Re: Fleet Admiral Togo Heihachiro - Toyota Fortuner. Life Sails On... Admiral & The Thundersquall June 3, 2011
Last evening, on the way back home, the weather in Mumbai suddenly turned squally. Though the signs were on from the afternoon itself, never expected the weather to change so fast. After driving about 15 minutes, by the time I reached the Eastern Express Highway, day turned to night and it was a heavy, heavy downpour which I've never seen as first rains of the monsoons or even pre monsoons. Weather patterns are sure a changing !
On the EEH, looking into the distance, clouds were so dark leaving one wondering whether it was a scene out of Dante's Inferno...
Traffic crawled and what normally takes Admiral 60 minutes to traverse took 90 minutes.
This was the first real very heavy showers that Admiral was encountering. Mild showers couple of weeks ago on the way to Pune.
Some obervations on Admiral's behaviours in the blinding rain:
- All systems worked well.
- The wipers were exceptionally good - intermittent/normal speed/hi speed all were deployed at various stages. Exceptional clarity after swipes no streaking as of now. However the rear windshield wiper speed is tad slow for my liking - could have been a wee bit faster. The washer sprays, especially front - which is a mist spray, worked well. The rear one is not a spray but just a stream from top requring the wiper to spread it. Could have been a mist spray here as well. Or am I missing some adjustment here ?
- Admiral felt extremely sure footed. I went through some flooded sections at some safe speed to check the feel. Very well planted. No feeling of slippage or loss of control. Tyres did their job fairly well.
That permanent AWD - All Wheel Drive, really came into its own last evening. Greatly appreciate that feature now.
-Another reason why I ventured into some of the long, deep road pools was to check the water splash characteristics. You see in my previous vehicle, the Scorp, there was a very dangerous behaviour which is now widely realised - when the vehicle used to rush into a road puddle at anything above 20KMPH a wall of water used to get thrown up on to the windscreen leaving one momentarily blind. Totally blind. I am told this is the case with the Pajero too.
So wanting to check that out in the Admiral took him into the pools at about 40/50KMPH. He tore through the water - parting the water sideways with not a drop coming on to the windshield. Relief...errr...flooded me. Tried it in a couple of places more. No issues. Hallelujah - Moses parting the seas !
Relief was felt due the memories of two narrow escapes on Guderian, the Scorp, thanks to this free 'feature' of auto windscreen washing.
- Brakes are good indeed. Had two near scrapes last evening. Somehow I just can't understand as to why folks on the road - the moment it starts raining heavily - switch on the hazard lights. To improve visibility ? Gimme a brake...sorry... break ! Just switch on your tail lamps folks - that's what needs to be done. For with the hazard lights on when these chaps want to change lanes there is no way they can signal that. Then there is quite a bit of skill required when these mor*ns suddenly change lanes and rush into your lane. As it were the quite a few of the chaps on the road don't use their indicators and with this cleverness, as per them, it is quite a mess. So had to brake hard couple of times and the brakes did a very good job.
- Rain falling on the roof doesn't create much of a racket in the Admiral as compared to the Scorp. Must be due to the shape. However there is still a racket due to the large suface area and so had to increase the volume to listen to some jazz.
- The 221 MM ground clearance is really helpful. Went over some debris on the road (thanks to some real high wind/s) without much of a worry.
- Overall felt comfortable and cocooned in the shell.
I trust all the viewers of Togo Channel have gotten their vehicles ready for the monsoons:
- Check wiper condition.
- Check tyres.
- All electricals especially the security system.
- Check jack and tommy.
- Check stepney tyre - pressure and general check up.
- Check coolant levels.
- Anti rust treatment/anti rust serviced.
- Window washer check and top up.
- Check all beading and for signs of water trickling into cabin.
- Check brakes and hand brake.
And have fun driving in the rains.
Drive carefully.
Last edited by Guderian : 3rd June 2011 at 10:34.
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