[phamilyman]

Why do all the people with engaging hilarious narratives NEVER manage to complete their posts in one shot?

[ram.west]

Originally Posted by josepeter

Buddy, was it you in the white safari? I need to buy you a drink for that!

Nope Buddy!! That ain't me!! I don't do much of roaming around In T.Nagar.

Post in a cpl of more pics here buddy!! No harm!!! Easy for the readers.

[snaronikar]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Why do all the people with engaging hilarious narratives NEVER manage to complete their posts in one shot?

+1 here. I feel they want the people here to sit and wait for their next moves or rather posts.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by josepeter

I have posted many pics in the Intro thread...

You really need to start a ownership review thread and put in more photos there.

And your Bolero does look mean when viewed from front!

[josepeter]

From where we left off...I started off with the 60K i had "saved" by going in for the SLE.

But before all that the diaper on the grill had to go. I wanted to take an axe and blow it off; Clarkson style in the showroom

itself, but sense prevailed and i ripped them of rather carefully...i guess gleaming new cars do that to you.

I had done quite a bit of research on tyre upsizing and sampled out a few probables. The stock size is 215/75-15 and comes

with appolo tyres; I didnt care too much for them, the faster I could rip them off the better.

16 v/s 15 debate.

It would have been all too easy to go for the 16s, they look better of course. But Bolero has a bit of an issue here, the

wheel clearence especially at the rear is very little; the 16s would have to go in with very low profile, a maximum of 65;

not good for your spine though!

I found a very useful tire comparison site which took in all factors like highway performance, noise, off-road ability etc.

and my choice would have to be between BFG ATKO, Pirelli Scorpion ( their choice) and Yoko Geolandars.

The safe upsize in 15 was 235/70-15; but I couldn't find any in the 70 profile, the shop had the Yokos in stock; but they

were 75 profile; the tyrewalla insisted that he had put the size on boleros before and I took the chance and decided on them.

The raised white letters must have clinched the deal!

There arent far too many choices for alloys in the 15" space, I went for a 5 spoke prestige wheelwith negative offsets; i

thought it went well with the yokos. Proper Phat!

So the new tyres went on into the wheels and filled with Nitrogen; they cost Rs50 a tyre to fill.

The upsize cost me 40k approx; the tyre walla bought back the stock wheels and tyres for 10K; I now feel i should have kept

them, would have been handy for a barebones Jeep.


So I drove back happily; my first new car; alloys and fat tyre on Day 1; enough for the day.

Next morning Jeremy ( my 4 yr old) and i went for the school drop and decided to take the better road ( none really) and splashed happily through the puddles but eventually lost our way. Asking for directions from the left reminded me why people go for power windows; they are a pain to wind down on the other side. You have to drive with the windows up of course if you dont need to have a taste of chennai roads, the front tyres accurately put grime in your mouth i swear!

The next weekend I found the bolero in a state of disassembly, what will all door pads, grille and facia pulled out. We

fixed power windows, they are made by BR and cost 12K. The keyless entry was Pirahna; forgot how much they cost. Plus two

pairs of windtone horns; they said 2 was good for highways. hmm..

Then came Basic ICE, a pioneer HU, JBL ovals and front speakers; pretty Ok for a start i thought!

This was my first UV and the first diesel; but in the city Bolero never feels sluggish, you can point and shoot, the turbo lag isnt very evident and the looks are menacing when you floor it in light traffic. Suddenly Autos werent a nuisance anymore; you were! My bumper has some nice yellow scar marks and I like them. All round visibilty is excellent; i used to wonder how buses and UV manage to pass within inches of cars; excellent visibility is what matters here. So after two weeks of Chennai traffic I hit the open road to Kerala. A night halt in Salem, a four day break in the jungles of Attapadi and on to Cochin.

It was raining mad and we set off at 5ish in the morning. The bolero opened up nicely once on the highway, i was merrily cruising and then we hit an overbridge with a gentle right bend just off Chennai. Chronic understeer will scare the hell out of anyone...I thought I would split the railings and fly out of the bridge; the Bolero just refused to turn and kept going towards the railings, I had made the mistake of taking the outer radius and had to brake and steer with whatever skill I had; I managed to steer clear of the railings by not much. Phew...my wife was really terrified. I was thinking if I had bought something I couldn't leave with. I whimped carried on toward salem; but soon I was hitting an indicated 110 kmph, it would go any further. The stop at the toll booth wasn't usual; with the tyres screaching like mad, these tyres a make a more plasticky noise than rubbery, could be due to the silica something in them. The tyres would also blind us with water on the windsreen everytime we hit a deep enough trough of water. The ride was excellent though and very comfortable at speed and we carried on till Attapadi without much drama. Back of the envelope calculation showed FE of 15. The AC is excellent even though the blower makes quite a noise. I was happy.

Attapadi had great scope for off-roading, we managed to spew dirt all over the car. My friend who lives in his Jungle lodge in attapadi also has a beaten up bolero, the DI SLx with full slick tyres. His driving skill must be exceptional as he was quite fast through deep slush. He had instructed me to follow him and never stop in the slush; I managed to do both; even overtake in the slush. The Yokos are superb off-road.

After a rejuvenating three days in the jungle lodge with no electricity, great food and peaceful calm, we hit the road to cochin.

There I had my front grill done in a friends garage, i saw some tastily done up OHCs, Altos, Gypsy etc. He also smoked my tail lamps.

On the drive back to Chennai, my sisters family accompanied us till Salem, with 5 adults and 3 kids the back tyre was scraping against the wheel arches quite regularly on uneven roads. 235/75/15 is not a safe upsize, I would need to modify the rear leaf to get rid of this.

Also managed to get a new pair of Hella Rallye 2000s from an accesory shop in KL and my interiors done in black and orange from Chennai.

Iam more or less done with external mods now; looking forward to a new intake system for stage II to start with...

[ram.west]

hey jose nice write up!!

The masked headlights look good!! But the pic does not seem to do justice. Try and get a nice pic soon!!

Just a suggestion. How about neon running around the awesome looking grill!! Will make the beauty more menacing to look at in the night!!!

Cheers!!
Ramesh

[sjcherian]

Very nice posts Josepeter and very nice looking Bolero. I love how your vehicle looks and am sure I have seen it near Independence Park near Valluvar Kottam. I remember seeing the grille and the wide tyres and nice alloys and thinking that looks awesome ! Do join up for the next Chennai meets.

[condor]

@Jose, very well written. And the mods are equally good. Loved the no-frills, mean looks that you have got there.

And welcome to Truck-land.

[hillram]

I have never seen a such a nice Bolera and equally happy to notice that a Bolero can be modded so well.

[bblost]

That is a very good truck you have there.

but, it appears that your tires are slightly jutting outside.
That is illegal.
and also the reason why so much muck and water is getting picked up when you go thru water on the road.

[Torque-ative]

Jose,..is this a 4x4, sorry if I missed it anywhere !
What is the current Ground clearnce on your Bolero (The website says 180 mm)

If only this could be rasied to at least 210 mm,..along with 4x4 could be a formidable off roader,..and practical too.

[WanderNomad]

Lovely truck. The grill looks nice and Hellas add to the Bullish look.

Tyres though are zutting out a bit.

[krish3]

Jose-: Vandi kidilam thanne.

Liked the exterior mods. How about some interior pics? The vehicle drive experience description was a bit scary. Is the understeer and braking too pronounced or did the tyres contribute to this feeling?

[shreyasma]

She looks killer in the second pic..
Congrats mate!!

[greenhorn]

the masking of the headlights is okayish, but it would be better if you took it apart and had the insides painted instead