[robimahanta]

Hope the picture answers your questions Sambhav.

[robimahanta]

Ever since Mahindra started events in their new facility in November 2021, I wanted to visit it. So finally for the June 25th Adventure event, Bhpian Tilt and I signed up. We chose to do both the Mahindra SUV Proving track (MSPT) tour and the Off-Road Track events. Since Mahindra was providing the vehicles for the event and we couldn’t drive our own cars on track, we decided to travel together in my Polo GTI to the facility near Kanchipuram.

Enroute, we had some nice mutton biriyani (tomato rice) at Ambur


Entry to the facility


They sealed our phone cameras for the track part of the event as many prototype cars were getting tested. The new Scorpio N video shoot was going as well, probably for the launch. I loved the olive green colour of the Scorpio N. The car looks bigger than even the current generation Tata Safari. Interiors look up market and as per the people I interacted within the facility, it is a very capable off roader.

The first couple of hours we were in an XUV7OO getting a tour of the entire facility. It is a state-of-the-art facility spread over 400 acres. There are high speed tracks, dynamic testing pads, ABS/ESP testing areas with surfaces having different coefficient of friction, water wading, suspension testing, dust testing tunnel etc. Sharing an Youtube link (as we were not allowed to take any pictures or videos) of the facility, so that you can get an idea.

https://youtu.be/sM7dhUQLvJQ

After the tour, we had a short presentation about 4x4 basics before we started the off-road track experience. It is a well-designed obstacle course testing almost every capability of the new Thar. Naysayers will say there is no fun in an artificial track, but this was meant to know the boundaries of the Thar. It was conducted by Mahindra themselves and the knowledge sharing was priceless. Often, we learn a lot about off-roading from experience, but it is always good to know stuff from the people who did the testing, R&D. Since the event was run from 5pm to 10pm, the darkness added an extra layer of fun.

All the Thars used for the event were diesel HT (MT and AT), they had their rear bumpers removed and had a custom DEF guard. Rest of the car was completely stock including recovery points.



None of the Thars had a serial number as they were all test vehicles


Starting point


One of the easy obstacles, driving over tyres


This was probably the first obstacle, doing over diagonally placed metal pipes


The circular slush pit was the first test of wading depth


Another slush pit which was deeper and had a climb. A lot of Thars got stuck and had to be winched out.


The recovery vehicle of the team had a mile marker winch in the stock bumper on a winch plate.


Railway track sleepers


One of the pits. We had a refreshment break near a watchtower, with good views of the facility


Some views from the watchtower




Near the watchtower


The axle twisters




Balancing on the narrow concrete sleepers


Lining up to cross over two large pipes, the spotters from Mahindra were excellent and we didn't have any incident at all.


Steep decent and ascent


Test for wheel articulation


Going downstairs, these were pretty deep stairs


At the end


Some Mahindra goodies and a scrumptious dinner to wrap it up


Some gifs from the event

[tilt]

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Ever since Mahindra started events in their new facility in November 2021, I wanted to visit it. So finally for the June 25th Adventure event, Bhpian Tilt and I signed up. We chose to do both the Mahindra SUV Proving track (MSPT) tour and the Off-Road Track events. Since Mahindra was providing the vehicles for the event and we couldn’t drive our own cars on track, we decided to travel together in my Polo GTI to the facility near Kanchipuram. *SNIP*

The point to note here is that every single one of the Thars we used was bone-stock, even the tyres and wheels. And no snorkel, even though we were wading in water almost up to the bonnet's level.

Some of us had water flowing over the bonnet onto the windshield and there were fishes flopping on the bonnet. No snorkel, no problems.

The one and only "mod" was that the rear bumpers were removed.

While everyone had manual Diesel, our car had an issue with the engagement of the 4-low; and so we were switched to an alternate, and that happened to be an autobox.

This was in a way good for us because both of us drive the automatic Thar (Robi has the petrol and I have the diesel).; and this gave us an extremely accurate demonstration of how to drive the autobox under each circumstance/obstacle; and how it performs.

The two of us realised that this new Thar is not at all a pretender to the offroading throne, but is in fact an extremely capable offroader even in stock form and can handle just about anything a non-competitive or a non-professional offroad driver can throw at it - and it can do all of that on one hand while solving a Rubik's cube on the other.

Cheers

[jkrishnakj]

I can fully imagine the fun and the rush doing such things with the Thar.

No guesses that you both must have had a whale of a time. Good fun. Cheers.

[sathya.bhat]

This looks so fun?
How did you book this? Any links you can share?

[tilt]

Originally Posted by sathya.bhat

This looks so fun?
How did you book this? Any links you can share?

This, and more like this, are on the Mahindra Adventure website. All these are vents run by Mahindra themselves.

This very same event happens every month.

Cheers

[Romins]

@robimahanta, Nice write-up and pictures. I would like to try my hands, as this has come closer to Bangalore. They had these events only at Nashik. Rs 7500 seems to be an introductory offer, which is a good price for this event. Accommodation is plenty at Kanchipuram, to stay the night after the program.

Do we need to carry gum boots?

BTW, spotted your car at a Toll Plaza on June 25th Saturday. You just crossed me like a wind while I was cruising at 120kmph and I knew it is not an average Polo. For some reason, you were stuck at the next toll plaza (thanks to FAAAASTag) and I noted the number plate. It was nice seeing you and your car from the next lane. I will say hello next time when I see you on the highway, if you are not flying!

