[RandomUsername]

The drive was great fun. I'm looking forward to more long classic car drives in 2013!
Some more pictures:

[DKG]

How wonderful ! Amazing collection of cars and its so lovely to see you folks use these beauties so well. Some of the pictures are superb. Loved the one of the bullock cart passing Amol's Merc and the one where the Ferrari is parked with the RR behind it at a village stop.

More than anything it's spending time together and having fun in each other's company that really makes such trips so deeply enjoyable.

[KPS]

What a wonderful drive. Congrats Amol, Aniruddh for what I understand was a superbly organised drive. Congrats to the car owners, must have been a blast with a lovely mix of expressway followed by the ghats. Makes me feel very jealous of you guys

The cars look lovely. The power of the american cars must have made the hill climb easy. Amol, one picture shows you following Harit's Dodge uphill, could your 180D keep up with brute power of the Dodge?

Seeing pictures of Harit Dodge going downhill, made me wonder how the drive downhill must have been in that car. The combination of weight of the car plus being an automatic must have been heavy on the brakes. Harit, does the car have any gear setting for driving downhill?

Great show

Cheers

KPS

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by the mole

I would say flat out Harits dodge is fastest, but of course the wily dukkar fiat is much quicker on the traffic and ghat sections.

Dear Amol - I happened to be there when the engine of that "wily dukkar fiat" was "partially tuned" (due to my equipment in Pune and the car and me in Mumbai). I am not surprised at the performance after 55 years. It was throwing water out of the tail pipe and the exhaust was cool. Karl, lucky you!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[Bulldogji]

Hi Behram, I missed meeting up with you at Wai, you were so close, wish you could have come up. We were the last to leave Poona so in our eagerness to get to the club in time for lunch, we did not stop. What continues to perplex me though is when and where I passed the others. Being last I sped up and had Amal and his exquisite Dodge as my buddy. Imagine our surprise when we reached the club to be told we were the first to come up. Had I known you were at Wai, I would have stopped to say Hello. Since the drive to Nasik is fixed for the republic day weekend, do you think you can join us? It would be great. Karl and his Fiat were a delight. I had the privilege to sit with him for a very short drive and she purred like a cat who has just licked some cream.The fiat though needs serious attention underside. Hopefully Karl will do so before its too late.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

Hi Behram, I missed meeting up with you at Wai, you were so close, wish you could have come up. We were the last to leave Poona so in our eagerness to get to the club in time for lunch, we did not stop. What continues to perplex me though is when and where I passed the others. Being last I sped up and had Amal and his exquisite Dodge as my buddy. Imagine our surprise when we reached the club to be told we were the first to come up. Had I known you were at Wai, I would have stopped to say Hello. Since the drive to Nasik is fixed for the republic day weekend, do you think you can join us? It would be great. Karl and his Fiat were a delight. I had the privilege to sit with him for a very short drive and she purred like a cat who has just licked some cream.The fiat though needs serious attention underside. Hopefully Karl will do so before its too late.

Dear Bulldogji - no issue at all, Sir! I will be delighted to meet you anytime. I am sending you my mobile number by PM, please call, we'll catch up either in Pune or in Mumbai. Work keeps me in Pune all week, during the weekends I am in Mumbai.

BMC1317 is a "Millicented Delight" indeed. First, it has the original 1957 Mumbai registration series and second, it has a completely doable bodyline, due to which I like this car very much. I don't know about the underfloor gremlins but there is nothing that I can't be sorted out - correctly!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Karl, lucky you!

Thanks Behram, indeed I was very lucky. Even somewhat good cars are near impossible to find of late, it amazes me how quickly they dried up.

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

The fiat though needs serious attention underside. Hopefully Karl will do so before its too late.

To be honest I had no idea she was that rough till I went under the ramp. I only bought the car a couple of months ago, and the intention was to use her as is, progressively iron out the mechanicals, and use it as a daily driver (inspired by you!) and longer distance events like these, with a little cosmetic sprucing up. I guess the tin work is a higher priority now.

[Bulldogji]

KPS, The Dodge has a push button auto box with three forward settings. D , in which the transmission will automatically shift into all forward gears, D2, where she will shift only in first and second, and D1, where she will remain in first. So, depending on the gradient, Harit would have selected D2 whilst descending .

[the mole]

Originally Posted by KPS

The power of the american cars must have made the hill climb easy. Amol, one picture shows you following Harit's Dodge uphill, could your 180D keep up with brute power of the Dodge?

Hi KPS that is a downhill shot. Thank god I had the opportunity to only encounter Harit's car going downhill and that too only from behind. However throughout the highway sections I stuck to 40-50mph and managed to keep a constant gap between harit and me. I think Harit could have passed me very easily but was limited only by brakes.

However going uphill I had the opportunity of being chased by Aniruddh's Packard and thought my good old diesel held out well, she actually has very good thrust for uphill climbs and i managed the whole ghat section in Third and very rarely in Second. What is of advantage while climbing up is her dimunitive proportions compared to the Americans which allowed me to pass and cut slow trucks and state transport buses (sometimes foolishly) on their way up on the narrow ghat stages.

