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1000 KM tour to Mount Abu, Rajasthan
This is first ever travelogue written by me (here or anywhere else), so please bear with me.
Completed 2000 kms on my T-Rex, mostly city driving & 2-3 trips to nearby cities. So now it was high time for serious highway driving to explore full potential of T-Rex. I took opportunity of conference at Mount Abu, Rajastan with family for that.
Got inspiration from fellow TAIgers post, open hood to check (not much to do here), drove to diesel pump for fuel tank & air pressure in all 4 wheels (spare was difficult to check but found ok on manual check :) by attendant). Checked presence of tyre insufflator pump, batteries, glass cleaner etc. Driver was informed.
Average time required to reach destination calculated at 7 hours with one halt somewhere (It is tradition of our gujratis, we take halt in highway hotel once we cross the state boundary![[:)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Smile.gif "Smile [:)]")
). Target was 12 MD, so decided to leave by 5AM 30th Aug.
Departure as scheduled & route was Bhavnagar -> Bagodra -> Ahemdabad (S G Highway bypass) -> Mehsana,Panapur -> Abu Road Station -> Mount Abu. Yesterday night was heavy rainfall in the area, so here & there water filled potholes or mud on roads, but T-Rex rides like hovercraft on all above this at approx. speed 100-110kms. Traffic increases on road as sun rises in the sky. Beautiful cloudy atmosphere. After Bagodra, it was 4/6 lane NH, so road condition was excellent. Car navigation by MMI was at par with Googlemaps on smartphone.
We crossed Ahmedabad in 3 hours, took turn on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway for Mehsana, & 10kms away was toll plaza signifying start of Ahemdabad-Mehsana Expressway, my plan to test T-rex for extreme, but was not acceptable to God, & there was steep rainfall. Rather than engine, wipers were put to extreme & rather than speed, it was time to enjoy the rain & pedestrian-2 wheelers free traffic.
Crossed Mehsana, then Palanpur, took short break of 30min at highway hotel. Rainfall was on break & I asked driver to come on co-passenger seat, & T-Rex & me was galloping on the Gujarat SH41 & the NH14. It was 2x2 highway with wide road divider with bushes (there is occasional risk of cows/buffalo etc crossing the road & suddenly appear from bushes of road divider). Gradually I throttle up to 160 kmph speed & yet much more to come from accelerator pedal, but I did not like to push to extreme as it was not expressway & few vehicles here & there, going in low speed / high speed lane on their will. Everything mild turning, suspension was just fine, no vibration, except engine noise levels was little started from 120 kmph speed & gradually increase up to 160 kmph speed but not disturbing. Still audio with woofer was enjoyable to the ears. (I mute the audio for some period to test noise but it was not unbearable.) So NVH level are praiseworthy. Body roll is minimal. 2-3 times required to hard break, but pushing pedal is confident & parallel to amount of pressure given on pedal. Only thing that point out by driver was steering wheel is light. Steering wheel is described speed sensitive, but even at high speed, it is light.
Let photos speak by themselves...
Sorry for the misprint date on photos as I forgot to set that in my camera.
Fuel is little cheaper in Rajasthan. So as I enter Rajasthan, I fill up the tank & FE was 10.1 by tankful method.
This is first ever travelogue written by me (here or anywhere else), so please bear with me.
Completed 2000 kms on my T-Rex, mostly city driving & 2-3 trips to nearby cities. So now it was high time for serious highway driving to explore full potential of T-Rex. I took opportunity of conference at Mount Abu, Rajastan with family for that.
Got inspiration from fellow TAIgers post, open hood to check (not much to do here), drove to diesel pump for fuel tank & air pressure in all 4 wheels (spare was difficult to check but found ok on manual check :) by attendant). Checked presence of tyre insufflator pump, batteries, glass cleaner etc. Driver was informed.
Average time required to reach destination calculated at 7 hours with one halt somewhere (It is tradition of our gujratis, we take halt in highway hotel once we cross the state boundary
). Target was 12 MD, so decided to leave by 5AM 30th Aug.Departure as scheduled & route was Bhavnagar -> Bagodra -> Ahemdabad (S G Highway bypass) -> Mehsana,Panapur -> Abu Road Station -> Mount Abu. Yesterday night was heavy rainfall in the area, so here & there water filled potholes or mud on roads, but T-Rex rides like hovercraft on all above this at approx. speed 100-110kms. Traffic increases on road as sun rises in the sky. Beautiful cloudy atmosphere. After Bagodra, it was 4/6 lane NH, so road condition was excellent. Car navigation by MMI was at par with Googlemaps on smartphone.
We crossed Ahmedabad in 3 hours, took turn on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway for Mehsana, & 10kms away was toll plaza signifying start of Ahemdabad-Mehsana Expressway, my plan to test T-rex for extreme, but was not acceptable to God, & there was steep rainfall. Rather than engine, wipers were put to extreme & rather than speed, it was time to enjoy the rain & pedestrian-2 wheelers free traffic.
Crossed Mehsana, then Palanpur, took short break of 30min at highway hotel. Rainfall was on break & I asked driver to come on co-passenger seat, & T-Rex & me was galloping on the Gujarat SH41 & the NH14. It was 2x2 highway with wide road divider with bushes (there is occasional risk of cows/buffalo etc crossing the road & suddenly appear from bushes of road divider). Gradually I throttle up to 160 kmph speed & yet much more to come from accelerator pedal, but I did not like to push to extreme as it was not expressway & few vehicles here & there, going in low speed / high speed lane on their will. Everything mild turning, suspension was just fine, no vibration, except engine noise levels was little started from 120 kmph speed & gradually increase up to 160 kmph speed but not disturbing. Still audio with woofer was enjoyable to the ears. (I mute the audio for some period to test noise but it was not unbearable.) So NVH level are praiseworthy. Body roll is minimal. 2-3 times required to hard break, but pushing pedal is confident & parallel to amount of pressure given on pedal. Only thing that point out by driver was steering wheel is light. Steering wheel is described speed sensitive, but even at high speed, it is light.
Let photos speak by themselves...
Sorry for the misprint date on photos as I forgot to set that in my camera.
Fuel is little cheaper in Rajasthan. So as I enter Rajasthan, I fill up the tank & FE was 10.1 by tankful method.
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