This one turned to be a steep climb which was pretty challenging. Even Dewang was taking multiple attempts to tame this one, that made me pause and I started watching how different vehicles were overcoming this hill.
The spotter appears to be saying, “Bad doggy! Sit down and put your paws on the top…” Ugh, may be not.
He got pretty close this time, but had to back out.
Then I see the Green beauty from Hyderabad go for it.
And it makes it to the top impressively. Ok, I don’t know whether that was a repeat attempt since I just arrived.
Then I see the Gorkha go for it. Is that a typo for Gurkha? At one time I thought so. But then I learnt that this vehicle isn’t the Gurkha. It is one of the earlier short chassis Tempo Trax Town & Country which had an option of FRB hard top. Check this link:
Bajaj Tempo - Trax - Town & Country (don’t miss the prices)
So the owner must have named it Gorkha to differentiate it from Gurkha, which has diff locks.
So there goes the Gorkha, while Dewang follows quite closely. Soon people learnt not to follow the Gorkha that closely.
For Gorkha came back the same way… However, Dewang managed to avoid him and become the good doggy.
Gorkha goes again… and runs out of steam at the top.
Meanwhile, UBS and rest are watching the fun with amusement at the entry point.
Meanwhile, another petrol jeep from hyderabadmakes it to the top.
By now I had watched quite a few attempts in every kind of vehicle on this hill. That also gave me an understanding of this hill obstacle. Once again I was impressed, because this was another very technical challenge. But with a difference. It didn’t favour any particular kind of vehicle. The only thing that would get you over this hill was driver skill. Any 4WD could climb this hill, but the driver had to understand the terrain, plan his attack and execute it to perfection. Very few made it in first attempt. Some, who did it in first attempt, had watched a few attempts to decide their strategy. Those who didn’t read the terrain and adapt, failed to do it after repeated attempts.
The run-up to the hill was not smooth. There were two approaches to attack the hill. The first one was straight, but had natural culverts that made the vehicle bounce wildly, killing the momentum. The second one had no culvert, but a slight turn was required before the final surge, which again killed the speed for most. So pure momentum based attack was ruled out.
Now let’s look at the second part of the climb, where the incline rises steeply. To be fair, it had decent traction. If you could supply constant torque while maintaining a steady speed for 3-4 seconds, you can complete the climb. If you can get the front tyres on the top, you are home free. Same can’t be said about cross-axle, I saw people not making it after getting just one tyre on the top.
So, what’s the trick? Good question. There is no specific trick. The driver had to know his vehicle well and select the right gear and right throttle level to pull it off. Too much throttle, the tyre will overcome the traction and spin. Too little throttle, the vehicle will stall just before the top. Therefore, each driver had to find that sweet spot in his vehicle to reach the top.
Vinay is briefing a driver at the entrance of the challenge
Then there were spotters on the top giving last mile (meter) instructions to
drivers who are about to make it.
Since I was at the middle point doing photography, eventually I took up the role of mid-point spotter. For the record, Tejas had long before asked some of us middle aged passengers to take up spotting roles wherever needed. Some people might respect the age the listen to instructions, you never know. But one couldn’t stand at this position, I had to keep running around to get out of the way of growling vehicles coming up the hill. I also ran to the driver after each failure, telling them what went wrong, warn them about rocks behind the vehicles as they reversed, etc. It was fun, and good exercise.
Some vehicles with massive torque went flying up the hill with very little run-up. This one is Robinson’s Invader.
But other times, there were long stints of failures where no vehicle got closer
to the top. That made the spotters on the top get into various meditative positions to kill the time.
Finally Thar with HT tyres puts it’s paw into the fray, with Vinay, Arka & UBS watching from the sidelines.
Before that, one more attempt by the Gorkha…
Finally Thar takes off from the first approach, bounces on the culvert violently, loses speed and fails. I could have shot the bouncing part if my camera had not gone into auto-sleep. And it couldn’t take off from the mid-point either thanks to HT tyres. So Behram started reversing, and despite some of us screaming rock, he reverses the Thar into a huge rock and sits on it.
Now what? Generally this is the time to bring out the Hi-Lift jacks or sheer muscle power to move the vehicle off the rock. I even showed the above photograph to Behram from the camera preview. Then Behram does something unexpected. He puts on the test engineer hat and decides to push the envelope. He continues to reverse on the rock as we watch in horror. If the driver was anybody else, he would have been target of every possible curse word. But this is the guy who designed this vehicle, so we just watched the Thar walk over the rock and rock finally emerged from the front.
Rock comes out spinning after being manhandled by Thar. No, it is not a shaken frame, notice the grass.
This was one of those moments where we had witnessed the wild and resilient nature of Thar.
Before we could get over the moment, the Thar took off again. By this time, Behram had the measure of the hill and Thar climbed the hill with least trouble.
Then the invader from Mahindra team does it in style
Viji’s MM540 too does it without any sweat.
By this time, Gorkha was doing dozens of attempts without any results. Since I was very ignorant about the gear ratios of this unusual vehicle, it was hard to make right suggestions. I made him try in every sensible gear and it used to run out of juice just before the top. If throttle can’t be maintained, there was no hope to cross this hill. I feel he should have volunteered to go around the hill and not made others wait when he did so many attempts. But he had taken the hill challenge to the heart and was unwilling to give up even after 15-20 attempts, actually I think everybody lost count after a while. Behram who was watching the repeated attempts, finally offered to drive it. First we deflated the tyres massively. Behram gives a demo of the rajastani technique of phat-phat dhum-dhum deflation.
At first Behram managed to put one paw on the top.
In the next attempt, Behram gets it on the top
The Gorkha driver was making a classic mistake of relaxing the throttle at the top every time. Many, who did this, saw the same result in their vehicles. Behram managed to understand the vehicle within few minutes and managed to retain constant throttle all the way and took it over the top.
Meanwhile, UBS’s petrol Jeep was struggling to get up despite in-Jeep instructions from Arka.
Mohan’s Gurkha climbs the hill like a pro.
Next comes Aditya’s Jeep, but driven by Vinay Thomas this time. Vinay who had watched repeated attempts, knew the trick. They make it in one shot.
Patrick’s classic too makes in couple of attempts.
Now the Legend from Mahindra team entered the fray.
And clears in one shot.
Even the other yellow Mahindra team vehicle does it one attempt, I don’t have photograph. Lots of credit to them.
But UBS’s jeep is still unsuccessful, here you can see Mahindra service team leader Naresh Bhosle giving some advice to the young driver.
To Be Continued...