[R32_GTR]

Originally Posted by xtreme power

this time i came all out to win, only i know how much preparation and money is gone in from my side, ask all the customers whose work is pending in my garage

Can someone share more detailed pictures / videos with narrations of the obstacles.

@ Allan,
Tell me about it man!!

[King413]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Almost 5 pages over and still waiting for the reports, can we have some reports please? I suggest these discussions be carried to the other thread:- http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-ex...ml#post2032095

Spike

Lets get all facts right before posting the reports.......

Arka,
when we asked for the team scores at the end of TPC 2010 we were told that they will be posted and i respect you a lot on agreeing they were mistakes. Such tallies at mid night after a tiring 2 days of organising by the o-team is bound to happen. But I feel even if its on a forum please consider the completing teams and post actual reports rather than sidelining 3 full stages.....

prithvi

Originally Posted by Zubiker

Khan saab, please come to Taprobana Challenge in Srilanka during October 15 to 23. Then, you may decide if we need to be placed 8th or 28th...

Dear Zubiker,
Not thing against you and your team, my personal observation i may be wrong i found Bhasker to be the best driver in the Indo Lankan team. You guys may be the best in the Taprobana Challenge, We may be the 28th out there and you guys the 1st but the issue here is TPC 2010. Lets not start rubbing ego's in this forum.

Getting out of work this year may be an issue but none the less will try to come for the Taprobana Challenge some time in the future.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by fiery enzyme

But what about the second day Jaggu? I heard Spidey's lockers got busted on Arka's SS. Plus one vehicle was out anyway on first day.

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Boss, the lockers had got busted long before and I did a major part of TPC with a busted locker. Such was our enthu & commitment towards TPC. Anyway we were out of competition on Day 1, SS3 itself. No issues with that. We screwed up big time with our vehicles & (Red3) does not deserve ANY award. Fair & Square. No complaints about that.

Let me give you the whole story. Khan and myself generally chit chat on things to be done on Spidey to make it more comfortable, clean up the rough edges etc on our long drives to various events. There was a set of pending work, which included a hard top, since we got royally buggered with the Munnar and Pune trip with soft tops. Then on the return from Pune we faced some issues with steering, so it was decided its time to go ahead, and i kicked Khan day in and out to give the car a full mechanical overhaul (which was never done till date) along with the hard top job.

Cabin work happened and at the last day or two the mechanicals were overhauled, in the hurry we forgot to check the lockers. They were misbehaving right from the start of our drive from BLR. But then it was too late when we realized this issue. But since we know spidey's capabilities to a fair extent we decided to push it. Day 1 inspite of a slipping lockers we just flew over the obstacles (we also didn't figure this as an issue then). Score cards are evidence.

SS3 of day 1 itself we knew that we are out of competition. Sidhu gypsy broke spring, which again is our stupid mistake, of not checking the vehicle. That vehicle was not planned to participate, but since the other vehicle had some paper work pending the white gypsy was prepared over a day after being standing idle for 3 months IIRC.

Still we couldn't let it go without giving our best try, though we knew we never stood a chance. We knew that we would lose some 300 + points IIRC with our clueless calculations. We didn't even bother to wait for Sidhu to rejoin us at last few SS of first day (which i feel was a bad idea now lol). Coz our idea was to have fun and forget the competition side. Ask Mohan manning the last SS of day 1, how we were having fun.

While reversing to fill air on the highway, we got first taste of fully slipping lockers.

Day 2, as usual we went full blast, inspite of issues with Sidhu's gypsy and spidey. Marshal's would have noticed the machine gun fire. Then at Arka's SS lockers decided to completely pack up. Please note that this was not due to that obstacle, i can take the challenge, that it is a cake walk for the vehicle. But the abuse of last 4 days of drive taking toll. Still we decided to continue and i was driving, i even attempted few obstacles which i could without increasing the revs.

Then while driving to last SS i figured out that i could do better (without locker slip) with 4H. I told Khan this and he took spidey to clear all the obstacles in 4H, where the previous team was struggling, even with a gypsy.

Hope this explains my stance and views about the terrain. Yes its unfair to compare Spidey with any other vehicle coz the man behind the vehicle has spent 3+ years of time and truck loads of effort on it. To make it one of the most capable offroad vehicle in India. Many who used to pull his legs have started following the same modifications also, that should be proof enough.

