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Old 8th February 2023, 15:19   #841
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by HappyWheels View Post
All good till the pricing comes!

Even the current pricing is a huge premium which buyers find acceptable because of the unique proposition it offers, but how far can they stretch the buyers purse?
Current on road prices in Pune comes close to 18lacs with the accessories. One needs to see if the new model would breach the 20lac barrier.
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Old 13th February 2023, 17:00   #842
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Hi - If anyone can guide, if the new addition of adblue in the upcoming gurkha is better moving forward as heard of few down sides but not sure of it.

News confirm that the upcoming gurkha will come with this feature and a increased HP but ofcourse with a price tag increase by 1 - 1.5 lac. So is it worth ?

Please advise as i am planning to buy one in next month and once the new BS 6 norms hit the deck there are chances that the current gurkha price will come down and the new Gurkha will increase which will be with the additional component " Adblue "
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Old 15th February 2023, 19:23   #843
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by Lightrr View Post
Hi - If anyone can guide, if the new addition of adblue in the upcoming gurkha is better moving forward as heard of few down sides but not sure of it.

News confirm that the upcoming gurkha will come with this feature and a increased HP but ofcourse with a price tag increase by 1 - 1.5 lac. So is it worth ?

Please advise as i am planning to buy one in next month and once the new BS 6 norms hit the deck there are chances that the current gurkha price will come down and the new Gurkha will increase which will be with the additional component " Adblue "
Adblue technology came around with the introduction of BS4. Commercial vehicles of TaMo, Bharat Benz , Force Motors have this technology since then. The BS6 Tata Harrier also has this. It is a proven and reliable concept .
The price increase probably covers some other upgrades also.

Regards,
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Old 18th February 2023, 22:09   #844
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by er_sb_blogs View Post
The degree of complexity for the human mind is directly proportional to the amount of information it is exposed to. Hence, being an auto-enthusiast, one of the most difficult decisions is to come up with a car of choice and that too, of your car purchase.
My requirement is almost same as yours, and I'm in a great dilemma for now. However, ride comfort on a long drive with family is very important factor to me. It could be a deal breaker. I would like to know your (and other Gurkha owners) experience regarding the same.

For this reason I'm not considering Thar, although it's aesthetics is much better than Gurkha and Scorpio N (subjective). Even though Thar will launch a 5 door version soon, still I'll be sceptical about the ride comfort from family perspective.
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Old 13th April 2023, 14:54   #845
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Per a recently uploaded YT video by a current gen Gurkha owner, BS 6.2 launch is imminent with BS 6 production stopped.

The new launch would come with improved power/torque figures, 18 inchers, better infotainment system and increased price. Apparently he got this info from his service advisors while taking his Gurkha for a periodic maintenance.

I thought fellow enthusiasts may be interested but not sure if it's alright to share the link here.
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Old 16th April 2023, 22:46   #846
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

I called Rohit Autowheels in New Delhi today. They informed that they have zero inventory. No cars available for test drive as of now. Production has been stopped. The new Gurkha will the BS 6.2 engine will hit the showrooms again sometime in May end.

Although they were not very sure about many other things, the were certain that the engine will produce significantly more power and torque, the wheels will be 18 inches and a bigger infotainment system will be offered. And yes, the lever for 4x4 will be replaced by a knob.

No update on the 5 door version yet. I have a gut feeling the car (3 door) will go north of 20 big ones on road once released. Anyway no point speculating specifications now. We will all get to know in a couple of months.

Looks like I will have to wait for my test drive for time being.
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Old 24th April 2023, 14:29   #847
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Looks like a higher power and torque version is on the cards, as well as the Ground clearance may be further upped.
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Old 2nd May 2023, 07:53   #848
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by abhyuday87 View Post
I called Rohit Autowheels in New Delhi today. They informed that they have zero inventory. No cars available for test drive as of now. Production has been stopped. The new Gurkha will the BS 6.2 engine will hit the showrooms again sometime in May end.
There were DPF clogging problems during high altitude drives with BS 6. Now with BS 6.2 we need to see how these vehicles perform. I hope manufacturer has looked in to these issues.

