High Speed Exploits - 151 kmph

Now that my car is 'official', time for show-off'ing some drives and exploits. First up is the top-speed I clocked while on my trip to Sangli, and back.

While leaving for Sangli, the idea was to stay away from trucks and avoid high speeds, as I had learnt driving only a month ago. But when the road gets smooth, when the excessive traffic withers away and the long stretch of lane seems vacant to quite a distance, the eternal etch appears from nowhere and throttle starts feeling the pressure.

While on the way to Sangli, initially, when I was seduced, the aim was to break free of the 125kmph mark that I had reached on my Apache. It's a shame if a car cannot comfortably outperform a bike. And comfortably it did, thanks to those 100 horses under the hood. I was quickly onto 130kmph. Now that blood was tasted, and the car showed absolutely no indication of backing up, with no vibrations or loss of steering/control, in no time the target was remapped to 150kmph. I did reach 144kmph in few seconds, and there was quite a bit of distance till I could go full-throttle with the A-pad touching the floor ... but ... there were those cars, around 500 meters from me, braking frantically to avoid potholes! For a moment, there was this intense desire to go full-throttle, attain 150kmph and then brake full; but these are the moments where your mind should rule over your heart, for you to get a second chance at attaining your target. Thankfully mine did. A-pad was released, B-pad and C-pad in action with quick shifting of gears, to bring in engine braking to aid the B-pad. From 144kmph, I dropped to 2-kmph with around 5-10 feet to spare from the car in front. I noticed it was a cherry-red Maruti Ritz, and I wished I had banged into her rear with full might, instead of sparing her. I just hate her pathetic looking rear. Wonder what Maruti Suzuki people were smoking while designing cars like Ritz and A-Star. And let's not even talk about Wagon-R.

After that, I didn't get a chance to speed up till I reached home. So 144kmph remained an eye-sour throughout the weekend. I kept whining, and looking forward to the return journey.

Came Monday morning, and in an hour of sedate driving to warm-up the engine, I reached Peth and took to the NH4, like a fish to water. In next few seconds, I was into 130 kmph, inching towards the target. There was quite a bit of traffic than usual, but it was in the middle lane. Even the bus/asiad drivers, who have this nasty and irritating habit of choking the high speed lane with 60kmph speed, were considerate enough to take to the middle lane. The high speed lane was empty for quite a long stretch, and that was enough of a bait for me. I stepped on the gas. 140 - 145 -147 -148 - 149 - 150(!!) - 151 - danger-ahead - brakes - down to 130 - 125 - 115 - cruise. I saw Karad flyover. You don't realise how time and distance passes by when your mind is fully onto something else.


Speed was down to a more of 60'ish owing to pedestrians and traffic congestion near the flyover. And I spotted a traffic police waving at me, asking me to stop. After assessing presence of all car-related documents in the car, I slowed down to see what he wants. He wasn't going to get a bribe from me, that was for sure. But he turned out to be a highway police, asking for a ride to a toll-booth where there was going to be a रास्ता-रोको (road-blockage) to protest against rise in tolls across NH4 toll booths. So all my plans of breaking the 160kmph barrier, and more importantly, breaking the 3-hrs Sangli-Pune record of my bike, dissolved into thin air. He was approaching retirement, so I kept the car near a more descent 100kmph mark to avoid making him uncomfortable with the speed, and to avoid getting a lecture on how high speeds cause accidents and how this current generation is being reckless etc etc.

I dropped him around 100kms from Pune, and after that, due to morning traffic, there was no chance to speed up. 100-120 kmph is what you can get and maintain max.

At a hindsight, I cant help but praise the car like anything. I have read/heard stories of how sedans like Esteem start vibrating during the 140 kmph mark. This car, totally living up to her reputation, didn't even make me feel like I am doing high speed. Only the blurring trees in the corner of my eyes, made me appreciate the kind of speed I was into. My heart was beating quite normal despite the adrenaline surge.

Next up on the radar is the Mecca of a speed-junkie - The Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Top speed of a Palio is said to be capped at 165kmph. From my assessment at 151 kmph, I feel it can do much more than that. My black beauty, owing to those 100 bhp, should be able to make it to 175-180.

My job will be to take this horse to water. Let's see how much she drinks.