[Omkar]

Everyone has a different definition of car culture and we, as Indians, have a mix of everything. Especially in a city like Mumbai, the car culture is such that it excites everyone. You have Italian supercars, American muscle cars, JDM cars, souped-up German saloons, etc. - you name it and someone has it. So, what defines the car culture of Mumbai? It’s just the enthusiasm that people have about cars and car-related things. The city has a bunch of activities that keep this enthusiasm alive. I'm listing out some of them here.

Sunday Car Meets

Driving down to South Mumbai on a Sunday morning has become a tradition for many. This is the prime essence of car culture in Mumbai where you’ll find enthusiasts who want to take their prized possessions out for a drive. In the area around Horniman Circle, Marine Drive or Worli Seaface, you will see plenty of supercars and even vintage & classic cars. There are also some cars and coffee meets that are arranged regularly by different car clubs like this one by Bayview Motor Club.





Here’s a video that sums up car meets in Mumbai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEw2_k_CVxU&t=481s

Car Rallies

These are wonderful for meeting people and their machines. Since it’s an organized affair, there’s a structure to the event and you can get to see a wide variety of cars. One of the most famous rallies that happens in Mumbai is the Mercedes-Benz Classic Car Parade. Then you also have the Vintage & Classic Car Drive and the Modern Classics Rally.

Drag Race Events

If there’s an empty stretch of road and two cars being driven by enthusiasts, there’s going to be a drag race for sure. Back in the day, there used to be some illegal and some legal drag race events around Kharghar, Palm Beach Road, and Bandra Kurla Complex. Nowadays, the biggest drag race attraction is the Valley Run which is organized annually. Recently, the Juhu airstrip in Mumbai was also opened for a night drag race event after almost 30 years.




Image Source - Autocar India

Off-Road Training

There are customer off-road events that are organized regularly by manufacturers to showcase the capabilities of their vehicles. But these are purpose-built obstacles. If you want to test out your off-roading skills, there’s 19-degree North off-road adventure park and there’s also the Learn Off-Road Academy run by D-BHPian Tejas@perioimpl at Pali, around 120 km from Mumbai.

Karting

For lovers of speed, what’s more exciting than some wheel-to-wheel action on a track? While there's no full-fledged track like the BIC, Noida or the Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai, Smaaash in Lower Parel has a Go-Karting track with electric karts. There’s also the Indikarting track in Wadala East where you have 2-stroke karts. This is also where some professional karting races are held and they also have some training programs.

Drift Events

Recently, there was a drift event organized by BadBoiDrifts, which was quite a success. People could get their cars and drift and there were purpose-built drift cars too for drift taxi rides. They were also conducting training sessions on their cars.

Formula 1 Screenings

Ever since the 2021 F1 season, the popularity of F1 has shot up like crazy. Now, multiple locations across Mumbai are streaming F1 races. More importantly, the response from people is also quite good and you will find a bunch of F1 fans at these screenings.

Other car stuff

Last but not least, Mumbai also has a drive-in theatre, which is a cool experience. And while I don’t think we have an out-and-out car-themed restaurant in Mumbai, there’s Café Monza in Navi Mumbai which comes close. There are MaplePods also, but I don't have any first-hand reviews of that place.





All in all, there’s a lot that happens in and around Mumbai. If I’ve missed out on something, do share. Also, please share information about the car culture in your city and things to do for petrolheads.

[PrideRed]

Taking this thread as a opportunity to share car culture in a small coastal town of Karnataka-Puttur aka KA21. It’s not a city and population is just about a lakh or two. We have micro team bhp gang and often meet over some nice goli baje . While we have small number of team bhp members, there is no dearth of car enthusiasts in town. The town is home to bunch of nice cars including Porsche/RRs, well maintained daily drivers, modified off-roaders etc.

Events are rare except that recently few off road events/rally are being organized. Most like to keep their cars neat ,that said detailing shops have just started popping up. For many drive to home itself is an off-road adventure or is just a way of life. Also a reason why SUVs are preferred choice of bodystyle. Folks like to drive, many like to drive long distance and this has been culture since quite sometime. Train and flight connectivity aren’t that great so most people prefer to drive rather than take public transport.

While we don't have fancy restaurants to hangout, there are plenty of nice drives that can be done. Most of the meets includes a nice drive which ends up at a tiny not so popular eatery.

