[Diesel_convert]

Originally Posted by sajands

Awesome drive nobody felt the heat (ask poor shishir_bn, he had a custom designed sunshade) and Food was totally yum.

Was a pleasure to be your wing man along with the rapid and the rocket ritz


-Sajan

Was fun for me too, all the cars were driven very well, schoudary's Ritz being the easiest to identify in the mirror thanks to his lights!

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Diesel Convert, are you tuned in ???

Yes sir, always tuned in whenever there is a 320D involved.


Report

Start at 5 am.

Have never been up this early, looks like team-bhp changes sleeping patterns.

Had forgotten to put the car papers in the glove box after service...went back and got them!


I was the last to reach meeting point A (6:35am).

Had already received two calls by then once from SILVERWOOD and once from pganapathy.

After quick hello's, chobe ki naan and introductions all round we set off with the 320 D in the lead and White Verna as sweeper.

Traffic to the airport was quite heavy.

After crossing Nandi hills turning we started to push on a bit.

The roads till Anantapur were brilliant.

Rsudarsanan in the 320 was putting it through its paces, Rapid and the Ertiga using it as pilot car.

We averaged 100kmph in this stretch.


The beemer accelerating away at full chat was great fun to watch, I didn't even try to keep up.

We had to wait about 30 mins for the others to catch up at Anantapur, after that with Waseem in the lead we found ourselves the most interesting dhabha.

It had locked toilets, a caged rottweiler and a loose turkey.

We were left wondering what happens when the dog is loose.

Some nice chai and we were off again.

BMW in the lead with rapid trying to hang on to its tail.

Then the beemer came upon an ill fated mid-corner bump, which unsettled the car.

I was about a 200 meters away following in the Rapid, so got a pavillion seat view of the action.

Some amazing driving by Rsudarsanan resulted in only a cracked rim.

The car was almost perpendicular to the road at one point.

The fact that Ravi Sir had the presence of mind to keep the throttle floored and some serious opposite lock saved the day.

We pulled over made sure the car was OK and a quick look under the car showed no visible signs of suspension damage.

After that I don't think we crossed the truck speed limit as we were worried about the beemer.

The Rapid was now the beemer's pilot car till we reached DVR Mansion. The rest of the convoy went ahead and waited for us at Kurnool.


An amazing lunch with some of the best Andhra food I have ever had, with the company of some very very fun people followed!

Arcot got a deserved standing ovation.

After about 3 hours of Waseem watching others eat mouth watering food he decided he had had enough and told us cough up some cash.

The conversation died instantly!

A group photo session later, the two groups parted ways.

Bangalore cars regrouped with Shimshumara joining us.

Quick stop for chai where we said our goodbyes little after Anantapur.

The cars then split up.


Discovered mid way that Skoda service doesn't include refilling the washer wiper fluid!! Will update ownership thread soon with all the problems with my car.
Had to stop twice to clean up the windscreen.

Since the beemer was speed limited, the rapid escorted her till airport where we split up.

All in all a fun action packed day where I re-discovered how bad the damping is in my car compared to a beemer. :(


A BIG SHOUT OUT TO SILVERWOOD, HYD_TRAVELLER, MOBIKE008 FOR ORGANISING THE EVENT AND RSUDARSANAN FOR THE IN CAR ENTERTAINMENT.


Only question I have is, when is the next one?



Rapid report:

total kms : 720
mileage : 17.2 kmpl (MID)

Avg speed going : 70 kmph
Avg speed coming back : 74 kmph


Rapids brake discs and steering column have been approved for replacement (just got the call).


Rsudarsanan called an hour ago to tell me that his car at the service center and on the ramp, and that his service advisor told him not to idle his engine after a hard run, because its a BMW. Advised him to find out all about why the beemer doesnt need it!

Pics to follow next post!

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by Diesel_convert

Rsudarsanan called an hour ago to tell me that his car at the service center and on the ramp, and that his service advisor told him not to idle his engine after a hard run, because its a BMW.
Advised him to find out all about why the beemer doesnt need it!

My 320d is 3 years old with 55k+ on the clock. My first with a turbo, I had no clue about the protocol associated with turbo charged engines until D_C mentioned it to me @ the Hyd-Blr meet. I have been starting and stopping the Beemer as I do in my Fiesta. My last diesel was Premier Padmini 137D which I started only after the heater light went off. Now, I marvel at the ease with which the 320D starts, at the press of a button, in freezing winter mornings in Ooty.