Hope this clears your doubt's

EDIT: About second day, Khan said it was good and my reply was better than day 1, just about ok.

Palar is toughest challenge to organize! Period.

Terrain wise its moderate, if you and your vehicle are in ship shape and light you will have a ball of a time. And i atleast envy you guys who have access to this fun place year long

[gsferrari]

@Jaggu - not sure what you are trying to imply. Are you saying that the terrain is not challenging enough or that the SSs we prepared were not thrilling enough? A bit lost here.

From where I was standing, Spidey blew past my obstacles and I wish I could have given you guys the longer slush run to make things more interesting. In hind-sight I should have had less sympathy for the participants and more confidence in my own ability to read the obstacles. You guys would have had a BLAST running through 30-40 feet of slush.

I remember Prithvi coming up and telling me that the water was stinking...I was just happy there were no bodies floating around in the water!

I am sure that at some point the whole point of off-roading is lost when the vehicle can accomplish everything with ease. This was the thought I had in mind when Khan bhai was driving around like it was the morning school run with the kids. But seeing others getting stuck nice and solid...and then seeing guys like Ali, Pat, Doc Jones etc. passing the obstacle, I decided that the driver is still the most significant piece of the puzzle.

I need to check the score-cards to see if any stock Gypsies passed the slush obstacle on day-2 SS5. As far as I know the answer to that is NO. CJ3Bs on the other hand made merry!

[King413]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

I need to check the score-cards to see if any stock Gypsies passed the slush obstacle on day-2 SS5. As far as I know the answer to that is NO. CJ3Bs on the other hand made merry!

Not sure of the if it was SS5, if it was the SS with 3 water pits to cross Sindhu's stock gypsy and mine did the 1st and 3rd. I don't think any other team managed to complete the 3rd obstacle at least they hadn't till i got there.

Prithvi

[ex670c]

Hi Guys,

Some more pics of my Special Stage on Day#1.

The pics are of the vehicles from the Red teams.

Regards,

Arka

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by King413

Not sure of the if it was SS5, if it was the SS with 3 water pits to cross Sindhu's stock gypsy and mine did the 1st and 3rd. I don't think any other team managed to complete the 3rd obstacle at least they hadn't till i got there.

Prithvi

Sorry - SS3! The one with the slush obstacle right at the beginning.

[King413]

Originally Posted by ex670c

Hi Guys,

Some more pics of my Special Stage on Day#1.

The pics are of the vehicles from the Red teams.

Regards,

Arka

Arka these are all the Blue teams.

[ex670c]

Originally Posted by King413

Arka these are all the Blue teams.

The pics posted of on Day#1 SS6 part1 are of vehicles from:
1) Team BLUE 1
2) Team RED 4
3) Team RED 5

The pics posted of on Day#1 SS6 part2 are of vehicles from:
1) Team RED 6
2) Team BLUE 5
3) Team RED 2
4) Team BLUE 4

Regards,
Arka

[ex670c]

Hi Guys,

Pics of Special Stage 3 on Day#1.

It was a Sequence of 5 Climbs in loops with a short run up.

The First Team to complete this SS was Blue 1 from Chennai.

The pics are of the following teams:
1) Team BLUE 1
2) Team BLUE 2
3) Team BLUE 3
4) Team BLUE 4

Regards,

Arka

[ex670c]

Hi Guys,

Pics of Special Stage 4 on Day#1.

It was again a sequence of 5 Climbs in loops with a short run up.

The First Team to complete this SS was Blue 1 from Chennai.

The pics are of Team RED 3.

Regards,

Arka

[fiery enzyme]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Cabin work happened and at the last day or two the mechanicals were overhauled, in the hurry we forgot to check the lockers. They were misbehaving right from the start of our drive from BLR. But then it was too late when we realized this issue. But since we know spidey's capabilities to a fair extent we decided to push it. Day 1 inspite of a slipping lockers we just flew over the obstacles (we also didn't figure this as an issue then). Score cards are evidence.

SS3 of day 1 itself we knew that we are out of competition. Sidhu gypsy broke spring, which again is our stupid mistake, of not checking the vehicle. That vehicle was not planned to participate, but since the other vehicle had some paper work pending the white gypsy was prepared over a day after being standing idle for 3 months IIRC.