[scooby05]

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

Amol, thanks for the pictures and of course the delightful venue.Yes, we all had a blast, lots of leg pulling, good humour and no rancour whatsoever. Thats the way forward. When I discovered I had a flat tyre, before I could get out of the car, three others had stopped. The flat was duly examined, and three pairs of eager hands got down to doing the dirty work. Now thats what I call being helpful. If not for them, I would have been holding my poor old back even now.THANKS guys. The group was delightful and the performance of all the cars brilliant. The food at the club, as always was well worth the hot journey back and forth, and many were ready to do a U turn from chembur/andheri and go back. Some things stood out. Harits Dodge sped like a rocket, followed by Ratty Tatty ( for the uninitiated, Karls delightful fiat), with all the rest of us trailing along. Rehaans capacity to sleep deserves mention in Ripleys Believe or not, and Yash showed that he has a good sense of humour and the ability to drive his delightful Buick fast and steady. Anirudh, Amol and all the others who were involved in the planning, THANKS. You guys made our weekend perfect. Lets plan the next before it gets too hot.

I missed this one, Sad , Surely in for the Nasik drive. You'll had super fun, no politics!

[SuperSelect]

Wow, guys - lovely drive, superb pictures..
I envy you all for the fun you had. Wish I could've been there too. Maybe next time..

[harit]

Hello guys, what a trip we had WOW! And the fun, just tooo good SMILIE
Amol had organized the arrangements at Mahableshwar club, Kasli all the fascilities during the drive. None of us had any cause to complain, and if they would have, no one would have paid attention anyways.
The planning was good, almost all managed to arrive at the club in time for lunch.
The drive itself was super great. I myself drove from Pune to Mahableshwar and back to Pune, the rest was driven by my friend. As described by others I also shot up the Ghat sections, the one before Mahableshwar and the Mahableshwar ghat itself. I am quite sure that I would not have come up much quicker in a smaller car. And the public was quite amazed and appreciated the size of the Dodge, cheering as we drove along. Many took photos, and I somehow got a feeling that size does matter.

On the way we met Behram with a new Storme pictured below, looks very nice.

The return drive was also swift, car behaved well, brakes were not an issue, they have to be applied gradually, not slam them on. If brakes were an issue I would not have gone on the ghats. A picture of the V8 engine is below.
We filled up gas three times, and all the three pump attendants were ready to fill in diesel!
On the way back we came across a Harley rider minding his own business and cruising along.
We also saw that Jeep at Wai and stoped to take pictures from a different angle including the dash. The Neeta bus just passed by while we stopped to click the Jeep.
Guess whose hands were under the bonnet.
The mirror was at the parking lot of Holiday Inn, I took the picture sitting behind the wheel.

We were all a bunch of enthusiasts, many from t-bhp, some from Cartier (the chosen few) and some from VCCCI (but we don’t know who, names of members is still classified information). There were “outsiders” who decided on the spot to acquire a vintage car, seeing the amount of fun we were having. The spirits were high throughout, no one was targeted, moderators did not need to moderate, and I am sure that when given a chance all will come for the next event.

The only person who may not have achieved his goal was Rehaan, he came to take pictures and somehow we did not go for a drive to some nice locations. Some felt that we would lose our parking, but then the trip was not about catching a parking space in Mahableshwar. When we leave the environment of a big city we should change our thinking.

I carried a picture which was taken at the club in 1943, we found the spot and the same tree still exists and has hardly grown.

We can improve our trips only marginally, we could not have had much more fun. We should consider to make a program before hand, prepare some schedules for all who wish to follow and get a bit more out of the trip like a local drive. Maybe the assembly time and place be declared, those who miss will be on their own.

The purpose of driving our cars and being together as enthusiasts was more than full filled.

Cheers harit

[kasli]

A link to a blog that I had written for BS Motoring.

http://www.bsmotoring.com/blogs/blog...hp?autono=6126

Cheers

[Rehaan]

Unbelievably in 8+ years of Team-BHP, this was my first ever Vintage car event!

Thanks a ton to all those who took the time and effort to organize it, coordinate, book rooms, organize flatbeds all of that!

I had a good time in the lovely M'war weather. Finally got to put faces to some of the oft-heard names of the vintage section, and meet some new ones as well. I got to catch up on some much needed sleep too

@RandomUsername - lovely pictures!

Bit bummed that we didn't get to take the cars around M'war itself - was looking forward to that for some pictures, but here are the few i clicked along the way:

Karlosdeville and President soak up the morning sun in the Fiat


Pretty hard for car guys to miss this sitting on the side of the Expressway!


Gotta love the gated gearshift


308 GTS


Extended family perhaps?


Amal's shiny black Dodge


One of the 3 Beetles present


Looking swell


Rest-stop. The calm before the climb


Lovely SL


The 1920's Rolls


How cool is this?


Karl driving up the mountain, yep, just a few minutes before the brakes failed


Harit dug into his big bag of photos and pulled out a perfect match! The black & white photo is from 69 years back!


Covered parking was a more appreciated amenity than room service or hot water.


The Rolls had a lot of cool controls. Adjustment for carburation shown here.


Tiny little accelerator


Mounted on the center of the steering, controls for ignition and throttle


Slider in the center is for opening and closing the radiator grille if I'm not mistaken


Stepney

[travancore]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Harit dug into his big bag of photos and pulled out a perfect match! The black & white photo is from 69 years back!
Attachment 1040891


Slider in the center is for opening and closing the radiator grille if I'm not mistaken
Attachment 1040896

Thanks for the pictures - can someone identify the car in Harit's photo ?

I think you are right about the radiator shutters - for some reason I always thought they were thermostatically controlled.