[sachin_cs]

The farther I travel, the closer I'm to myself




Dear fellow BHPians,
This is my first ever post in Team-BHP. The platform I have been addicted to from last 8 years. And finally I managed to get through the entrance exam and to be very honest, I'm feeling elated while writing this.

Coming to the travelogue, I will divide it into three parts:
A. Prologue
B. The Machine
C. The Journey


A. Prologue:
The itch of travelling bugged me since the time I went for my college in 2014 (somehow I managed to clear my B.Tech in Automobile Engineering) and taking advantage of the fact that I lived in National Capital 1400kms away from my home, I traveled extensively across entire North India in my RE Thunderbird 350. And all thanks to Team-BHP for being the source of inspiration for my expeditions, always urging me to explore more. However I recently shifted to my home town Raipur, Chattisgarh & my touring sessions have definitely taken a hit. February 2019, a new family member has Joined our stable (Read: Rapid), and the desire to travel has only increased ever since. These days I have started looking for excuses to head out on road trips. And one such opportunity was presented in form of an examination. I'm fortunate to my stars that I was allotted Lucknow as my exam center and the best part is that we don't have a direct flight connectivity between Raipur and Lucknow (Earlier we had but we don't have Jet Airways anymore) and there's only one infamous train-Garib Rath, with not so comfortable seating arrangements. So the idea was born. An idea of a road trip!
Now the question was How, When & Where?

So we had two option for the route:
A. Raipur-Bilaspur-Shahdol-Rewa-Allahabad-Lucknow, which roughly translates to 850kms.
B. Raipur-Nagpur by pass- Pench NP-Narsinghpur-Sagar-Jhansi-Kanpur-Lucknow, this 4/6 Lane route is 1250kms!

Our priority was very simple: We prefer good road surface any day over the shorter route. #Route B it is.

Looked something like this:



Partner in Crime:
It's been ages since me and my Dad had the opportunity to spend some quality time together, considering the ever busy schedules we have in our respective lives. I have been on various trips with my friends, Mom, Brother, Cousins but the last time I went exploring with my dad was probably 10 years ago. So this was it! It will be me and my Dad together, on the roads for next five days. I was little bit apprehensive about explaining him the reason for choosing a 1250kms route over a 850 kms one, but to my surprise rather he seemed much more excited about the longer route.



B. The Machine:

Lo and behold!



I introduce you to our beloved Skoda Rapid TDi DSG Ambition.
Born-February 2019 | Drinks-Diesel | Nickname-Heisenberg (Inspired from Breaking Bad) | Loves-Mile Munching (15,000kms in 6 months) | Competencies-One of the fastest gearbox | Heart-1.5 Tdi mill is addictive!



C. The Journey:

Day : 1
We have a thumb rule that whenever we travel we: pack the stuff on the night before the drive and hit the roads before the dawn. This rule always amuses us for the advantages it offers in leaving the morning rush hour behind. Since we were just two simple men with not so high desires for fancy clothing for various occasions. Our luggage consisted of just a simple Laptop bag, one suitcase and one trolley bag. It's really difficult to fill the boot of a sedan when travelling with men, while same can't be said when traveling with our lady counterparts


Good enough for 5 days.