Captures from one such golibaje meet





One of the rally's that was organized in Puttur

https://indiainf1.com/2-wheeler-rall...-raring-to-go/

[AKSarkar1]

Mumbai arguably has one of the best if not the best car culture scenes in all of India. Just like the city itself, the car clubs too have all different brands, owners and styles (truly very diverse). Sure this maybe a biased opinion since I am a true blue Mumbaikar but let me explain briefly why:

Every Sunday when you drive down from the Suburbs you see everything from cyclists, superbikes, Polo GT club, Skoda Club and the fancier big boy clubs with the supercars. It truly is a very welcoming and wholesome experience as you see people from all walks of the ‘car life’ come together for their mutual admiration of the marvelous machines that we are lucky to call ours. You will see Porsche owners happily allowing other car owners to take pics with their cars and vice-versa.

A special shoutout should also go to Mumbai Traffic Police, initially when the mass car scene was still developing they were extremely strict and uncooperative e.g. they used to fine and tow cars that stop before the sea link for photos (happened in front of me once). However, as the years have passed and the car culture has grown the police have seem to become more chill and relaxed with any and all types of cars that come out on Sunday. They will also give you the occasional thumbs up if you give a couple of baby revs in front of them

For me, car culture is all about inclusivity and respect for all machines be it big, small, cheap or expensive and that is something that undoubtedly Mumbai has mastered and as a Mumbaikar I am extremely proud of it!

Thought of sharing my 2 cents with this great forum that undoubtedly has a role in furthering the car culture all over India, will still spare you of my rookie level photos since I am sure there are no lack of images for Mumbai’s car scene.

[TheManualGear]

I must say you all are lucky. I think Uttar Pradesh is the only State which has the least of car culture. SUVs only mean Fortuner, Thar, Scorpio, Bolero or Creta. There is a huge scarcity of car enthusiasts here although I do rarely come over some Team-BHP readers who are always shocked to meet a bhpian. Let alone car enthusiasts I find bike enthusiasts flexing over their Hero passion pros (no hate for any brand) saying they can touch 100kmph.

[Kottayamkaran]

While I can't talk specifically about any city in Kerala, i believe we can all agree to consider Kerala as one big city. The car culture in Kerala is truly vibrant ranging from classic cars to SUVs and foreign imports. Its truly called the Mods own country. Colleges in Kerala conduct autoshows every year and that events can witness a wide spread of different varieties of cars. However car meets often occur under a dark cloud as MVD is very active in Kerala for catching modified cars. We have classic cars, SUVs, premium cars, sports cars, super cars and all other varieties of vehicles.

[Nitish.arnold]

Car Culture in Greater Noida City (Delhi NCR): SUVs [Period].

For Bikes, it is heaven for us superbikers with long open highways.

[vyom_elan]

Originally Posted by TheManualGear

I think Uttar Pradesh is the only State which has the least of car culture. SUVs only mean Fortuner, Thar, Scorpio, Bolero or Creta. There is a huge scarcity of car enthusiasts here although I do rarely come over some Team-BHP readers who are always shocked to meet a bhpian. .

UP may not have regular events(Car Meets and Sunday drives) but there are a lot of people here who own some fine examples and take really good care of them. There are several collectors in cities like Lucknow and Noida where you will find rare examples of discontinued cars. Even in tier-3 cities you will find some(handful of them) people preserving their favorite classics. Unfortunately a lot of people here think reckless driving in their flashy SUVs is the definition of being a "car guy".

Hope we see some much needed change in the culture here.

[Samba]

Car culture in Kolkata is awesome!

I love the car culture in Kolkata. It is quite versatile and people are passionate and enthusiastic about automobiles and road trips.

To name a few, we have all these in Kolkata -

Car meets
Group travel
Car rallies
TSD Rallies
Bike meets
Offroad drives
Drives with a particular brand of car owners like Duster meet or Jimny meet etc.
Supercar meets
Superbike meets
Vintage car meets

Car meets

Apart from Team-BHP, there are several car groups in Kolkata like R.O.A.D, Driving DNA, Car Photography, and many more.

Yearly they arrange monsoon drives, picnics, and many more events and these drives include even 70+ cars in a convoy.

Then there are our Team-BHP meets with 50+ cars too in Kolkata, owing to some limitations in the forum membership.









Group travel

I have been a part of 25+ group trips from Kolkata. Though I prefer solo travels now, I must say all these were super fun and I enjoyed them to the core.

