Automobile Archives - Lance Quadras - One Mind, A Million Thoughts..

If you crave adventure, you will love the new BS6 Royal Enfield Himalayan

May 11, 2020May 27, 2020 Lancelot Quadras 34 Comments

Date – 25th May 2016

Place – Somewhere in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh

Some journeys can never be forgotten!

They leave you with tons of memories and experiences.

Today, I’ll share one such moment with all of you that resurfaced right after I watched the Royal Enfield Himalayan video.

Until 2014, traveling was not something that I did very often. It was only in 2015 when I started with a trip to Goa. The very next year in 2016, I had a week-long trip where I visited various parts of Himachal Pradesh.

One fine morning, we decided to explore Kheerganga. We hailed a local bus that would take us to the base point. The route to such places boasts of scenic beauty. You can just keep traveling and be struck with awe, for such is the beauty of nature. Or you can be like me who has motion sickness and doesn’t like traveling on the Ghats!

We were completely spellbound with nature when all of a sudden the bus screeched to a halt! And like that, we all came back to reality. On further inspection, we realized there was a huge rock that had managed to tumble and land exactly in the middle of the road.

Such was the precision of the fall that a 4 wheeler couldn’t pass through without falling down. Like everyone, we stepped down from the bus and waited until help arrived. Right then we heard a peculiar sound.

Was help reaching us quickly?

Was it a superhero?

No! It was a Royal Enfield motorcycle!

Yes, just like that an Enfield passed a crowd full of people, an abandoned bus, and went past the huge rock stuck on the road. All we could do was watch the motorcycle as it passed by and went ahead without any hassle. Oh, what a day it had been!

That memory is still fresh in my mind like it was just yesterday. All thanks to this video I saw of the latest BS6 variant of Royal Enfield Himalayan bike range. The video shows a person who works from Monday to Friday and then rides on the weekend. Seeing him ride on “tough roads” and “no roads” reminded me of that rock incident and the Enfield that passed us.

The Himalayan too was launched in 2016 (around the same time I was in Himachal). Now, in 2020 they have launched an all-new range of BS-VI version bikes. The latest version packs in new features & is more comfortable for the rider. Here are a couple of Royal Enfield Himalayan images:

These come in 6 different colors that are named after all 6 terrains in India namely;

Granite Black
Rock Red
Lake Blue
Gravel Gray
Sleet Grey and
Snow White

So, while we cannot really go on any form of adventures during the lockdown, the news that the road and the journey are waiting for me is enough to tide me over.

I end this post by asking you all… How are you spending this time?

When Nano Knights met TATA NANO

May 9, 2015March 26, 2017 Lancelot Quadras Leave a comment

I like Indiblogger meets. So it’s obvious that when there’s a meet happening around I wouldn’t dare to say no!

This one was different. It was a meet for 24 selected bloggers from Mumbai and Pune who would get the opportunity to take the TATA Nano Gen X Easy Shift AMT on a road trip.

Oh yeah, a road trip!

So a heads up; I don’t know how to drive, and I don’t have a license either (yeah, it’s high time I get one). So my chances of being selected were on a Nano scale. But hey, where you need drivers, you also need people at the backseat also. So when I got the confirmation call, there was a moment of happiness and a huge moment of shock.

The shock was to wake up early on a SUNDAY morning. It was hard but I did manage to wake up. We left early at 6.30 and post everyone settling down in the bus, had the wackiest ever introductions. Mine happened at 7.45 am and seriously that’s the earliest I have ever given an introduction anywhere!

Post a few hours we were in Pune at the “Tata Lake house” where we were first welcomed by the Indi team alongside photographers clicking our pictures like there’s no tomorrow. Who am I to complain? Then we were treated to a delightful breakfast accompanied with a relaxing view. I must tell you the view from that place is just too mesmerizing.

Later we got a heads up from the TATA team about the car, it’s features and what gives it the GEN X feel. Post that we 24 were divided into 8 groups. Each car had 1 TATA personnel with them as a navigator.

My team comprised of,

Rohini – Our sole driver for the day.

Pranav – The Cool Navigator.

Shubham – Our Social media guy for the day and

Me – Hmmm, I just was there to enjoy the journey from the backseat.

We were team “D” but that name didn’t sound so cool, so we got ourselves an awesome name i.e. “The Nano Knights”. Anyways, here’s what this Nano knight thought about the car post the drive.

ü The car looks awesome with 2 new colors i.e. Persian rose and Sangria Red (that’s an awesome choice BTW)

ü There are 3 main features i.e. the Design next, The Drive next and the Connect Next.

ü They have done a lot of work on the design and that can be seen in the final product. It does catch your eye.

ü They also have 94 litre boot space in the AMT and 110 in the manual versions meaning you can stuff in a lot of things in the boot space.

ü About the drive next, they have sports mode, creep mode and the AMT of course.

ü Sports mode is for the power loving people who just need an open road and want to zoom away.

ü The creep mode will be a boon for us Mumbaikars as when you release the brake; the car automatically creeps a bit.

ü Also with NANO, you have the smallest turning radius of 4m.

ü The Auto manual transmission (AMT) is a boon for people who like the automatic way and for the traditionalists there is the shift assist manual mode.

ü As for the Connect next, they have a Bluetooth system where you can connect your phone with the system and take calls while you drive.

