16th July 2007, 00:59
| #61 |
| Senior - BHPian  | My first ever meet with the T-bhp gang and it was better than I expected. Frankly thought there would be snooty boys who would not give two hoots of the newbies... but it was good to see the seniors and the newbies interacting as much as they did. Since most of the key details are covered I will just cover the experience from my perspective.. I usually have uneventful days. This day however was quite eventful. 5.20 Went to pick up a total stranger bhpian - Coolsats. Sweet chap who was over coming a fever to come for the meet. He would be my wingman and cameraman. 5:40 We then met up with Jassi, AKroy and Patience Wins next to Hero Honda showroom on Koromangala ring road. 6:00 Met the rest of gang in front of BMW showroom.. toke a bunch of pics which I cannot share. (reason given below, keep reading)  6.40 we all leave ............. Tadukuttan (in his not so kuttan Peted Elantra), Mclaren (in his stock(?) Baleno) and a bunch of others toke off some of us trotted along at 140-160.. still some who were supposedly running in their cars were coming along at 100-120. We reach Reliance A1 spent almost an hour there..  My car and another 3 cars stayed back as I was trying to ask the waiter to give my camera back..  We toke turns to wash hands however some how it went missing. I knew it was our waiter as he did not even want to look at my face when I was asking him.. anyway nothing worked.. tried good cop, bad cop ... some of us even searched their little service cupboard and kitchen.. Anyway it was a case of "I thought you had it". Thanks to the guys who stayed back and for all the support. Last bunch of cars left A1 and headed down the GQ I toke off (leaving behind the very guys who stayed back with me ...sorry guys) as I was obviously peeved. I was following Memo's SX4 at about 120kmph when a tiny little stone popped from this tire thread and hit my windshild. Yupp cracked windshield. This was turning out to be a super day!  After this I slowed down a bit and then upped the pace again as I lost sight of the only known car. Called AKRoy for directions however took the wrong left so lost about 5 mins there. Got back on GQ and was making up for time by hitting the 160s .. could have gone more however since I am riding on 165 size stock tires, I could only hear mclaren, rjsyles and vipers in the background reminding me to get new tires before pushing to the 180s so did not want to push it more. (See my Signaure : )) Finally this is what I saw and was relieved a Corolla.. not sure whos it was but knew it was a Bhpians.   Once he saw me coming he too upped his pace. It was a good drive. It got better when I got a chance to get ahead and pull away from him (BALENO  BALENO)Reached the Toll booth and saw rjstyles in the next lane.. Met up with him after the booth and we took off.. to meet the rest of the gang who was waiting.. see that drive here Towards the ascent point the drive was good. I was behind ROC's Cedia RJstyles and a Red OHC.  Reaching the foothills of Yelagiri. Decent shot for a Phone Camera.  The Drive uphill was also good. Anyone played NFS Carbon would relate the next video.. We reached 70-80kmph at some places (most of the time I could not look down to see the meter) After reaching Yelagiri and close to the resort we all parked in a little lane and waited for others to reach. Once everyone came we went to a trekking site, which you would have seen pics of. Many of us just waiting in the parking area itself. Like some one said, we were resting our clutch and pedal_to_the_metal feet. After everyone was back we went to the resort where we met the Chennai Annas. The Senior T-Bhpians from across the border knew each other quite well I should say. We got a good chance to see the faces behind the handles. Since I travel often to chennai, I have even been invited to meet up with them on their Saturday get together. I hope the offer stands good  We then waited and waited and waited for lunch..did I mention we waited?. Some guys even wanted to fry mclaren over a hot stove for starters. Finally lunch was ready and after lunch some drivers said bye to a select few and sneaked off. Just before everyone was leaving someone did manage say the two words "group-photo". if not we would not have the naming competition we had earlier in this thread. Going down hill was lead by wheeliej. She lead the pack strongly at the front in her NHC ZX. It wasnt a leisurely downhill drive by any means. I'm following a bunch of KA cars. TN's E_L is right behind me followed by Headers. Video here....... Anyone with more videos please upload and post. Guys with all those Digital (esp Digital SLR) cameras, please upload all to picasa or something and provide us the link. Wish I could type more however, need to rest my fingers to make some typing noise at work tomorrow. ARRGGHHH mondays! |
|
| |
|
16th July 2007, 01:17