Few pics of our group drives from Kolkata to places like Ladakh, Spiti, and a few more -









Car rallies/TSD Rallies

FMSCI is quite active in Bengal. FMSCI and Bengal Motor Sports do have some great mentors in Bengal. They organize rallies. Of late, they are joining hands with the Driving DNA club in Kolkata to promote rally driving among people who have no exposure to this field. They are trying to promote new drivers by training them which in itself is an excellent initiative.

Bike meets

Be it super bikes or just regular commuter bikes, every weekend our highways are filled with the biking group guys going from short breakfast rides to longer rides. Yearly there is an event organised by Wheels United, where more than 500 bikes go for a breakfast rides together!

Pics from a small afternoon ride -





Off-Roading

With the launch of the new Thar in 2020, people all over the country found a new hobby in off-roading. But here we have been lucky to get exposure with Kolkata Off-roaders and the mentorship of legends like Sir Uday Bhan Singh or his son Adhiraj Singh from a much longer period. We have been taught all the Do's and Don'ts on a hands-on basis.









I feel lucky to get this handwritten acknowledgment from none other than Sir, Uday Bhan Singh.



Car owners meet

Now there are car owners meet like Nexon owners meet, or Jimny owners meet, or so on.

I had the opportunity to be a part of Duster Owners Meet and Jimny Owners Meet.





Supercar / Superbike meets

Every weekend there are supercar or super bike meets on the highways. Of late there was a grand midnight supercar meet held in Kolkata.











Vintage car meets

Kolkata has a great collection of vintage cars too. Every year Statesmen organise a vintage car rally in the city and that attracts a lot of car enthusiasts.









Go Karting

Initially, Kolkata lacked a proper Go-Karting track, but recently I heard a good Go-Karting track is soon going to make its way to Kolkata.



The level of madness? When someone goes to take delivery of his new car, all these mad people come to the showroom to be a part of the delivery ceremony!



Mr.Samaresh Das from Kolkata drove his Ecosport from Kolkata all the way to London in 2017.



Last but not the least - Safe driving-

Kolkata police always take a good initiative to promote safe driving in Kolkata. The commonly used line is 'Safe drive, Save life'.

Our very own DBhpian SS-Traveller took a safe driving training twice in Kolkata. One was for the Kolkata Team-Bhpians and the other one was for a few lady drivers from Kolkata under 'She Must Drive', that was initiated by Bhpian DogNDamsel12.

[suhaas307]

When it comes to car culture, Bengaluru pulls its weight quite emphatically!

Cars & Coffee BLR has gained immense traction over the last year or so, and has become something of an institution. On one Sunday of every month, a C&C BLR meet takes place. Instagram and WhatsApp Community announcements are made a week or two in advance.



The founding members / core-group of C&C BLR take all possible measures to ensure that the meet runs smoothly, with strict guidelines published a day or two prior to the meet.





























These meets are usually organised at venues such as popular coffee and breakfast spots in the city, karting tracks, used car dealerships and even speed shops.

It quite well organised as this core group of members get in touch with the venue well in advance and work with them by extending their full cooperation.

Vintage and classic car enthusiasts are often treated to vintage car rallies and meets that are again organised by a plethora of vintage/classic car clubs in the city:







Team BHP members and fellow enthusiasts often get together and go on short blasts to locations right outside the city for a quick lunch:



Supercars and their lesser counterparts are often found at every street corner:



You will find some rare gems tucked away at speed shops and workshops, waiting to receive TLC:



Some ultra rare sports cars are also found causally street parked on a random Sunday:



Bengaluru’s car culture is not only thriving but also growing at a rate of knots! As an enthusiast, it’s heartwarming to witness it in motion.

EDIT: Due credits to the owners of the first 15 photographs in this post.

[akash_v12]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

When it comes to car culture, Bengaluru pulls its weight quite emphatically!

Hi Suhaas, it is amazing to know that BLR has dedicated C&C Meets every month. Can anyone attend these meets? And if yes, is there any dedicated community where the announcements are made?

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Hi Suhaas, it is amazing to know that BLR has dedicated C&C Meets every month. Can anyone attend these meets? And if yes, is there any dedicated community where the announcements are made?

Yes, anyone and everyone is free to attend these meets. Usually, the crowds at these meets are huge and many of them don’t even have cars or bikes of their own. Owning one is not a prerequisite, and rightly so.

C&C BLR Instagram page where announcements are generally made regarding these meets.