Pune to Mysore drive in my Hyundai Tucson: Exploring culture & heritage

The Tucson is one of the few cars which punches above its weight especially in its Diesel avatar.

BHPian Tony2298 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hello all,

As you all know Mysore is one of the most historically important places of India and still remains one of the better cities of India, I had a deep desire of visiting Mysore someday exploring its culture and heritage and what a better way of travelling would it be than a road trip to that place.

Preparations

I had recently posted a thread where I penned down all the maintenance I carried out for my SUV, will be cross-posting it here too. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ts-my-suv.html

Therefore the vehicle was in tip-top condition, only thing left to do was tanking up to brim with Shell V-Power Diesel and get the PUC certificate updated which I must mention is convenient if you're owning a BS6 vehicle since you're getting validity of 1year as compared to BS4&older vehicles where its valid for only 6months.
Doing the PUC

Day1- Poona to Hospet

We left the city during dawn hours when the whole city was in the arms of sleep after celebrating Diwali festivities, therefore the city was completely deserted and exiting the same was hassle-free.

Regarding routes, I had two routes available-

• Route1- The standard route for MH-KA is via NH48 which passes through cities like Satara, Karad, Kolhapur, Belagavi, Davangere, Huballi, Bangalore. Although a direct highway it is undergoing a complete repair and 6lane widening. Therefore the roads are complete nightmare with too many diversions and horrendous service roads with moon-shaming potholes especially in Satara-Kagal section maintained by MSRDC(proudly displayed by boards), I regularly do Bombay/Poona-Kolhapur trips and in a couple of years road conditions of this patch has completely gone downhill, yes roadworks are going on in full swing and roads would become smooth after a couple of years down the line but as of now it is best avoided IMHO.

   

• Route2- NH65, covering cities like Solapur, Vijaypura, Hospet, chose this highway since it is recently revamped stretch with relatively much smoother 4lane stretch. Chose this one both while ongoing and return trip, only con is you don't get too many rest-stops which you get aplenty in NH48. Therefore, you need to plan your trip accordingly.

The roads were completely smooth allowing you to carry triple digit speeds effortlessly however you need to watch out for stray animals appearing out of nowhere and the maniac wrong side drivers on all kind of vehicle ranging from a bicycle to a tipper! Sadly we're in a state where we've normalised wrong side driving malpractice, sadly we as an individual can do nothing about the same other than being careful and not be the ones doing it.

Distances are covered quickly due to smooth roads, however be ready to shell out a fortune at tolls, since toll booths appear a bit too frequently, especially once you enter KA.

We reached Hosapete, in about 6-7hours including long and frequent stops. Spent the rest of the day relaxing at a resort amidst the silence of countryside, watching the MotoGP Tissot Sprint and F1 Sprint later during the evening!

A clean Contessa at the resort, spotted this same very Contessa flying at NH65.

Day2- Hosapete to Mysore

Started early during the morning hours towards Mysore, once again the NH65 was completely deserted and smooth 4lane carriageway, stopped once for a fuel break, distances were covered quickly and effortlessly, soon joined the NH48 at Chitradurga.

NH48 at least in KA is in a much better condition than it is in MH. Yes, there are diversions but they are few and far apart with at least drivable service roads.

Stopped at Kamath for a brunch.

Soon entered NICE road at around a Toyota factory outlet showroom, soon enough joined the Bangalore-Mysore expressway which was deserted, still switched on Cruise control at 95kmph and enjoyed the beautiful drive to Mysore.

The deserted Bangalore-Mysore expressway!

The city of Mysore felt really calm and serene with sparse traffic and lush greenery all around, unlike the bustling Bangalore, really it was a love at first sight(or drive) for me towards Mysore! The only other city I liked this much was Baroda, I visited that city last year when I went for a trip to Statue of Unity and wish to re-visit Baroda again soon.https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...nity-more.html

What also amazed me was the cleanliness of the City which was terrific, a few months ago I visited Indore, yes its the cleanest city of India but Mysore at least in my books is a better place to be in, since I found traffic management of Indore a bit worse, mainly because of those unruly electric 3wheelers.