| #62 | |
| Senior - BHPian |  Quote:
Super job Jassi. I was going to do a similar final draft.. you beat me to it. However there are two guys hiding behind Laxminarayan and brraj. Anyone know who they are? | |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 01:55
| #63 |
| BHPian  | hey ironwolf - its not clearly visible - but on zooming in I would say that is 100% Sanjay (tbhp harrie's bro) behind brajj and sanjay's buddy behind laxminarayan. They were with us at the golden coin club after the drive I wonder where you guys disappeared, didn't ya'll see the bhpians (bravery award walas) in the middle of road waving to stop near golden coin  Also I am not sure if any one felt this but some parts of the highway on the way back (i think that was some parts of the GQ ) was not very smoothly laid as compared to the onward journey, which is why i couldn't do more than 140+ (stayed at 130) on way back as the car was like jumping around. It became smoother though at the end like 15mins after toll naka but then we had the AC on and there were the usual 30kmph drag tracing trucks blocking the road so 140 was impossible |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 02:42
| #64 |
| BANNED  Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Bangalore (the city of modded cars) !!
Posts: 4,820
Thanked: 45 Times
Infractions: 0/1 (10) | Meet Report! Statutory Warning: This is going to be one long rant. No pics no videos. It all began since I got my beauty back. Was itching for a long drive. So were a countless number of my friends here. Thank you nitrous for suggesting the place. Once the destination was decided the advance for the buffet was made. Thanks to rjstyle & devilvtec for chipping in with the contributions. We were all set to go, well almost. Some stayed awake the whole night. Some slept in their cars, some others were busy trying to keep others awake. I did catch up on my 40 winks a bit. Slept at about 1:30am and woke up at about 2:45. Got ready and along with Pawan headed down to memo's house to pick him up. By 3:30am we were heading to psycho's garage to pick up the SX4. On the way we hooked up a OBD2 scanner and tried setting it up. It could read 1/4 mile times, in gear acceleration, dyno test amongst loads of other stuff. We did a few test though we didn't succeed in setting it all up. To my surprise, our resident tuner woke up on time. I left his place to get back to the meeting point. ROC was already waiting. So was souljah. By 5:15 the Cedia and the baleno were off en route Navneet Motors. By then I had got a zillion SMS' saying each one had woken up and were on their way. First to reach Navneet was Sunita (wheeliej). I must admit her patience to drive down all the way from Whitefield which is exactly on the other side of the city. I guess Riju arrived soon after. Then I did and soon we had a line of cars parked one behind the other. It was a sight to watch, with the 3 & 5 series in the background. After a long wait for a few, intro's, some discussions on whether we could keep our cars as collateral and take the Beemer's for a few TD's I set upon marking attendance. As I needed to call up the guy and confirm the final numbers. And by about 6:45 a certain spoil sport decided to head off too impatient to wait for the rest. In about 10 mins the rest of us started the journey. The ones missing were Srisha & Sankar who were asked to catch up at the Toll gate. Drive was fun, seeing a long line of cars taking up a good km or more on what could be considered as one of the most beautiful roads to drive on this side of the country. Leading the pack was a certain esteem, behind it was the lively wheeliej, the petrified elantra soon playing catch up. Idea was to have breakfast at a place near the toll gate. Change of plans, someone decided to change the destination to A1 Plaza just off Hosur. Since I got a call regarding this our next aim was to make sure everyone stopped. I parked my car right on the sideway. Got out along with our cheap guest & pawan and stood right in the middle of the road flagging people to turn left into the hotel. It was scary nonetheless, certainly when cars are hurling down at you at 130+. We managed to flag down every car into the hotel (with our hearts skipping a few beats at times when people couldn't slow down on time) except wheeliej. She thought the two cars in front had already gone past and zoomed off. Unfortunately she was the only one who hadn't stopped and had to come back a long way. A1 plaza ran out of tables to accommodate all of us. Some stood while others climbed the low walls and made themselves comfortable. And then there was an extended photo session during which Iron Wolf realized he had something missing. It was his cam. Daniel, I wasn't aware that you had lost it. I was of the opinion that you got it back. The long line of cars had almost attracted the stares of every on