[GTO]

Guys, as long as you have sent the email on or before Friday, the 21st of October (yesterday), please take your participation as confirmed. Don't worry about the confirmation call or SMS.

Thanks

[joshguy]

Originally Posted by LastActionHero

Any plans for Delhi?

Delhi has been postponed is what i was told..it might be the next destination

Originally Posted by accentgiri

I have just now sent a mail for registration. I would like to know the venue is Ford Dealer ship located on Velachery Road (while coming in Old Mahabalipuram road from Madhya Kailash you have to take a right turn in the first signal after crossing the Tidel Park signal)

Exactly thats the place

Originally Posted by navan49

It is a golden opportunity for the lucky ones who are participating. I too registered right now. If there is any thing to correct in our driving we can do. Finally where is this venue.Is it in the road transport center in Taramani near the American School or some where else. Any one who knows pl post for other's sake.

Thank you for the information GTO.Just now I have sent the mail as it should be 34th one. I will wait for the call. Can I register for another member who is not a member.

Yes it is the Institute of road transport next to American school,and thats where practical session happens

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

The road from SRP tools to Velachery is being widened (4 laned) and the location of the Ford will have bad stretch of the road. But, I think parking may not be a problem on Sunday.

Parking might be a problem,but there is lot of space in the side lanes

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, as long as you have sent the email on or before Friday, the 21st of October (yesterday), please take your participation as confirmed. Don't worry about the confirmation call or SMS.

Thanks

GTO i attended the session Last week 15/Oct/2011 and i was expecting that Team bhpians would attend but for my surprise only 8 participants were there,thats when i was told that there is a special session for Team BHPIans

Had i know it earlier i would have waited for a week and attended along with BPHians,it would have been a good chance to meet fellow bhpians

It was good learning session,small and significant things which we forget in our everyday busy life with refreshed in the session

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by DWind

SB! I am in the same boat as you. I too have not got a message or mail confirming my registration. I will anyway drop in. If I am not allowed, will utilize the opportunity to take few test drives.

Guess what, I got the SMS a little after I posted on this thread.
@DWind, like GTO has mentioned, if you sent the email, just drop in, without bothering about confirmation call/SMS.

Originally Posted by Gansan

The person who called me up yesterday asked whether I was bringing anyone along. When I replied in the negative, he said they would prefer more people to attend the event.

That's good to hear because a colleague wanted to attend the event. He said he would email yesterday, but I guess he can tag along with me.

[navan49]

As Gansan,GTo and other member told as you can report with out a call or SMS, please come one and all, who has registered or tag with some one like Gansan's words.When there was a session with 8 participants it may right that they may need more participants or some one after registration may change the mind for some other reason. Any how let it happen with the meeting of some Chennai members physically.

[xtremeshock]

Got my SMS confirmation.

Will be coming there, see you guys there.

Hope I reach in time, just got up ;-)

[GTO]

How did the session go, Chennai BHPians? PICS & Report please. Thanks

[navan49]

It went very well and I think we were around20 to 25. The session was a good interactive.It is understood from the organizers that our Team BHPians(this batch) are aware of most of the questions put up or interacted.The practical session was much helpful on the distance it stops while full break @ 60 speed.The parallel drive break showed what kind of accidents may cause.Sorry just missed to snap the session photos.We were awarded certificates. A good Lunch with Pizza,Pasta,Chaco cake and a coke from Dominos for lunch. It was nice to meet our virtual friend in person. We were given two booklets. BAsic safe driving and Driving Skills for life.The certificate and book covers will be posted tomorrow after scanning.

[supremeBaleno]

Me and BrainyLad left from NelsonManickam road at 10:15AM on his Bullet to reach the venue by 10:40AM, riding sedately. If not for it being Sunday, covering a distance of 13kms in 25mins would be impossible. We see a couple of tbhp-ians already there and pbr2 (hope I got it right) arrives in his gleaming Cedia. As we talk, madan8892, headers and neoranjith arrive in neo's SX4-D. Meanwhile other tbhp-ians trickle in and around 20 of us are seated by 11AM - how's that for Chennai punctuality ?

The organiser Shweta announces that we would start at 11:30AM to give time for the rest of the attendees to arrive. Seats are almost full by 11:20AM and the session starts. I would estimate the crowd to be between 30-35 - not bad for a lazy Sunday morning.

The whole session revolves around what they call the magic triangle made up by 3 factors that are interconnected - safe, economical and eco-friendly driving. The presentation focussed on these 3 elements and used videos to send home the message of safe driving (belting up, even for those seated in the rear), how texting/phoning can distract you from driving, etc. There were quizzes along the way on road-signs etc and nothing surprising in the fact that tbhp-ians aced the queries.

Another takeaway for most of us would be the knowledge of braking distance / time which includes reaction-time + actual braking time. Via practical session at the Institute of Road Transport (IRT) campus, they demonstrated how a speed as low as 50kmph, needs more stopping distance than we would think, even when brakes are slammed full. Ofcourse as speed increases, so does the distance to stop. And being drunk, on the phone or talking to co-passenger would increase the reaction time.

