Recently (last weekend) took her for a drive from Bangalore to Calicut some 370 Kms away and then things fall into perspective. I hate to drive it in Bangalore, its choppy ride along with the mental agony of having fellow bangloreans who can’t keep there brake levers, rear view mirrors and all sorts of gadgets they carry in hand away from the car.
Started of 8 am from Indira nagar, to avoid the traffic on the Mysore rd, took around 1 hour for both the cars (esteem on tag) to reach the out skirts of the city. And then the roads opened up a lil, and yeah baby yeah I started pressing the accelerator pedal harder n harder.
First break Kamat hotel on the Mysore highway (80kms from Bangalore), good clean food and some caffeine to beat the previous nights outing with whisky. Burrrp and I lead and just before Mysore huge traffic block, took the service road (katcha) and yeah this car is for all this alright! Took a deviation down hill, slip slide into a village road, pass through some narrow village galis and fields (yes barren field) jump the small culvert and back on tarmac. Lucky the traffic pile up hasn’t reached that long on the other end.
If u can find the sign board
hung over u will see horses
Forgot to mention, the ground clearance is not that great and scraped the foot board on rt side while getting down from the service road to katcha village road, lucky no damage apart from soft soil stick on the foot board.
Well esteem and that too with professional driver couldn’t take the risk and was left behind by 20 mts, new bypass for Mysore and well time to warm up the car with the twisties; yup it rolls, but yup can manage also.
Caution rear seat passengers better belt up or be prepared to have the feel of soft carpeting on there butts during hard braking, I had quick learners as passengers (bro’s driver n cousin) at the rear and they immediately belted up after the first braking fiasco, trying to overtake a qualis and tucking behind a truck and the good ol state transport inter city bus not in a mood to brake. The rear seating with space between the rows the reason, along with the excellent grip offered by the Bridgestone’s
Left Mysore and waited for the esteem to catch up, some leg stretching with ciggie and couple of snaps of the car + 30 mts of wait and esteem lands.
Small break at a shiv temple to keep mommy happy
temple..
banyan tree
elephant..
un starts
follow follow n follow..
Nothing great happened from Mysore to Bandipur, especially tagging behind the pilot jeep (speed limit 90kph) n the car
Entered Bandipur after some 5 Kms, suddenly the pilot jeep screeches and the guys jump out flagging us out, ELEPHANTS ohhhh yeah and big heard, STOP/UNBELT/GRAB CAMERA and move close to them, remember to keep the flash switched off. Click click click…
Off again and finally enter mallu land and guess what greets u, he he he he twistieeeesss…
yup a beautiful narrow and steep down hill twisties, parked the car to enjoy athe beauty.
Finished the hills and handed the keys to the driver (entering populated north kerala and no big fun to drive this ship, along with some bad sinus probs,
). Reached Calicut by around 545 pm, catch up with the bigger family over some vodka and snoooooooooreeeeeee.Sunday morn family function and 3 pm starts off from Calicut, grab the keys from the driver, coz no head ache of pilot jeep n one is gonna lead the band
Yup same “Kalpatta Churam” (GHATS for NON MALLUS) awaits you, and downhill ya uphill take in shtyle he he and hello the tailing car minus the owner means you need’nt slow down and wait after every corner. Ok some gyan time to the esteem driver, he complains the car doesn’t pull, hmmm solution: the MPFI motor loves to be revved and unless one does it, it’s a very sluggish machine. End result and he improves his style from 3 k to 4.5 k, nothing great to talk about but still any improvement was fine.
As for the car, keep her in 2 and 3 gear, keep rpm above 4k and trust me anything in front can be overtaken. Right from a CD 100 to BIG TRUCKS to Toyota Tercel.. GRINNNNNNNNNN.
Objective was to clear Bandipur stretch before nigh fall and yes uneventfully we passed Bandipur.
The road inside is being widened (shoulder work) and at places its only wide enough for one car, so be prepared to reverse couple of tens of meters, BUT once work completed, it will be one of those dream drives you can take, guess some idea can be gathered from the pictures.
Some sun set pics.
Reach Mysore by 730pm and decides to tread the kanakpura rd to avoid traffic, BIG MISTAKE!! Road exist for only 1/5 of the total distance, rest is katcha track thanks to widening and elevation works to take care of the water logging issue.
Lights, one of the best sets I have seen on a motor car (non xenon type) headlights along with running lights give you amazing visibility and no oncoming traffic will dare to play the chicken trick with lights.
Shot @ 70 kph
THIS CAR IS NOT FOR THE CITY BUT FOR HIGHWAYS ESPECIALLY ONES WITH ¾ foot drops on the road (ground preparation being done) and yeah this baby takes them without a single thud or broken parts hanging afterwards. Loved the car in this front, where you would have to slam brake and pray to gods and end up swearing the contractor, you just dab the brake leave it milli seconds before the THUD (for suspension to raise) and RIDE OVER ANYTHING!!!
