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How petrolheads spend their Sunday: Car care, long drives & off-roading

11th May 2023, 09:32 by Rahul Nagaraj

A joy ride around town with some supercar spotting, if lucky.

BHPian DocwithFiesta recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

For most of us, Sunday is the only day we get to stay at home (if at all), and just sitting at home throughout the day, doing nothing, feels odd.

Almost everybody in this forum/everybody reading this is an automobile enthusiast (be it a car or bike or whatever), and we do love to take care of our vehicle(s).

Since childhood (early/late 2000s), Sundays meant getting up early in the morning, going to the Fish and Chicken shops in Adyar (those who know, know), and coming back home quickly to hand those over to Mom, so she could start the cooking process.

After returning, dad would start working on the car(s) and scooter(s) and given the fact we had a Fiat Uno, something or the other was always wrong. The fixing process would be followed by a thorough cleaning of the interior and exterior.

And that would be followed by a visit to Adyar IOCL COCO Petrol Pump to get the car fueled up and the air pressure checked.

Sunday has historically been a "car/bike/scooter care day", even for my dad back in his childhood. My grandfather had a Lambretta scooter and it was the duty of my father and uncle to keep it in tip-top shape.

2 generations down the pedigree chart and Sundays are still the same.

After the wonderful breakfast, it's time to take care of the cars.

A thorough wash of one and a half hours for each car, followed by 30 minutes of interior cleaning, followed by 10-15 minutes of checking all the fluids (windshield washer, coolant, engine oil). Fluids are not checked every Sunday, but every 2-3 weeks.

This is followed by a drive to the same, above-mentioned IOCL COCO Petrol Pump in Adyar to get a week's Petrol filled and Nitrogen topped up.

This is followed by a sort of joyride in the beautiful Besant Avenue road and Besant Nagar beach (it's generally afternoon by the time we complete the above errands, so - empty roads).

And if lucky enough, come across the wonderful exotic cars that reside in and around Bessy.

Mandatory photo shoot, after the wash, at the beach down my street (pics taken today: tyres polished after returning home)

And by 2 pm, back home: Sunday morning done!

Hope everybody enjoyed it.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Beautiful thread, thanks for sharing! I love your Sundays. My Sundays be like:
Usually up early.
A drive is a must, whether in the morning, noon or afternoon. Mumbai city is most beautiful in the first half when the roads are empty. It's also when you will see all the supercars & vintage cars coming out to play. Sunday morning is the new Saturday night.
I drive all the important new car launches and spend time with them on weekends (am a strict desk guy on weekdays). So, it's a lot of fun, experiencing new cars, seeing what manufacturers have been up to & keeping my finger on the pulse of the Indian car scene. For instance, I currently have the XUV400 & a Safari special edition parked down my house.
Sundays are a mix of work & play. I put in at least 3 hours of work, here & there. Nothing regimented like the weekdays, but could be 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the evening.
I love brunches, especially those with live music. Had gone to Gymkhana 91 last Sunday. Our brunches usually start at noonish and we get home only by 5 PM. The Sunday before that, we had a lazy, long brunch at Saltt Karjat.
Sunday evenings are at home or on the terrace. Too much traffic outside on Sunday evenings, parking is a problem and there are long lines at restaurants. I hate crowds. Much prefer a home dinner on Sunday night, a good movie/show and then sleeping early so that Monday is a fresh start @ 6:30 am. This is unlike Saturday night. Last night, we were partying till 3 am.

Here's what BHPian ForceEnjoyer had to say on the matter:

Great thread! Here's what my typical Sunday looks like. At the time of writing, I am a 16-year-old student so my Sundays include a lot of academic work about which I shall spare you the details.
Wake up without setting an alarm (the time depends on what I was doing the night before) and finish off all remaining schoolwork. I'm usually free by noon, which is when I practice the drums for as long as my heart and limbs desire.
Since traffic is relatively sparse, this is the day when we usually eat out and experiment with places further away than usual after determining the route with the least rumble strips (pain fellow members from Hyderabad will relate to). Usually, this is the only time our Superb is driven within the city.
Many a time, we then go on a long-ish drive to any place of interest we may have found around the city. The last time was to Narsapur forest reserve, a beautiful drive on some twisty backroads I didn't know existed near Hyderabad!
Once we get back is when I catch up on a lot of automotive reading (Team-BHP, the Autocar magazine, r/Cars from time to time, etc) and if I'm working on a thread of my own, this is when I get a decent amount of free time for it.
Usually, any car-related work is also carried out on Sundays, be it basic things like a wheel alignment and balancing session or something bigger like detailing work.
If either the Superb or the Fiesta have been sitting idle for too long or have only been doing city trips, Sunday also often becomes the day we periodically take them for a long drive; sometimes even with no destination! Here are a few photos from such drives I've taken over the years.

Here's what BHPian Axe77 had to say on the matter:

Sundays are invariably very early mornings doing one of the following - basically, it has to be something outdoors.
A super early AM (5 am types) departure for a bike ride with my riding group (typically anywhere between 200 - 380 kms round trip.
A super early AM departure (5.30 am types) to my usual haunts for the weekend long run/cycle ride (haven’t done the latter lately but will be back on the table once training is more regular). If it's a run I’d either drive or ride to my usual running places like Marine Drive or Bandra. This is usually followed by breakfast with the running/triathlete buddies.
If neither of the above then I would try and catch a small city ride / drive into Bandra or town for a coffee at least.
My family doesn’t like early mornings on weekends and I don’t like to miss what early AM affords outdoors so the ‘together’ family activities are all usually post 11 am/noon. Late morning onwards till the evening is entirely time for the family to do anything they want to do. We may or may not go out if they want to go somewhere in particular.
From late evening onwards we are invariably at home since Mondays are again super early for all of us.

Here's what BHPian 88_TANK_88 had to say on the matter: