am to reach the venue. This is something we can tighten up on the next OTR so we get started earlier and have more time to tackle the obstacles.

As it was, I reached home at 8:30am and woke up at 2:30pm for some lunch. I did take a few videos but not as many as I would have liked. I think I need to recruit a videographer for the next drive...

Again I have to say it, everytime I look at an obstacle and think "not possible in a Gypsy" - someone comes along and does it. There was one obstacle which I didn't bother trying because it looked pretty damaging to the vehicle. Although a couple of Gypsies made this obstacle, it wasn't without a lot of assistance from the ground crew.

This is my opinion only: I think obstacles should be tackled by the vehicle and a crew of 2 max! If it requires 5-6 people to get through then it should be classified as "No Go" for that particular vehicle class. This will save time in future OTRs and in the final Alfa-Kilo event.

My own confidence is growing gradually with each OTR and again I have to thank Allan, Devang, Tejas, James, Mohan, Kunal and of course the ever-genial Soumya. You guys are so positive it makes it difficult to fail!

Another area where I am seeing improvement is in my awareness, focus and vehicle control while in the middle of an obstacle and at the end. Until last night I was usually wide-eyed and not necessarily in control thanks to the initial effort in getting the Gypsy into the obstacle. Now I am more at ease with the way the vehicle handles and behaves.

I harbor HUGE respect for Allan's Gypsy making short work of some of the obstacles where even the mighty Gurkha and MM-550 struggled. I think a good modification for me moving forward. Body lift + Bigger tires. I am also a fan of "Orangie" just for the sheer madness it brings to the event. Nothing can stop this vehicle and it looks an absolute HOOT to drive (with a helmet of course )

Guys - next OTR please bring more water/beverages. I am happy to stock your stuff in the ice-box as well but we ran out of water pretty quickly as I had only budgeted for my own consumption. Let me know in advance if you want me to pick up anything specifically for you. I am happy to share but we need to make sure we have water right to the end.

Choco-Bars will be added to the ice-box next OTR

[mohan]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

First poster back from the Night OTR!

Fantastic experience overall . I am happy to share but we need to make sure we have water right to the end.

GS you just had to ask,I usually carry about 20 litres of water in the boot .
Next time I take the waterman's job.

It was a fantastic trail and thanks goes to Kunal.

Though we had all the critical elements ( Tejas, Devang, Allan,Soumya ,James,GS,Imran,Prasad et al)to make this OTR fabulous we missed the quintessential Ibrahim. Had he been there we could have had a new story to tell.

I particularly must thank Vinod who was there at all times to help spot the vehicles and for his excellent tips.

Well I had enough of free food and drinks ,next OTR the food and drinks is on me.

This OTR was a happy one for me ,because I found my Nissan Patrol performing too good. It could take all the climbs in low 3rd with some effort.
One particular steep climb it literally crawled(Allan ,thanks for reminding me to do that) up. Little work still remaining with the fuel nozzles and plug cables.
Thanks to Soumya to drive it back and forth Allan's garage.
Next OTR we may get to see Prasad's Jonga and Soumya's CJ3B.

[ladak.imran]

Mohan, next time we can go 50-50 with regard to water and soft drinks!
I will try and source an ice box from the ice factory in bandra..

Last night, was insanely good! What started out as a 'discussion' to talk about the specifics of the AKC, turned out to be one of the best Night OTR's I've been to

The route to the farmhouse was interesting, to say the least.

Mohan & Soumya got held back a bit in the middle, and Prasad, Snigdha, Allan and I turned around, to show them the way. Despite our best efforts, we took the wrong route a couple of times, but eventually managed to locate them.
By this time, a Guru had come looking for us (the people who went looking for Soumya and Mohan!)

After this, we went through a few obstacles, en route to Kunals place.
I don't think any of the obstacles were dangerous, but they certainly were challenging enough, to ensure that all of us had a blast!

The highlight of the trip, for me, was when we got to the river crossing!
Kunal went first, effortlessly, followed by Mustafa - who gave us quite a scare during his descent from the river bank, into the river! His gypsy almost flipped, as the descent was steep and angled, and covered with dry grass (the dry grass made it look like a gentle slope, it was only after his gypsy ka wheel went over the grass, that the 'padding' flattened out, to reveal the true degree of the slope).