looker. Its not everyday that some gets to see 21 cars all lined up, seeing members belonging to different religions/castes/age and what not mingling under one pretext like we knew each other for ages. For the love of automobiles. Most of them were going click click. It was a beautiful sight to watch. Soon enough we sped off. I was playing catch up with a certain Ford Ikon belonging to brraj. That car is stock, but there is something wild inside that engine. Its quick and so is the driver. A couple of minutes later I decided to stop by for a short pit stop and in the meantime decided to a routine check on the lug nuts (since the studs were changed a few weeks back) as a precautionary measure. They were all perfect. That meant I no longer had to worry about anything. Was warming up the engine, it was a long time since I had pushed her and this was a golden chance. I stretched my legs and she responded quickly. Soon touched speeds of 160+ in stretches. With the Ikon still in front. We all stopped by the Krishnagiri Toll Gate, awaiting our in house tour guide Mr.Akroy to give us directions. And we all set off again. This time though myself and tadu held back to see the other boys in action. I was surprised to see each one of them driving with utmost responsibility, indicating lane changes, making way for faster cars to overtake the works. Not one was driving rash. And almost every car was hitting top speeds. From the alto to the Elantra I guess each and every driver enjoyed the clean, open roads. More so the passengers who kept videoing the whole journey along with a few pics and videos of speedo readings. I decided to loosen the horses of a certain G16B and very soon found myself at the head of the pack with the awesome and ever so quick elantra keeping up. Since my speedo wasn't working correctly I had requested tadu to keep a look out so that we could calculate the error. Soon enough we found empty roads with visibility upto 1-2kms. I gunned harder, only to see the revv's hitting redline sooner than I had imagined. Speeds climbing to levels I had seen only once before. I was having too much fun, specially with the Neova's giving you tremendous confidence and grip. I could take corners at full throttle without even feeling the slightest grip loss (whats understeer & oversteer?). It was like the car was on rails (in comparo eagle f1's, es100's, avs sport, PP's I have driven on earlier feel like stock tires we get on most cars, no I am not kidding). Literally. Where I could see the Elantra brake and slow down for a few of the corners, the baleno kept going flat out increasing the gap. The two passengers in my car swore by the Neova's. And one has decided to import them for his swift. And I know people who are desperately looking for the same for their B16 shod OHC, Subaru Imprezza, Audi TT and the likes. From this moment neither did the Elantra or the Baleno look back. I do not have an account of what was happening at the back. We somehow managed to miss the turn and finally when I felt clueless I decided to stop. So did the elantra right behind me. It took a while for the next car to catch up. While Jomz kept telling us that the two cars were literally flying I was busy trying to find out what the error was with Tadu. Our cheap guest was yelling his voice out in excitement. A few minutes later akroy told us that we had missed the turning and that we could take another longish route. Infact, we were glad that we took this route compared to the route we came back on. So all those of you who cursed me and tadu ought to be thankful to us. Another toll gate passed, toll paid and we lined up yet again awaiting for the others to arrive so that none would loose their way. From here the alto lead the way with strict instructions given to everyone not to break the chain. The line of cars grabbed more attention than Yeti's wicked hairdo. Soon we found ourselves heading up the ghats, little did we know the ghat section would turn out to be so beautiful. By now, for some apparent reason I had dust on my brake pads and they were making noises. I had completely sobered down by now. My fuel gauge went from full tank to empty. After just 224kms. Unfortunately I couldn't make use of the weight reduction.  