Last edited by Rudra Sen : 2nd May 2023 at 07:58. Reason: Quoted content trimmed
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Old 15th May 2023, 12:37   #849
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Falling in Love with Segue: My BSVI Force Motors GURKHA



Executive Summary
  • Fell in love with the BSVI FORCE MOTORS GURKHA
  • Bought one. Named it SEGUE.
  • All other marketing choice theorists, consumer buyer behavior modelers, analysts, reviewers, guru-prattle, experts, face-offs, pissing contests, road testers…can take a walk, a permanent one.

Unabridged Version :

Force Gurkha Review-main-pic.jpeg

I Fell in Love: If you have ever fallen in love, you will know what I mean. And if you haven’t ever, there is no point explaining it to you.

Nothing like it: The market is full of machines differentiated by seductive features like the number of cup holders or USB ports or leather armrests. This Beast is different. Utterly. Comprehensively. Totally. There is NO way you can mistake it for anything else in the world.

Easy to Choose - There is ONLY ONE CHOICE: All the other ‘machines’ come in ‘variants’, flavors, schemes, types, and models…... Some cootchie-pootchie variants of the inane and ultra-banal. Sunroof, vanity mirrors, dashboard trim, soft tops, internet ….irrelevant and annoying. Or some vainglorious mixture of drives, fuel, manual, auto, transcendental, engine capacity, which wheel is driven, alphabet soup (SUV, MUV, ABC, XYZ..). I do not even know if these are choices. And by the way how in hell are you going to figure out whether you got delivered what you ordered? Are there really 16 bolts in the crank-fusion reactor or is it the 12-bolt-fission reactor version?!!!
With the GURKHA there is one choice – just one -only one ALL EMBRACING CHOICE. Buy it or leave it. No versions, no choice matrices, no variants, no mumbo, no jumbo. ONE MODEL -SIX colors. Choose the color. You are done.
Force Gurkha Review-big-tall.jpeg

No accessory confusion: The GURKHA comes in ready to drive. And if at all you want to fit a few accessories, they come in, all-ARAI approved and homologated, and can be fitted at the dealer even before you take delivery.
There is a rooftop carrier with a section for a Jerrycan. I have one gifted me by my Hero father-in-law, an Artillery Vet. It was with him during the ’62, ’65, ’67, and ’71 wars. Knock me over with a feather, when I tried fitting it on, the “JerryCan Cage” on top had thick foam pre-installed for a snug fit. Did I tell you about being loved right back when you are in love?

No Wheeling Dealing: While I had test driven the GURKHA at a couple of other locations, my first serious visit was to the Ahmedabad dealer with the improbable name: MSS MediTechno Pvt. Ltd. Located in a gritty industrial suburb.
I reached, leather-jacketed, helmeted, late one cold winter evening on my Bullet. An unlikely buyer. It was already dark and my mission was to see how the Gurkha behaved in the dark. Mit the dealer/owner and Vishal from GURKHA has just returned from a day-long activity and were visibly bushed.
While waiting for them, I was chatting with the old security guard who welcomed me, sat me down, and answered most of the sneaky questions I had. How many sold? Anybody had shouting matches? How many were towed in? He answered them all. And as a seasoned interviewer, I know when someone has been indoctrinated and when someone is bullshitting. This old security guard was the best security man as a Brand Ambassador I have ever met in a looooong career as a marketer/cold-caller/researcher across hundreds of organizations.
And when Mit came in and started giving me the vehicle specs, I rudely interrupted him and asked him a couple of ultra-technical questions (Sorry: It is my job). He admitted right away that he didn’t know. I could go on…but the thing that I remember the most about that interaction was Mit telling me that there are two things I need to know about the vehicle:
A. The fuel lock is externally operated with a key. No internal pop-lever
B. The Wing Mirrors are manually operated. Not motorized.
In all my years as a Professor of Marketing, I never expected that this sort of decency would exist outside a Textbook. Over the years I have attended, and indeed designed marketing presentations in mahogany-lined boardrooms, splendid hotels, and resorts surrounded by fine food and wines, HEPA-filtered air factory floors, with digital devices, and presentation equipment beyond sci-fi.
But that evening, one old security guard, and his raconteuring, one rickety broken chair, cardboard-lined and held together by plastic packing straps, by the light of a dull mercury halogen lamp in a gritty/dusty industrial suburb; with a dealer telling me the shortcomings of the ONLY vehicle model he has, in the presence of the Company Sales Rep ……I saw the soul of what Brands really are about.