I am not tech savvy. In my four decades of motoring have relied only on timely and uncompromising preventive maintenance. It's a philosophy that has never failed me whilst traversing the length and breadth of India. In line with that, have a 5 year BSI Ultimate Plus service package covering my 320d.

Therefore, at the service centre, I quizzed the service advisor on pre and post idling of turbocharged engines and he stated that it was not necessary for BMW vehicles. Cutting out the tech jargon, in layman’s terms, I was given to understand that the BMW Digital Motor Electronic control module, which regulates the engine, is programmed to take care of the cooling requirements of the turbo charger.

Further, Beemers now have Auto Start Stop function which automatically switches off the engine when the car is at a standstill and in neutral, then restarts it as soon as the driver presses the pedal again. This function helps reduce both fuel consumption and emissions. Technocrats can debate this function vs the turbo cooling protocol.

hello people,

I was to leave HYD to BLR on Friday night, thanks to Mobike008 for his intime proposal, for making me able to change my plans. If not, I would have cribbed, cursed, cried like many others on this forum who were not part of this truly MEGA event.

Some of the things that I relish:
1. shiMshumAra crossing the milestone of 50000 kms at the start of the day.
2. A truly Gastronomical start with awesome Idli & Chutney.
3. Chance to meet some known faces from the previous drive meet and many more new faces. Connect the faces to names to their handles !!!
4. I probably took off and missed the chai stop, nevertheless, helped me finish a novel at the next toll booth, till others caught up with me.
5. Then the NH7 Drift with a Fiesta, Linea, Safari and Cruize. This time I wanted to make sure I got their back and was at the tail clicking some pics (posted only few)
6. My respect to Linea got terribly enhanced after this drive. My old Love Ford, got me some sweet old memories (I had a Ford Ikon, which my colleagues called Bangalore Express, as it used to do HYD-BLR-HYD every weekend during 2000-2006)
7. Awesome Veggie food, nice host played by Waseem
8. Group picture (already posted)
9. I was the only guy who had best of both worlds - HYD & BLR, as I had plans to proceed to BLR after the meet. I joined the other 8 drifters stuck to Waseem's tail till we stopped for chai at Anantpur.
10. After chai, some chit chat and photo session, I took off as I had a dinner date with my Mother in law at Penukonda.

I had another sumptuous dinner, and reached my BLR home at 11pm.
Believe me when I say the journey from PKD to BLR was very very boring.

Thanks to Avinash and Waseem for all the fun.

[jayded]

Awesome meet this!

Enjoyed to the core. Just that I missed the action while going to Kurnool since I missed seeing the decided stopping point and went ahead behind Shimshumara, lol. I should have stuck to the back of the beasts rather than getting too carried away and speeding away, damn! Would have loved to see the Fiesta S, the Cruze and the T-jet in action. When Avi was describing how they had fun, I just wanted to hit the rewind button. But I made it up with some spirited driving way back.

A big shout out to all who joined in for the meet, especially the b'lore guys who travelled much more than us hydeez. Special thanks to Traveloholic n Bajaj sir for the breakfast, was delicious. The food at Kurnool was awesome, so was the atmosphere. Great work by the organizer Silverwood. Thanks to RK for giving me company both ways and Torrent (Shammi) who joined us on way back. Hope I didn't scare you guys. Dr. Teja, if you are reading this, thanks for coming over to see us off. For others: Teja is an aspiring tbhp-ian, he had come to Gachibowli (Point A) and joined the team in convoy till Shamshabad and returned home from there, he could not meet the guys from point B since the meeting point was changed at the last minute.

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

Ashish ,One of th conversation was to do a similar t-bhp hyd-pune mid way meet @ sholapur.(Pretty much doable)

We'll name it 'Zunka Bhakar -Biryani meet'

Come on guys, think BIG … raise the bar.
From mega to blockbuster.
How about a TBHP meet AP-KA-MH in Goa ?
Name it ‘Tsunami’ meet: Banglory Mirchi - Zunka Bhakar - Hyderabad Biryani
Sun/sand/food for thought. Expert comments from Silverwood/Mobike008
Cheers !