As planned we hit the roads at 6 in the morning towards Nagpur and Mom packed us some lip smacking snacks for the journey so that we don't waste time on the roads looking for a clean food joint. Well the Roads from Raipur to Nagpur are decent but definitely I won't call them butter smooth. The main reason for that is the numerous speed breakers between Raipur-Bhilai stretch, flyover work being in the progress at Bhilai(C.G.), in and around Sakoli(M.H.) then there's a stretch of road around Bhandara(M.H.) which is a dual carriageway and last but not the least the roads have taken a hit because of the monsoons and you can discover huge potholes in middle of a six lane highway which is good enough to damage your car. However, the roads get really beautiful after Rajnandgaon(C.G.) and so do the surroundings. But once you hit Maharashtra things tend to change a bit. However in no time we reached the Nagpur by pass and from there on we took a right towards Pench National Park. This comes as a good relief because immediately things get further beautified with all the lush greenery, the towns are lot more cleaner with less plastic pollution and the roads have got really good surface with almost non existing traffic. Life can't be bed of roses right. And then we reach a diversion near Pench NP at MH-MP border and the beautiful 4 lane roads refuse to exist and all I can see is a dirt track diversions with big pot holes and boulders good enough to puncture the oil sump of cars. I'm one such driver who drives fast but doesn't thrashes his cars. So there I was behind the wheels of our 6 month old baby trying to negotiate the bad road with dead slow speed and cautiously finding the path with least probability of hitting the underbelly. Meanwhile the truckers and local taxis behind me were getting impatient and everyone on that road even the cattle were overtaking us but that didn't urged me to speed up and Voila we managed to clear that treacherous stretch without a single hit and meanwhile our stomach started giving in even after the wonderful parathas we had a while before. So the search for a decent dhaba started and we realized it's actually difficult to spot one in this part of the country, when compared to Delhi-Chandigarh highways for that matter. But luckily we came across one clean looking restaurant called Shree Maya just after Seoni (M.P.) We tried to keep our lunch simple with just Dal-Roti & Curd since we cannot take risk with a bad stomach when a 5 day road trip is involved.

Lets pictures do the talking:


I'm all squeaky clean when starting.



So far, Dear owner I'm Loving it.



My lip spoiler does take things a notch above.



I have a frugal appetite, you humans eat while I take a nap.



I like it dirty.



All thanks to Pench stretch.


Back to road again,
Once our tummies stopped complaining we continued the journey towards our stop for the day: Sagar. The city Sagar has a special place in our family since my Dad was posted in Sagar for a while before the Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh way back in the 90s and throughout the drive it was really interesting to hear stories from my Dad about his Sagar stint as a young officer in the region which was technically cut off from rest of the cities due to heavy rains in those days and how they survived for few days just on Dal roti (coincidentally we eat only Dal roti at Lunch). And the roads onward are fairly decent, 4 lanes throughout, except few bad patches here and there, rest everything was uneventful and by the dusk time we reached Sagar.

Now comes a twist-
I usually prefer booking hotels in advance and somehow on this day due to time mismanagement I could not book one, though I looked at the internet and I found this hotel called Deepali Palace and it looked promising and prices were reasonable too, so instead of booking online, we decided to directly book at the counter (Big mistake), so we navigated as per google maps and we realized that there are actually two hotels with same name and both were really grand. We navigated to the one suggested by google and upon entering the premises we realized our car would be definitely at the safest parking tonight. Hotel looked really beautiful and we were greeted by hotel folks at the reception and everything was going fine until I asked about the room tariff which just shook the earth beneath me. It was 4x times than what we saw over the internet. So I politely refused the offer and asked about the prices I was shown on Goibibo and he said: Sir these prices are for the other hotel which you must have seen while coming from the highway. We thought, fair enough, let's got to the other hotel. And this Hotel was equally grand and the moment we reached the reception I saw that same guy who was there in the reception at first Hotel. And surprisingly the prices were equally sky high. So I thought let's not get into negotiation here and let me just book the hotel online. To my surprise within seconds the website showed that the hotel is already fully booked. And that's when I realized what a horrendous noob mistake I have committed. These hotel guys did something on their system and declared the hotel as fully occupied in the website. Since we didn't had any options we tried negotiating with them and even confronted them their dirty trick but they refused. Even after negotiations the price they were offering was just double the prices Goibibo had shown including taxes. A very big lesson learned: Whenever you see a good deal, you just bite it! Life doesn't gives you a second chance always.

Left with the sorrow experience at Hotel Depaali, now we had two options to either venture into the city to look for an accommodation or reach the next nearest city and we chose the second option at 06:00PM 2nd Aug 2019. So Jhansi it was, since I have traveled twice on this Jhansi-Sagar stretch during my North-South corridor bike trip during my college days, I knew that the roads are superb. So by the time we would have known it we were already navigating on the streets of Jhansi. Our stay was booked at Hotel Shrinath Palace which offered a parking space as per Goibibo. However upon reaching the hotel we realized that some farewell party was going on for an army officer and their so called parking was absolutely full and we had to park our car on the road. To which the hotel authority assured that it's pretty much safe and once the parking(essentially a space in footpath right in front of the hotel gate) gets vacant we will call you to park your car. Which never really happened since the party was going on and on while I just couldn't sleep for the fact that my beloved Skoda is parked on a busy road in an unknown city. I kept checking with the guard till 02:00 AM in the morning but parking was still full, and he suggested that better I leave the key with him and he will park it accordingly, which I politely refused and just crashed in my bed for the Night.



