DHABHAR.BEHRAM , Good to see a thread started about the good ol days of RAllying . The Himalayan Rally was what got me addicted to Rallying -- I was 11 yrs old and was a marshal at 2 check points in the 86 edition . Our job was to take the time book , get it to the table for the time to be filled in and then returned to the navigator .
We all had heard of Rajeev Khaana and Jayant Shah -- we belonged to the Khannu ( as he was nicked ) fan club . We didnt know the difference between and Opel Manta and a Nissan 240RS but we knew that they drove fast . The first time I experienced a Rally car was when we were stationed at the TC at Solan ( outside Mohan Meakin Brewery ) and the rally was running late by a few hours which was very common then . It was about 12 at night and we had been waiting for a couple of hours getting very edgy but frustrated as they just wudn't come ..... and then we heard this RUMBLE - we kept our eyes focussed on a turn which was about 3 kms from us to catch the lights but alas NOTHING . The rumble continued and continued and then SUDDENLY we see daylight , those extra lights literally turned the night into broad day light . The car comes in -- take the book with shaking hands at the sight of ' A RALLY CAR ' - get it to the table with my eyes still on the car , and hand it back .
But that was nothing compared to what happened with car No 4 and Car no 5 when they came in ...... 5-7 minutes before we saw them 2 , we realised that the RUMBLE had turned into a MAHA RUMBLE -- we cudn't figure out why , then the turn light up brighter than it had with the earlier cars and we still cidn't figure out why . Now , the place where we were located .. was about 200 mtrs after a sharp right hander ( broad road ) .. !! Then we sudden;y realised that there were 2 cars side by side at full clip .... my first real view of a drift has to be that -- 2 cars screaming their lungs out , lights blazing , and going sideways as if they were doing synchronised driving . I still get goose bumps thinking about that scene . I remember names like Roothart , Dunkerton, and then there was a Belgian couple also ( they rolled down within 5 kms after leaving our TC ) !!
We never got to see our Khannu , as usual he had overdone it and DNF'd !!! After Solan we headed of to Chail to man the TC just before they relaxed at the Royal Palace . I don't remember who it was ... but sudden;y we see this car screaming and coming down teh road in reverse gear -- FLAT OUT !! long straight .... sharp U turn into uphill .. 30 mtrs and TC !!! The guy had lost his forwrad gears and thus decided to do it in reverse ... MIND BLOWING it was .
It was a great experience watching them drive like mad people .... and as lil kids we were surely hooked onto Rallying . We headed back to scholl next day , we reached Solan town and then stopped for lunch and after lunch we were meant to get onto a local bus that would take us back to school . During lunch we had the teacher who had taken us come up and say that we didnt have to go by the bus as he had gotten us a lift in a Canter . We finished lunch , got out and saw a canter with the Himalayan rally stickers all over , service crew stickers , etc etc so we got excited all over again . So what if we didnt get a ride in a Rally Car , atleast we wud get in a Rall vehicle ..,
Some of us went up to the guy behind the wheel and said , can you pls drive fast like the rally guys -- he gave us this stern look that had us scurrying and we jumped into the back amongst tyres and lots of other pieces of iron which for us then meant niothing . He drove a lil fast till Dharampur but nothing too exciting and we all were busy laughing , talking about how we wud become rally drivers when we grew up and stuff .
After Dharampur the road turns into a super narrow stretch , a bus barely fits in there and its 6 kms uphill before we get to our school . Our teacher had been following us in his fiat .. he shouted out for us to hold tight -- we didnt understand till he suddenl;y overtook us and flat chatted the Fiat up the road , and before we knew it the Canter was also being flat chatted up teh road behind the Fiat - we had our arms entwined with each guy holding on for for dear life to teh side of the body and the driver went BALLISTIC . All our dreams of becoming rally drivers flew outta our systems , we didnt think we wud reach schiool -- some were screaming , some were praying and god knows what all !!! It was the most amazing rides of my life till then ..... we reached the school , took 5 mins to get our senses back to normal only to be told that the MAD MAX behind the wheel was none other than our HERO - Rajeev Khanna alias Khaanu . I still remember running up the hill to the dormitory to get a piece of paper and pen for an auttograph , didnt find any paper in teh hurry so grabbed a roll of toilet paper and ran back down to get his autograph -- yes, on the tissue paper roll ;-) !!!
That was 1986 .... now its 2007 , havn't become a Rally driver but do manage getting it sideways . Saw the likes of Shinozuka , Capt Chauhan , Hari Singh , Nikhil Taneja drive through those mountains at full clip and every time I saw them I would get goose bumps ..... !!!
Its a pity that we don't have Rally cars that sound anywhere close to the Rally cars of yester years , and ll those who havn't heard or seen them in action have really missed out on some pure orgasmic sounds .
damn .. I have goose bumps all over again .
Cheers
PS -- Sir, do you have pics to go along with your story telling ??? |