[WhiteKnight]

Haa!!!!! Mad mallus.......

[wheeler]

although i'm surprised how come we didn't find a "nair's chai kada" at yelagiri ... or maybe, we were busy with the cars that we didn't search enough... wot say tadu n other fellow mallus?

[esteem_lover]

Yelagiri or krishnagiri or rathnagiri, wherever you find a chai kada, it is a nair chai kada. LOL

[benbsb29]

They say you can find one on the moon even. Not sure, though... havent been there as yet.

[deepak_ms]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

They say you can find one on the moon even. Not sure, though... havent been there as yet.

[Steeroid]

Why do I get the feeling that this Bengalooru - Chennai meeting was infested with a bunch of mallus who are essentially from neither state?????

[deepak_ms]

no offence meant.... i love mallus (especially of other gender)
before there was a saying in bangalore "through 4 stones in the air 3 stone will fall on software engineers"
now it has changed to "through 4 stones in the air, 3 stone will fall on mallus for sure"

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by deepak_ms

now it has changed to "through 4 stones in the air, 3 stone will fall on mallus for sure"

Yeah...whats not mentioned is that it takes yet another mallu to actually THROW those stones.

[roopakr]

now it has changed to "through 4 stones in the air, 3 stone will fall on mallus for sure"

Yeah good to know that...but make sure you are prepared to face all those three stones that are zooming towards you ..

[Wheeliej]

Ok, guys lets take a break from mallu jokes on this thread.

here's my take on the trip, though a bit delayed - After having missed the Nandi Hills drive and the Go-karting meet, I was determined to make it for this drive. The fact that I had to work on tax returns and run sundry errands on Saturday was ignored in favour of making it to this trip.

I slept late on Friday night after working late and visiting good ole Impy's for dinner, searched for a clock with an alarm (in a new house one is not always sure where these essentials are locted) and woke up at 3.45 a.m much before my alarm rang (when it actually did, i was ready to leave). If i had fallen asleep again, I would have missed the trip for sure. Not knowing the direction in which we were heading, I surely did not want to miss the beginning or to lose track of the others.

Left the house at 5 a.m and reached Navneet at 5.30 a.m (after having missed the turnoff and going round the Expressway work to the Audi showroom one more time) and waited for the others to join. Made a quick call to Rahul to inform that I was there.

It was exciting to see all the cars lining up so early in the morning and all parking very neatly. Met most people for the first time and, being my first Team-bhp drive and my car's very first ride out of town (anywhere), I was eager to get going. I did not know that there was a plan to stop for breakfast and somewhere in the rush, i lost track of the other drivers when Rahul called to say that I had to turn back. So back I went to search for the Reliance petrol pump and drove back until Hosur SIPCOT before turning around and starting to search for the Reliance petrol pump. Stopped at HPCL on the way and they said that Reliance was 3km away (was actually more like 5 km). Looking back, I realised that I had actually not crossed the Reliance petrol pump the first time around. Gulped down some breakfast, (missed all the excitement about the missing camera), and then we all took off again. Stopped, quite literally in my tracks, a couple of times when the car in front of me did the same upon spotting the group stopped to let others catch up. There was one time during the drive when I thought I would be able to overtake psycho too (haha, what a thought!!!) and then realised that he had slowed down due to a toll gate a few hundred metres away. if I hadnt stopped then, i would have been thru the toll gate without paying (and that would have been the least of my troubles, am sure).

It was really exciting to see my car touch speeds upto 150 without any effort (wasnt sure if it was really possible on the CVT) and overtook most of the highway traffic, though not some of the cars in our group. I was taken aback the first time I saw psycho, rahul and tadu's cars take off. Here I thought I was doing decent speeds, but that was something else. They were like - now you see them, now you dont. Am glad that we took the longer route which was lovely (no time to admire the scenery, only time to admire the roads - more on that later). I liked the drive up the mountain - was very smooth and I thought that I would be able to use the incline gear in the Auto, but it was totally not required. It was great also to see all the cars moving up in tandem. I am sure there were quite a few along the way who wondered what so many KA cars were doing together - after all we were not the 'normal' picnic crowd (i.e., all cars packed to capacity with dabbas and with loud singers)

Was really hungry by the time we reached Elagiri at 9.30 a.m - was ready for lunch - which eventually was served at around 2.30. The food tasted very good and then I was ready to head out again.

