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-   -   14 XUV500s, 17 owners and a grand interstate meet at Kundapura (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/206459-14-xuv500s-17-owners-grand-interstate-meet-kundapura-2.html)

Gripping tale to read, brilliant photography, awesome route chosen, great properties to visit. Thouroughly enjoyed the write up and the photographs. The lineup and shoot is excellent, worth all the effort taken to line up the beasts and frame them.

Hats off to all the folks who have contributed with the photos and write-up, and special thanks to SDP for starting this thread. Since most of the photos I had clicked are already up above in the earlier posts, there is nothing more for me to contribute visually. One of the reasons also being, I had made a decision prior to this trip that I will try to see the surrounding more from my human lenses rather than camera lenses.:D. Hence less number of pics and lot more memories..

Apologies for my writing style if any. Since am not a wordaholic like most of my peers here.

So Kundapura XUV5OO Annual meet. For a starter, who am I. I am a proud owner of XUV5OO for the past 6 years and member of TORC group for around 5.5 years. During this period, I have been to various drives including Leh Ladakh, Palakkad Monsoon drive and few local ones with the tribe. And missed a few here and there. So wanted to make it for the Kundapura Annual meet. Checked with my friend and TORCian Saiju, what his plans were. Now Saiju stays close by and both our kids are in the same class/school. Hence families are also well connected. So the initial plan was to go with families, but then both our wives decided not to come. :) The smiley has no connection with this decision. Ahem.

Now with just the 2 of us, the next question was whose car to take. And it was a straight forward decision - Saiju's car. Since mine had some issues and was is the service centre. 2-3 days before the drive, there was a new twist in the tale. We came to know Rajesh was travelling alone and thought why not all 3 go in one car. We are an eco-friendly tribe and dint want to increase the carbon foot print. And since Rajesh's was an automatic and the newest cat of the lot, his car was the natural choice.

So Saiju picks me up from my house at around 4.30am and we head over to Rajesh's place which is like on the other side of Bangalore. Being early morning we make it to Rajesh house in an hour. And once our luggage is transferred to Rajesh's car and Saijus car is parked at Rajesh's apartment, we start our Annual meet drive. The time should be around 5.45 AM. Since am on the passenger seat, I register myself for the Telegram live tracker. Which shows that we are in third position from last. Shreyas and AB are behind us. I am still not sure if by AB it was Avinash (abirnale) or Anand. Both had the same initials - AB. But by reality we came to know Anand was ahead. So I believe it was Avi who was the last. Though he reached the resort first. Not a shocker for us TORCians who know Avi's flying techniques.

The rest of the story has already been elaborated with pics in earlier posts - stopped for breakfast, lunch, met the rest of the folks and reached Kundapura around 4.30pm. One special mention though would be the lunch stop at Madhuvan Village in Mangalore. I was tasting mangalore food for the first time and me, a mallu, have become a hardcore fan. Especially the fish delicacies. Anand who is from Mangalore suggested the place and it was worth it.

One unique experience I had during the drive from Bangalore to Kundapura was travelling in 3 XUV automatics. Starting in Rajesh's car and then hopping on to AjayCherians plush XUV post breakfast and finally Anands car post lunch. And experienced 3 different driving styles. All the drivers drove their beasts really well and had their unique ways of tackling the auto box. Felt Ajays had a little more grunt due to the higher power and torque. But Rajesh and Anand could easily keep up irrespective of the slightly lower bhp. And there was a time, when I was travelling with Ajay, when Anand and Rajesh overtook us, and we didnt see them for kms and kms though Ajay was driving at fairly good speeds.

Also being part of the photography team supporting Captain Dev (Dhronacharya), I got to be a passenger in his car too. As Dev's car had a puncture, we had to get it repaired and that kept us behind while rest of the convoy went ahead. But as per plans we were the first car of the convoy, to be at each location to plan out the photo formations of the sexy car models. So post puncture repair, Dev went all blast through the ghats and we reached the spots at the exact time planned ensuring our schedules were on track. And that was one hell of a drive. Something others would have missed out since they were following convoy rules.

So all in all, a really memorable trip. And I believe this was the longest (800-900kms) and the only trip in my life sitting as a passenger in a XUV, enjoying the leg space, fully relaxed. I think should try this method once in a while to enjoy the beast from a different perspective and seats.

Till the next drive...Adios Amigos.

FundaG

Few clicks that I dint see in the earlier posts.

So the gentleman in blue who is there is both the photos is Rajith - who we realised he can be in multiple places at short notice.:D

And the gentlemen in the group photo are

Front row - Shreyas, Anand, Rajesh and Ajay
Second Row - Shreyas Dad, Myself and Saiju

Clicked enroute during the drive from Bangalore to Kundapur

FundaG

Mahindra can get some serious ad ques from this fantastic travelogue. Well done. Love the car. Absolutely loved this write up. :thumbs up

These types of meet-ups surely show how we love our machines and the drone shot of the XUVs is a perfect testimony of that!!

Hey I saw you guys at the A2B. My Fiesta was parked right next to your XUVs! You can see the wheel in your pic. lol:
I was also on the way to Udupi that day, albeit I went via the Kudremukh - Karkala route.
I figured you were all enthusiasts but since there were no TBHP stickers, didn't strike up a conversation. Next time will surely talk if I see a gang of XUVs hehe.

Thanks Rohan. Both our cars are relatively new (2018) and we just started the stickering projects. You would see the team-bhp livery soon.



Normally I pass an extra stare at nearby cars with team-bhp stickers, this time we were too engaged in chats. Happy to meet fellow travellers and enthusiasts.

Ahh Cheetahs..great read!
The helipad drone shot is a brilliant capture! Sumit's 2012 is superbly maintained. But why do you always have to click him when he is on his phone?!! stupid:

WOW!What a fantastic thread and so well put ! 5 Starts to Sanjay for the write up and all the lovely pics.clap: I knew the meet was well planned with all the discussion in the groups but could not attend due to new job restrictions. The pictures give such a detailed account of the meet and I was actually re-living it with you all since i know so many of the guys here.
I was particularly impressed with the Q/A session and introduction which i can see from the pics worked like a great ice breaker and is really a fantastic way to get to know everyone.
Make me even more proud to own the Cheetah :)
Would love to join the next meet for sure and i'm sure it will be a grand success like this one. Kudos to all the Organising committee.

The camaraderie and enthusiasm is palpable in the pictures . The drone helipad shot is amazing. Have driven the older generation XUV extensively and found it a thoroughly enjoyable vehicle on the highways. Way to go guys! :)

We have had many such local meets but this by far has been one of the best meets for me. I had personally met only Sanjay (SDP) out of all the people who were making it for the meet. But after meeting and greeting everyone, we all got along like a house on fire. Everything was professionally organised and I was wondering if Mahindra had to do it what more would they do or would they even match what our organizing team did.

To further show the commitment and genuineness of the organizing team, feedback was taken after the trip from each of the participants to ensure they better it the next time.

I have already committed myself for all the drives in future. For the car enthusiasts like us, this is the ideal definition of a break. It was a blissful 3 days break, with like minded guys, talking endlessly about cars, driving all around. My car did 2000 Kms in 3 days.

Cheers