Team-BHP Meets in Dubai & the Middle East

iraghava · 1st June 2008, 15:16

Pictures look nice Santhosh! And so does the cat!

Quote:

Originally Posted by srijit

Thanks. Zak looks cold. Maybe he should have worn longer pants

Or maybe his Dementor robe??

wheeler · 1st June 2008, 17:35

Hi guys. This is my take on yesterday's drive. Unfortunately, no photos as only Steer was carrying a camera. So be ready for a long read.

This all started off when Zak called me up on Saturday morning informing me that Steer had planned a drive along the Sharjah - Kalba road in the evening. Since our drive that was planned for Friday was cancelled owing to an emergency (read previous posts for more details on that), this was a good opportunity for a nice, long drive. I called up Steer and confirmed plans with him. Steer managed to pull in Joz who was also in town. By 4:30pm Steer SMSed me that he was going to pick up Joz. Since I was at my colleague's house in Sharjah at that time, I decided to leave immediately since there would be heavy traffic.

After crawling through the notorious Sharjah traffic (going off the shoulder at many places) & finding our way looking at the map, we (my colleague Nitin & I) managed to hit the Sharjah - Kalba highway. Steer called up again and gave directions to the rendezvous point. By around 5:15 we reached the fuel station and parked next to the Jag. After fuelling ourselves, we all decided to leave. Steer kept saying something about low light and stuff but I didn't understand why he was bothered. We do have powerful headlights and anyways the roads have ample lighting.

Joz & Duboy decided to come with Nitin and me in my Altima while Steer, his wife & Zak sat in the Jag. Just as I started my engine, I saw that Zak had gotten out of the Jag and was coming over to the Altima with a box of fruits in his hand. Apparently, he wanted to eat the fruits in the car and Steeroid, who did not approve of this, shoved him out. Zak and Joz swapped seats and we left the station.

The moment Steer hit the road, he took off. The supercharger was pulling the Jag futher away from us. Duboy exclaimed, "Its much more fun sitting here and watch my dad driving like that rather than sit in his car and know nothing." Indeed it was fun watching Steer pulling away. I was already doing 140 and I realized that going this way, I wouldn't be able to catch up with them. Already the Jag was a speck in the horizon. So I decided to ditch the X-CVT mode and shifted to the manual gear mode. Shifted a gear down and the rpm needle sprang to life. The car lurched forward and the rpm needle started climbing. 160kmph. 5000 rpm. Shifted to 5th gear. 180kmph. 5000rpm. Shifted to 6th gear. Speedo touched 200kmph. Cruising at a little over 200kmph, we heard a sudden whooooosh!!!!! Oh, we just overtook a truck. Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Just passed by a row of trucks.

"Hey, isn't that Steer over there?" I said spotting the Jag some distance ahead. "Why has he stopped? What is it doing on the rightmost lane?" As soon as Steeroid saw us in his RVM, he took off again but this time to the exit on the right side and indicated to us that he wanted us to follow him. "Kalba is straight ahead. Where's he going now?". After a km or so, Duboy said, "Oh, now I know where he's going. He's going to that same spot where he took photos of the Jag last time." (have a look at Steer's gallery for the old snap). Soon we arrived at the spot and parked the 2 cars in line. Then followed about half an hour of snaps. After snaps, we decided to get rolling. Joz and Zak swapped seats again.

With Nitin, Joz & Duboy accompanying me in the Altima, we took off before Steer, knowing very well that he would catch up with us in a few seconds. And soon enough I could see the xenons of the Jag in my rvm already. And it was approaching fast. All we could do was just sit and watch as it sped past us. We got back on the highway and gunned down the engine. Again shifting into manual mode, we were going at around 200kmph.

Then came the moutains and the curves. It was pretty nice. Wide curvy almost empty roads lighted up by the orange SVLs. Taking the curves at 120 - 140kmph and I could feel the steering pretty tight. Joz suggested that it would be better to take the turns on the outer lane and slowly shift into the inner lane somewhere around the apex of the turn. I tried that out since there was no traffic that time and I could seamlessly shift lanes. Soon we passed through 2 tunnels and the road after exiting both the tunnels were something like those in the canyon duels in NFS Carbon.