I missed the group photo since i had stepped out to purchase a bottle of pure (?) fresh honey - well, maybe next time around.

On the way back, we came back the 'shorter' and much crowded route, but I missed the excitement of the longer route. There werent as many cars on the way back since the group had gotten quite scattered. Waited at the Krishnagiri junction for vikram's car to ensure I did not head out to Chennai instead of Bangalore. Missed collecting beefsteak for everyone's dinner when I had a near-miss with a huge beast of a cow who was determined not to let me cross first on a highway that I have paid for - sort of - (the cow must have some auto-driver genes somehow). Akshay was quite worried and stopped to ask if I was ok. I spotted a NHAI patrol/police vehicle and drove sensibly for the next few km, worried that they might pull me up and fine me for overspeeding, but noticed that they couldnt have cared lesser.

After crossing into Bangalore (was around 6 p.m, I think), we encountered the normal Bangalore mad pedestrian/trigger happy cabs/electronic city/saturday market etc crowd and suddenly as I cleared a crossing, I see Akshay frantically waving for me to stop and turn right. Went to Gold Coin club to re-count our memories of the day and met up some others and Mahesh (who hadnt joined the drive)

After all this, am even more determined not to miss any future team-bhp drives.

Re. FE (a hot topic in this group). My car normally touches goes into 'low-fuel' mode between 420-440 km and I drive for 50 km after that and normally fill in about 39-40 lts (12.5 to 12.8 kmpl). I drove almost 400 km that day and still had about 15% fuel according to the indicator. But when I went to fill in fuel, it filled in about 40 lts. This was quite disappointing for me. perhaps i should have waited to see how many more KM i could have run with the remaining fuel.

Was great meeting up with everyone. i had already met some of the bangalore crowd, but was good to meet up with the Chennai crowd as well. Overall, it was good to be in a group of car crazy drivers who are behave very responsibly on the road (though I did spot a couple who did some slightly dangerous overtakes from the left - but nothing more than what I normally do on our Outer Ring Road)

One observation - You TN guys are really lucky to have such wonderful roads. I was very impressed with the quality of the roads and the no. of flyovers running over the major junctions in the smallest of towns. We Bangaloreans really have to suffer at every single traffic signal. The NHAI has done a good job in building and maintaining the roads. Even the interior ones we encounted on the return thru Bagrur were quite good.

Sorry for the long post. I know I didnt say anything new or different, but wanted to record my observations.

Great job on the organisation Rahul.

[Jaguar]

Good writeup Wheeliej

Guys, here is my video of Blueraven's ICE setup.
Believe me, the video does not do respect to the real thing. And watch out for expert commentary from Nitrous

[menonrajesh]

@Jaguar,
Sound is missing from the video of Blueraven's ICE setup??
Or I was having some trouble with the audio in my system!?

[mclaren1885]

Sunita, I am glad that you enjoyed the trip. Looking forward to seeing you more on the future trips too.

Jaguar, so while I was shouting my A.S.S off for a "group photo" this is what nitrous was doing eh? Selling fake NOS bottles to you all?
NIIITROOOUSSSS!

Lady (ies?) & Gentlemen, thanks a ton for all the kind words. Its was a great pleasure meeting you all and I shall look forward to such meets in the future too. I love meeting new people and making new friends all the time, some people call me mad for sending out numerous PM's & SMS' and sitting for hours together planning this all out. But thats the way I am, MAD? So be it! Hopefully we will get to meet a lot many more newbies in the future and also catch up on some the oldies (who seem to have lost their way from checking out the meet threads) too. See you all soon.

[arunphilip]

Great writeup, wheeliej.

Originally Posted by Wheeliej

It was great also to see all the cars moving up in tandem. I am sure there were quite a few along the way who wondered what so many KA cars were doing together - after all we were not the 'normal' picnic crowd (i.e., all cars packed to capacity with dabbas and with loud singers)

This was something I was trying to put my finger on for a while - what differentiates our meet from a normal family/friend gathering. You've put it across very clearly!

[BUSA]

I really appreciate the images posted and am waiting for the videos but why do you guys post so many pics by hot linking them please post thumbnails its a real pain for even broadband users to view. Kindly keep that in mind next time while posting.