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by Romins

@robimahanta, Nice write-up and pictures. I would like to try my hands, as this has come closer to Bangalore.
Do we need to carry gum boots?
I will say hello next time when I see you on the highway, if you are not flying!

Thanks Romin. It is a nicely organised event. I had done the 2 day Igatpuri, Nashik event few years back. Igatpuri is a more natural terrain but they had fewer cars and more participants. Also I am not sure if they have the new Thars for the event yet.

Gum boots are not mandatory but your feet and trousers will get wet. I did it wearing crocs.

Sorry couldn’t say hi to you at the toll. Maybe I was busy chatting with Tilt. Hopefully we ll meet again some day.

[robimahanta]

Had a wonderful driving trip along the Konkan Coast with my driving buddies and BHPians Dr.AD, Abirnale, Graaja, Tilt and RSudarsanan. It was an long hard drive with a lot of rains and some bad road stretches. I had swapped to my 18 inch 790M alloys for the trip and it seemed like a wise decision. Dr.AD did meticulous planning for the trip and it was a great drive of over 1700kms along some scenic routes. I was so engrossed in the drive and the coastal food that I hardly took any pictures with my camera. All the photos are with my phone. Looking forward to the trip report by Graaja, AD and Abirnale. I will add some group car pics to their report. For now, I am sharing some images of the M340i.

Along the coast (it is almost reminiscent of the Pacific Highway 1)






Near the Devgad Fort


Did some off roading to reach a picturesque location


The sea and the windmills


One of the numerous rivers that eventually join the sea


Just before leaving Kohlapur


On arrival in Bangalore, the car looked like it completed a gravel rally


Back to a clean car with 19 inch 792M (notice the 50th Jahre edition wheel caps)

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Had a wonderful driving trip along the Konkan Coast with my driving buddies and BHPians Dr.AD, Abirnale, Graaja, Tilt and RSudarsanan. It was an long hard drive with a lot of rains and some bad road stretches. I had swapped to my 18 inch 790M alloys for the trip and it seemed like a wise decision. Dr.AD did meticulous planning for the trip and it was a great drive of over 1700kms along some scenic routes.

Thanks Robi for the kind words, and thanks for joining this drive. It was indeed a nice drive and we enjoyed a great variety of driving conditions, road conditions, and weather conditions. It was a memorable drive for sure.

The M340i was just amazing in the whole trip. It looks great, and everywhere we went, it was the best looking thing in the convoy. But way beyond the looks and the visual appeal, it was amazing to see the car being driven so well across the hills and the coastal roads, across six-lane highways with smooth tarmac and across narrow, single-lane rural roads dotting the coastline, across broken roads, across non-existent roads, off-roading in the grass and mud and reaching far away locations. The car did everything great and in style! Full credit to Robi for driving this car so well under such demanding conditions. Very few high performance car owners would put their car to such good use! This car in this drive was a treat to watch.

With Robi's kind permission, let me post a couple of pictures I took (from my mobile phone) that to me symbolize the spirit of this drive and the spirit of "high performance adventure"!

The car that endured mud, slush, torrential rains, bad roads, good roads, and then still looked stunning with this makeup:



What better use of the BMW "50 Jahre" logo than on this car?:

[robimahanta]

Thanks a lot AD for the pictures. It was indeed a great pleasure driving around with you guys. Looking forward to many more road trips in the future.

Forgot to share the water splash image of the M340 taken by Graaja. We were like kids taking turns and splashing water

[robimahanta]

Forgot to update the thread about two small updates which I had done to the Thar.

First, is the removal led light for the boot (can be used anywhere). I have had other brands before and found this one to be quite nice. It comes with all the accessories for installation and a usb charging cable. The double sided sticker and the magnet is quite strong.

The amazon.in link: https://amzn.eu/d/gtxsdZN

Some pictures:





Second, I bought the oem grab handle used in the rear from boodmo and fixed it to the existing grab handle on the passenger side. It is helpful for shorter co passengers in their ingress as well as during off roading. For 374₹ including shipping, it is reasonably priced. I didn’t like the aftermarket grab handles which are drilled into the A pillar (felt like it will puncture the skull in case of an unfortunate event).

Some pictures:

[robimahanta]

Had a wonderful off-road meet with friends from the "Thar Bengaluru" group. The weather was amazing and the trails were a lot of fun. It was a large group of around 35 Thar's.

I got a chance to test out my Warn Evo VR 8S winch as quite a few of us got stuck in the slush. It performed flawlessly and I am quite happy with its performance.

Sharing a few pictures,

Thar's parked before the trail



My Thar taking a break in the grassland



Quite a few Thar's huddled up during lunch



Back to the concrete jungle in Bengaluru, with a Thar looking like it is meant to (mud coated and not PPF/ceramic coated )

[robimahanta]

Sharing a few more pictures from the meet. Photos shot by Madhu (a smile box photography) who covered the meet.


A slippery descent



Sliding in slush



Winch was in action multiple times

[Gypsian]

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Had a wonderful off-road meet with friends from the "Thar Bengaluru" group. The weather was amazing and the trails were a lot of fun. It was a large group of around 35 Thar's.

Where did this event take place? Good to see more and more drivers being inclined towards offroading. Thanks to the new Thar, it has ignited the offroading scene in India.