We found sufficient parking for all our cars, some parked inside the resort, some outside the compound and the rest on the road leading to the resort. Then we were asked to visit a view point about 5kms from the resort. So we decided to give a rest to few of the cars and pile up in some cars and head that way. Soon we reached. It was a gaggle of cars, we occupied the place like a swarm of bees. And then we decided to trek. With 60% of them deciding to stay back (for reasons unknown), 30% of them returning back from 40% into the trek. 10% of us however completed the trek and came back exhausted only to find that almost everyone had disappeared. A call later I figured the anna's had arrived and we headed back to the resort. There was another round of intro's. And yet, I was having difficulty in remembers a few handles. We talked and talked and talked. Car related, but most of the talk revolved around Nitrous, a trait at which our one and only headers is really good at. We were laughing our lungs out. While some kept cursing for the food. Time was just 11am. Lunch at 11 am? I am not quite sure how most of them spent the next couple of hours. I heard someone shouting out saying "lets cut mclaren and have him as starters". While a few other said "where are the drinks?". I was like what drinks? I put up a post saying please confirm the number of drinks you want. None did. SO I had ordered none. To my dismay, the lack of food and now the subsequent lack of alcohol was getting to everybody's nerves. Before they embarked to slaughter me I made sure the KF's were getting chilled. Soon there was a herd near the freezer. Each awaiting their turn to grab hold of a bottle or two. I had placed an order for 40 KF's you see. Maybe that saved me. Ooooppsss did I forget to tell you that in the meantime I took another round of attendance and collected the money for the lunch? Thanks to wheeliej who maintained the cash while I wrote down the numbers. It was the toughest job. And I am extremely sorry to all those who didn't get their change back. We ran out of change and by the time I managed to gather up some change some of you had left and I couldn't locate the rest. I suggest you guys to kindly come forward and ask for the change, after all its your hard earned dough. We then feasted on the lunch. The lunch was delicious. Specially the pulav, channa masala, paneer masala and the chilly chicken. To top it all the curd rice was the best I had ever had, along with the pickle it made for a deadly combo. Then there were ice-creams. And some ate almost half a dozen of them or so I am told. In the meantime some of them left without a warning. We were slated to have another round of intro's so that we could get to know each other better. But alas, it started to drizzle. And everyone ran for cover, or so I thought. Little did I realize that everyone ran to their cars to take off before it started to pour and spoil the hill climb (or should I say the descent)! I got out only to see cars starting their engines and zooming off. I ran (as if the trek hadn't already made me thin by a few kgs) shouting behind them "wait wait we have to take a group photo". Some paid heed to my yells, soon a few others joined in too and managed to cordon off a few cars. The few of us that were left over took a snap. We said goodbye to each other ruining the fact that the day had ended so soon. We could have spent hours and hours and hours talking before we realized that we all had to get back to a world. A world full of problems. Those few hours were blissful (except for poor Daniel), we had forgotten almost all our worries. On our return we were asked to take a different route. And since I was one of the last few to leave and didn't have a clue on the directions. I had to stop by each turn asking for directions. The fact that I was now running on an empty tank of fuel didn't help matters. Finally found a pump, fuelled up and headed only to find the Cedia trotting along in front. We asked our way around and somehow managed to get back onto the GQ. The road was really trafficked upto the GQ with people at a market in a certain village not budging to give way to the cars. I have seen cattle and other animals make way quicker. I cursed myself for not having taken the other route. I stuck to the 100-120kmph limit on my way back. Didn't want to strain the engine. While the drive back wasn't as exciting as the drive to Yelagiri I got a whale of a time getting to spend sometime with my car. Specially after a lay off of 2 months almost. It was nice to back behind the wheel along with a bunch of people who shared similar views. Soon dropped by Hosur, picked up some crackers for binz (who stayed back to make arrangements for his grandad's 90th bday the next day). Met up with Nitrous and Headers at Forum, took them to binz's place from where he took them to a club to arrange for their stay. I said goodbye to them and went home. Only to find out that some had stayed back and were still carrying on with the partying. Discussing a variety of topics from what happened at the drive to status of mag's dog. I was totally unaware about this meet. Forgive me guys for not joining in. That said, I would love to once again thank all of you who came to the meet and made it a grand success. This without doubt goes to saying that it was the best drive of my life. Hopefully, we will have such drives in the future as well. I once again thank you all for driving safe and sound. Keep a look out on the meet section, might have another meet planned up real