After some more twists and turns, there was a straight stretch of road and the Steer seemed to be going slow (Slow for him that is. He was doing 180 anyways). Deciding to check out the top speed of the Altima, I depressed the gas pedal further. Steer, who was in front of us, moved to the other lane. We picked up speed and touched 200. We were almost alongside Steer when he decided to that he's wants to play some more of the cat & mouse chase. He again accelerated and was ahead of us in no time. I too floored the gas pedal and the speedo started climbing. 210... 215... By now, Steer had gone a long way off and I was not able to get the car to go faster. Probably if I had was going downhill, I may have been able to but right now, this was the top speed from my 2.5L 175bhp engine.

Soon we entered into the city limits of Kalba and slowed down to more sane speeds. Passed through Kalba and entered Fujairah where we stopped by the corniche for a short break. Steer & family then carried on to Khorfakkan for some personal work. We agreed to meet up on the way back. We guys roamed around Fujairah trying to find some place to have some food. After some snacks, we decided to head back to Dubai. The journey back was pretty uneventful except for the numerous calls for Zak from his family who were waiting for him in Abu Dhabi.

We stopped again just after Sharjah airport to say good-byes and the group split. Zak's cousin was to pick him up from Sharjah. So we (Zak, Nitin & I) headed back to Sharjah and dropped Zak at the KFC by the corniche. Then we headed back to Nitin's place. After hunting for parking for around half and hour we finally found one on the other side of the road.

Thus the drive came to an end (for us atleast).

It was good to meet up with everone once again. Joz, it was nice meeting you. Now we have another member for the meets. The more the merrier.

Alright folks, I'm signing off now. I'll let the others give you their perspective. Thank you for reading through this long report.

speedzak · 1st June 2008, 20:12

WOW!!!
It was simply an amazing drive. We started a bit later than we should have which made the sun vanish before we got to Kalba. Otherwise, you all would've seen more wonderful pieces of camera art.

I had to split off from the group and I came to Abudhabi in the night. That was another thrilling drive which had some beautiful motoring Nirvana with a rear wheel driven dual supercharged 599 BHP and a top speed of 284 km/h! I will write about it in some other thread!
Looking forward to AutoMechanika meet tomorrow. Or is it today???

Quote:

Originally Posted by srijit

Thanks. Zak looks cold. Maybe he should have worn longer pants

Nay!!!! It was close to 40 degrees baba! I was trying to hold onto all the extra fab I have developed since arriving here.

wheeler · 1st June 2008, 22:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedzak

Looking forward to AutoMechanika meet tomorrow. Or is it today???

Neither baba. Its on the 3rd. And the exhibition is open from 10:00 am to 7:00pm only. So I'd say we ought to meet up at the venue latest by 5:00pm.

Joz · 1st June 2008, 22:52

Great meet and a great drive. Nothing much to add, except that this drive helped we figure why 210 kmph is considered slow - a supercharged Jag with a mad mallu is a truly enlightening combo!

Wheeler: it was a pleasure meeting you. We will soon figure the top speed of your car. Wait till i get my license.

Steer: Thank you for everything! Your Jag can give the Indian railways a good run for their money. And Duboy is one hell of a boy! The way the 8 year old toddler went about explaining car stuff - like his Dad's Jaguar is limited to 280 kmph and so on - took some time getting used to. And Paranoid - thanks for giving the lost soul some awesome dinner.

Zacko: You are one whacko mallu... that's all i can say. Did you reach AbuDhabi are you still close Jebelali!!

Looking forward to being a regular piece of furniture at the Dubai meets. The automechanika is nothing much to see really.. except for a nice set of souped up cars like the S2000, H1, Skyline and the crashed remains of an F430 and ofcourse a couple of really hot show girls.

