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From a Maruti S-cross 1.3 to 1.6: First highway drive experience

25th August 2022, 09:04 by Ananth Iyer

Average fuel efficiency for the trip came to around 19.4 Km/L.

BHPian sudeepg recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

First Long Drive

I completed a three day solo trip to Hyderabad last week. As expected, S-Cross performed extremely well and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive, so much that I didn't use the music system until the last several KMs. It was a great feeling at the end of the trip and I appreciated even more what a wonderful machine this is!

The trip summary

To begin with the highway is just too good! Smooth tarmac but many rumble strips. With the correct tyre pressure, this isn't much of a problem.

Effortless cruising! I don't recall my RPM going anytime over 3,500-4000.

At 6th gear with a speed of 120 KMPH everything feels normal and in control. RPM is ~2300. Turn on the cruise and you are set for a relaxed drive. Just watch out for cattle crossing at all times.

The 5th and 6th gears are tall! Once you shed speed below 100 KMPH, you HAVE to drop two gears to not lug the engine and get back to cruising speed quickly.

As expected, there was some competition. A couple of them were dismissed without much effort. Of course, I also had the weight advantage of an empty car.

On the return journey, the advantage of Morimotos was extremely helpful to see far and wide at night.

There are two segments of the drive experience - The quick pull away to 100 KMPH & post 100 KMPH. Beyond 100 you have very less competition because of the stability and effortless pickup even in topmost gears due to the wonderful gearing. I wonder what the Wolf Stage 2 & 3 maps are like with the bigger turbo. Would like to experience this before I think of hardware upgrades

I started the return journey with just over a half tank and got lost in the experience of the drive that I failed to notice the reducing range. I was alerted to a low fuel warning on the outskirts of Ananthpur. The warning came when the range was about 70 KM to go and then there was no range display at all!!! I kept pushing forward in the hope to find a fuel pump close by but found none. The ones which I did find were closed. I made a decision to turn towards Hyderabad upon spotting an open one on the other side of the highway. This turned out to be a good decision since many fuel stations were already closed.

It is quite normal for people to block and cut you off on the highway - Don't fret, find that gap and you will leave them far behind quickly. Once you go past them, you will find yourself looking at the rearview mirrors - Picture this: You are picking up speed as you see the cars behind you go smaller in the rearview. You may see wide open mouths, while you are grinning from side to side. Just don't forget to look at the road ahead, heh!

You pull over at a picturesque spot and you can't help taking pictures of your ride and you think to yourself - What a heck of a machine is this in this segment at this price point?