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Old 19th June 2006, 20:09   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steeroid
Do the same stretch at night (after the traffic has died down) and you will easily be able to maintain those speeds. The drive from your house in Udupi to Neeleswaram (after Kanhangad) took less than an hour, for instance.
Looks like it started making sense to me now.
I was just thnkin what will happen if my tire bursts at 190 KMPH!!! Do we really have that quality of tires with Swift kinda cars??

Last edited by Ketan : 19th June 2006 at 20:13.
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Old 20th June 2006, 07:52   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Samurai
Exactly which stretch was this man?
The stretch from Mumbai to karwar, like speedsatya said. Those figures don't seem that great, considering I wasn't pushing the car. In fact, I was cruising most of the time, at 100-130. Had I been going fast, I could have easily shaved off another half hour, or perhaps 1. Maybe even 2. The roads were absolutely empty- we're talking about proper four-laned roads here.

Gasoline costs the most in Karnataka. The cheapest I saw was 56 bucks. And that was non-premium fuel. After a lot of complaining at the tank-up (refuel) at Karnataka, I can now see where all the extra money's gone. Kannadiga NH simply rocks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketan
I was just thnkin what will happen if my tire bursts at 190 KMPH!!! Do we really have that quality of tires with Swift kinda cars??
Arre bhai, you aren't doing that speeds continously for hours. It's like this- 120, cruising, empty roads, 190, back to 120.....and yeah, the Swift's JK Vectra's can handle that sorta abuse....
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Old 20th June 2006, 14:30   #18
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Nice trip. I envy you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by veyron1
Gasoline costs the most in Karnataka. The cheapest I saw was 56 bucks. And that was non-premium fuel. After a lot of complaining at the tank-up (refuel) at Karnataka, I can now see where all the extra money's gone. Kannadiga NH simply rocks.
I think (though I'm not sure), that the NHs are paid for by the central govt, while petrol prices are largely dependent on local levies and taxes. So the two should be unrelated.
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Old 20th June 2006, 17:02   #19
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Great trip Veyron1, though perhaps a little hurried. My drives take a lot of time as I slow down to admire the scenery. I loved one of your snaps (looking straight ahead through the windshield) and I have made it my desktop. So now every once in a while I look at it and I am back on the road again.
Take more time on your drive back and click a lot of snaps.
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Old 20th June 2006, 17:17   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Samurai
Exactly which stretch was this man? I recently did 320Kms stretch of NH17 (in both direction) and I didn't see a place where you can manage an average of 95Kmph.

mumbai-hubli =600kms can be done in abt 6hrs ...and and hubli -ankola-honavar is about 2.5 to 3hrs ...so even you stick to 100-120 kph you can easily do this 750-800 odd kms in under 9 hrs ...if you can do this in a 993cc car then all other cars can do better timings easily
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Old 20th June 2006, 18:16   #21
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Congrats! I too did a Mumbai-Delhi non stop in March this year completed the run in 20.5 hours! I was driving my Fiat Petra

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/...ia/message/674
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Old 5th July 2006, 18:24   #22
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Phew. I'm back in Mumbai, and I'm currently posting from elsewhere, so I don't have enough time to post the entire travelogue experience, but I shall post a detailed summary soon, alongwith some more pics.

Here's a small reckoner (one of the highlights of the trip, you could say) that might just blow your socks off. Guess the max F.E. I managed? Any takes..? No? An unbelievable 20 kmpl...! This was achieved whilst driving from Trichur to Mahe, on the return trip. Details coming up later. But before that- I would like to applaud those who manage to eke out mind-boggling fuel efficiency numbers. Hats off to youse, really. It takes a heck of a lot of control to maintain a steady, light foot-something that is truly beyond my capabilities. To all those light footed drivers- I salute you.
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Old 8th July 2006, 06:45   #23
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veyron1 good stuff, waiting for the detailed writeup
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Old 9th July 2006, 01:26   #24
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I'm Back...