Mileage: Mileage or fuel efficiency is quoted as km/liter of diesel. Will you please quote it in Rupees/Kilometer? Because if you do so, for BSVI, you will also have to add the cost of the AdBlue !!!!!!! Every other vehicle needs AdBlue. Dunno AdBlue? Go ask the Pintle-Puntle Gurus. The BSVI GURKHA does not need AdBlue and meets BSVI emission norms via a clever alternative system.

Instant: for some strange reason, vehicle marketers believe that Waiting Time = Brand Prestige. How about NEVER?
I have an insane allergy to this very idea. I have been through this. I have had to beg an unloved uncle for US$ 500 in foreign exchange to book a scooter that took 6 years to come in. The alternative was Indian money and 20 years !!! I have been through this and I hate it with all my heart. My very first question about any product I wish to buy is: waiting time? Anything beyond reasonable logistics is completely unacceptable and unless there is NO WAY out (like a passport or visa), I am out of it.
A new Green GURKHA was waiting to be named SEGUE sitting inside the workshop. A Grey one would take 15 days to come in from Pithampur, MP. So there.

Force Gurkha Review-outside-home.jpeg

BIG and Only-3Door: Yes, it is big. And tall. This enables me to put a ladder on top and trim trees at home more conveniently. Transcends the limitations of my TATA Xenon pick-up truck. Do you have a problem?!
And yes, it is 3 doors. One too many for me actually. Just me and my wife – 2 doors. If I wanted to ferry my village, I would buy a tractor and a trailer, why bother with doors? By the way, this door proliferation hegemony: my refrigerator/vehicle/house has more doors than yours is puzzling indeed.
If one is so hung up on doors, Jim Morrison is at your service, it is Doors all the way!

Force Gurkha Review-whatsapp-image-20230126-13.35.44.jpeg

OFF-ROAD CAPABILITY: As far as I am concerned, ALL Indian driving is off-road quality. Check this out. https://bit.ly/NORMAL_OFF_ROAD
Except for the magnificent new superhighways, all Indian driving comes with potholes/slush/mud/water, etc as standard. I DO NOT WANT TO SEEK THEM OUT.
Do not even get me started on water wading capability, manual diff-locks, 4H/4L, and else. I have seen those videos. Leh-Ladakh-top-of-the-world-ultra-off-road-mega-altitude-conquest videos with testosterone-charged, insanely modded 4X4s. And if you watch the videos carefully you will also see, ordinary, simple, tiny family cars patiently slogging the SAME roads just as easily. Please.
And please stop this chattering about ground clearance. What is yours? If one insists on walking with legs on either side of an obstacle that will certainly annihilate one’s crotch, what is needed is brain surgery, not leg extension.
I want a JCB 225 LCM backhoe too. To do my serious off-roading on…hell, making 'off-roads'! And do call me for any obstacle course, tug-of-war and other such contests. Let’s play off-road: off-road with my BackHoe.

Force Gurkha Review-unipic.jpg

Luggage capability: For reasons, I am unable to fathom, people want to leave their snug homes and get away from it all. And to achieve that they need a ‘car’ with many, many doors. And then they want to fill it up with people and all their household stuff including the sofa and the 42” LCD TV. Remember these are the people and the stuff they wanted to get away from in the first place.
The GURKHA has PLENTY of space for me, my wife, and a couple of unicycles I always have with me. And the back seats are the place where I keep the unicycles so that there are NO pesky people who will sit on them.

Force Gurkha Review-tlc.jpeg

RAZOR-thin Service Network: Yes, the GURKHA does have an exceptionally slim network but that’s the dedicated GURKHA dealers. FORCE MOTORS, the mother company, has an extraordinary network rivaling the Indian Post Office and they have been around forever. The GURKHA engine is derived from the legendary Mercedes OM 616 workhorse engine that powers virtually ALL Force Motors vehicles. You know where this is going….
Case in point: I recently drove down from Ahmedabad to Raipur moments after I took delivery of SEGUE. Some 1250 km. I wanted a routine check at Raipur. Problem: the nearest dealer is at Bilaspur, 2.5 hours away. Called up the local FORCE Motors dealer. They said ‘come over’. Vivek the area guy, emailed Anjan & Dhara the local specialists, the service checklist. Anjan and Dhara rounded up their team who first admired the first GURKHA they had seen. They hoisted the machine up, raced through the checklist, and were done in an hour. A small bill later and I was on my way. But then being a 31-year-long owner of a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 cc machine, I know what Family Love is!

