[ph03n!x]

I liked the lounge 8 in OZ, in matt black diamond cut, but the price was close to 28k or 29k. I looked at a Momo wheel, but it was having lesser number of spokes and was in full black - came for about 19k though. Lets figure something out...

By the way, I crossed this milestone recently:

[ph03n!x]

It so happened that I had to go to Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District - where I did my whole schooling. The start-date was fixed as 14th early morning, with a return scheduled on 15th evening. My and a good friend of mine started off at about 3:15 AM - both of us are night birds and are not used to sleep till very late (or early) in the morning. I wanted to cover as much ground as we can, in case we get tired.

The last time I did this drive was in my good ol' Indica DLX (non-turbo) in 2005 June. It took me all of 12 hours then, only the stretch from Chennai to Tindivanam was 4-laned back then - the rest were in progress / not even started. I have never done a bus journey either ever since, chose the comfort of AC trains. As I know the route, I didn't think about checking with anyone either.

Fast-forward. Place: Less than 50 KM from Madurai. Time taken: 4 hours 30 minutes, including two 10-minute stops.

I couldn't freaking believe it! We bypassed almost all the towns - that as the case all the way, except for taking the inner ring road in Madurai. Let the pictures do the talking.

~50 KM from Madurai


Milestone reached at inner ring road


On the way back: about 50 KM or so from Nagercoil. The clouds where breath-taking. I kicked myself for not carrying my 500D even more! All pics from my E72


This is what ~700 KM overnight driving in rains can do to a shining black car! I stopped here because my car seemed to move sideways even at speeds less than 100 - thought my bad rear tire had given way. But the moment I opened the door, I knew the reason: Check the coconut trees in the background. It was SO DAMN WINDY!! This is where we have a huge farm of windmills...


Another shot. Again, I found it difficult to stand and click these shots coz of the cross-winds!


My fav shot. Its my hand at the top left, trying to avoid lens flares due to the sun's angle.


This is my fav too!


Straight roads, no traffic. 160+ is easily do-able, but a sane speed will be 120. BEWARE: After Trichy, you get morons of all sizes - cycles, bikes, autos, cars and lorries - driving in the wrong side, on the right-most lane, facing oncoming traffic. I can see a lot of skid marks in the right-most lanes all through, not to mention the surprise you get while turning right only to see a lorry on your nose!


All these photos are untouched, except for downsizing them from 5MP. I like the sky's hue in this one too.


Straights!


We reached Nagercoil comfortably in 9 hours, including 1.5 hours of stops. If you are in a hurry, you can easily do it in less than 7.5 hours. The total distance from my home in Besant Nagar to where the Vepamoodu Jn. in Nagercoil is about 668 KM, of which 650 KM are 4 laned - except for those odd stretches around Madurai where the work in incomplete.

The car behaved like it always does - absolutely flawless! Over-takings, especially on straights, were a no-second-thought maneuvers - even if it is tight. 100 KMPH, in my friend's words seemed like 40. Its only at 140 do you sense a bit of speed. I always had my weak rear tire in mind and was very cautious, though. Both of us felt zero fatigue when we reached our hotel rooms at 12 noon.

Chennai BHPians, we have a good destination with some excellent roads for a 2-day trip to Kanyakumari and back!

[djay99]

The pics are awesome and car is looking good too.
So when are you planning to downsize to 14"?

[bhp_maniac]

Absolutely awesome pics. Love them all !!! I hope its another road in my wishlist to explore And the pocket rocket looks so damn great in black. Love it. I am still finding no reason why you never took your 500D with you. Between what was the FE you achieved around the trip?


Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please avoid quoting an entire large post. It inconveniences our small screen & mobile readers. Thanks.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by djay99

The pics are awesome and car is looking good too.
So when are you planning to downsize to 14"?

Thanks Dhananjay. I will be downing to 14" probably in October first week or so. Still running with the cut tyre. Have managed to find someone who deals with second-hand tyres, and has a 195/55 in 15". Will get it changed sometime later this week - there is a Kerala round trip in the pipeline in 3rd week September, and no way am risking it out on Kerala roads with a cut tyre (mostly two-laned with oncoming traffic, and bad roads at places)!

