[mobike008]

Rejuggling the folks to tally with the car brands to make it look more linear

Lalith, Please confirm if you are confirmed or still tentative?



Where: Ohio Triple Nickel Drive
When: June 19th, 2021 (Saturday)
Starting Time: 11.00 AM (Eastern Time)
Ending Time: 4.00 PM - 5.00PM (Eastern Time)

Starting Location:
Kroger Gas Station (Map)
919 E State St, Athens, OH 45701

Lunch Location:
Triple Nickel Diner (Map)
1060 High St, Chesterhill, OH 43728

Ending Location:
Dillon State Park (Map)
5625 Dillon Hills Dr, Nashport, OH 43830

Remember that the 75 miles of OH 555 we’ll be driving will almost all be in rural Ohio. Therefore, it is important we fuel up before setting off.

Leg 1: Kroger Gas Station to Triple Nickel Diner (lunch stop)
Distance: 50 miles
Time: 1 hr
Leg 1 Route Map

Leg 2: Triple Nickel Diner to a Scenic Point
Distance: 24 miles
Time: 40 min
Leg 2 Route Map

Leg 3: Scenic Point to Dillon State Park
Distance: 28 miles
Time: 40 min
Leg 3 Route Map

And here is the entire route with all of the above sections included
Entire Route Map

Confirmed Folks:
1. Rohit - Chicago (BMW M5)
2. Avinash - Detroit (BMW X3 M40i)
3. Nikhil - Pittsburgh (BMW M340i )
4. Ruchir - Champaign (Subaru WRX)
5. Geomy - Detroit (Subaru WRX)
6. Dilip - Detroit (Jaguar XE 3.0)
7. Abhijit - Detroit (Dodge Challenger Scatpack)
8. Sunay - Philadelphia ( Toyota Highlander V6)
9. Jeeva - New Jersey (Mazda Miata MX-5)

Tentative Folk(s)
1. Lalith(a.k.a LS) - Peoria, IL (Ford Fusion)

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by rohittunga

I’m not sure if driving each other’s cars would be the best idea, especially on this route. And more importantly, OH - 555 consistently ranks as one of the deadliest roads in the region.

I think it’s best to take it easy, drive in cars you know well & are comfortable in and experience what the road offers.

Hi Rohit,
You are probably right, Safety First !

Guess, I'll probably ask you to take me for a little spin in your exquisite M5. After watching your car being reviewed by the folks at Everyday Driver, I am just itching to get a feel of it. Especially the side bolsters automatically firming up on the curves.

[landcruiser123]

Rust Belt Group Meet Details

Where: Ohio Triple Nickel Drive
When: June 19th, 2021 (Saturday)
Starting Time: 11.00 AM (Eastern Time)
Ending Time: 4.00 PM - 5.00PM (Eastern Time)

Starting Location:
Kroger Gas Station (Map)
919 E State St, Athens, OH 45701

Lunch Location:
Triple Nickel Diner (Map)
1060 High St, Chesterhill, OH 43728

Ending Location:
Dillon State Park (Map)
5625 Dillon Hills Dr, Nashport, OH 43830

Remember that the 75 miles of OH 555 we’ll be driving will almost all be in rural Ohio. Therefore, it is important we fuel up before setting off.

Leg 1: Kroger Gas Station to Triple Nickel Diner (lunch stop)
Distance: 50 miles
Time: 1 hr
Leg 1 Route Map

Leg 2: Triple Nickel Diner to a Scenic Point
Distance: 24 miles
Time: 40 min
Leg 2 Route Map

Leg 3: Scenic Point to Dillon State Park
Distance: 28 miles
Time: 40 min
Leg 3 Route Map

And here is the entire route with all of the above sections included
Entire Route Map

Confirmed Folks:
1. Rohit - Chicago (BMW M5)
2. Avinash - Detroit (BMW X3 M40i)
3. Nikhil - Pittsburgh (BMW M340i )
4. Ruchir - Champaign (Subaru WRX)
5. Geomy - Detroit (Subaru WRX)
6. Dilip - Detroit (Jaguar XE 3.0)
7. Abhijit - Detroit (Dodge Challenger Scatpack)
8. Sunay - Philadelphia ( Toyota Highlander V6)
9. Jeeva - New Jersey (Mazda Miata MX-5)

Originally Posted by mobike008

Lalith, Please confirm if you are confirmed or still tentative?