[Diesel_convert]

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Come on guys, think BIG … raise the bar.
From mega to blockbuster.
How about a TBHP meet AP-KA-MH in Goa ?
Name it ‘Tsunami’ meet: Banglory Mirchi - Zunka Bhakar - Hyderabad Biryani
Sun/sand/food for thought. Expert comments from Silverwood/Mobike008
Cheers !

This is a great idea, distances are around 600km for all three cities.

[gajadonga]

Some pictures from my side

Some more pictures of the drive meet the last set of pictures are on the return
from Kurnool

[zen91]

Loved the way this drive meet was organized. Thanks a lot Waseem Bhai, Avi Bhai and Bajaj Saab for this wonderful meet. The timings for the start/breaks and arrival at the venue was just perfect. The venue was again a surprise as I never expect something like this would be available in Kurnool.

Though my cars boot was made an idly bandi, I could not protest after I had the first idly with the, out of the world chutney. Nikhil Bhai, hats off to you for the early morning idly breakfast. Address of the original idly bandi please!!

Respect for Waseem Bhai for his attention to each and every group on snacks and food requirements at the venue. Your personal interest at it was truly amazing.

The drive, like always was led by Avi bhai. The cruze was in its true elements and we could see only its backside through the drive.

Special appreciation for the T-Jet and the Safari. Great control, discipline and right amount of aggression made the drive eventful and engaging.

During return we took a pit stop at Munnawar Dhaba for tea and I had the privilege of taking the test drive of Doctor Saab's elantra. What a car and what amazing refinement. The other highlight was the steering. It weighed perfect at highway speeds.

Reached home at around 6.30pm and hit the sack early, thinking about the wonderful time had during the day.

[Insearch]

A heartfelt thanks to all those who chipped in to make this meet a warm get together. I will avoid naming specific people, lest I forget to name some. But I am unable to resist mentioning Mobike008 and Silverwood. Thanks to Mobike008 for getting me introduced to such helpful and friendly people. Regarding Silverwood, it was sometimes embarrassing to be at the receiving end of his immense hospitality. Gentlemen, I bow to your initiative!

[CtrlAltDel]

So much has been said, there is not much I can add to this!

Firstly a big round of applause and cheers to waseem for organizing the venue n the fabulous food. He played the perfect host hovering around each table, serving rotis n curries and finally, much to my relief, ate only after all were well fed n happy.

The food was amazing and the fish was the star attraction! I can still taste it!!! Some restaurant in hydbad should poach this cook and advertise it.

Thanks to Nikhil for the idlys. Fantastic ones though I must say I missed the famous red chutney.

One highlight was gajadonga's elantra. It had me drooling and it was a pleasure watching its sexy backside disappear into the horizon! Great driving sir!

Now for the drive. I was the last to reach in both directions mainly coz after bursts of 100 to 120kmph I limited myself largely to 80 to 100 kmph. This was to enable my non-BHPian friends to catch up in their Zen. But we really enjoyed the ride and I loved the opportunity to test the RD Box in my Vista.

There was better than usual pickup in the P2 mode but it resulted in some visible black smoke under hard acceleration. P1 was also good and the smoke was less, but visible at times in the rear view mirror. There was no smoke only in S and E modes. More details in the RD thread soon.

My non BHPian friends Mayank and Bhumika loved the drive and the company. They might join in future drives too.

I have taken a few pics and will post them shortly.

[rknair]

My first T-BHP meet and what a meet it was.. There was never a second I didn't feel part of the group. Right from the time a4anurag picked me up from near my house till the time jayded dropped me back, I was enjoying every bit of it.

But let me rewind the clock by couple of weeks when this meet was announced. I was really in two minds, should I take the plunge, would these titans accept me as part of them? Would I feel out of place? I was following the thread almost 3-4 times a day and was seeing with wonder how the participants list was growing. The awesome menu shared in the forum proved to be the last nail in the coffin of my procrastination.

Now for the logistics. 24th being a Sunday, didn't need approval from my boss at work, but still needed an approval from my boss at home. Got that pretty easily since she was seeing my enthusiasm towards this forum. I had decided not to drive this time, so needed a ride. As always, hyd_traveller was my guru here, he suggested a4anurag who was coming near my area to pickup arcotsrinivas. Exchanged numbers with Anurag on PM, and was all ready for the big day. There were some last minute hitches as well. I called a4anurag's number on Saturday, the call went to some guy in Vizag!! There was a typo in the number he gave me.