A horrifying night for me. My heartless owner left me on the road.


Distance Covered -900 odd kms
Driving time -15 Hours incl. breaks
Fuel efficiency -21.6kmpl
Best part is that Heisenberg doesn't has a drinking problem and with a huge fuel tank capacity of 55L it practically offers a 1100 kms driving range. One less thing to worry about fuel stops.

[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

It was 4x times than what we saw over the internet. So I politely refused the offer and asked about the prices I was shown on Goibibo and he said: Sir these prices are for the other hotel which you must have seen while coming from the highway. We thought, fair enough, let's got to the other hotel. And this Hotel was equally grand and the moment we reached the reception I saw that same guy who was there in the reception at first Hotel. And surprisingly the prices were equally sky high. So I thought let's not get into negotiation here and let me just book the hotel online. To my surprise within seconds the website showed that the hotel is already fully booked. And that's when I realized what a horrendous noob mistake I have committed. These hotel guys did something on their system and declared the hotel as fully occupied in the website. Since we didn't had any options we tried negotiating with them and even confronted them their dirty trick but they refused.

Nice travelogue. Waiting for the next part. 1100Kms range.

I too have faced such situation multiple times once at Hosur, Koli Hills and another at Palani.

All these times, I sat in the reception and used the travel app and booked with substantial discounts.

At Silverline Retreat Hotel at Koli Hills, we forgot to check and book earlier. When we went to the reception desk, they told us that the booking is full. But again we managed to get through GoIbibo.

[sachin_cs]

Continuing...


Day 2:

Thankfully nothing really happened to our car and it was safe and sound. Thanks to guard bhaiya. Since we had only 300 kms to cover and also the fact that we slept quite late considering all the parking saga, we took things slowly and started lazily at 09 in the morning. First thing was to get diesel from a COCO Pump but we couldn't really locate one in Jhansi and Mr. Google was also not much of a help as it literally showed all the pumps in the city when I searched COCO, so anyways off we went to a petrol bunk with most ratings and during our interaction with the locals we came to know that this is the most renowned petrol pump of Jhansi- Pramod Service Station IOC. And as I told him my concern that we always fill from COCO, the attendant was courteous enough to bring us the fuel testing reports of the morning and he claimed that we are the best in Jhansi, which kind of seemed like a genuine claim (He also told that we don't have a company operated bunks here, which I'm bit skeptical) so we got Heisenberg filled till auto cut off. Seriously this car is a real mile muncher, happy to perform his duty without asking for food. As we roll, we felt Jhansi was kind of a sleepy town even at 09.30 in the morning without hustle bustle one would encounter in a typical Indian city but what came as a surprise was that as we were passing through the cantonment area, a Jawan came on the road and signaled us to stop our car and what we saw next was truly a jaw dropping moment for us- they were literally driving monstrous battle tanks on the roads. It was an experience in itself to witness such a behemoth of a vehicle in front of your eyes in least expected situation. And to this day I regret not clicking a picture, as at that moment I was already lost in the sight and I thought since my dashcam is capturing everything so I don't have to worry, only to realize later that my dashcam was set in loop mode and it deleted everything after a 8GB limit. Stupid me . After all the funfair, we immediately hit the highway. Coming to the roads from Jhansi to Lucknow via Urai and Kanpur, the roads are not the best four lanes I have seen before and there's just too much irregularity and potholes along with lot of traffic with occasional close calls with our Gau Matas(Cows). Road is manageable, it's just that you can't drive fast (by fast here I mean 90kmph) because they are really unpredictable. And the roads at Kalpi town just doesn't exist. It's a gravelly trail with huge moon like craters which would gulp cars for breakfast. We carefully negotiated and yes we did not have any underbelly hit. It was 04 in the evening when we reached Ginger, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. I was really happy for the fact that just after airport there's an outer ring road to the city which allowed us to avoid city traffic and we reached Gomti Nagar without any chaos. And I must add that the road surface is super smooth too. We checked in at Hotel Ginger at 04:15 PM and the best part was that they have a really good parking space. Finally I could get some good sleep knowing that my Car is safe. We ordered our lunch and then father-son duo dozed off.



