[saadat1992]

Just came back after completing a 1267km trip in my Liva!
Will put up a detailed report with pictures later. Here's one for now.

[saadat1992]

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.

[saadat1992]

Sunset @ Villupuram


Doing 130kmph on the Vilupuram - Trichy section


Trichy - Karur 4Lane - SWEET


Again


Had the IDS and LCLC but still, wasn't spotted in the 1267 odd kms


After his wash


The scenic Aanamalai route


This was when the last point in the fuel came on(it was blinking)


Candid pic


WindMills Every where!


Look how well maintained the road is! Tempts one to floor it!


Palani Hills


Palani bypass


Palani Hills


In front of Palani hills


Cool Toll Plaza, ain't it?


120kmph - Piece of cake


An old Sign board i believe ( at Trichy)


Place we stopped for refreshments ( Samayapuram)

[aravind.anand]

Hey looks like you had awesome fun driving for over three days? Nice write-up there, was interesting to go through.

But please avoid doing speeds of above 100 or 120 at nights. Even with increased vision from your new had lamps, side view is pretty much restricted during nights, and India being India, we never know when a cow or dog or man can run into our lane! And 135 is not a speed that we can easily control our cars, no matter how confident we feel.

Be safe and drive very many more kilometers Saadat

[saadat1992]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

Hey looks like you had awesome fun driving for over three days? Nice write-up there, was interesting to go through.

But please avoid doing speeds of above 100 or 120 at nights. Even with increased vision from your new had lamps, side view is pretty much restricted during nights, and India being India, we never know when a cow or dog or man can run into our lane! And 135 is not a speed that we can easily control our cars, no matter how confident we feel.

Be safe and drive very many more kilometers Saadat

Yeah bro, had a blast driving for 3 days! I loved driving on those smooth and fast 2 lane roads more than the 4 lane NH.

I did those speeds because i wanted to see how good it is on the highways! I won't be going more than 110-120 in my next trip though!

Glad that you liked my write up!

[Anandv267]

Great writeup saadat. But dont do such high speeds regularly on our roads. floor it for a few seconds. Our hatchbacks are not meant for such high speeds.

Cheers!
Anand

[saadat1992]

Originally Posted by Anandv267

Great writeup saadat. But dont do such high speeds regularly on our roads. floor it for a few seconds. Our hatchbacks are not meant for such high speeds.

Cheers!
Anand

Thanks bro!

Yes, i actually don't maintain it for more than 10-20 seconds. It'll affect the engine, tyres, everything plus puts our life and others' life at risk.

I maintain only 100-120kmph.
And, Do write up about your Goa trip, dude!

[Anandv267]

Originally Posted by saadat1992

Thanks bro!

Yes, i actually don't maintain it for more than 10-20 seconds. It'll affect the engine, tyres, everything plus puts our life and others' life at risk.

I maintain only 100-120kmph.
And, Do write up about your Goa trip, dude!

Good to hear that you drive at safe yet reasonably fast speeds

And the trip is one year old . I will come up with something exciting soon. I did about 4-5 2000kms trip but i dont write about short trips :P

[saadat1992]

What?? 2000kms is short huh? :P
This was the first big trip in which i drove! Already been on a biger trip when i was a kid. But have only vague memory of it!

Exciting? Where? Driving all the way to Ladakh?

[Anandv267]

I wouldn mind ladakh. But it is not doable in a hatchback! Delhi is in the cards. lets see

[saadat1992]

Originally Posted by Anandv267

I wouldn mind ladakh. But it is not doable in a hatchback! Delhi is in the cards. lets see

If it's not doable in a hatchbck, why don't you go with the Verna?
Delhi? Gosh! Brace yourself for the hostile conditions of NH in the north. A bigger vehicle would be better IMO.

[tacho9000]

Hello saadat1992 delhi is definitely doable even with the horrible traffic manners. It is still million times better than the traffic manners we have in kolkata and on the highways in and around west bengal. Bless you. You'll never want to drive in kolkata or NH around west bengal because of the utterly miserable and horrible road conditions and traffic manners. Also the road conditions if you ever experience is something you'll never want to do again.

[saadat1992]

Originally Posted by tacho9000

Hello saadat1992 delhi is definitely doable even with the horrible traffic manners. It is still million times better than the traffic manners we have in kolkata and on the highways in and around west bengal. Bless you. You'll never want to drive in kolkata or NH around west bengal because of the utterly miserable and horrible road conditions and traffic manners. Also the road conditions if you ever experience is something you'll never want to do again.

LoL. Yes. I saw how bad the traffic is in west Bengal in Overdrive's Etios Yatra! Roads down south in TN, KA,AP are really good.
The traffic is worse in Kerala though ( no offence to keralites) .

But, one must be careful in North because of the dacoit groups on the highways. My friend who frequently drives to the north usually tells me about the dacoit stuff.

[subratasenn]

Originally Posted by tacho9000

Hello saadat1992 You'll never want to drive in kolkata or NH around west bengal because of the utterly miserable and horrible road conditions and traffic manners. Also the road conditions if you ever experience is something you'll never want to do again.

Originally Posted by saadat1992

LoL. Yes. I saw how bad the traffic is in west Bengal in Overdrive's Etios Yatra! Roads down south in TN, KA,AP are really good.

National Highways in West Bengal are not that bad as is generally perceived. Specially Delhi Road and Bombay Road. Delhi Road has a stretch which is congested (Panagarh). Same with Bombay Road, which has a bottleneck (near Kolaghat Bridge). Rest are fine. Even NH 34 (Kolkata to Siliguri) isn't that bad.

But yes, the traffic manners. Night driving in Delhi Road and Bombay Road is a nightmare because of lorry traffic after 8 pm. And as for Calcutta, if you know how to drive in this city, you can drive anywhere in the world, maybe even outer space.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by saadat1992

...The traffic is worse in Kerala though ( no offence to keralites)..

Why would we take offense because there are more vehicles on road?

Brilliant write up. I went to Pollachi some 5-6 years back and loved all those windmills! We can spend hours driving watching those spinning slow.

And quite impressed with the ability of the car too. Tell you what, that's a terrific FE for the load & speed you did! How was the NVH during those 100+ speeds?