Well, the trip TO Kerala was better than the return one, but that ain't as poetic to describe as the FRO trip. The 1st trip was much more enthusiastic, what with redline shifts, quickshifts, powershifts, mis-shifts, half-lock, opposite lock, and what have you. The ghat sections were an absolute blast, with one being required to only hold on to just a single gear-2nd. The slight disadvantage, despite the immensely capable, stiff chassis and the strong, vital feedback from the sporty steering, is the suspension. It tends to chop through corners. I shudder at the thought of 15 or 16 inchers and low profile runners through these rally-like conditions. The suspension pliancy is lesser than the Lancers, but more than the Citys. The Mitsus are far more forgiving. On the Swift, catch a bump on the inner wheel through a corner, and wham-oversteer. Outer wheel, and voila-understeer. But that's Mcpherson Strut for you. No suspension travel is possible without change in either camber angles or toe. Bah, off with the technical brouahaha. Here's a nouvel novel summarizing my return journey.

--------------------------------------------------------

Okay then. I reached back home by about 11:30 P.M, on the 25th of June (And I've been elsewhere till now; hence the late post) . Boy, what an experience. The return journey was sorta a downer at the start, mainly 'cause I was bidding goodbyes to my folks-and my place. But once on the road, my car cheered me up. I started from Kerala on Saturday morning, at about 9:30 A.M. After saying all goodbyes with a heavy heart, I cranked her up, shifted, and off I went. The first 20 Kms went by like your average entrance exam. Tense, emotional, your stomach squirming in strange ways, blah, blah....when's it gonna end, for christ's sake?

Somehow the car seemed to understand me. For those 20-odd Kms, she was quiet.Then, as if to perk me up, the shifts got quicker, the throttle responses dialled in faster, and the engine rorted through the tailpipe. Ah. I smiled.

I tanked her up at Trichur, at a BPCL pump. Having tried IOC, IBP, and HP through the route, I discovered that BPCL is truly better. No, really. Just read on. So, I reached Mahe, a Union Territory, (Pondicherry), by afternoon, about 3:00-3:30. I think. It was raining heavily, and hence the drive upto Mahe was pretty entertaining, to say the least. Driving at 70 kmph or lesser when you can't seem to distuinguish the roads from the Arabian sea is not your daily cup of tea. Take the lows and highs in the stride son, thundered mother nature. But then, mother nature doesn't lust after 71 'cudas or go bananas at the mere thought of powersliding a R34 V-spec. Gnashing my teeth, I sleepwalked till Mahe, by what seemed like an eternity.

Mahe could be the right place to cheer up fellows like me (and perhaps many fellow bhpians too- liquor costs as much as a litre of milk; Luckily, I'm a teetotaller). Gasoline costs 45 bucks there. Yippee. There's still hope in this world. I had made it a point to tank up at Mahe, but due to some screwed up calculations, my tankups went wrong. Anyways, making a mental note, I told the attendant at the "BPCL Pure For Sure" pump to tank her up. After some time, the drenched li'l fellow came up to me with the bill. I scratched my head, bewildered. There must be some mistake. My baby's belly had gulped just 10.2 litres. I check the fuel inlet pipe. There's gas right upto the filler cap's neck. I check the trip. It shows 203.2 kms. I'm dumbstruck. The car's given me 20 kmpl. Well, almost. My theories about Cold Air Induction, Aquaplaning, Traction on wet roads, Cd, Wheelspin, A/F ratio, blah, blah...all seemed to come to me. Great. And yeah, did I mention that the A/C was on throughout the trip?

Suddenly, realisation dawns on me that being light-footed helps save mother nature. I vow to try to achieve propostrous F.E. figures, if only to piss off Overdrive staffers. Then, my boss calls. "Hello son, how's the weather?" ; "Peachy, Dad" I replied. "Since when did you start liking the monsoons?" he retorted. "Well, since I learnt the economic benefits", I replied. "Alrighty then. Loosen up the purse, and halt tonight. No questions." he said. "Vokay, saar" I replied hesitatingly, my voice shaking. Gaah, half the fun's gone now, I thought.

I halted at Ankola, a place at arm's length from Karwar. That's about 20 Kms away. I slept like kumbhkarna on vacation. Knowing that the next day was a sunday didn't do wonders to my schedule. I woke up like a Matador diesel engine on a winter morning. After freshening up, I left by about 10:00 A.M. The Kannada highways, that seemed so good while going to Kerala, looked like the martians had played pogo on it. Bah, what a day. Inching through, I meet the footsoldiers of Yama, the KSRTC bus drivers. They ploughed through what would make the Land Rover squirm in it's toes. And they took many tiny guys like us off the road too. Three cheers for them. Now I know where all the retired or frustrated rally drivers go to blow off some steam; or for a temporary job-just for the sake of it.

