Phew.. at last! Got some spare time to write about my trip.
The trip was planned for 3 days and went well.
Chennai - Trichy - Karur - Coimbatore - Pollachi(part of Coimbatore) - Chennai.
The total distance covered in the trip as you may have seen in the previous post was 1267kms.
People say Liva is a small car, it's light and flimsy. But, i beg to differ. They should probably take this car on the highway and see how it goes! Man! The stability is just too good for a small car.
It's very well planted and goes around the corners even at 120-130kmph without any fuss or body roll. The first phase of the trip was Chennai - Trichy.
Started at 3pm on 5th Jan. Thought the roads would be free since it was a saturday afternoon but, it was just the opposite! To my surprise all the roads were clogged! So, took the Chennai Bypass road instead of the airport road which saved me precious time and fuel. Thought the NH 45 would be free and yet once again i made a wrong assumption! The bypass joins the NH 45 near tambaram and there started all my woes!
The traffic was horrendous! The SETC and MTC buses stopping and blocking the 2nd lane of the highway, bikers riding at 30-40kmph on the right lane, the taxis and the Trucks cutting across randomly and jay walkers all over! The fastest we could go was 50kmph. This continued all the way upto Chengelpet.
The target was to reach Trichy before 8pm and after all these chaos, the target seemed impossible.
Reached Villupuram around 5:45pm. It usually takes around 1.5 - 2 hours to cover the 160kms but, it took us almost 3 hours to get there.
We wanted to cover the maximum distance before the dark because we thought it'll be difficult to drive fast after sunset.
But, I was wrong. It was after sunset when we started munching miles and tearing tarmac, thanks to the upgraded headlights!
Until dark we did a max of 100kmph. Once we crossed Vilupuram, the minimum speed we did was 100kmph.
You wont really feel like as if you are travelling at 100. The suspension set up is designed for speed masking as @amalji mentioned earlier.
Once the car crosses the 120 mark, it starts going like a maniac! Boy oh boy!
Was leaving almost all the vehicles behind. The headlamp was the main reason, the 100/90W set up is the best for the highways. One flick to the highbeam and the truck/bus/car in front of you gives way! Loved it!
The max we did was 135kmph.
And the Villupuram - trichy (which is also 160kms )sector was covered in just under 2 hours!
Reached there at 7:30pm and halted there for the night!
Second Phase : Trichy - Karur - Coimbatore - Pollachi
Trichy - Karur took us about 2 hours.
The road travels along the Cauvery river.
The first 20-25kms was HORRIBLE! No road at all! Broken patches. You simply cannot go above 30kmph.
After the 20km stretch, found something that brought a smile on my face - A four lane NH!
Karur to Coimbatore was also pretty good. It was four lane for about 15kms then a 2 lane road without a median. The road was good and fast. No broken patches at all. Was able to maintain 100-120kmph over there. Reached Kovai in 2.5 hours.
Coimbatore - Pollachi is a very scenic route. The road is good and also a fast one. But, we must be careful with the buses plying on that route. They are driven very rashly!
Third Phase: Pollachi - Chennai
This was day 3.
Pollachi - Udumalpet - Palani - Dindugal - Trichy - Chennai
This was the route we planned. Started at 1:30pm.
The route was a 2 lane one until dindugal.
Stopped at palani for lunch, took some snaps and proceeded towards dindugal.
The palani - udumalpet section has a lot of windmills which means there'll be a lot of cross winds in that area.
We did a max of 100 in that route. The roads were nice and it was such a joy to drive on those kind of roads!
It took us a whole 3 hours to cover the 145kms between dindugal and pollachi. Thanks to the railway crossings.
Got an average of 24kmpl in that section!
Once we reached dindugal, we were greeted by the NH45 , asking us to floor it! That was when i floored it and pushed the Liva to its limits!
The road was empty and i managed 165kmph with AC on, 4 people on board and boot full of luggage!
The engine was not so happy at 165!
It feels at home doing 140-150kmph.
Covered the Dindugal - Trichy section (110 kms) in 50mins!
Trichy - Chennai also was very quick. Took me about 3hours and 45mins.
This car is an all rounder! It feels very peppy in the city and is very competitive on the highways!
The fuel blinker came up only after 702kms.
Got an average of
20-21kmpl with mixed driving which, according to me is very good mileage!
Pictures in the next post.