Sunday morning got up at the first ring of the alarm at 5:30 AM (Usually my mornings start with a fight with my alarm clock for 30 minutes.. Who invented the snooze feature anyway?) Without waking up my wife and kids, got ready had a quick grab of couple of bread slices and was at the bus stop at 6:30 AM waiting for a4anurag. Pretty soon, the blue Ritz came cruizing by, greeted the first T-BHPian in person. Then after picking up arcot, I could get a feel of what I am getting into - two hardcore TBHP-ians thinking, speaking cars. We reached Meeting Point A to meet up all the enthusiastic riders - jayded, dieselDon, torrent, shamanth, rajesh rawal, insearch, Ram Alluri. The rest of the gang joined us at Point B including the two organizers, and after a bit of confusion about the location of meeting point B, we gulped on the delicious idlies, and boiled eggs and posing for a few photographs, off we went.

Next planned stop was Munavar Hotel. But alas, jayded was too busy stretching his Figo to stop at Munavar, hehe. Also mobike008 conned us by telling us that it comes after 90 km, and the GPS showed only 50 km when we spotted "New Munavar" so we thought there is another Old Munavar coming after another 40 km. Little did we know that he was talking about 90 km from his house. We were confident seeing shimshumara zipping past in his scorpio. I guess he felt confident seeing us as well. So coming to the bottomline - missed the dhoklas, networking opportunity, and few photo ops.

DVR Mansion was beyond all our expectations for a small town like Kurnool. The place was amazing and the food heavenly. We are lucky to have such awesome organizers like Silverwood, mobike008 and hyd_traveller amongst us. After the bangalore gang arrived, and some spirited conversations later, we started on our main course. Silverwood played the perfect host, by coming over to every table and checking if we need anything. After the group justified the deaths of several poultery, fish and goats, it was time for some entertainment by arcot. Arcot, who perfectly mimicked Salim Pheku, Jahangir and Ismail Bhai, tickled our funny bones so much that the entire group forgot about the icecreams which was part of the menu and saved the hotel some money.

After some group photos, shake hands, and hugs it was time for our return journey. We sent shimshumara along with the Bangy guys to make sure that they got home safely. Torrent joined us in our car for the return journey. This time jayded made sure that he stopped at Munavar for the mid way break. And after a cuppa and mutual admiration of each others driving skills, we went separate ways. jayded insisted that he dropped me at my home, thanks Jay.

To summerize, got a bunch of new friends and added an unforgettable day in my life. Thank you guys for making sure that I was comfortable at every stage and once again hats off silverwood, mobike008 and hyd_traveller for making this happen.

As some of you might have overheard, mobike008 had given me an assignment to jot down my feelings about the trip. Hope I have done my assignment well with this post. Now it is my turn to return you the favour. You have raised the expectation about drive meets so much with this one, that the next one you organize should be much grander than this. I am sure this is an easy assignment for you, since you love doing this.

Apologies if I bored some of you with this looong post. Till we all meet again..

[jeetaman]

The Hyderabad Team BHP drive event was long overdue. Couple of plans in the past didn't materialized due to various reasons.

To make this event successful, there was some creativity needed. Wasim Bhai (SilverWood) proposed to make this event a meeting event for Hyderabad and Bangalore chapters. Location was finalized at Kurnool - which is 202km from Hyderabad Airport diversion and 372km from Bangalore International Airport diversion point. Initially the event was proposed either on March 10th or March 17th. With few exchange of ideas and folks moved around their personal engagements - the auspicious day was fixed on Sunday, March 24th. It gave sufficient time to others as well to plan things around to make it to the event.

The participation picked up in the week before the event. The final count of participants reached Hyd - 24 and Bangalore - 15. Babaj Sa'ab kept the RAC opened until late Sat March 23rd. It was very encouraging. For me it was the first drive event and I was looking forward to it.

Since the meeting venue was fixed at Kurnool - it certainly needed some special Food Subject Matter Expert to work on the menu (of course, considering all factors like vegies / non-vegies etc.). With 25+ exchange of ideas - menu was nailed down 2 days before the event. The parking place in Kurnool was fixed at DVR Mansion hotel. Both - the place and food exceeded the expectations.

March 24: Morning - The Hyd T-BHPians didn't play Nawaabee Team started to assemble at the meeting point - Below ORR on NH7 at Shamshabad from 8:15 am onwards and the final members (vnabhi+1 & jeetaman) joined the party @8:55am. Greetings got exchanged - few intro happened with the first timers. Quick breakfast - Idlies, breads, eggs - was available for grab. Thank you Nikhil bhai!