While reversing to fill air on the highway, we got first taste of fully slipping lockers.

Day 2, as usual we went full blast, inspite of issues with Sidhu's gypsy and spidey. Marshal's would have noticed the machine gun fire. Then at Arka's SS lockers decided to completely pack up. Please note that this was not due to that obstacle, i can take the challenge, that it is a cake walk for the vehicle. But the abuse of last 4 days of drive taking toll. Still we decided to continue and i was driving, i even attempted few obstacles which i could without increasing the revs.

Then while driving to last SS i figured out that i could do better (without locker slip) with 4H. I told Khan this and he took spidey to clear all the obstacles in 4H, where the previous team was struggling, even with a gypsy.

Hope this explains my stance and views about the terrain. Yes its unfair to compare Spidey with any other vehicle coz the man behind the vehicle has spent 3+ years of time and truck loads of effort on it. To make it one of the most capable offroad vehicle in India. Many who used to pull his legs have started following the same modifications also, that should be proof enough.

Hope this clears your doubt's

Jaggu,

I was only replying to the fact that you mentioned the terrain was boring and it is a cake walk.

you have to accept it broke quite a few vehicles including the celebrated spidey. Obviously as you say it is one of the best off-roaders in the country.

I wasn't trying to compare it to any other vehicle nor talking away any credit from Khan's effort.
j

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

@Jaggu - not sure what you are trying to imply. Are you saying that the terrain is not challenging enough or that the SSs we prepared were not thrilling enough? A bit lost here.

Nothing to be lost, terrain is soft sand, kms and kms of it. It's really not challenging or difficult to master it. All the hype created about weather also helped us, coz we came over-prepared. Weather was very close to what we get on top of some of our rocks here in BLR when sun is out. Even some marshals were trying to psyche us with some advices lol

Please note that whole BLR team were new to sand. So for you guys who have access to it it should be double easy. Different thing heavier jeeps have a problem which we saw with our teams also. The PB gypsy driver hasn't driven a single OTR, forget sand and saw how he took the trail

Reg Marsheling i have no clue, and i know you guys also are learning. But one thing, in a competition one does recce at the closest possible time, this is from a safety angle, atleast thats why i know off from other motor sports. And if am not mistaken, any of the slush pits were recceied in that week, so its not only you gs. It was raining on and off in that area according to weather reports so you yourself can imagine what happens under the innocent looking sand pits.

Anyways i still say and believe the terrain is moderate, and challenge is really in managing ie organizing such an event, for which i have personally congratulated Arka multiple times. Lets just leave it at that and dont get into marshal bashing.

Originally Posted by fiery enzyme

Jaggu,

I was only replying to the fact that you mentioned the terrain was boring and it is a cake walk.

you have to accept it broke quite a few vehicles including the celebrated spidey. Obviously as you say it is one of the best off-roaders in the country.

I wasn't trying to compare it to any other vehicle nor talking away any credit from Khan's effort.
j

Lol why did i expect this, either you are absolutely in denial or just want to carry a moot point.

As far as i know Spidey didnt break coz of terrain, it broke because of our own stupidity! We don't have any doubts about how we screwed up our chance- ourselves, Palar atleast was very kind to us!

Reg other vehicles, give em break. Most of them are old and we all know how jeeps are. Its a jeep thing afterall. That's why i said Thar and Gypsy

We know what all the perceptions will be thrown on each and every post we make since we didn't perform (cos we messed it up for ourselves- Repeating in a loop), and hence refrained from saying anything. Till i saw the excel. Sorry F_E i know you did your best and marsheled well, but am terribly cheesed off with the sheet.

I wish we never saw it!

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by ex670c

....
Pics of Special Stage 4 on Day#1.
It was again a sequence of 5 Climbs in loops with a short run up.
.....
The pics are of Team RED 3.

Oh, me & prithvi loved this SS. IIRC, we both completed it in 2 minutes flat. both the vehicles & all 5 obstacles with no fuss.

[siddartha]

TPC 2010 was a great experience. All of us bangy boys definitely had a lot of fun(including when we had tempers flying) i would love to participate again.
our team (red3) just had shitty luck this time.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners.

ORGANISERS - truly a great job! wish the scoring screw ups had not happened.

@arka - Thank you soo much for helping me with the valve cover gasket.