Finally she has a safe and sound place to rest.



Ginger Lucknow.




Day 3:

D-Day. My big exam day. I believe that for us enthusiasts the drive itself is equivalent to some sort of meditation, as my college entrance exam went very well (testimony to that is the fact I'm completing this travelogue while sitting in my new college library). My exam center was Integral College, Kursi road and it was relatively close to the place where we were staying, Gomti Nagar. So we reached the test center well before time and I directly drove to the entrance & a guard inquired our purpose of visit. He opened the gate for us and asked us to park in the defined parking spot. Exam duration was 3 hours and as I went in, Dad decided to explore the campus and meanwhile he realized that vehicles of other students were not allowed inside and upon further inquiry with the guard, he told that since you have come all the way from other state just for this exam, I have let you in. Well that was a very sweet gesture of him, we thanked and then left.


Now since my exam headache was gone, we were thinking of how best we can make out of this Lucknow trip. We had only two things going in our mind-

A. We are super hungry, we definitely need something to eat.
B. Our Heisenberg is super dirty from all that muck he got in the Pench NP region and it's really difficult to see him in such state.


The automotive freaks we are, we decided to search for a car wash first and then have a lunch, I fired up google maps and searched ''Car Wash'' and here we go, Google aunty took us to some obnoxious narrow streets with way too much traffic and one stupid biker even managed to hit my ORVM very hard, thanks to engineers that we have biker friendly ORVMs these days. However when we finally reached the place as suggested by Google, well there was no car wash to be found, So we decided to abort this car wash hunt and let's go for COCO hunt. And as luck would have it, we found one COCO pump near our hotel itself and 300m from it was a car wash named COZICAR spa. I inquired about the prices and it seemed reasonable to me and the owner sounded really professional and passionate about his work. We gave them the keys and we waited in their customer lounge. I must admit it was one interesting episode, as we sat with the shop owner and 2 other car owners, our discussion ranged from Skoda, Saudi, Uttar Pradesh to remittances from Gulf and Indian economy. We simply lost track of the time and our car was ready for delivery, we inspected the car and found it to be satisfying, we paid and bid bye with a promise to visit again in future. I must add the attention to detail shown by the Cozicar team was commendable. Since we were feeling a lot relaxed and satisfied with a clean car we decided to address our 2nd problem - Hunger.



Exploring Nawabo ka Shehar:


Indeed



Some lip smacking food- Royal Cafe






The beautiful Hazratganj market




Since we were near to our hotel, we decided to park our Heisenberg at the hotel itself and we booked an Uber to explore the old city of Lucknow. Which I think was a good decision as a month ago we were in Hyderabad (Travelogue will be coming soon) and we decided to visit Char Minar in our new Skoda and man it was such a horrifying and heart wrenching experience to drive our scratch-less priced possession in such crazy-jam packed traffic of the old city. A big lesson learned, so this time Uber it was!. Lucknow is one beautiful city with astonishing architectures and equally mouth watering Awadhi cuisine. Being Sunday the market was half closed and it was not so crowded - Just the way we like. We did some shopping for Mom- Yes the famous Lucknow Chikan and we did some shopping for ourselves as well which is kind of strange because me and my dad are people with minimalist approach and we buy stuff only when the need arises. This was very well a revelation for us, as we just loved the air-the atmosphere-the energy and the good time we both were having after so many years. Just two of us <3.

With some heavy shopping and a gastronomic feast, time flew as it was already past 20:00, so we decided to head back to the hotel and take rest as we have a big day ahead of us.