Do let me know when we are meeting next. I will be either at the hotel ot at the automechnilka.

wheeler · 2nd June 2008, 09:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joz

Zacko: You are one whacko mallu... that's all i can say. Did you reach AbuDhabi are you still close Jebelali!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joz

Looking forward to being a regular piece of furniture at the Dubai meets.

Looking forward to that 350Z too.

Dhar's · 2nd June 2008, 10:33

Aww I really missed the drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheeler

160kmph. 5000 rpm. Shifted to 5th gear. 180kmph. 5000rpm. Shifted to 6th gear. Speedo touched 200kmph. Cruising at a little over 200kmph, we heard a sudden whooooosh!!!!! Oh, we just overtook a truck. Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Just passed by a row of trucks.

How was the handling at these speeds?
Good that I did not bring my khattara. It would never have done even half of these speeds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joz

Looking forward to being a regular piece of furniture at the Dubai meets. The automechanika is nothing much to see really. except for a nice set of souped up cars like the S2000, H1, Skyline and the crashed remains of an F430 and ofcourse a couple of really hot show girls.
.

Is it the new Skyline?

CaliforniaKnight · 2nd June 2008, 11:10

another great drive organised.
missed it but will make it up with the cochin bhpians for the time being.

wheeler · 2nd June 2008, 11:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dhar's

How was the handling at these speeds?
Good that I did not bring my khattara. It would never have done even half of these speeds.

Handling was pretty good on the straights. But there was a bit of wobbling on the curves. A set of wider tyres would help.

Dhar's · 2nd June 2008, 11:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheeler

Handling was pretty good on the straights. But there was a bit of wobbling on the curves. A set of wider tyres would help.

So thats why you were talking about new set of alloys during our last meet. Whats the current tyre size?

wheeler · 2nd June 2008, 12:03

^^ 205/65 R16. But then I won't be doing such high speeds unless on drives like these. So I can manage with this set of tyres for the time being.

Dhar's · 2nd June 2008, 12:14

Exactly, save the extra money on wider tyres for new Salik booths coming up everywhere.

speedzak · 2nd June 2008, 18:50

No!! Strictly no tyre discussion here. Until and unless... Ofcourse our in house tyre dealer pops in. But currently, he should be in some watering hole with his laptop plugged into a wall and himself plugged into VAT69!

@Joz. I made it to Abudhabi the same night and in what way!!!! read my earlier post here.

AutoMechanika is going to be worth just for the Skyline if it's the new one.

Joz · 2nd June 2008, 21:35

Guys, its not the Nissan GTR. It's the old gen (R34 I think). Other cars I can remember are an Evo 9, a souped up SLR. souped up Bentley, a race spec truck and some others. Do let know what the plans for tomorrow are.

Wheeler: For the 350Z there is something more important i need to get - License!

wheeler · 2nd June 2008, 23:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joz

Guys, its not the Nissan GTR. It's the old gen (R34 I think). Other cars I can remember are an Evo 9, a souped up SLR. souped up Bentley, a race spec truck and some others. Do let know what the plans for tomorrow are.

Well, it looks like only the regulars are confirmed for Automechanika tomorrow. Since that's only 5 of us, we'll meet up at Automechanika at around 5:30pm. After Automechanika, we'll decide where to have dinner and have a nice talk. The confirmed people are Steeroid, Zak, Joz, Dhar's and myself. Another Tbhpian (Islandman) has moved to Dubai and works in the same company as I do. Let me try to contact him and if he is willing, I shall bring him along as well. Cheerios then!!!