soon. Hopefully we will have a larger turnout. It was nice putting faces to the handles, hope to interact with you guys more on a personal level. You guys rock! PS: I feel sorry for those who couldn't make it. But, I would only go onto say that make an extra effort to make it to the meets. PS 2: I am extremely sorry if anyone of you thought the organizing lacked anything. Do send me your feedback, it would help make future events better. PS 3: I request all those of you who were not present at the meet to kindly not speculate or try to be moral brigades. We have had a wonderful time, lets not spoil it with such petty arguments. Mclaren18885 aka stumpy over & out! Let the pics and videos do the talking. Last edited by mclaren1885 : 16th July 2007 at 02:58. |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 03:38
| #65 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 08:16
| #66 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 08:24
| #67 | |
| Senior - BHPian  | Quote:
Great meet guys.. Waiting for more pics. Godfather | |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 09:49
| #68 |
| Newbie Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 16
Thanked: 0 Times
| Team Meeting Credits To Rahul "the Great" Aha, Finally I have some one to tell my correct name. Thanks for that For the others, I am the Palio Uncle(Pity, despite having real name as t-bhp lingo) It was very nice trip I had as a driver. All other trips I used to sit beside and some times at back seats, despite knowing driving is more fun than watching it. But had to wait until I buy own car. Happens to be FIAT Stile. Regarding the fast and furious.... no matter how hard I try, I was the last person to join the rest. But then I did manage to get the leading position from Resort till the down. Pity again on myself. Little did I knew, we had lost our way while going to Yelagiri. So took right turn to GQ. I saw all others were taking left!!!! I take a U turn and see at junction.... literally no one there. No options left... to decide any thing else. Just followed the leading road. I never caught any one. Near a town I talked Tadu and Cedia Guy(Sorry I donot know the name, even the t-bhp lingo, but can recognise its you, My problem is more harder I try to remember, the least I remember). But within minutes I couldn't trace them either (I lost them in thin air, literally). I kept my head cool (though lost else where, without even know a letter in Tamil and boards reading Tamil literature) kept mooving in the eay, my heart tells to go. I spotted Mcl on the way.... Na Na... I didn't overtook him. He did so. Again the same thin air'wala. I lost him in a minute. I was tired because I had no company (I had Arun till Yelagiri, but no one in the return journey) and also first journey of this stretch, with heavy food. I decided not to go over 80kmph. I travelled... travelled... travelled OR must I say some thing else here? Decided to stop some where I can refresh myself. I saw Dhaba, decent looking one, do not ask me where... I know nothing... it happened as if in my dream(When you get up, you recall the least). I had tea. Still thinking, I can catch some one... stared at the road until I finish the tea. Again.... good roads but mind insisting play it cooooooool. Reached E-city. I was adviced to take the BMIC stretch.... I failed to take the deviation ... so head to city via silk board... Surprisingly the road was clear until I cross the silk board fly-over. Then I am right between traffic. Its usual one though, but when you are in Jam, after a good, leisure drive, u feel more frustrated. Reached my friends home, from where I started... Had dinner at Eat street (Sajjanrao circle, near Lalbagh). Rahul: Great price(per pocket), good handling(of team members, account settlingetc), real speeds (Though I can not match upto others). good people. Hat's off to you (Though I wear none )Others: Gr8 to meet you people. Certainly I could not talk to everyone. I met few really good auto buffs. I will be asking too many questions now |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 10:22
| #69 |
| Team-BHP Support   | Rahul (mclaren1885), kudos to you for having organized a great meet, you deserve a pat on the back. A very special thank-you to both Tadu as well as Roy for letting me ride with you guys. Tadu actually went out of his way just to come and pick me up from my place. Nice snaps, guys... and it was a pleasure to meet up with the Chennai gang. They were amazed at the turnout from Bangalore for the meet/s. Ironwolf, sorry to hear about your lost camera, and also the windscreen crack. The drive was excellent, and considering i was with Tadu and Jomz in the Elantra, the view where we were following Mclaren's Baleno was spectacular. We reached speeds of 200+kmph and i am eagerly awaiting the video which was shot by Jomz. I got a chance to meet up with many from the forum, and i am glad i made the decision to attend the meet. Rjstyles (Riju) has some excellent snaps of the cars as they were zooming on the highway. Waiting for him to put 'em up. |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 10:29