Team kicked off the journey @9:15am. With Sunday morning easy traffic - the drive was pleasant. It was pleasure to see 18 cars moving together.

After driving 72km, team took a tea break at Jadcherla. Agreeing to meet just before taking a left turn into Kurnool team, the karavan started the final leg of drive. I am sure everyone would agree that this stretch was the best one for the driving experience.

Just past the toll plaza 9km before Kurnool town, the karavan again assembled to drive together into the Kurnool town to reach the meeting point. The waiting time near plaza by early arrivals was used for Elentra Review. Dr Ramesh was kind enough to allow folks to explore the car interiors. In return he ensured to get some good feedback about the new beauty

With the last car arrival, the team drove into Kurnool town and reached DVR Mansion - the final destination - at 11:15am.

In no time, the there was hectic activities in the hotel lobby.

The team was led into an air-conditioned cozy room. Team started to settled down waiting for the Bangalore team to arrive, which joined the venue in next 20 min.

After exchanging greetings / intro etc., everyone was eagerly waiting the obvious next - FOOD.

Wasim bhai (SilverWood) sprung into action and very meticulously played the host. He managed the restaurant staff for next 3 hours to ensure that everyone was taken care off. The staff did a good job of managing the non-stop orders.

The food hit list was topped by Fish, Tandoori Paneer, and Crispy fried veg.

The food session was followed by Arcot's introduction to Hyderabadi Hindi to everyone (well supported Wasim) - by playing few hit funny moments from the Angrez movie (a must watch for (a) time pass (b) pure entertainment in Hyderabad Hindi).

Finally, at 3:30 team decided to say bye. After a group photograph on the the hotel entrance, cars headed back home.

Hyderabad team decided to meet at the Jadcherla for a tea break. It seemed - Mobike008 - the leader - missed the LEFT turn in Jadcherla and by the time he realized - he entered Hyderabad

Brajesh - couldn't stop to test drive Elentra.

Folks spent nice 30 min chitchatting over tea and then moved on to Hyderabad.

At the end - despite early signs of hot summer hitting this part of the world, everyone cherished the event, food, people, and fun!

Thank you everyone to make it a grand success.

Special thanks to Mobike008 (Avi Anna), Hyd-Traveller (Babaj sa'ab), and Silverwood (Wasim bhai) to co-ordinate and making it happen.

Cheers and Look forward to next drive meet.

Few Moments:

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by rknair

...mobike008. You have raised the expectation about drive meets so much with this one, that the next one you organize should be much grander than this. I am sure this is an easy assignment for you, since you love doing this.
... Till we all meet again..

rknair Post #290 self explanatory

[mobike008]

Thank you for your kind words.

It's been a pleasure always to organize such meets and this was the first time Silverwood participated and took charge of the entire food organization and made it a stupendous success. Kudos to him

Iam hoping like Silverwood, many other Hyderabad BHPian's take such initiatives and carry forward this drive meet tradition

Why? Because Iam doing it from 2006 and It's time I retired

Alright, here are some pictures from my camera. This is just the first installment, will keep sharing more as and when i get some time.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Diesel_convert

This is a great idea, distances are around 600km for all three cities.

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Come on guys, think BIG … raise the bar. From mega to blockbuster. How about a TBHP meet AP-KA-MH in Goa ?

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

rknair Post #290 self explanatory

Originally Posted by rknair

As some of you might have overheard, mobike008 had given me an assignment to jot down my feelings about the trip. Hope I have done my assignment well with this post. Now it is my turn to return you the favour. You have raised the expectation about drive meets so much with this one, that the next one you organize should be much grander than this. I am sure this is an easy assignment for you, since you love doing this.

Thanks RKNair and Jeet for a wonderful first time report

Rsudharshan and Diesel Convert, I have already initiated a mega inter state meet in goa in 2008. That time, i was planning a trip to goa and just casually proposed a meet and it turned out to be one of the mega-meets wherein guys from AP, KL, KA and MH ( including GTO) turned up and made it a grand success.

Here is the linky

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...tml#post926442

Please go through the whole thread to see what happened in this meet

P.S: Therefore, organizing a repeat would not be too much of an issue as long as there is interest from all BHPians from all these states.