The 6 A° Pintle Puntle: Any poor guy checks out the reviews when they want to buy a machine. This is exactly the ‘victim’ the wannabe gurus are praying for. And so with the information they have extracted from the sales brochure, random websites, back issues of Top Gear and other ‘gurus’, they go to town with all manner of irrelevant, annoying stuff that they think makes them sound so ‘guru’. Mule, lift, departure angle, diff lock, ECU, sway, NVH, TPMS, and soft shackle….are all grist to the mill.
The newbie reverentially learns that the Trepidator-Soft Top-Two crandik QTXR version is superior to the Annihilator -Titanium Bash Plate-Cowdung Annealed – MQXY because its Pintle-Puntle is tuned 6 A° closer to the Terculator Spindle. ( Note: 1 A° = 1 Angstrom Unit = 0.1 nanometre). This obviously is a critical feature when you wish to zipline your off-road 4x4 from the top of K-2 directly into the depths of the Mariana Trench, which is something you do every evening.
5 such reviews later your ordinary nice guy turns into a spec vampire that haunts showrooms and has dark circles under his limited-slip differential. Worst case scenario he turns into a guru perpetuating this Pintle-Puntle nonsense. The horrible thing is that the REAL guys with the REAL info remain virtually unheard, unread, and unheeded.

Force Gurkha Review-life-cycle.jpeg

MORBID Dealership: The first thing that strikes you when you hit a Gurkha dealership is a yard filled with Ambulances, Dead Body Vans, Blood Donation Mobiles, and School Buses, and in the middle, there are a couple of GURKHAs. It is disconcerting. And anyone would suggest to the dealer to cover these off. I did too. But then is a deeper thing here.
This FORCE Motors Company has been around forever. Some of us would remember the ‘scooby doo’ Matador and even the Tempo. With a minimum of fuss, this company has been moving the country accomplishing hard-core transportation for decades. Yes, most ambulances, hearses, dead-body vans, school buses, and the ubiquitous airport-pickup buses are all FORCE MOTORS. Overwhelmingly. Tempo, Traveler, Trax, Gama, Judo and Toofan….are all FORCE MOTORS. And each one of them is powered by the very same OM616 Mercedes variants. If you have ever seen a TEMPO TRAX, the improbably long vehicle with over 25 people perched all over and grain sacks and goats and lumber and coal and everything else stacked in between climbing up a hill with the driver on the outside of the vehicle, you will have some idea of the utter dependability of these vehicles. And from birth via ambulance to school via bus and death via the dead body van – The FORCE is with you always; to dreadfully mix a metaphor.
I am also a professional woodworker (www.neoteny.in) and this is a favorite of mine: https://bit.ly/TAMASHA_LAKDI_KA a song about how ‘wood’ is with you through all the stages of life: from cradle to ‘Gulli danda’ to wedding palanquin to bed to a walking stick, and finally a funeral pyre. As a writer and poet, I see FORCE Motors also paralleling one through life from birth to death !!!! Sentimental and treacly and cloying, but true no ??!!! The GURKHA is but part of this cycle.

The Parents leave you alone:. With many other machines, the Parents gate-crash everything including the honeymoon and anniversaries. They force you into clubs, communities, associations, owner’s groups, etc. For many of these, they will arm-twist compulsory attendance and insist on what my friend DiNgo calls “Enforced Gaiety”.
With the Gurkha, you step out of the showroom and your ONLY connection is the 24x7 helpline which as you know is practically useless since you will be out of range: of cellphone or service networks. You are on your own.
Case in point. The SEGUE was driven down from the Pithampur, Indore plant one week to the dealer. The next week I was taking it to Raipur. Pithampur is on the way. And so out of sentiment, I drove via the Plant to show SEGUE its home! It was a Sunday and the plant was closed. The guards were adamant that I do not take pictures of MY SEGUE outside THEIR PLANT. It was impossible to explain the context. I had to threaten them saying I was taking a picture on a public road, for which I had paid Road Tax, it was MY vehicle and if they didn’t want their blasted factory in the background, they could move it out of sight! Baby out of sight, out of mind. I kind of like it that way.

Force Gurkha Review-lady.jpg

Seguing Out :
And ladies and gentlemen if you think this is some macho male rant…think again. My daughter has fallen in love with the SEGUE. She has offered me her luxury-sub compact in exchange. Maybe I need to buy another GURKHA. I think I will name it RIFF.