Sorry BHPians, I am out. Driving the 900 odd miles during the weekend of 19th and managing my many planned work & personal tasks will be quite a challenge. Will try to join for a meet during the fall in the Detroit/Ann Arbor/Chicago area.

Have fun y'all! Be safe

[GTO]

Guys, please "report" the post once your meet report is up! Would like to add it to our homepage . Thanks.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/annou...t-quality.html (Report Posts : Contribute in Maintaining Team-BHP's post quality)

[rohittunga]

Well, the meet finally happened and what a great trip it was. Like I said before, this time we wanted to do a little extra from our last meet (Team BHP USA meets in Detroit)
We decided to have a vote between Tail of the Dragon (an overnighter) or Ohio Triple Nickel (day trip) and folks overwhelmingly chose the latter, which probably was a good decision considering how much traffic & cop patrol occurs on the Tail of the Dragon.

One thing I’ve learnt attending a few Team BHP meets in the past is how valuable planning is. Figuring out where to park, where to stop, where to eat etc beforehand is worth its weight in gold in order to have an enjoyable experience, especially here knowing that mobile network would be spotty at best. And that’s exactly what we did. After researching online forums, we chalked out the route we’ll be driving, decided on the exact location where we’ll be meeting, figured out our lunch stop. Hell we even located the exact GPS coordinates where we all would pull over for a photoshoot.

Even though it was just a day trip, all of us had to travel a long way to reach the starting point. For instance, I had to cross an entire timezone and others had to drive well north of 400 miles (640kms) to reach there. In spite of this, we all arrived within 30-45 minutes of each other. Let me breakdown our drive into 3 sections.

Section 1: Boring 4 lane highway for 45 minutes
Section 2: Amazing, winding, most thrilling 90 miles (150kms) on OH-555
Section 3: Slow, dull, heavy traffic for 30 minutes to reach final destination.

After our initial meet & greet, we all tanked up our cars, emptied our bladders and headed out. Don’t know about you guys but I love convoy driving. There’s something nice about it. A sense of comradery amongst each other and Section 1 provided just that. Got to hear the exhausts of each other’s cars. No offense to the turbo BMWs, but come on, they pale in comparison to a naturally aspirated V8 thunder and a V10 howl.

Let’s first introduce some people shall we?

Sunay (aka fusionbang) in his Toyota Highlander 3.5 V6. Was supposed to ride his Kawasaki Z900 but chose otherwise because of unpredictable weather (good decision!)


Jeeva (aka jeevadeepan) in his ND2 Mazda MX-5 RF with the 6-speed manual


Abhijit (aka scatpack392) in his Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack with the 6-speed manual (of course!)


Avinash (aka mobike008) in his BMW X3M 40i 382hp inline 6 rocket ship


Nikhil (aka nikhilarni) in his BMW M340i probably an even faster rocket ship


and finally me Rohit (aka rohittunga) in an E60 BMW M5 - BMW’s first and last V10 engined car


Here is a small video of all the members

https://youtu.be/0g9qaQQP_Hc

Introductions over, we started discussing the route we'll be taking and where to stop for photos and so on.

Last minute discussions before heading out


Convoy hits the road just after noon








I just love this picture with mountains in the background and heads up display in foreground


Section 1 ended when we took an exit from boring 4 lane highway into an exciting single lane road. That began the start of Ohio State Route 555, or commonly known as Triple Nickel. Let me tell one thing right off the bat - that road did not disappoint. Yes, there are other more scenic routes but those you can enjoy even in a rental car. This road is different. It is an enthusiast’s dream because it cuts across no major towns, has no major tourist attractions and it is technical with lots of blind corners, sudden elevation changes & banked turns. If you put in the effort and concentrate, you’ll have a great time. Anyways, we found a nice spot to pull over at the beginning and take some photos.









We thought of capturing a quick flybys of all our cars






I'm still not on board with the "M-Style" 3 slats on the grill


The design is almost 2 decades old. This one from Chris Bangle has truly aged well. Looks mean and purposeful

[rohittunga]

We stopped at this cute, local restaurant called Triple Nickel Diner for lunch. Personally, I found the food to be average. Only solace was at least it wasn’t junk or fast food and they had reasonably clean restrooms. The next leg of the drive was the most special. I might sound like a broken record but bear with me when I say it was the most fun I’ve had driving backroads. Buttery smooth road, literally zero traffic (both directions) and sudden elevation changes that makes you fell like you’re on a roller coaster than on a road. Pictures simply DO NOT do justice to that road.









