Earlier this week, completed a 1200km round about trip to Kotagiri and back from Chennai in my Jet. A quick travelogue and pictures from the trip. One interesting aspect of this trip was - my Jet was accompanied by many Multi-Jets (Linea’s and Punto's). We were the "
Force Five" on the roads till the trip got over.
Day 1:
Started from Chennai at about 9:30PM in the night on Friday - 14th Oct, 2011 and reached Gobi by 4 AM in the morning the following day. Checked in at Gobi for an overnight rather early morning stay. Started lazily in the morning by 11 AM and reached Kotagiri by 1 PM in the noon. Really it was a treat to watch multiple FIATS in a row and all of them commanded admiration from on-lookers. The day ended up talking about cars and some photography. Basically we were just lazing around. The resort we stayed in Kotagiri was "Twin Tree". The resort was super-awesome in one word. Food was equally good there.
The drive - I was cruising happily at 120+ and my mileage stood at 13.2km/lt from Chennai to Gobi. The multi-jets showed, they are no short in terms of power in addition to being frugal (In short they vanished out of my sight until Krishnagiri). I was cautious about mileage and was cruising all along. Indeed the Multijets got near 18+ km/lt for this portion of the trip eventhough their speeds were above 140/150 all along.
Gobi to Kotagiri saw my Jet in action since the road-scapes were awesome (neat winding roads to get some thrills). From Gobi to Kotagiri my mileage stood at 10.9km/lt including the ghats section. Think the Multijets gave 16+ there aswell proving they are frugal and equally faster. The best part was pushing the Jets at the ghats and winding roads - pure bliss is the only word.
Absolute feedback, stability and control. Day 2:
This day was definitely eventful with all out Jets plying on the Kotagiri-Ooty-Masinagudi roads. Kotagiri, Ooty were simply at its best. Full of mist, rains and green everywhere. We visited Dhoddabetta and it was full of mist and enroute was scenic (esp. the mist covered mountains and lush greenery around).We did some photography there and started towards Masinagudi via the Kaletty route. Man, that route required some skills to drive and as usual the Jets were phenomenal in terms of proving that no other car on the road is a match to their dynamics. Every twist and turn pasted a smile in our face.
We took the jungle safari at Masinagudi (spotted Bisons, Elephants, Deers and even a bear). After a long drive into the forest in the government van we also took our jets again on thehighway in search of spotting some animals and we did see bisons at a very close range. After around 8PM we started moving towards Kotagiri and reached the resort after an eventful trip. Our families were very happy after seeing those animals in "their" habitat and the undisturbed surroundings. Esp. the kids were having fun all along.
The Drive – Ghats section and My Jet’s mileage stood at 9.7km/lt for this day.
Day 3:
This day was full of some adrenaline drive (damn the mileage attitude) starting from Kotagiri until Chennai. We took the Kotagiri - Satthi - Mettur - Thoppur - Krishnagiri - Chennai route and did some stretches in sheer 15-20 minutes time.. For e.g. Thoppur - Krishnagiri in less than 25 minutes time. And as usual, no words to explain the handling, power of my Jet. But the mileage dropped to 11km/lt when the speedo saw up 180's frequently.
En-route, all our Jets had some fun with a White elephant (TFORT) but to admit, there is no replacement for displacement. TFORT kept pace with us even at 180s/185s except in areas where there were steep bends/twists.. My Jet saw some redlining (6500+ RPM at every gear) while it was wrestling with the TFORT. One quick observation though is- the T-Jet goes all the way until 185+ in 4th at around 6600 RPM types and it does 140 at 3rd in the same RPM range.
The Drive - Multiple times the ECU cut-off triggered
![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
and The mileage dropped to 10.9 km/lt when I came home.
All in all, it was an awesome trip ending up well. The credit goes to the Jet and it’s companions. T-Jet deserves a round of applause for its brilliant engine, handling and loads of power at any gear.
One quick change this trip brought was - I have decided to retain the T-Jet and go for an SUV in addition to the Jet. I understood that I cannot get the driving pleasure of the T-Jet in an SUV (I knew that earlier but realized it again strongly). So have decided to retain her for some adrenaline drives (Cannot afford to sell my stress buster indeed).
Now, a treat to the eyes..