Day 4:

This was going to be one of the craziest day of our life as father-son duo were to embark on one of the longest non stop journey. We decided to cover the entire odd 1250kms in one go (Provided we are fresh and comfortable). We both simple human have a basic rule as mentioned- ''Pack Lite Leave Early''. By 06:00 in the car's system, we were already bidding bye to the beautiful city of Lucknow. I just love the morning vibes, the chill air hitting your face and the dawn gives a peach hue to everything making it more pleasant to the eyes. In no time we left Lucknow and I will have to admit that the road surface was surprisingly better from Lucknow to Jhansi. Even the roads in Kanpur were much better paved when compared to the other lane. Thankfully this equation held true even for the Jhansi-Sagar route as well, we were absolutely astonished as the exact route when driven on the other lane had so much of ruts, potholes, broken patches while the lane we were driving on this day was almost flawless. We didn't even realized but we were already crossing Sagar, such was the pace. I was able to maintain a very good speed owing to the mind blowing road surface. We were two happy souls cruising past the lush greenery of the state with most forest cover- The Hindustan ka dil, our very own Madhya Pradesh from where Chhattisgarh was carved out in the year 2000. It was noon and we decided to take a food break near Sagar on a clean food joint we found along the highway. Nehh! the Heisenberg wasn't hungry at all as he already had his food in COCO Lucknow the previous day, he just wanted cover as much miles as possible.





Let some photos do the talking:


Pit Stop



The place where we had our Lunch



Partner in crime



Roads like these make us feel that surely our country is changing.



My phone is being used here as dash cam, as music source and navigation through Android Auto.



This is just so beautiful- Incredible India!




Soon we reached the dreaded stretch of Pench National Park region and I just wanted to traverse this path in the day light, however it couldn't be executed as we met a bit of truck traffic in the bad stretch itself and it slowed us down so it was starting to get dark but there was just enough light to carefully tread the so called road(read dirt track), however due to the rains, gravel was washed off and the dirt track was comparatively better to drive and we covered the bad patch in no time. Since the scenery was so pretty, we decided to take a pit stop. Time for some clicks again-





''After darkness there always comes light''- This was just after the bad roads. I couldn't click the picture of the bad stretch as we were more concerned with avoiding underbelly hits.



He's really good at posing



It's always a pleasure to have my shoes clean



I'm BHPian



Clicked somewhere I don't remember




Now comes the interesting bit- It was 22:30 when we reached Nagpur and it was raining all Cats and Dogs from past 3 hours, thankfully the roads were good. By then we had covered almost 950 kilometers and Heisenberg was showing a range of 150kms, which meant we needed a food break for him to cover the remaining 300 kilometers. And yet again google failed to locate a COCO for us and we just randomly filled diesel at the outskirts of Nagpur as we were not left with much choice since we wanted to cover the remaining journey with peace of mind rather than looking for fuel pump in middle of
nowhere at midnight.

So Dad asks me- Are you sure you want to drive since it's almost 16 hours you've been driving?
Me: Dad I'm feeling pretty much fresh and enthusiastic right now and also the fact that I have driven for 24 hours in one stretch during my graduation days!
Dad: You never told me about such trip. Did you?
Me:

Dad: We will continue only when you tell me about it.


He is one smart chap I tell you, well ultimately as we started towards Raipur after our dinner break at Rabriwaala restaurant in the highway, I shared lot of stories of my college days from midnight Rajasthan drives to breakfast drive to Mussoorie to my college crush and everything in between. It was one beautiful experience driving in the night with him, Kishore da playing in the background, the light rain shower, the beautiful roads. It was just unreal.

Soon we crossed Bhandara and the roads from there become dual-carriageway at Sakoli and are in bad condition. Since there was almost no traffic our progress was quite decent. But the moment we hit Nawegaon National Park region, it started raining so heavily that it was almost impossible to see even 50 meters ahead but we just couldn't stop on the road since it was a dense forest, the roads were narrow with no proper space to park, lot of truckers were driving in full speed as if it was no one's business. So it made sense to continue slowly rather than to stop somewhere unknown at midnight. I'm really impressed with the NVH of this car, as when I drove the other cars, I have realized that when you drive into a pool of water at speeds, you could actually feel the water hitting underbody through the floor board of the car, however not so with the Skoda as we hardly felt any thing, thanks to the full plastic cladding on the underbody ( It comes with Rough Road Package- in Skoda's Lingo). Thankfully by the time we entered Chhattisgarh border, the Rain god had decided to show some mercy on us and we had absolutely open sky with arrow straight roads all the way to our home sweet home.