Now I know watching dashcam footage, especially when you are not part of it isn't exciting, but take a brief look at this video captured by Sunay (fusionbang) dashcam, specifically around the 8:04 mark

https://youtu.be/SK2P334pk08

We found this nice spot by the side of the road for another photoshoot











Finally Section 3 was a boring 30 minutes drive passing through a small town to reach our final destination which was a state park. Discussed each other’s opinions on the roads and cars. We got a lot done that day and by around 5.30PM, we called it quits and headed home.

Our final parting shot





Quick mini review of my car (E60 BMW M5) - This old car can still teach a few tricks to the newcomers. I am still just as amazed with the engine as I was 4 years ago. That probably will never change. While almost all cars run out of steam by 6500rpm, this car comes alive after 7000 rpm and what a joy it was revving that V10 all the way to 8250 rpm. The immediacy in throttle response (courtesy 10 Individual Throttle Bodies), hydraulic steering, no fakery with engine sound or the complete lack of burbles & fart sounds makes this car truly an icon, and a great one at that. Couple that with sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires makes this one of the revered Ultimate Driving Machines. Just be ready to fill up a lot. I mean A LOT of fuel. During the course of this day trip, the car consumed over 275 liters of petrol (that too premium only). Thank heavens fuel is still cheap in the United States.

[Rehaan]

Enjoying these meets vicariously, and the meet reports!

Looks like this was an great "driver's meet" with a sweet set of cars to match.

Originally Posted by rohittunga

... dashcam, specifically around the 8:04 mark
https://Youtu.be/SK2P334pk08

Wow... looks almost like someone draped a velvet black ribbon across the hilly countryside

Originally Posted by rohittunga

...During the course of this day trip, the car consumed over 275 liters of petrol

Holy smokes!! That's thirsty for sure!

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Enjoying these meets vicariously, and the meet reports!

Nice to see you here Rehaan. Been a long time. Hope you are doing well.

Wonderful to know you enjoyed it vicariously, it was for real petrol heads like you...Haha!

Originally Posted by rohittunga

Well, the meet finally happened and what a great trip it was. Like I said before, this time we wanted to do a little extra from our last meet (Team BHP USA meets in Detroit)
We decided to have a vote between Tail of the Dragon (an overnighter) or Ohio Triple Nickel (day trip) and folks overwhelmingly chose the latter, which probably was a good decision considering how much traffic & cop patrol occurs on the Tail of the Dragon.

Great report! Summarized our overall experience crisply covering all the highlights.

Thanks for organizing and it was nice to see someone take over my mantle of organizing meets which I have been doing literally for well over a decade with same intensity, passion and eye for detail. Kudos Rohit!

This was as Rehaan correctly mentioned a total drivers meet and focused on getting the best experience from 555 and also test our respective cars how far we can push it. As Rohit mentioned, none of the pictures or the videos can do any justice to the real experience. Actually, when I was skimming through some videos of 555 on YT before the meet, I was little underwhelmed and wondered why everyone is raving around for roads that look like any other rural roads in America (well, at least that’s the impression the videos give).

But, when you are actually on those roads, you get to know why it’s so popular. It was highly technical with roads going up into the sky and then sudden drops with short straights and tight right and left handers every few hundred meters.

I felt like being on a roll-coaster ride for those 90 miles and my head was literally spinning from the attention and focus that road demanded even though the speed limits was just between 25mph-55mph (rare).

Thankfully, it was cleverly planned by Rohit to stop every 30 miles (Stop A, B, C) as covering 90 miles at a stretch would be just too much adrenaline to handle. We stopped after A at the fly-by/picture point and then we stopped at B for lunch and finally the most horrid section was between B and C and I thought on a few occasions my nice burger would come out. LOL!

There were quite a few moments were we involuntarily said “Umm” or “Darn” or “What the heck” when the car would go through sudden drops in elevation and a couple of times I was so fast that I was airborne at such situations as road was too surprising to guess what’s next turn.

We entered Triple Nickle 555 from South and exited at North (It was maybe little shorter for me and Abhijit to drive back to Detroit). But, I have a good mind to go back and make it an overnighter and do the same drive again but, it should be both ways- South to North & North-South. What say guys?.