1st June 2008, 17:35	#92
wheeler BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: DXB Posts: 261 Thanked: 5 Times View My Garage	Hi guys. This is my take on yesterday's drive. Unfortunately, no photos as only Steer was carrying a camera. So be ready for a long read. This all started off when Zak called me up on Saturday morning informing me that Steer had planned a drive along the Sharjah - Kalba road in the evening. Since our drive that was planned for Friday was cancelled owing to an emergency (read previous posts for more details on that), this was a good opportunity for a nice, long drive. I called up Steer and confirmed plans with him. Steer managed to pull in Joz who was also in town. By 4:30pm Steer SMSed me that he was going to pick up Joz. Since I was at my colleague's house in Sharjah at that time, I decided to leave immediately since there would be heavy traffic. After crawling through the notorious Sharjah traffic (going off the shoulder at many places) & finding our way looking at the map, we (my colleague Nitin & I) managed to hit the Sharjah - Kalba highway. Steer called up again and gave directions to the rendezvous point. By around 5:15 we reached the fuel station and parked next to the Jag. After fuelling ourselves, we all decided to leave. Steer kept saying something about low light and stuff but I didn't understand why he was bothered. We do have powerful headlights and anyways the roads have ample lighting. Joz & Duboy decided to come with Nitin and me in my Altima while Steer, his wife & Zak sat in the Jag. Just as I started my engine, I saw that Zak had gotten out of the Jag and was coming over to the Altima with a box of fruits in his hand. Apparently, he wanted to eat the fruits in the car and Steeroid, who did not approve of this, shoved him out. Zak and Joz swapped seats and we left the station. The moment Steer hit the road, he took off. The supercharger was pulling the Jag futher away from us. Duboy exclaimed, "Its much more fun sitting here and watch my dad driving like that rather than sit in his car and know nothing." Indeed it was fun watching Steer pulling away. I was already doing 140 and I realized that going this way, I wouldn't be able to catch up with them. Already the Jag was a speck in the horizon. So I decided to ditch the X-CVT mode and shifted to the manual gear mode. Shifted a gear down and the rpm needle sprang to life. The car lurched forward and the rpm needle started climbing. 160kmph. 5000 rpm. Shifted to 5th gear. 180kmph. 5000rpm. Shifted to 6th gear. Speedo touched 200kmph. Cruising at a little over 200kmph, we heard a sudden whooooosh!!!!! Oh, we just overtook a truck. Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Whoooosh!!! Just passed by a row of trucks. "Hey, isn't that Steer over there?" I said spotting the Jag some distance ahead. "Why has he stopped? What is it doing on the rightmost lane?" As soon as Steeroid saw us in his RVM, he took off again but this time to the exit on the right side and indicated to us that he wanted us to follow him. "Kalba is straight ahead. Where's he going now?". After a km or so, Duboy said, "Oh, now I know where he's going. He's going to that same spot where he took photos of the Jag last time." (have a look at Steer's gallery for the old snap). Soon we arrived at the spot and parked the 2 cars in line. Then followed about half an hour of snaps. After snaps, we decided to get rolling. Joz and Zak swapped seats again. With Nitin, Joz & Duboy accompanying me in the Altima, we took off before Steer, knowing very well that he would catch up with us in a few seconds. And soon enough I could see the xenons of the Jag in my rvm already. And it was approaching fast. All we could do was just sit and watch as it sped past us. We got back on the highway and gunned down the engine. Again shifting into manual mode, we were going at around 200kmph. Then came the moutains and the curves. It was pretty nice. Wide curvy almost empty roads lighted up by the orange SVLs. Taking the curves at 120 - 140kmph and I could feel the steering pretty tight. Joz suggested that it would be better to take the turns on the outer lane and slowly shift into the inner lane somewhere around the apex of the turn. I tried that out since there was no traffic that time and I could seamlessly shift lanes. Soon we passed through 2 tunnels and the road after exiting both the tunnels were something like those in the canyon duels in NFS Carbon. After some more twists and turns, there was a straight stretch of road and the Steer seemed to be going slow (Slow for him that is. He was doing 180 anyways). Deciding to check out the top speed of the Altima, I depressed the gas pedal further. Steer, who was in front of us, moved to the other lane. We picked up speed and touched 200. We were almost alongside Steer when he decided to that he's wants to play some more of the cat & mouse chase. He again accelerated and was ahead of us in no time. I too floored the gas pedal and the speedo started climbing. 210... 215... By now, Steer had gone a long way off and I was not able to get the car to go faster. Probably if I had was going downhill, I may have been able to but right now, this was the top speed from my 2.5L 175bhp engine. Soon we entered into the city limits of Kalba and slowed down to more sane speeds. Passed through Kalba and entered Fujairah where we stopped by the corniche for a short break. Steer & family then carried on to Khorfakkan for some personal work. We agreed to meet up on the way back. We guys roamed around Fujairah trying to find some place to have some food. After some snacks, we decided to head back to Dubai. The journey back was pretty uneventful except for the numerous calls for Zak from his family who were waiting for him in Abu Dhabi. We stopped again just after Sharjah airport to say good-byes and the group split. Zak's cousin was to pick him up from Sharjah. So we (Zak, Nitin & I) headed back to Sharjah and dropped Zak at the KFC by the corniche. Then we headed back to Nitin's place. After hunting for parking for around half and hour we finally found one on the other side of the road. Thus the drive came to an end (for us atleast). It was good to meet up with everone once again. Joz, it was nice meeting you. Now we have another member for the meets. The more the merrier. Alright folks, I'm signing off now. I'll let the others give you their perspective. Thank you for reading through this long report.
	() Thanks