Mustafa made it to the other side of the river - or rather, the stream, with a slight hiccup in the middle.. I guess he lost traction somewhere, and the wheels were just spinning, but he didn't give up, and kept modulating the throttle, till the vehicle got moving, and then he was out.
Mind you, the water was not all that shallow - I think it may have easily been upto the level of the indicators (in front), of the gypsy..

Next up, was my turn - I was a little hesitant, since I've heard nasty stories about how water is really unkind to our vehicles, but with some assurances from Tejas, Devang, Amol and Allan, I got moving. Once inside, I could see water splashing around, all the way upto my bonnet, but it was FUN! I was enjoying thoroughly, till the time I reached the middle, and then realized (thanks to everyones shouts and torch lights), that I had veered a bit off the path, to the left. Here, I encountered a rather large stone , and my gypsy refused to go ahead - It was a bit of a scary moment, but i could hear the guys yelling, to de-clutch, and not release the throttle. At this point, my wheels were only spinning, launching quite an amount of water into my open window! It felt so good!!
A couple of reverse/forward motion, and I was done, and across the river.

Next in line was Amol, I guess, but I was in my vehicle, and missed his 2wd Kaiser (?) in action.

What followed after this, was a nice group photo session - thanks to Chirag (upload the pics soon please)!!

By this time, all the vehicles were together, it was dawn, and after a little chit-chat, it was home-time.

[vinod_nookala]

Hi guys,trust me i just got up and it is 8 p.m at night, could sleep only in afternoon. Yesterday was another sleepless night i enjoyed the most. Few memorable things of yesterday's recee and OTR are-

• Kunal's jeep (Alpha Kilo's/Abimanyu's jeep) is one of the few purposeful built jeeps that i have seen. Raised electrical controls, snorkel, roll cage, shackle lift, purpose built rear spare wheel carrier, 5.83 axles, 31 inch Maxxis big horn tyres etc etc. This is one jeep that speaks business!!
• I enjoyed ride in GS ferrai's Gypsy and he handled his gypsy in that grusome terrain with utmost pamper.
• Allan, the more is say about this guy and his creations is less! We all know about his ORANGIE and what it can do. The suprise package was his 1.6 litre Gypsy. This is one Gypsy off road that one must look up to. It is all about power, power, power!! I thank this guy Allan for trusting me and give his beloved creations on the entire trail.
• Dr. Mohan and his Gurkha were awesome! He is a cool man and knows how to handle the terrain. His Gurkha was impressive partucularly on the climb where diff locks, superb ramp over angle combined with clever use of diff locks made things easy
• Devang as usual was at his best with his 1 litre Gypsy. Tejas was kind enough to let me drive orangie up on the trail and back. He assumed the duty of a spotter
• I enjoyed the obstacle where even the ramp over and departure angles of Orangie was not enough! This the section where Devang bent his front bumper, Allan broke his tail lamps on orangie and Gurkhas front and rear bumper was a stake. But for the sand ladders brought by Allan it would have been difficult to save bumpers of few vehicles. This section was tricky. Enjoyed the most. Please save the virgin section on the other side for Monsoon event.
• Imran had a tough time when his two wheels were in air on this section and he also was in soup for a while during river crossing which was excellent. He was at his best as always. Mustaffa a newbie must be complimented the way he handled terrain being first timer. He too had problems in river crossing, not that he got stuck but he had hicupps.
• In monsoons i expect even the approach road to the trail to be very slippery and tough
• Chirag the photographer did an excellent job by running around to take best shots.
• Amol's 2wd Kaiser was as good as its driver. Potent toyota engine, SWB and big AT tyres managed the most trail with little help. But trust me dont try this in Monsoon. Go ahead with 4wdisation plan of your Kaiser.

All in all cant wait for the Monsoons to head back to the trail again!

p.s- Kunal, you have excellent terrain at hand. But make sure you either limit vehicles or improve your back up support. Else for about 30 odd vehicles expected you will have a tough time recovering them and stick to your schedules. Just my 2 cents.

Now pics guys!

