the thing about wheels

I remember people ask me, how can riding a bike be fun? "Its unsafe", "you are exposed to heat and dust" and all the bad things that can be heard by a biker.

Other than the being unsafe on bike the best thing about biking is that it is unsafe! I mean how many times have I had situations and murmured "Shit that was close" and then grinning widely and exclaiming "SHIT!!! That was close!!!":D. Its the skidding of rear tyre in rains as you try your best to avoid the car in front whose driver suddenly fancied testing his brakes for no apparent reason, or the twitching of front wheel warning you of letting go as you take another turn bending at your best. This is pure communication between a mechanical device and a human.

Now, as I prepare in finalizing on my first set of 4 wheels that revolves around making a decision on the absolute no-brainer, superb, Ford Figo and the oh-so knee weakening, german panache, VW Polo, I remember my encounters with cars...

Believe me, Cars (or bikes or trucks or anything on wheels) are the only mechanical that humans can associate sexiness with. This also makes associating cars to certain personalities and fondly giving then pet names at times.

Zen with a killer knife
Best Maruti car ever. I don't know about all non-Zen drivers or owners being chauffeur driven in their Zens. Ask a true Zen owner-driver and they' ll swear on these words. Pure Aluminum buzzer of a heart. Yes, its like a bee, absolutely agile handling, point and shoot. Yes, its like a bee, stings hard when you don't treat it the way it wants you. How many other cars make you turn off the AC in summer just to use the whole engine power band to drive while sticking your head out hearing the whizzing engine and the crackling sound of dead leaves as it cuts the hard turns? pure driving machine... embedded in me are some memorable drives between Goa and Belgaum in my Dad's dark blue one.

Originally wanting to procure a dark grey one but due to long waiting period we had to settle for the dark blue showroom piece. "Dark blue, not bad." was the initial reaction. I remember those were rainy days, and as we drove around in it, it was an absolute looker in the rains. Somehow the drops on the maiden body just stole my breath away each and every time i passed my sight by it. And I was hooked on to the dark blue color that turned into love at first sight with dark blue Pulsar 200, 9 years later.

Dad always complained of the high gearing not helping much on steep climbs and traffic conditions requiring frequent gear changes, but he loved it every bit. And when recently we traded our car for blue eyed WagonR, my mom shed a tear. A relation of 12 years was broken...

Driving between Goa-Belgaum the same way again? Irreplaceable.

800 - An Icon
Nothing much can be said of an iconic car that an 800 is. A technological wonder at its time and a no-nonsense work horse ever after. Inexpensive to repair, easy to drive and the thrill of "Shit! That was close!" when driving hard with those skinny tires. Gem of a car.

Fit in an LPG kit and it behaves like a sage on diet of morning dew.

Pure inner respect never shown outside. I see you nodding 800 owners.

Alto - Brief encounter with Laila :)
Now my friend Jason owns a Karnataka registered, maroon Alto. He works in IBM and was sent onsite for 6 months. To Ahmedabad :D. When onsite, I had the car with me. Jason had asked me to warm the car in the mornings to keep it in a good running shape. And i agreed to just warm it up. Besides being not so bad guy, I am an absolute car nut. I just cannot press the accelerator pedal without the vision of blurred scenery passing by. And that desire slowly turned into short spins, that ultimately stretched to some 5000 kms of running. Boy, you should have seen the reaction on Jason's face when he say the odometer! But as a respecter of cars i also got serviced properly.

The car was used for daily commute to office and back and occasional trips to the winding luscious road to Lavasa. I was so much touched by the cars frankness in everything it did that one fine morning i inexplicably called her Laila ... it was starting to grow on me... it just did everything, not excitedly, but it did what was expected. I was so involved with her that my bike started gathering dust while i gleefully washed the car frequently.

Oh not to mention, the car showed its great-heartedness when we stuffed it with odds and ends when shifting houses.

It was a brief encounter. So when Jason sent it back to his home in Goa, i missed it initially, but slowly came back to my dark blue Pulsar... :)

A good car. An honest car. A car for someone not seeking much but wants things to fit just right.

Ikon. First step to racing car? Drive one. You'll get your answer
I have a special friend. Santosh Sugur. We sometimes have ego-clashes. But when we meet after a long time, we are like "Man, i missed you" (no jokes here). Now this buddy is a passionate guy. Likes to do things in special ways. And this thing for specialty made him possess a silver Ford Ikon.

So one fine day of "Man, i missed you" meeting along with Dhiraj (seriously, i don't like jokes here), we go for drive in a drizzling evening to Chandni Chowk and further, when the topic comes of "Lets go for a drive. Just drive." And out of nowhere I say Sea link, Mumbai. After a few seconds of looking at each other with stone faces, we go "he he, chal chal!".

