Quick 500 km drive with my 9-year-old BMW 3-Series GT; Experience

The Grand Turismo sure lives up to that moniker even today.

BHPian Axe77 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

The Grand Turismo hits the highway

A quick weekend trip to Pune and beyond. Door to door around 510 kms.

Left from near Parel, Mumbai on Saturday around 1.50 pm via Atal Setu and reached Baner for a quick meeting at exactly 4 pm (traveling non stop). Traffic wasn’t bad at all specially on the ghats ensuring I could cover this distance in 2 hrs 10 mins despite never exceeding 100 kmph on the highway (other than literally 2 short burst overtakes) and not exceeding 60 - 65 kmph on the entire ghat section.

The next morning required a fair bit of traveling with a 7 am start from my pal’s home. Was staying at Aundh and had to pick up a relative at Salisbury Park and then head to a little beyond Narayangaon (on the Nashik highway). Turned off from old Bombay Pune highway towards Bhosari and Chakan heading onward towards Rajgurunagar and beyond.

I must say the 3 bypasses that are now operational around Rajgurunagar and Manchar have significantly improved traveling speeds on those sections (previously Rajgurunagar was a massive traffic bottleneck). It’s now a super smooth tar road, really well laid too for most part. Only issue is speed limit predictably is 80 kmph (understandable as it has two wheelers too and is not access controlled so to speak) where I still feel it could well be 100 kmph. I was generally between 80 - 110 kmph - I did see an Interceptor on the highway and am hoping I wasn’t on the wrong side of 80 at that time.

I run the 3GT on Xtragreen diesel so made a fuel fill just for peace of mind of about 16.65 litres when the car had run about 211 kms or so (while on my way out), without resetting the trip meter. I must say, there seem to be enough number of pumps on this route selling Xtragreen diesel as well as XP95 petrol, both of which I was making a mental note of since I use these in the 3GT / GLC.

Returning the same evening was predictably awful after Rajgurunagar - crossing Chakan towards Bhosari presenting the typical jams. Managed to reach Salisbury park only by 7.30 pm to drop my relative. From there, made it to Mumbai in about 3 hours door to door, traveling non stop (via PCMC and entering the expressway from Talegaon). It was raining throughout the Pune - Mumbai spell and absolutely pouring on large parts of the ghat. Stayed within 100 kmph and 60 kmph respectively throughout the Expressway and ghat section respectively.

Still delivering performance and reliability in spades

All in all the car performed flawlessly. The Grand Turismo sure lives up to that moniker even today. It’s a testament to its reliability and touring ability that at ~70,000 kms and just a month shy of it turning 9 years, I don’t hesitate in taking it to the interiors of Maharashtra in full blown monsoon.

Starting and ending odometer reads. Not the fuel gauge setting (accounting for a 16.65 litre midway fill. Curious to measure the FE using tankful method.

At an office at Baner, Pune.

Great place to stop with decent food, clean loos and quick service. Seems really popular too, judging by the number of cars.
Akash Misal Place & Veg Restaurant, near Khed ghat bypass

Above and below: Somewhere just before my final destination ahead of Narayangaon ….

… and below - at the final destination: a small village in the vicinity of Narayangaon.

Super rainy return to Mumbai. This was the sort of visibility on the ghat section. I had dropped speed to even 40 kmph when required for visibility reasons.

A long day but man and machine finally home at about 10.30 pm. The 3GT looking the part - Grand Turismo par excellence indeed.

Edit: Postscript
Forgot to write this but a point has to be made about the JNPT return section when you’ve exited the expressway coming into Mumbai and heading towards Atal Setu. The road is an unmitigated disaster with absolutely deadly potholes strewn generously across it. In low visibility conditions (rain, darkness) it’s near impossible to spot these and it almost negates the advantages of using Atal Setu in terms of the risk it adds to tyres / rim damage. Despite my best efforts I did go through one but luckily no harm done. The last thing one wants is a fatal rim damage or proper tyre burst on this count.

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