[genesis]

All I can say about this OTR is that for the first time I was not snapping but crawling! Gurkha Ki Jai Ho!

Thanks to everyone who shouted, directed, pointed, gesticulated, encouraged. Thanks to Sachin, Dr Mohan's able man friday who in his usual calm stoic way ensured that I did not do anything which would need me to engage the solution to all problems known to mankind...the diff locks

And last but not the least, paying money at toll booths while travelling alone in a left hand drive Nissan Patrol...made me wish that I had very very long arms.

[gsferrari]

Imran has come close to flipping his Gypsy twice.

He has also come close to bending his bumper a few times...then his watchman took care of it for him

Imran if I were you I wouldn't hand the keys over to anyone until the jinx passes


Kunal - this trail was awesome but I think we did some really amazing stuff during the last recce. Perhaps you can pick the best bits from both trails when you finalize the obstacles and map out the route. I'm volunteering to go around the trail with you marking the obstacles and also putting direction arrows at critical junctions so people don't get lost. Just let me know when...

Doc - had I know you had those 5 liter bottles in the Gurkha I would have swiped one and stuffed it in the Ice-Box. As it was we were all waiting for the ice to melt in the two frozen bottles I had left

I genuinely believed the Nissan would be too wide for the path the moment I saw it. It is just MASSIVE compared to a Gypsy.

Devang's Monstar is a 1 liter? It goes like a rocket!

Surprisingly at least 4-5 good videos from the OTR - I'll put these up tomorrow.

[motocamp]

Guy's

I am glad you guys enjoyed the night offroading!

It made the effort worthwhile!

We did not really do most of the AKC trail ,this was just a small part of it and the ground is dry now.

In the monsoon the whole route will become really challenging and we will all have to work together to navigate the entire trail.

This was the last otr/recce for the AKC before the actual challenge as time is short and I still have some things to do in respect to the trail.

Vinod, I will call you in a day or two.

[pdev29]

Pheww I slept the whole day!!

Just one word "Awsome"

trail was quite tricky.

i am really happy with Monstar, being a 1lt 45bhp machine it has done everythink without too much of effort.

Vinod thanks for being a spotter, it was not easy to take judgement of ladder and guide the vehice on it and to top it up guide them about how to approach too.. Hats of to all who did that obstacle. specially Mohan (considering his gorkha is new with front guard) and Amol (for doing it in Kaiser 2wd)

Imran you could have tried it too and river crossing was not difficult but it seems you did it first time in deep water, thats why i told you before hand to remember de-clutch..

Mustafa being a first timer handled it really well, all he need to do is to observe others little more and approach the obstacle slow.

GS people who has seen you in first OTR can vouch on this that you have improved a lot, your confidence level has gone up.. keep it up.

thanks soumya for driving my Monstar in return, we could enjoy our drive because of you.. ( i know we have troubled you a lot. lol)

[xtreme power]

woah, all the liquid consumption and what a night
was totally drained of all energy,
but the night was fun, lots of good terrain and thanks to kunal for letting us be there as a part of the recce
my two bits:
intense recces have to be done during the day time after two to three showers to chalk out the main route and to see what the rain washes out and what she leaves behind.
we need to send out our bestvehicles for these recces. the final trail should be of very difficult but do able nature

i must admit, everytime i drive the gypsy, she just amazes me. she was built for the road, but put her off the road and boy does she perform.
i did the whole stretch in two wheel drive, except for the towing and i think when vinod was driving her on that last obstacle up and down both ways
amols kaiser as always looked beautiful and performed nicely.
devang buddy 1L but 100% for the guts and youll did everything what was thrown at youll
the gurkha is just wonderful to watch
missed tejas with his classic, but thankfully had him to do the spotting(totally needed)
gs, ur learning well buddy,

again, thanks kunal for having us,


cheers
allan

[DKG]

Originally Posted by xtreme power

i did the whole stretch in two wheel drive,

Dry weather, wet weather, any trail doable in 2wd regardless of the machine and expertise of the driver cannot be termed as a 4x4 trail. A humble request to please ensure 90% of the trail selected for the 25/26th event MUST require 4wd. Otherwise its just not challenging enough.