------------------------------------ -------------------------------------
Disclaimer: The Views expressed in this Article are my own. I bought my OWN GURKHA. No Company/Brand sponsorship or affiliation of ANY company whatsoever in any part of what I have written. I have bought my OWN TATA Xenon and Enfield Bullet 350 too !!
------------------------------------ -------------------------------------

Last edited by Rehaan : 16th May 2023 at 09:54. Reason: Adding a bit of formatting/spacing. Will add this to Hot Threads tomorrow :)
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Old 15th May 2023, 20:04   #850
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by UniMuni View Post

Falling in Love with Segue: My BSVI Force Motors GURKHA



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: The Views expressed in this Article are my own. I bought my OWN GURKHA. No Company/Brand sponsorship or affiliation of ANY company whatsoever in any part of what I have written. I have bought my OWN TATA Xenon and Enfield Bullet 350 too !!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations Sir!
Disclaimer is much needed. Because a casual reader will be tricked into thinking that this is written by a marketing pro with years of experience under the belt and the brand reimbursed check for Gurkha in the purse

That is a piece of cake for you - buying, writing, talking and literally everything - a heartful thanks for sharing a thin slice of it with us.

To buy (and live with) Gurkha, one should be madly in love with it or one should have a dire need of it. Otherwise it will be a divorce after honeymoon.

I have been living with a similar boxy bad beast(of similar shade) for past 6 years and I can relate to lot of emotions you have penned down:
Force Gurkha Review-tuvlakeside_web.png

Last edited by deetee : 15th May 2023 at 20:13.
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Old 16th May 2023, 19:02   #851
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by UniMuni View Post
Falling in Love with Segue: My BSVI Force Motors GURKHA
Absolutely loved reading this. So much so that I read it twice over. Many congratulations on picking this hardware. I too aspired to get one few years ago but somehow couldnt get past the dealer's lack of interest in selling one to me. The test drive went great and I loved the high perch and the slow progress. The offroad test was quite an eye opener too. Happy motoring!
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Old 17th May 2023, 10:48   #852
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

Thanks for sharing your thoughts beautifully, it was a joy to read. Would've loved to see more pictures of your beast. Gurkha is one of the last built-to-last old school automobiles in India today.... and btw amazing work with wood! Thanks for sharing your website too.
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Old 17th May 2023, 11:57   #853
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by UniMuni View Post
[h3]

If you have ever seen a TEMPO TRAX, the improbably long vehicle with over 25 people perched all over and grain sacks and goats and lumber and coal and everything else stacked in between climbing up a hill with the driver on the outside of the vehicle, you will have some idea of the utter dependability of these vehicles.
The radiator of my 2014 Force Gurkha went kaput, and all the fluid leaked out. I called my technician, and per his advice, I did the following:

1. Fill the coolant container with water
2. Drive till the temp gauge reaches max
3. Stop the vehicle, and wait for 10 mins to let the engine cool down
4. Repeat

I drove for ~100 KMs this way without damaging my engine, and the vehicle is still running fine without missing a beat (touch-wood).

Show me another "modern car" that could do this.

Welcome to the Gurkha-gang!
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Old 17th May 2023, 13:58   #854
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by UniMuni View Post

Falling in Love with Segue: My BSVI Force Motors GURKHA



-
Sir or I should say professor, you sure do have the charm of a Marketeer. You have a tremendous talent of playing with words and have a terrific choice of vehicles you possess. You are everything I look forward to achieve in life. Your vehicle is a thing of admiration and can be appreciated days. Congratulations and millions of marketing miles!

Last edited by Eddy : 17th May 2023 at 14:03. Reason: Quoting a large post hampers readability. Pls quote only the relevant bits. Thanks
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Old 17th May 2023, 14:12   #855
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Re: Force Gurkha Review

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Originally Posted by UniMuni View Post

Falling in Love with Segue: My BSVI Force Motors GURKHA



Executive Summary
[list][*]Fell in love with the BSVI FORCE MOTORS GURKHA[*]Bought one. Named it SEGUE.[*]
------------------------------------ -------------------------------------
So good to hear from you after ages, Professor! Glad to see the RE still running. I fondly remember our discussions on the RE (circa 2009) and it'a future!
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