Btw, the car reached 160 KMPH effortlessly, but struggled then on. I dont think I could push is anymore than 165, even in stretches where I know a 170 should have been attainable (enough visibility straights, no traffic, et all). Could be the highway Diesel and the stock filter that is about 7k old. Have to take a look at that when I get a chance next. But the power build-up and acceleration through gears is still has the same fire-in-my-butt hurry that pushes you down on the seats. Could also be because I did a 80-100 KMPH drive a bit earlier to Bangalore and back, which gave me about 25 KMPL. The ECU might have tuned in a conservative map...

Originally Posted by bhp_maniac

Absolutely awesome pics. Love them all !!! I hope its another road in my wishlist to explore And the pocket rocket looks so damn great in black. Love it. I am still finding no reason why you never took your 500D with you. Between what was the FE you achieved around the trip?

You GOTTA make this round trip - and make it fast, before people see my pics and folk on these roads, making them crowded

The camera:

I remembered that I missed it only after I was 50 KM out of the city. I had remembered to take it, checked it et all - forgot to throw it in the back seat at the last minute! But look out for the same route around 4th week of Sep!

[DRIV3R]

@ Phoenix, Absolutely loved the 3rd pic!

[Aarman_008]

Nice pics and review of the roadtrip. Can't forget the steady trip to Bangalore and the mileage your car returned few months back. We had a problem with the lighting though :-)

BTW hope you are gearing up for an important occassion in your life. The marriage. I hope you planned your honey moon trip with this lovely car.

[djay99]

@ph03n!x,

I was surprised to read that you were doing 120+ with a cut tyre. You really got lot of guts but dont do it next time
When you said you were doing 160+, i just remembered a scene - i was doing 150KMPH on bangalore-chitradurga highway and an endeavour was also doing similar speeds. In order to overtake him, i floored pedal and in no time car was doing 170. During this time i noticed a toll gate and started applying brakes. I felt like there are no brakes and started downshifting and applying brakes simultaneously. I was doing 100 when toll gate speedbreaker was around 100Mtr. Luckily somehow managed to stop on time.
The point i am trying to make is - Donot drive at such insane speeds in getz. Brakes are poor and they literally donot work effectively at speeds over 150.

Its good that you are getting one used tyre. After downsizing to 14", you will feel your car has more power and acceleration will be faster too.

How did you manage to get 25KMPL? I feel i never got over 17 on good highways.

[ph03n!x]

A lot of stuff for the planned mods have reached me. A JL Audio 450/4 alone is still in Obamaland. Picture time.

All the stuff. FX-R bi-Xenon projectors, Bezels, Morimoto ballasts, Alpine PDX 1.600, DLS UP6i, Boston G5 and a 2Din install kit to re-install my HU properly.


Now for some close-ups. The DLS crossovers.


This is going to rock my world (considering the car being the 3rd longest-place-am-gonna-be, after home & work ).


The UP6i mids and the UP1i silks.


The HID stuff.

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

@ Phoenix, Absolutely loved the 3rd pic!

Thanks man! Imagine what would it be like had it been a good camera instead of the Nokia!!!

Originally Posted by Aarman_008

We had a problem with the lighting though :-)

One of the pics above would have addressed that

Originally Posted by Aarman_008

BTW hope you are gearing up for an important occassion in your life. The marriage. I hope you planned your honey moon trip with this lovely car.

Things are crazy - I dont even know what date or day it is at times!! But behold a long round-trip update - you would know the trip details had you been seeing my recent posts!!

Originally Posted by djay99

@ph03n!x,

I was surprised to read that you were doing 120+ with a cut tyre. You really got lot of guts but dont do it next time
When you said you were doing 160+, i just remembered a scene - i was doing 150KMPH on bangalore-chitradurga highway and an endeavour was also doing similar speeds. In order to overtake him, i floored pedal and in no time car was doing 170. During this time i noticed a toll gate and started applying brakes. I felt like there are no brakes and started downshifting and applying brakes simultaneously. I was doing 100 when toll gate speedbreaker was around 100Mtr. Luckily somehow managed to stop on time.
The point i am trying to make is - Donot drive at such insane speeds in getz. Brakes are poor and they literally donot work effectively at speeds over 150.

