[RX135]

I had a 500 km drive over last weekend on NH4 (Pune-Kolhapur-Pune). It is now almost all 4 lane road, with absolutely pathetic stretch of 20 km near Pune. Though we were supposed to start off early in the morning, by the time we hit road, it was around 9:30 am. For a frustrating drive till Shirwal (including fuel stops), I already had spent more than an hour under scorching Sun.

We had regular pit stop at Shirwal and were merging back to main 4 lane road, when I noticed a silver Innova approaching fast. I stuck to left lane and let him pass. I slowly gainly momentum and caught with Innova doing around 110-120. I patiently waited for him to notice us in his RVM and to shift lane, but he didn't care. I blinked then, but again ignored. I was bit upset. I honked to no effect. He was doing decent 110-120, but at the same time blocking my path. I finally got incessed and stuck my palm on the horn. But he must have been deaf, since for almost couple of KMs, he didn't budge aside. As last resort, I overtook him from left lane. (And I really get pissed off when I have to do it). Brought my car in front of him and gradually slowed down to 80-90 very intentionally blocking his way. He inched quite close, but somehow Petra gives a sense of security and solidity that I wasn't bothered at all. After I gave him enough dose of his own medicine, moved to left lane giving him wide open road and then accelerated away. He tried hard to catch up but just couldn't match the pace, and slowly faded in RVM. Later, when we stopped at toll booth, he passed us. I met him soon again in the Khambataki Ghat, but this time he didn't block me for long and let us pass never to be seen again.

Next 100 km were kind of uneventful except another outrageous fool in 800, doing 60-70 in fast lane, throwing groundnut 'chhilkaas' outside all the time, showering my windscreen with it and refusing to give the way. I again was forced to overtake from left, but this time, I promptly showed him a finger and moved on. (Well! He seemed to be a doctor. '+' sign on rear. So much for the educated folks on our roads :-( )

We had just passed Satara and soon fun begun with one indigo and 2 scorpios. While indigo and one of the Scorpios backed out quickly realizing that they can't cope up, I had real fun with one silver Scorpio. I was cruising at 110, when he appeared in my RVM all of a sudden, blinking lights. I was going to shift left to let him pass, when he overtook me from the wrong side. (Another red scorpio had just overtaken me and was in front of me already). I was surprised at the pace of that scorpio, so decided to test it out. While they were ahead fighting with each other, I stepped up on pedal. 110-20-30-40-50-60-70?. Zipped past red Scorpio and then the silver one. I wanted to pat my car, but didn't know how to :-) I was soon returning to cruising speed of 110, but apparently the silver scorpio took servere offence of my activity. As I was caught up behind 2 slow moving parallel trucks, he promptly overtook me, again from wrong side, this time kind of cutting me. I needed no invitation after that. So for next 40-50 km, it was fun driving at 140-150, while I was telling my wife about our recent discussion about Scorpio's handling. It was fun, sticking to left lane giving full path to overtake, but then accelerating away as he hopelessly tried to catch up. But for all those, who think Scorpio can't do 140-150, it sure does. I was trying to notice its body roll, but the road wasn't exactly winding, so didn't notice much.

Anyway, I was once again happy with my car. Stable, fast, comfortable with superb ride, just what I bought it for. And if one thinks it doesn't handle very well, take it to any winding ghats. It's more fun to drive it there.

[amit]

Wow you sure had a lot of fun. Great travelogue there,well written too. Petra is a great car for long highway drives. It's built for high speed highways.

another outrageous fool in 800, doing 60-70 in fast lane, throwing groundnut 'chhilkaas' outside all the time, showering my windscreen with it

[nitrous]

Looks like u had a lot of fun on the NH4. Do be careful while playing on the highway with other cars. Its not adviseable!

[aseem]

as a responsible driver you should not drive at speeds greater than 130 kmph in my opinion. you are risking not even your families lifes, but others who drive on the roads as well.....

[satish_appasani]

This is the fourth travelogue from a Fiat owner in the last 2 months. Nice writeup RX.

[raajks]

I enjoyed reading it. I am sure it should have a good adrealin rush for you. I hope it was the same for your wife.

Cheers

[RX135]

Just couple of clarifications! My cruising speed is 100-110 kmph and in Petra, it is absolutely comfortable. I don't race with rash drivers in traffic (highway traffic). But whenever I get a chance on empty stretch, I do enough damage to their false egoes. Thanks to 100 horses!

[sivadas]

I too enjoyed reading it. Well written RX.

[satan_crazy]

good post Rx. Petra is an awesome car.

[Conan]

Nice post RX, felt i was in the chase too.
"110-20-30-40-50-60-70?. "
Reminds me of the last scene in "Gone in 60 seconds".

[IMP]

You sure had fun on NH4, but i dont think you should not try to "Challenge" other road vehicles who knows what type of a junkhead might be at the wheel of the other vehicle. I try to show others who's king, on the twisties, in my opinion you have more fun while on the turns (Khambatki Ghat is one twisty smooth piece of tarmac) while doing modest speeds.

[cheatingdeath]

neatttttttttt...nice write up

[Shan2nu]

"110-20-30-40-50-60-70?. "
Reminds me of the last scene in "Gone in 60 seconds".

LOL, dude, the figures in the movie were in mph.

Shan2nu

[Shan2nu]

hey rx135 how s the road down further south ? i mean belgaum from kolhapur and to dharwad from belgaum the idea is i wanna take a trip to hampi ?

I heard the Kolhapur-Belgaum stretch is awesome too. But, the Belgaum-Hubli is horrible, terrifying actually. I'm in the Vtec doing 120kmph, i come out of a turn and daaaaamn!!!! There's no road ahead, just a 2 foot deep fall. Had it been at night, i'd have happily gone, rallying my way to heaven.

Be very very careful on that stretch. Don't get carried away with the good sections, you never know when you might hit a bad patch.

Shan2nu

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

I heard the Kolhapur-Belgaum stretch is awesome too. But, the Belgaum-Hubli is horrible, terrifying actually. I'm in the Vtec doing 120kmph, i come out of a turn and daaaaamn!!!! There's no road ahead, just a 2 foot deep fall. Had it been at night, i'd have happily gone, rallying my way to heaven.

Be very very careful on that stretch. Don't get carried away with the good sections, you never know when you might hit a bad patch.

Shan2nu

Hai,

I drove that section from Hubli to Pune around 17th Nov, 05. I have the following details from my trip log.

Place-------------Distance/ km--Time-------------Comments
Hubli Town------ 0----------------0920 AM-------- Town Traffic
Dharwad Town- 20 --------------0940------------- Lots of Town traffic
Enter NH 4------ 27-------------- 1005 -------------4 tracking work going on for 4 kM
--------------------------------------------------------Unorganized traffic n bad condn.
-------------------31--------------- 1010------------- 4 Track rd all the way to Pune

I heard the same report about the section before Hubli where people have fallen into deep ditches on the Highway.

--- Ramky

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