For economical driving, they suggested driving between 1500-2500rpm with gear-shifts at 2500rpm, apart from other factors like keeping tyres inflated. I would think this range changes from car to car. For instance, in my Baleno, for city driving, there is no need to go above 2000rpm. Infact given the low-end torque, gearshifts can be done as low as 1500rpm without any strain on the engine. But I guess they might be talking from Ford vehicle POV.

Economy being very close to my heart, it was interesting to note them endorsing the fact that idling is a sheer waste of fuel. If needing to wait for more than 20secs, they suggest you switch off. They said, 3mins of idling is equivalent to the fuel needed to drive 1km @ 50kmph.

Talking of tyre-pressure, when the MPL Ford guy mentioned that Ford recommends 36psi and 41psi in front and rear tyres for old Fiesta, we were like . But a check of the tyre-pressure label of the display Fiesta indicated :
For 1-3 persons : 30psi in both front and rear tyres
For 4-5 persons : 36psi in front and 41 psi in rear.

MSIL recommends 29psi for my Baleno and I usually keep it at 32, which itself gives a stiff ride - not sure how 41 would be like.

Overall, a great effort by Ford India to educate drivers and thanks to Shweta and Selva for a great session. Also the person from MPL Ford (forgot his name) who chipped in for some queries seemed pretty knowledgeable. And like navan mentioned, the lunch from Domino's was great - too filling actually.

On our way back, we saw a stranded Blue Jazz at the TIDEL Park signal, being pushed to the side of the road by its two occupants, helped by few others. I could not be sure, but it looked like the 2 occupants were at the DSFL session. Jazz ran out of fuel ???

P.S. : The guy manning the laptop was not in sync with the presenter - this could be avoided.

[accentgiri]

This is my first Team BHP meet. Happy to see good number of BHPians. Movie clips presented during the presentation were nice. Practical sessions were really good. When you apply breaks suddenly, how a car responds, we were able to see (in a near by location).
Things I have learnt from the session,
1. No free moving things in your car (especially avoid mineral water, coke, fanta, pepsi bottles in your car)
2. Ensure that proper visibility is available in rear windscreen (avoid dolls, fancy items that reduces your visibility)
3. Maintain proper tyre pressure
4. Maintain safe distance while travelling in highways ( a distance of 4 cars approximately with the vehicle travelling in the front depending on the speed)
5. Maintain lane discipline
Finally Buddha driving, maintain calmness while driving without getting irritated.
Thanks for the Team BHP for providing me an opportunity to attend the session.

[getsriram]

Wow!! how did I miss this thread completely until today. Good opportunity missed :(

Thanks a lot for sharing the info guys... and great initiative ... we rock!!!

For the mods -> would it be possible to send a message or alert for such events or announcements to people based on some criteria. Example, can all people who have their location in Chennai be sent an alert to such location specific events ?
It is just a thought.

Thank you

[chennai-indian]

I could not participate as I was on a business tour. Would have been nice to meet up with fellow BHP'ans. Hope FOrd conducts another one in the near future.

[supremeBaleno]

These are the only pics I got around to taking :

1) The Ford fleet of Figos & Fiestas with the DSFL decals on the sides, at the IRT campus.


2) Some of the tbhp-ians at IRT, observing the instructor demo how much braking-distance is required even at speeds as low as 50kmph.

[tud]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

On our way back, we saw a stranded Blue Jazz at the TIDEL Park signal, being pushed to the side of the road by its two occupants, helped by few others. I could not be sure, but it looked like the 2 occupants were at the DSFL session. Jazz ran out of fuel ???

Well, that would be me and my friend. His Jazz just stopped at the signal. No amount of coaxing and cajoling worked. Finally we pushed it to the service lane. We suspected the battery to be the problem. But we couldn't confirm it. Called Honda care and an engineer was there in about 30 mins. He did a battery jump start with his spare battery. And off we were to enjoy the rest of our Sunday!

[Gansan]

I had to go out of town the same evening and returned only today. A good, informative and interactive session. A very good initiative by Ford India.

@GTO

The Ford people took a lot of snaps. Will it be possible to get some from them and upload here?

[navan49]

Originally Posted by getsriram

Wow!! how did I miss this thread completely until today. Good opportunity missed :(

Thanks a lot for sharing the info guys... and great initiative ... we rock!!!

For the mods -> would it be possible to send a message or alert for such events or announcements to people based on some criteria. Example, can all people who have their location in Chennai be sent an alert to such location specific events ?
It is just a thought.

Thank you

It was informed by GTO and lots of clarifications went and registration queries were also raised. It was on the main page in Bold letters too. Please check ann the Bold active threads you will get. No matter they ma conduct again. I will PM the Mob number of the Co Ordinator.You can contact for the next program.