Just as we checked into the hotel Mysore welcomed us with a light drizzle making the weather even more serene for us!

During the evening went for a drive exploring the city, starting with Mysore palace which looked absolutely gorgeous with the light decorations, later called it a day, watched the F1 São Paulo race where Max did an amazing job of winning the Grand Prix from P17 to P1 while the Alpines got their season first podiums, the grin of Ocon said it all!

Day3-Visiting Summer Palace of Tipu Sultan and Vintage Car Museum of Paayna

After a heavy breakfast, we headed towards Tipu Sultan tomb first, the local guide explained us the history of the place and its relevance to us, also there's no entry fee into the tomb but you need to pay parking charge which was quite high IMHO.

Soon, headed to Summer Palace Museum, where the entry ticket was issued digitally after verification with Govt. ID Proof, for the history buffs it would be a paradise since there was so much information with old paintings and scriptures, also got to see the famous Tipu Sultan's sword too, along with his clothes and other paraphernalia.

After covering it, headed towards the Vintage Car Museum at Paayna, which is strategically located next to the Bangalore-Mysore expressway. This would be my 3rd vintage car museum visit the previous ones being at Udaipur and Ahmedabad!, but each time I see I'm struck with awe and admire the engineering prowess behind these machines at a time where computers and electronics were not even an entity!

The miniature model of the musuem.

The premises of the museum is sprawling, the museum itself is a two-storey building with so many cars parked ranging from Mysore Kings Daimler to a Hyundai Verna 1st gen!

A modern Mercedes Benz E class, my maternal uncle used to have one before upgarding to a GL which he later swapped with a GLS.

This ignited a passion of mine to build a museum of my own filled with modern cars with significance in the Indian automotive scenario and would include cars like

1. Honda City VTEC 1st gen
2. Honda Civic 1.8VTEC 8th gen
3. Honda Accord 3.5V6
4. Ford Mondeo
5. Chevrolet Cruze 2.0VCDi
6. Hyundai i20 Asta 1st gen(my personal one)
7. Renault Duster AWD
8. Toyota Innova 2.5D4D
9. Tata Nano
10. Tata Safari DiCOR
11. Mahindra Scorpio 1st gen
12. Mahindra XUV500
13. Ford Ikon
14. Ford Endeavour(the 1st 2.5 one and last 3.2TDCi one)

After spending an enjoyable time at the museum headed to the cafeteria to have some snacks post which we left for the hotel calling it a day!

We also did visit the Mysore Sandal Factory outlet which is my mothers' favourite soap and the fragrance of Mysore Sandal is exceptional and has been the same for last 100years. Bought a boatload of soap, incense sticks etc as a token of Mysore visit!

Day4-Exploring the city of Mysore
The day started off with a visit to washing centre to give my SUV a much deserved foam wash.

Decided to give my Tucson complete rest for the day and used auto rickshaw instead, also since it had rained the previous night the weather was quite pleasant with cool breeze making the rickshaw ride enjoyable.

Visited the Mysore Palace first which was bustling with tourists, explored the place, got a booklet describing the history of the place, clicked some memorable photographs and left to sand museum.

The sand museum had some amazing sand art based on various templates viz Devotee, history etc. Thoroughly enjoyed the place!

From sand museum went to Mall of Mysore where I was greeted by the new Nissan Magnite Facelift, was quite impressed and wanted to check it out further, sadly the car was locked and salesman was not anywhere in sight, thus clicked a photo and left.

After roaming the mall, went back to hotel and called it a day.

Day5- Return trip to Poona from Mysore
As much as I loved staying in Mysore and wanting to extend my stay had to sadly return back due to my work commitments.

Therefore, left Mysore morning post breakfast, also I decided to do the entire 1000kms journey without any overnight halt.

