[hserus]

There was very little body roll somehow. My Scorpio has a bench seat in the second row. The seats have the original fabric covering by the way, no seat covers.

Have them stay belted in even in the back seat and they will shake around less. Make sure your tyres are inflated to what the manufacturer recommends. Many petrol pumps and even tyre balancing places will see a Scorpio and automatically fill 36 psi into the tyres, which makes for a much harder and more bouncy ride.

Take the hairpins slower and more gently without too many gear changes or throwing the car around (if you tried aggressive gear changes and speed on the Valparai ghat that could easily end up fatal).

You can always stock up on lemon flavoured sweets, ginger candy etc to avoid nausea, if not there is always Avomin to ward off vomiting. My family was fine with just ginger and lemon, didn't need to take any medication.

Also remember, a fully loaded Scorpio (4 people in the car and luggage in the back) is a lot more stable and will shake far less than the same vehicle with just you driving it.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by hserus

The journey was sort of interrupted for me by my Scorpio being kissed by a truck that I tried to overtake on a two lane part of the road, which would have worked but for a tractor unexpectedly coming into the opposite lane from a side road.

Getting back to my side of the road in a hurry, I discovered to my cost that the Scorpio isn't quite as agile as my other ride, a Ford Fiesta. But thank God, a lot sturdier than the Ford. End result - a scraped ORVM skull cap, and a long scratch that covered the bonnet, front fender, front door, missed the rear door but continued onto the rear of the car, leading to a bashed in left side tail assembly glass.

Well, I felt I owed the forum an update. The Scorpio is back. Let me post some before and after pictures.

I also took the downtime offered to have Speed Motors fix some other minor niggles (loose screws in the front passenger side door, loose nut in the gear knob etc) and also to get a set of LED lights installed from the same Aliexpress vendor CN Sunnylight that I used for my Fiesta. Pretty good build quality, with both a fan and a heat sink, and well engineered components.

Here are some before and after pictures.

Before













After

The first one, with a couple of the new lights turned on. Sorry for the glare, bright sunlight and another car parked next to this guy reflecting off the paint.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Great pics, great narrative... Great trip!

hserus, sorry about your scars, but all seems healed nicely. Did they have to paint entire panels where there were dents/scratches, or did they manage to blend in localised paint?

[swissknife]

Here are some additional pictures

[Sk8r]

Hey All !
Any Chennai Meets being planned in 2020 ?? I assume there was none in 2019 ?!

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Hey All !
Any Chennai Meets being planned in 2020 ?? I assume there was none in 2019 ?!

There was one announced in another thread just a breakfast meet. Lots of bhpians turned up for that. Other than that a few bhpians at a time have met up for dinner or taken vacations etc by mutual discussion rather than as a formal meet.