Its good that you are getting one used tyre. After downsizing to 14", you will feel your car has more power and acceleration will be faster too.

How did you manage to get 25KMPL? I feel i never got over 17 on good highways.

Yup, 160 on the cut tire is not exactly a brainy thing to do. I was given confidence that the cut is superfluous and not really deep. And the fact that it was the rear wheel, combined with the roads that had nothing alive or dead for straight stretches of 20 or 30 visible KM made me lose inhibitions

The 25 KMPL - but maintaining 80~90 KMPH for the most part, and accelerating to 120 or so only for overtaking that slow moving lorry, and then settling back to 80. I had 7 hours to reach Bangalore, and didn't want to enter the city and wait. So...!

[donarun]

Good choice of ICE equipments. When is the installation expected to happen ?

[djay99]

Dude me too would be interested in those projectors. Can you tell me from where did you buy it? Who is going to install? Cost? and did you check power and throw of light?

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by donarun

Good choice of ICE equipments. When is the installation expected to happen ?

Am still awaiting the JL 450/4 amp to start work. Installation will be in October at best. Will keep the thread posted

Originally Posted by djay99

Dude me too would be interested in those projectors. Can you tell me from where did you buy it? Who is going to install? Cost? and did you check power and throw of light?

The projectors are FX-Rs sourced from here, after researching for about 4 months. I don't want to go over the top about the output and throw, but from what I have seen, these are one of the best (the bulbs are from Philips). You would have to find someone who can carry it from the US, or have them shipped to India (guess shipping alone would be ~$100 if you ship them to India directly).

The install, for both the ICE and the projectors, would be DIY

[krish3]

Djay- I remember one more Getz Crdi owner (think its Aza) has already installed projectors. Have to see where he got it from.

Jayanth-: Do give a review once the installation is complete.

[djay99]

krish3,
I saw pics of AZA's car. It looks beautiful with those projectors. My only concern is road visibility with projectors on.
Lets wait till jayanth installs and updates us.

@jayanth,
When are you going to install projectors buddy?

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by krish3

Djay- I remember one more Getz Crdi owner (think its Aza) has already installed projectors. Have to see where he got it from.

Jayanth-: Do give a review once the installation is complete.

Originally Posted by djay99

krish3,
I saw pics of AZA's car. It looks beautiful with those projectors. My only concern is road visibility with projectors on.
Lets wait till jayanth installs and updates us.

@jayanth,
When are you going to install projectors buddy?

Aza's car was my inspiration, and I got a set of cheap bolt on projectors from Philippines (have them in the car now). They cost 1/3rd the price I spent for these stuff, and the performance is a bit better than bulbs - but I made a BIG mistake by getting 8000 Kelvin projectors, they are kinda difficult to use in nights on highways.

And so the quest for making it better began. I reached out to a few who do projector mods, but the cost (>30k) was prohibitive for me. Lets face it, I already spent about 7k on cheap Chinese projectors where most of us have a 1000 bucks upgrade through 100 / 90 bulbs and a relay (I did this too!). I did not want to spend another 30k or 35k - on headlights!

So I started off in search of HID nirvana along with fellow BHPian and colleague vfranklin, and here are a few links:

Bi-Xenon Output Comparison: TL, E55, Murano, FX, FX-R, IS, IS Hybrid, e46, LR3, MiniH1, MiniD2, S2K-R

Helpful information on upgrading headlights from The Retrofit Source LLC

HIDRetrofits | A High Performance HID Projector Retrofit Headlights Resource

There a bunch of other links and YouTube videos that I went through, but don't have any of them bookmarked - google is our friend!

This is not a bolt-on mod, and would require modifications to the stock head lamp reflector (drilling a few mounting holes, making the socket holder hole bigger, etc). And I have this wedding of mine coming up tomorrow (), and hence work will be pushed until last week of September or later.