It’s unbelievable to know M5 burnt 275 liters of petrol for the whole trip. Probably, due to being 2nd furthest from base location. Share the data points like me below Rohit so see what was your overall MPG.

I burnt around 29 Gallons (~105 Liters of 93 Octane) of liquid gold for 650 miles of overall drive (~550 of driving to location and 90 miles of 555) and despite doing some fun roll-on drag races with M5 and constantly being on Sports+ mode and using paddle shifters on 555, it returned an unbelievable 22mpg.

Fun and Cheap too. Yay!!

This meet will definitely go down as one of the great ones and most memorable. Let’s meet one last time as faraway horizons are callin’ me. !!!

[GTO]

What a great meet, guys! Fabulous-looking cars & handsome dudes . This one is going to our homepage today.

The exhaust notes of the E60 M5 & Challenger must be to die for.

Guess life in the USA is almost back to normal, huh, with mass vaccinations? India is still crawling back to normalcy. Am craving a road-trip like this and have to make do with day-trips in and around Bombay currently.

Please do keep 'reporting' whenever you put up awesome meet reports so they go to the homepage. Thanks for sharing.

[rohittunga]

Originally Posted by mobike008

We entered Triple Nickle 555 from South and exited at North (It was maybe little shorter for me and Abhijit to drive back to Detroit). But, I have a good mind to go back and make it an overnighter and do the same drive again but, it should be both ways- South to North & North-South. What say guys?.

Same route again?? Nah. The element of surprise will be missing if we drive on the same route again. Let’s research and find other gems like this one. I’m sure there are plenty that perhaps may be even better. The backroads in and around the Tail of the Dragon is one such road off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by mobike008

It’s unbelievable to know M5 burnt 275 liters of petrol for the whole trip. Probably, due to being 2nd furthest from base location. Share the data points like me below Rohit so see what was your overall MPG.

Yeah, that had something to do with it. Total distance door-to-door was around 1000 miles (1600kms) and used up 73 gallons (276 liters). Average fuel economy was around 14 MPG (6 kmpl)

Originally Posted by GTO

What a great meet, guys! Fabulous-looking cars & handsome dudes . This one is going to our homepage today.

The exhaust notes of the E60 M5 & Challenger must be to die for.

We actually did a small rev battle when we stopped. The Challenger won that hands down. My car has a soft limiter when in neutral so I couldn’t really go all the way to redline. But still, both cars sound mighty impressive in their own way.

https://youtu.be/9g1NCGndtTQ

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by rohittunga

Well, the meet finally happened and what a great trip it was.
One thing I’ve learnt attending a few Team BHP meets in the past is how valuable planning is.
Even though it was just a day trip, all of us had to travel a long way to reach the starting point.

After our initial meet & greet, we all tanked up our cars, emptied our bladders and headed out. Don’t know about you guys but I love convoy driving. There’s something nice about it.

June 19, 2021. A day to Remember for a long long time. This drive will always bring a smile to me. A smile of content, happiness and the pleasure of meeting fellow T’Bhpians and their beautiful machines.

Big Big shout out to Rohit aka rohittunga for meticulously planning this out! Imagine the level of planning when I say, Rohit actually looked up the Instagram pics (from various folks who posted about the Triple Nickel), located the pic’s gps coordinates and actually plotted them on the g-maps for precision. That was the level of planning! Hell, we even had run through the menu of the restaurant prior to going there.

Pittsburgh being only about 140 miles to the starting point, I guess I had it the easiest in terms of travel distance. Jeeva (aka jeevandeepan from NJ) and Sunay (aka fusionbang from Philly) came over the previous night and stayed at my place. This probably accorded them some much needed rest and a good break in journey to be fresh in the morning.



Jeeva and I swapped cars. Jeeva’s ND2 MX5 RF is a pocket rocket. Took a quick bio + coffee break after driving for about a 100 miles. Sunay swapped with Jeeva and got behind the M340i. I continued with the MX5. It is such a fun car to drive. We just drove in a convoy, sticking to the speed limits. It was the first time I was seeing my car in motion while not sitting in it. She sure looks beautiful.



Us at the starting point with a quick catch up before embarking on that epic drive!

Originally Posted by rohittunga

Nikhil (aka nikhilarni) in his BMW M340i probably an even faster rocket ship

and finally me Rohit (aka rohittunga) in an E60 BMW M5 - BMW’s first and last V10 engined car

Haha, loved that introduction. Danke.