1st June 2008, 22:52	#95
Joz BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Dubai Posts: 247 Thanked: 2 Times	Great meet and a great drive. Nothing much to add, except that this drive helped we figure why 210 kmph is considered slow - a supercharged Jag with a mad mallu is a truly enlightening combo! Wheeler: it was a pleasure meeting you. We will soon figure the top speed of your car. Wait till i get my license. Steer: Thank you for everything! Your Jag can give the Indian railways a good run for their money. And Duboy is one hell of a boy! The way the 8 year old toddler went about explaining car stuff - like his Dad's Jaguar is limited to 280 kmph and so on - took some time getting used to. And Paranoid - thanks for giving the lost soul some awesome dinner. Zacko: You are one whacko mallu... that's all i can say. Did you reach AbuDhabi are you still close Jebelali!! Looking forward to being a regular piece of furniture at the Dubai meets. The automechanika is nothing much to see really.. except for a nice set of souped up cars like the S2000, H1, Skyline and the crashed remains of an F430 and ofcourse a couple of really hot show girls. Do let me know when we are meeting next. I will be either at the hotel ot at the automechnilka.
	() Thanks

2nd June 2008, 11:10	#98
CaliforniaKnight BHPian Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: IND + DXB Posts: 980 Thanked: 141 Times View My Garage	another great drive organised. missed it but will make it up with the cochin bhpians for the time being.
	() Thanks

2nd June 2008, 12:03	#101
wheeler BHPian Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: DXB Posts: 261 Thanked: 5 Times View My Garage	^^ 205/65 R16. But then I won't be doing such high speeds unless on drives like these. So I can manage with this set of tyres for the time being.
	() Thanks

2nd June 2008, 12:14	#102
Dhar's BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: QLN/TRV/DXB Posts: 420 Thanked: 627 Times View My Garage	Exactly, save the extra money on wider tyres for new Salik booths coming up everywhere.
	() Thanks

2nd June 2008, 18:50	#103
speedzak BANNED Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: India Posts: 4,347 Thanked: 27 Times	No!! Strictly no tyre discussion here. Until and unless... Ofcourse our in house tyre dealer pops in. But currently, he should be in some watering hole with his laptop plugged into a wall and himself plugged into VAT69! @Joz. I made it to Abudhabi the same night and in what way!!!! read my earlier post here. AutoMechanika is going to be worth just for the Skyline if it's the new one.
	() Thanks

2nd June 2008, 21:35	#104
Joz BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Dubai Posts: 247 Thanked: 2 Times	Guys, its not the Nissan GTR. It's the old gen (R34 I think). Other cars I can remember are an Evo 9, a souped up SLR. souped up Bentley, a race spec truck and some others. Do let know what the plans for tomorrow are. Wheeler: For the 350Z there is something more important i need to get - License!
	() Thanks