[cruising_rapid]

Hello fellow BHPians and the guest readers.

My name is Abhishek Kumar and I serve in the rank of Captain in Army. Professional commitments limit me from saying anything more than this on a publicly accessible forum about my job profile.

But that doesn't deter me from loving automobiles, IC engines armed with turbocharger and direct injection in particular. My search for the cars begun in late 2013, especially when during the course of a foot patrol in the high ridge lines of Pir Panjal ranges, I stumbled across an old edition of AUTOCAR magazine. I was posted in Baramulla and stationed just a few hundred metres from the line of control. Needless to say, my phone was in flight mode for months. In Feb 2014 during my leave, I started searching online and it was then when I came across the encyclopaedia of automotive world; Team-bhp. Man I say it, I was smitten, indeed that something as vast, accurate and exhaustive existed in the Indian cyber arena. I had to do a road trip of Chandigarh - Dehradun - Jaipur, without stopping at New Delhi. I searched some more and found the travelogue section, what a helping tool it was, kudos to BHPians. I searched more and more and decided that I would apply for a membership once I would get posted out of this unpredictable area with no cellular coverage.

My car search got intense in the last few month of 2014 and trusting my friend's feedback, AUTOCAR India and Team-bhp, I finally decided against the advice of the world and bought a Skoda Rapid Elegance 1.6TDI, without even bothering myself with a test drive. Yes, my friends did it for me while I was busy climbing snow capped mountains always to overlook and see many Toyota vehicles running on virtually nonexistent roads of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

After being posted out, with a lot of inhibitions about my membership approval, dared I apply and got through at once.
Team-bhp has been a helping hand in multifarious walks of life on Black top asphalt, the recent most being hill driving. Time to add some value to the group has arrived and I will soon follow with the initial ownership of Rapid along with 25000KMs ownership of Honda Brio.

I look forward to a lifelong camaraderie with this group of like minded auto enthusiasts.

Abhishek Kumar.

[Samurai]

Great to see you here Captain. There are quite a few former and active servicemen in TeamBHP. There is one retired US army ranger in Dharamshala itself. I am sure you are going to have a great time here.

Do check out our 4x4 section, with your experience you may be able to advice the members.

[GTO]

Welcome Captain!

The Vento / Rapid might be getting long in the tooth, but they're still the most well-rounded diesel sedans in the C2 segment. Good choice. Just make sure you get that extended warranty . Did you get special pricing from the CSD? What was the on-road like?

Originally Posted by cruising_rapid

After being posted out, with a lot of inhibitions about my membership approval, dared I apply and got through at once.

A lot of applicants get in on the first shot. It's not as difficult as it's made out to be.

Our commercial vehicle section has lately seen some awesome threads on vehicles of the Army, Air Force & Navy. Do check them out.

[cruising_rapid]

and check out our 4x4 section, with your experience you may be able to advice the members.

Yes, I saw that yesterday. It is one gem of a thread.

Now, I ought to say here that WE(Team of technicians, fitters, vehicle mechanics and an Engineer) know Maruti Gypsy, SX4 and few other heavy vehicles like the back of our hand as they constitute the backbone of our front line transport. I happen to be the engineer in this team.

Just last month, we diagnosed some snag in a Gypsy where water has seeped in the engine after getting mixed with engine oil thus rendering to ceased engine.

So we had to open the entire engine and change the cylinder and the cylinder head assembly along with few other components( called half engine in our language) and then reassemble the complete engine i. e. both the manifolds, crankshaft, camshaft, rocker arms, injectors, timing belt, etc (the list goes on).

It does not happen everyday, but with that kind of first hand experience, I will be honoured to be of some help to the fellow BHPians.

Welcome Captain!

The Vento / Rapid might be getting long in the tooth, but they're still the most well-rounded diesel sedans in the C2 segment. Good choice. Just make sure you get that extended warranty . Did you get special pricing from the CSD? What was the on-road like?

I just could not convince myself to buy any other sedan. In around 2 months of ownership I have driven it for roughly around 4500kms from Jamshedpur to Dharamsala - Palampur - Pathankot - Lucknow and each time I floor that throttle pedal, it plasters an ear to ear grin on my face. I must also mention that I have been religiously following the turbo idling rule.

Yes, CSD did help here in reducing the price by almost 1lakh and having worked with Siemens before donning the uniform I had fair idea that Germans keep a lot of margin in their product line. so I bargained hard and OTR was roughly around 8.5 lakhs for the top end diesel. I guess, I got lucky here.

A lot of applicants get in on the first shot. It's not as difficult as it's made out to be.

Indeed GTO, I second you on this.