We need to add, “… And she is the fastest car in the fleet aka the Millennium Falcon”, for your M5

Originally Posted by rohittunga

Section 1 ended when we took an exit from boring 4 lane highway into an exciting single lane road. That began the start of Ohio State Route 555, or commonly known as Triple Nickel. Let me tell one thing right off the bat - that road did not disappoint.

We stopped for a photoshoot spending about 30 odd mins and we were off on the first section of our Triple Nickel Drive. I was behind our Millennium Falcon aka Rohit’s exquisite M5.



Right off the first turn back on the 555, I see Rohit just about gunned it and raced ahead. I was next. I tried keeping up at a safe distance. What a drive it was. More like a preview of what was to come in our post-lunch session. The post lunch drive was a Cracker! Thankfully, there was very scant traffic.



Should I mention that I got brutally trolled by fellow members for driving in Comfort mode during the first section. My first experience with unleashing the true potential of this car, I was just getting a feel of my Blauer Pfeil, and then on, Sports mode it was. Boy oh Boy! What an adrenalin rush it was.

The second section was pure thrill. I guess every driver was pushing their cars to the road’s limits. The elevations, drops, banked curves and turns were something to be experienced. Adding to the whole thrill were the blind drops and immediate turns after that. Brake – Turn - Accelerate – Turn - Brake – Turn – Accelerate. Getting out of those turns felt nothing short of a sling shot. I seriously wish I had a GoPro mounted behind the front wheels to capture the turns and tire movement. Now that I said it, I’ll probably make sure to have it on the next drive.

Like a video simulator, that drive is still playing in my mind. Like a fellow member said, the meets and drives continue to linger for days after the meet. Such is the fun and thrill of these meets.

When we took the second stop at the end of the second section, the adrenalin was so high, that my legs were still shaking even after parking the car. For a few mins, I could barely stand straight.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Wow... looks almost like someone draped a velvet black ribbon across the hilly countryside

You just summarized the entire stretch of road in that sentence!

Originally Posted by mobike008

I felt like being on a roll-coaster ride for those 90 miles

There were quite a few moments were we involuntarily said “Umm” or “Darn” or “What the heck” when the car would go through sudden drops in elevation

It’s unbelievable to know M5 burnt 275 liters of petrol for the whole trip.

I burnt around 29 Gallons (~105 Liters of 93 Octane) of liquid gold for 650 miles of overall drive

This meet will definitely go down as one of the great ones and most memorable. Let’s meet one last time as faraway horizons are callin’ me. !!!

Avi, totally agree that this drive will go down our memory lanes as one of the most thrilling drives and fun meets. I too had those “umm” and “Omg” moments on those unpredictable turns. It was nothing short of a roller coaster, only one in which you are in the front seat, controlling it all the way.

I burnt about 20 odd gallons ( ~75 liters of 93 Octane) fuel for about 440 miles of overall drive.



We will definitely meet before you leave for the far away horizons, and will continue to meet even after.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by rohittunga

We actually did a small rev battle when we stopped.

German purity & precision versus beefy American muscle with a capital A. Best part of the video is that, when the Challenger starts revving, there's a big smile in the M5's driver seat too. Both machines are way too special.

Lots of fun, man.

A thought ran through my head = imagine having a rev battle in a Team-BHP meet in India! 1.2L K-Series & 1.5L turbo-diesels....aargh. Killed the thought instantly.

[v1p3r]

Man, what a great collection of driver's cars! This looks like so much fun!

[Ashwin Morey]

Never have i ever drooled over and got green with envy at the same time ever before for any other TBHP meet or anything TBHP for that matter. What a collection of cars!!

A very well written article to give us a glimpse of how sweet this entire meet was. I will always envy people outside India simply because they have access to such a wide range of vehicles with all sorts of make and model. Add to that the fact that they are accessible money-wise too.

I am green with envy but drooling again as i scroll through the pics multiple times

[Rambo-RS]

Lovely pics of great beauties and roads. Its so clean and green there

Me too eagerly waiting to join team-bhp meet(my first ever), whenever it would happen after these tough times are over.

Originally Posted by GTO

A thought ran through my head = imagine having a rev battle in a Team-BHP meet in India! 1.2L K-Series & 1.5L turbo-diesels....aargh. Killed the thought instantly.

Add bumps, potholes and cows right in middle of the race to that