Funny thing, being a nut like me. I reached the expressway by the evening, around 4:00, and voila-there was a Porsche Cayenne waiting to cheer me up. My grin could've been measured through the Nile. I tried to keep up with the Porsche, pumping my baby around at about 80% throttle, at 100 MPH. I was right behind this guy, for some time. He went left, I went left. Right- Right I go, then. I matched him move for move, knowing inside that this guy is probably cruising leisurely at 30% throttle, talking on his cellphone, the car doing the driving for him. He wasn't pushing the machine at all. It was all evident from the absolute body control and immense poise from the beatiful senor`. Achtung, baby..

I reached the end of the expressway, hoping to make it in time for supper. God never fails to amaze you. Right at the end, I'm greeted by a traffic jam. As I inch along, I somehow went alongside the Cayenne. The Porsche driver actually rolled his window down,and looked back at me and my car. Wow. I smiled at him through the windshield. He seemed to smile back, and up went the tinted glass. Yay. A Porsche guy looked at a Swift. 1 Cayenne=10 Swifts. Moneywise. Still. The "Cayenne Chase", as it seemed, was the catch for the day. Or the highlight of the day. Or something.

------------------------------------------------------

Pros and Cons of My baby;

Pros;

1) Chassis.
2) Handling.
3) Styling.
4) Shifter feel.
5) Equipment.

Cons;

1) The damn rattles. Perhpaps they can be fixed.
2) Lack of power.
3) Clutch is beginning to get moody.
4) Would it have killed Maruti to have made the seats a li'l more comfier?
5) Build quality.

------------------------------------------------------

'Nuff said. Now for the pics......

The only pic that I stopped for, En route'...




Some other boring sceneries that I managed to click...





And some AFTER REACHING Kerala.....





My Dad's folks' humble home in Kerala....





The place where I halted. It ain't no Meridien, but at 200 bucks a night with attached bath, who really gives a buick's arse..?



Ahem....Porsches, anyone...?



Errr...this's what you call "Natural Graphics". My baby after thundering through 3300 kms. Alexander must have looked like this after conquering Rome...




These 2 horrific pics are the only ones that I'm uploading with a heavy heart...both are accidents that I happened to witness....

This one in Kerala..


And this one on the expressway..A bus ablaze; I could feel the heat from 20 feet across, with the glass rolled up, inside my cabin...


(I've given up on imageshack. After the umpteenth time, I'm uploading these on Photobucket. Mods, if you can, could you relocate these last two to imageshack? Thanks.)

Now, before Rudraji shoots me for not taking a tripod, or getting all the shutter speeds and exposures wrong, I should apologise- ALL the pics were taken by my humble phone-cam. Courtesy the N70.

@v1p3r; True, NH's ARE paid for by the central govt. My mistake. I wasn't going in technically on that post.....

------------------------------------------

Guys, thanks for all the support. I really appreciate all the kudos. After all, who doesn't like pats from his family.....and yeah, sorry for the ultra-lamba kahaani. Kya karun, jab bheja emosanal hota hai to dil kaam nahin karta....

Last edited by veyron1 : 9th July 2006 at 01:35.
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Old 9th July 2006, 19:25   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by veyron1
I reached back home by about 11:30 P.M, on the 25th of June
Junior, you were back on 2nd of July, and not on 25th of June. I wish you were here by 25th of June; It would have saved me a couple of thousand bucks on my mobile bills.

It's great to know that you enjoyed your trip, though the hole it made on my wallet is going to be far more memorable. Just don't plan any more drives until I mend the current rip in my wallet. Till next year, enjoy all your drives in Mumbai..

thanx.
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Old 9th July 2006, 23:07   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by veyron2
It's great to know that you enjoyed your trip, though the hole it made on my wallet is going to be far more memorable. Just don't plan any more drives until I mend the current rip in my wallet. Till next year, enjoy all your drives in Mumbai..
thanx.
And here we were planning on when to meet up very soon after u reached mumbai (too bad that we couldnt meet up on ur way back to mumbai)...But senior veyron seems to have other ideas .. Dang !!! seems like its gonna be a long long wait eh atul ??
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Old 10th July 2006, 14:39   #27
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Atul, great write-up, you had a blast, I can see that!
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Old 26th July 2006, 17:06   #28
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Excellent write up veyron1. I admire your josh and determination but OD guys did 24hrs but there were not one but many drivers on the wheel, not much concentration required as the track was round with no traffic so OD cant be comapred with you, cause you are just way ahead of them..
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