| #70 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Detroit, MI,USA
Posts: 834
Thanked: 335 Times
| |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 11:06
| #71 |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Detroit, MI,USA
Posts: 834
Thanked: 335 Times
| So Here is my side, after being ridden shotgun in the Elantra. I was joining the motocare from Hosur, i saw the Mclaren Zooming by and Thought The Elantra must be somewhere close. had to stand in the middle of the road to wave Tadu down. Then There he goes..Oh My god. Tadu.. I never liked hyundai's, (coutesy the Hyundai Pony- which was the car I hated when i was in saudi) but your elantra, makes me rethink. It feels like a locomotive, smooth, gainng power smoothly, as of running from a dc motor.. and the speed keeps on increasing, the needle feels likes it never wants to stop. Well we passed Hosur quite fast and then, everybody was feeling a bit hungry. A couple of phone calls later decided to stop at the A1 plaza. there was an AMW truck there. I think i have the pic. I'll post it after some time. After A1 plaza it was like, 160-180 consistently with occasional bursts of 190+, It was fun going around the cars, Nice wide open roads. Mclaren in front <must be doing around 210-220>, (If tadu has speedo error. Then add another 10 to that figure)trying to play catch with mclaren.once in a while we could just overtake.. but mclaren was catching up wonderfully. Not like that naNdi hills day in which tadu was just leaving Mclaren behind. Wondeful experiance, No other words to tell about the high speed drive. And another funny thing which happened during the drve was the tool booth guy coming out and asking"Why are the videographing th tool booth? Don't you know that this is a restricted, High security area?" and Tadu " Sorry sir, Never knew that it was Soo classified... THE TOOL BOOTH... Won't do that again" THe climb was uneventful.the roads we a bit more narrow that what seen at nandi hills. The climb was steep. 14 hairpins but a nice drive with some good scenery. Then it was a wonderful meet, Thanks mc laren for orgainzing this and tadu for offering me a ride. You've made me a elantra fan.The car with the dual personality- for the family and for the Occasional mad rush. Coming up soon.. Notes from a trek... Tadu guiding the way to the view point and finally the view point thing landing up as a trek. |
|
|
| |
|
16th July 2007, 11:29
| #72 |
| Team-BHP Support | |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 11:49
| #73 |
| Team-BHP Support  Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 20,215
Thanked: 15,907 Times
| ohoy glad to know that you guys a had a great dirve. i saw you guys parked in front of BMW, i was searching but then went into the speed mode, and was lil too fast and too late to brake, had honked and flashed though he he. Was running really late for my lunch appointment at Trichur, hence couldnt say hi. Had to drive on satisfied with a phone chat with psycho, who was abusing me for not stopping |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 12:01
| #74 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Nice meet. Woke up at 5AM as planned. Thought i will nap for just 5 mins, but wake up to find that the 5 mins stretched to 1 hour. Call up nitrous to ask them to go ahead and we will catch up. Get ready fast - goad wifey who is not very enthu about waking up early during a weekend. Though when we returned she admitted that she had a nice time overall, and would have been bored if she had not joined. So, fuel up and rush to make up for lost time. Call nitrous to check where they are and from what he says, I assume that they are ahead of us (logically that should be the case since they left before us). So put the feet to the pedal and keep scanning for a black Palio, a green Esteem, a silver Accent etc. Somehow miss them and now I am ahead of them and finally they catch up with us at Kanchipuram flyover. Really nice drive. Though found it tough to make the Baleno go above 150kmph (I have done 160 effortlessly earlier). Wifey was smitten with the Black Palio Stile (bottle's car). She hates (or tries to, due to it being the Baleno replacement) the SX4, but when she saw the copper SX4 from Blore, she was like "that looks like a nice car. Which one is it ?". And when I say SX4, she goes "not very good looking, dont like it". Blore sure lives up to the BBC name - so many Balenos. Loved the Cedia and the red OHC. And the ICE in the Ikon. |
|
|
|
16th July 2007, 12:41
| #75 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Detroit, MI,USA
Posts: 834
Thanked: 335 Times
| Quote:
| |
|
|
 |
Most Viewed