It was 03:00 in the morning when we reached our home, and as expected my Dog was waiting for us, as soon as he heard the engine's noise he started running all over and I could sense the happiness he had upon seeing us back. That just took away all the tiredness we had.





Time taken. This tells the duration of engine in running condition. Our actual journey time was 21 hours including Tea, Pee, Fuel breaks.



He's frugal. We were doing some good speeds as well at places. 7th cog really does a wonder.



The distance travelled at one shot.



Heisenberg meeting his sibling. My Thunderbird 350 (He recently got Leh'd as well. I just realized I have so much to pen down).




The Conclusion:

It was once in a lifetime opportunity for two souls to rejuvenate and value the importance of relations that we tend to ignore in this fast moving lifestyle with ever busy schedules.


Few observations:

A. We should often hit roads with our loved ones.
B. The total distance covered was - 2600kms.
C. Mileage was approx 22kmpl, this includes all kind of road conditions.
D. Onboard computer is fairly reliable as tankful to tankful method also gave us similar figures.
E. Amount spent on tolls- approx Rs. 2500/-
F. Amount spent on diesel- approx Rs. 8100/-
G. The Trip helped me to understand my car better.
H. Lumbar support for medium height folks is really amazing as I had absolutely no back pain even after driving continuously for 21 hours. I remember driving my Honda Brio from Delhi to Bhopal for 800kms and it gave me a sore lower back.
I. The stability in this car is just phenomenal. No matter at what speeds you are, if there's an undulation, pothole or even speed breakers, the car just refuses to lose it's composure. It's rock solid. This was very much evident when changing lanes at speeds where the road had developed huge ruts due to heavy trucks, even then nothing managed to unsettle the line the car was holding.
J. Vertical movements are better controlled than Vento.
K. Probably the only car in the segment with best handling and ride quality balance for Indian roads.





Parting Shots:


As a tribute, I made an artwork in my Garage wall.



The next morning when I was taking him to the Service center for the first ever servicing.



The beautiful roads of Raipur never fails to plaster a wide grin on my face. Way to Skoda Service. It was a pleasant experience too. Will be covered in the ownership review.


Cheers! Hope you enjoyed.

[BlackPearl]

Thread moved to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

Lovely travelogue sachin_cs and your "Heisenberg" looks beautiful!

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

As a tribute, I made an artwork in my Garage wall.

Really loved your artwork!

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Lovely travelogue sachin_cs and your "Heisenberg" looks beautiful!



Really loved your artwork!

Thank you so much for the compliment Sir. I would also like to thank you personally because I remember reading your Kolkata-Delhi Thar drive and it was an inspiration in itself. Hope I will plan Kolkata-NorthEast drive very soon .

[DBeast]

A great drive up and a perfect travelogue sachin_cs. The thing that struck me the most is your father as a co-driver / passenger, that's really a hard combination to come across.

I never knew that Skodas can return such a great mileage. Great clicks of your Heisenberg and your craft on the wall!!

Cheers!
DB

[shashi792]

That's a good run, 1250 in a single day. Were you maintaining cruising speed all throughout or did you floor it at times ?. 22KMPL is a good mileage considering that its an automatic.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by DBeast

I never knew that Skodas can return such a great mileage.
DB

True. Our petrol itself gives ~14-18 kmpl on average (with a heavy foot), during the highway runs that it's being subjected to nowadays.

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by DBeast

The thing that struck me the most is your father as a co-driver / passenger, that's really a hard combination to come across.

I never knew that Skodas can return such a great mileage. Great clicks of your Heisenberg and your craft on the wall!!

Cheers!
DB

Thank you so much DBeast. And yeah, it was one of the best quality time we have spent together.
As far as mileage is concerned, even I'm really impressed with the performance-efficiency combination. I think it's just that Skodas are underrated, we also own two Marutis and two Tatas and I can confidently say this is the best machine we have ever owned.

Originally Posted by shashi792

That's a good run, 1250 in a single day. Were you maintaining cruising speed all throughout or did you floor it at times ?. 22KMPL is a good mileage considering that its an automatic.