Now Santosh is a passionate guy. He loves his things and is possessive about his things. But he is a good guy. After agreeing that I foot the tank fillup bill, he agrees to let me drive the thing on 4 wheels as he acknowledges my 'safe' driving. Good guy ++

And so we start from Chandni chowk to Mumbai. And here comes the Expressway. And I do the pedal to metal thing and this thing on 4 wheels becomes a pocket rocket! What a Car.... My God! Absolutely a blast of a car. Super stability. Super cruising. Absolutely insanely predictive handling characteristics. I had no sense of the speed I did, that at one point Dhiraj, sitting behind, says calmly in his Zen demeanor "Vilde, You are doing thrice the speed of 40 kms speed limit" at a series of turns near Lonavla (or Khandala is it?). The Car is this Good. Now you are probably saying "Hmmmpfff. Maybe...". Maybe if i tell you that the drizzle at Chandni chowk had turned into a heavy downpour at that time?

The whole journey till end of Expressway saw the speedo needle hating to come down 130+ kmph. And then we hit Mumbai. We hit Saddening Mumbai traffic. And i frustratingly give the car back to Sugur.

So we do Sea-Link visit, stay at Chetan's house and start back to Pune the next early morning. And i take the wheel again. And absolute re-play of the day before blast of driving.

Great car. Traditional car. Pure racer attitude. Low sitting, short gears, lovely engine.
Grass roots entry level race car. Its aged car, based on 2 generations old Fiesta, but what a car. My God.

Skoda Laura diesel. Class.
A year back i was doing small car hunt. And one option was Skoda Fabia. I knew it was an expensive bit of kit to own and actually never wanted to buy in the first place. However, Skoda showroom is just opposite to Maruti showroom. So while coming out of Maruti showroom, we just-for-the-sake-of-it enter Skoda showroom.

Unfortunately or rather fortunately they did not have a Fabia for test drive at that moment. So as a courtesy the good folks at Skoda offer us a test drive of Laura. Everyone knows and accords the Laura's beauty quotient. People with fairly deep pockets buy Lauras to be chauffeur driven around. Fools. Deep pocketed show offs. Pardon me. But the truth is they are not buying a car for them to enjoy. They are buying a car for their chauffeur to enjoy the excellent diesel engine and the superb driving position by far i have witnessed. Even better that my Super-Boss' Honda Civic.

What a torquey engine. While on the test drive we were unknowingly doing 140 kmph on Pune-Banglore highway and cutting through the low rent traffic of trucks, rickshaws and some lesser vehicles (damn, this expensive car is already making me a snob in a few minutes of sitting in the plush dark interiors) like hot knife cutting through butter. Marvelous car.

Its so good that such things actually make you think of doing extra to earn that extra to buy and maintain such expensive but marvelously engineered cars.

Its afterall a German in Czeck clothes. And Germans don't go wrong in car engineering. Never.

Oh, coming back to the plushness of the car. You 'll not go wrong in shelling out the dough. You feel special in this. Solly, chauffeur driven deep pocketed gentlemen, I am ready to be the chauffeur to drive you to your offices, so when you are in your plush offices, I enjoy the car.

Logan: European to the heart
Space. Lots of space. Sit in drives seat and try to touch the passenger side door. Aha. too far away.

Built like a European has to be. Eats up potholes with aplomb, like a European. Slightly dead, over powered steering, handles well, like European. You know there is always something special about European cars when compared to anything else.

I like it. I like it a lot. Sometimes the special feelings for something special are not displayed overtly. Its special.

Chevrolet Beat: Angry, pampered puppy.
I had a brief test drive of this Chevy. I dont like this car. Its dark inside. Claustrophobic. Covered with plastic. Cheap hard feeling plastic.

But that engine. If you ever approached a well pampered puppy, thats held in the arms of its owner, and you try to touch it, remember the snarl it makes while showing its teeth? This car's engine is like that. Depress the accelerator paddle and it makes a hell of an angry sound. Grrrrrrrr... God knows what its angry at. And is it one fast Chihuahua?! nd quite stable at high speeds.

Yes a good engine and an okayish gearbox. Thats it. The design is good for rich college kids. But otherwise i never made a second thought of considering it as a buy.

Trax: Because when apocalypse does happen, this MUV will survive along with cockroaches.
Simple thing. Take a heavy duty tubular chassis, fix big wheels. Get Mercedes licensed diesel engine and gearbox. Build a boxy body around this. Sell. Buy. Move loads and loads whatever you have that you want to move. Still runs with nothing broken. Any of your expensive car can do this? No. The Germans and Italians love this car. Indian car.

I have the privilege of having one in our family. It just doesn't give up. Never. I have put it in deep ditches in rains. All I did was put it in reverse and get it out. I have managed to even make the engine touch close to 90 kms with heavy signs of swerving from its track. Its unstable because its not meant to be driven hard.

Yes it has its issues of rust, and body maintenance, electrical parts malfunctioning. But 2.6 lacs kms of running and no engine faults. Honestly nothing comes close. Please don't argue unnecessarly. Because I know that you dont own one, which means you have absolutely no right to wrong a hard working individual as a Tempo Trax. As pure ROI nothing comes this close. I have seem around 60 people hanging onto its body in remote parts of villages. And at times with this load out pacing us on crude village roads.

Indestructible in one word.

Want to own a 4x4 version and invade Mahindra Great Escape to eat Mahindra jeeps for breakfast.

Ford Figo or VW Polo?
This needs a seperate posting of its own... coming soon... wait rather late... both cars have long waiting periods...

Many other vehicles out there... But need to stop. Need to sleep.