The expressway as usual was deserted and soon joined the NH48, topped up fuel at Shell Sira. NH48 had thin traffic till Chitradurga where we switched to NH65 and continued the journey.

Stopped at a point near Tungabhadra dam where saw the beautiful waterbody and enjoyed the viewpoint.

Continued the journey, took a detour at Solapur for a dinner halt since I didn't find any good restaurant adjacent to highway itself.

Had a light dinner and continued the return journey, reached home quite late at 3:00AM.

Yes, I was quite exhausted and tired but I must say that Tucson gave its best, of what it possibly could, transported me safely and didn't even gave me slightest of trouble. I truly thank my lucky stars that I could get such a beautiful SUV.

Lastly quick word about my beloved SUVs character
Tucson was always a silent mile-muncher, Hyundai definitely does know a thing or two about refinement, especially with their Diesel cars, the CRDi has an unreal refinement, at 100-120kph the engine revs at a meagre 1400-1500rpm which is basically a bit above idling rpm and therefore you get an idea of the refinement, in fact most of the time its very hard to tell there's an oil-burner under the hood and quite a potent one at that, with 185PS and 400Nm the pickup is quick especially in Sport mode sets all guns blazing, the Variable Geometry Turbo with electronically controlled fins ensure a light tap on the A pedal gives you an instant, strong tug and the SUV becomes a locomotive, helping you to overtake slow-moving vehicles effortlessly, also AWD system ensures it doesn't suffer from torque-steer, Impressive!

Apart from that Hyundai has given generous amount of insulation material in the structure of the Tucson, structural adhesives have been used instead of nuts and bolts, thick insulation materials around wheel arches with flatter underbody surface and low-drag co-efficient shape ensures wind noise are cut down to bare minimum level. The insulation levels are on-par with cars a segment higher, at even higher than usual highway speeds the NVH remains supremely controlled, thus the cabin of the Tucson remains a calm place to be in at all times, be it city or highway!

Road noise too was quite low however, the stock Nexen tyres had become hard and stony creating an excessive amount of tyre noise. Therefore, had upgraded to flagship Michelin Primacy 4ST tyres, which has completely obliterated the tyre noise even on concrete surfaces the silence is unreal!

Apart from that the ride quality tilts towards plushness and comfort, however don't think its a boat like most other Hyundais, if anything with a multi-link setup at the rear there's a little bit firm edge like European cars but the bump absorption levels are first rate, it just glides over potholes without making too much noise, the body control is good too, only if you start pushing excessively the front end starts feeling squishy due to heavy diesel under the hood, however treat it like a SUV, you'll be very happy with its dynamics!

The interior too are spacious with many storage spaces littered around, helping in long road trips like these, the A/C is a bone-chiller keeping the passengers comfy even in hottest of conditions, the rear seats reclines to a very comfortable position allowing you catch a snooze as soon as you sit inside, the driver gets 10way power adjustable seats and ergonomics are first rate too, very similar to a Honda or a Toyota, in fact I don't know why but I feel my 3rd gen Tucson is heavily inspired from the erstwhile 3rd gen Honda CRV, the silhouette, ergonomics etc are eerily similar!

Night drives in the Tucson is an enjoyable experience, the pentagon-projector LED headlamps with halogen fog lamps illuminate the road brilliantly, most of the time low-beams are adequate and only in pitch dark conditions you need the high beams, auto-dimming IRVM ensures you aren't blinded by the moronic drivers using ultra high power flashing aftermarket LEDs and tailgating you for no reason.

The Tucson is one of the few cars which punches above its weight especially in its Diesel avatar, just for reference the recently launched Carnival comes with the 2.2CRDi motor, which also powered the erstwhile Santa Fe, basically uses the same block as the as the 2.0CRDi albeit with larger bore making it displace 200more cc, also Carnival has the same 8speed TC AT box as my Tucson, therefore you get the idea of what the Tucson is actually worth of! Its a gem of a car, honestly!

Thank you!

Tony Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.