Thanks Shashi792. It was one really action packed drive I must say to cover 1250kms in a day. For most part of the journey, I was maintaining legal driving speeds and at occasions when the road conditions permitted, I did floored the throttle couple of times to feel that much talked about Turbo kick-in-Pushback into the seats thing. I believe that the presence of a 7th gear in the DSG gearbox has played an important role to achieve 22kmpl figure. And also, I never had to shift to sports mode even once because there's always sufficient power on tap throughout the rev band and when in dire need of power, just mash the accelerator pedal hard and there's a kick-down switch at bottom of the pedal which immediately drops down two gears in fraction of a second and then you have a wide ear to ear grin plastered across your face

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

True. Our petrol itself gives ~14-18 kmpl on average (with a heavy foot), during the highway runs that it's being subjected to nowadays.

Hi TheHelix0202, that's one impressive figure from a 1.6 petrol. My Maruti K10 Estilo gives 18 kmpl even when driven driven with a light foot.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

Hi TheHelix0202, that's one impressive figure from a 1.6 petrol. My Maruti K10 Estilo gives 18 kmpl even when driven driven with a light foot.

Yep, our i10 always gave us less than 15 on the highway (during its last months with us, so the city figures must've been significantly lesser) , since it's like a brick against the wind. This is especially true for tallboy designs. I'd be interested to know the FE figures for Nano.

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

I'd be interested to know the FE figures for Nano.

I happen to be the eligible person to answer this particular question, we own a 2012 Nano, which my Mom uses for her daily office commute of 60kms/day. 20km of which is in light traffic while the remaining 40km is on 4 lane highway, and the nano gives us 22kmpl in the above mentioned scenario. It's a good zippy city car, however rusting has started showing her age now.





Here's our cute little nano LX and I call her - Dhanno

[VIKINGTILLDEATH]

Bumped on to this thread while trying to get information on Skoda Rapid Diseal Manual.
Great write up.
And lovely to see Father-Son duo doing this road journey.
Very few travelogues would have had this combination!!!!!
As truly said no better way to have quality time with our loved ones than on a road-in a dream car with Kishore da in background.
God bless you both.

[--9--]

Excellent Excellent write up!
One question from my side - is your beast running with stock tires or did you get them changed?

[uditsharma01]

Beautiful write-up sachin_cs. Your college trips remind me of mine. The Heisenberg looks stunning. This would be really an encouragement for me to pen down some travelogues I have covered in my year-old Ciaz DDiS.

PS I loved the father-son partnership. God bless! I have gone to so many trips with friends. Will plan one with my dad.

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by VIKINGTILLDEATH

Bumped on to this thread while trying to get information on Skoda Rapid Diseal Manual.
Great write up.
And lovely to see Father-Son duo doing this road journey.
Very few travelogues would have had this combination!!!!!
As truly said no better way to have quality time with our loved ones than on a road-in a dream car with Kishore da in background.
God bless you both.

Thank you so much dear! And let me know if there's anything I could help you with any information regarding Rapid Diesel Manual. The Manager at Skoda Raipur is a great guy, always eager to help. I can ping him if you need any specific info.

Originally Posted by --9--

Excellent Excellent write up!
One question from my side - is your beast running with stock tires or did you get them changed?

Hey thanks mate. My car is running on stock Good Year tires right now and we plan to swap them in the next service for something stickier. So far they have been holding good however I feel the ride to be slightly on the harsher side on these Goodyears. Do you have any suggestions regarding what tire size upgrade I should be looking at?

Originally Posted by uditsharma01

Beautiful write-up sachin_cs. Your college trips remind me of mine. The Heisenberg looks stunning. This would be really an encouragement for me to pen down some travelogues I have covered in my year-old Ciaz DDiS.

PS I loved the father-son partnership. God bless! I have gone to so many trips with friends. Will plan one with my dad.

Hey thanks Udit, I'm glad that I could bring back some memories for you. Now that you have mentioned, I'm eagerly waiting for your travelogues brother . And I really hope that you hit roads very soon with your Dad.

P.S.- That's one lovely shade you have on your Ciaz.
Cheers!