ü There also is the digital clock, the gear shift indicator and distance left till tank gets empty.

ü In this segment with a price range of 2.75-3.5 lacs ex-showroom, I doubt you’d get so much, so well done TATA team.

Examples:

Click a weird selfie of your team in the car.

Do a flash mob outside with the car in the background.

A best of 3 arm wrestling match for the guys on the backseat.

Click a pic of something red with the car.

And trust me there were many many more such challenges.

Here are some glimpses.

Amidst all this I forgot about the awesome lunch and interview session in Mezza9.

This resto-bar is worth visiting.

I liked the ambience, the welcome drinks, the food and everything.

Some chose to give an interview about their car experience while the rest were chatting like there’s no tomorrow.

Post the lunch and the drive we headed back to the lake house where a test track awaited us. Post driving through that we were treated to delicious snacks again with the breathtaking view and then the finale.

We were taught the tricks to playing the djembe.

And boy that was fun. Mr.Varun Venkit from Taal Inc made sure we were refreshed and yes the madness for 30 minutes was the highlight for the day.

Vote of Thanks:

Yeah, I seriously owe this trip to Indiblogger and the TATA team. Thank you for all the moments.

Thank you for the madness, the laughter, for treating us like celebs ad thank you for the awesome drive experience.

And finally to all the people who came on the trip, I really am glad to have connected with you guys. You all are awesome and I look forward to meeting ya’ll more often. Stay in touch peeps.

We rock!!!

Image credits – Dr.Kiran, Shrinidhi and Shubham

A Journey with the TATA BOLT

April 25, 2015March 26, 2017 Lancelot Quadras Leave a comment

Lonavla – 19^th April 2015

It’s said that traveling helps everyone in mysterious ways. For me, it’s just leaving everything behind. I mean it… Everything!

Since I’ve started working, the only thing I dream of is going away somewhere. Anywhere but here! I’ve asked friends, colleagues so many times already that I’ve lost count.

Finally, when I got a chance to sit in the new TATA BOLT and get hauled all the way to Lonavla, what you think my answer would be?

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!

I began my Sunday morning in Café Infinito for breakfast with few bloggers like me who were excited to be a part of this event head by BlogAdda.

We had been divided into 8 groups. For starters, we had a filling breakfast. Then the introduction round was the icing on the cake. Every group sent one person ahead to introduce the entire group and also spilling some interesting facts.

I was quite impressed with almost everyone. I must tell you the amount of talent in that Café on a Sunday morning is not what you would find any time.

My team had I, Mahafreed and Pradosh along with Ankita from the BlogAdda team.

Later, after breakfast and introductions, it was decided that 4 groups will drive the petrol variant and the rest would drive the diesel. While returning home the change would take place.

This is the moment when the first drive was flagged off…

We got the Diesel variant for the start. We headed down to the MMRDA grounds for a test which shook me. Literally! They had a temporary track ready for us with speed breakers enough to give you a bouncy feeling. Whilst on the speed breakers we had to complete a “connect the dots figure” of the TATA BOLT on the sheet provided to us. It was a funny thing to do at that moment but we did manage to draw something.

Later while we started our journey towards Lonavla we had “Captain Bolt” the virtual leader who spoke to us all the time. (P.S – He did sound like a Radio Jockey)

We took the express way and yeah we left every car behind. Pradosh made sure to test the speed of the car as we zoomed past 120kmph in no time. We left the rest of the cars far behind enough to stop mid way, click a few pics and still reach first.

Since we had all the time in the world, we gave a review of the car whilst heading to Lonavla itself. The main pointers were covered by Pradosh since he was driving. Here’s the review.

Once at Lonavla, we headed over to a restaurant named “Dhaba” which happened to be on the first floor! How funny can this get?

The food was awesome. We mingled around with fellow bloggers asking them about their ride and one conversation led to another and the dining hall felt like another day at a fish market… 😛

Post food, every blogger was interviewed about their journey so far. Later we switched cars, headed to Tiger point which is known to have monkey sightings. Yes, I don’t know how funny can this get again?

We had a lot of selfies, groupies clicked. It was hot since it was 3pm prime time for the sun to shine.

I even clicked one for myself.

It's too dark, but that's all i could manage. — It’s too dark, but that’s all i could manage.

Then we had this one picture of the entire team which is my highlight of the journey.

We headed back to another stop at Café Coffee Day and finally made it back to Café Infinito.

I’ll be honest. My review might not do full justice honestly since I don’t know how to drive. But still for what it matters, I can tell you what I felt whilst sitting behind.

The car is spacious. It has great interiors too
It has 8 speakers which can be serious fun for music lovers.
It has 3 styles i.e. Sports, Eco and City. We used the Sports mode and by far it’s the best mode because of the power it generates.
The “Connect NeXt” which is an infotainment system is by far the standout feature of the car. Its user friendly and I feel it can make the driver’s life very easy. No worries of missing a call, reading a message as you have this system to help you out.

For the price mentioned this is a really good buy under the 10 lacs segment.

Here’s another review made by Pradosh incidentally on the same standout feature as I think. Here’s presenting the “Connect NeXt” system.

Finally I would like to end this review by thanking BlogAdda for making this event memorable for me. Right from the ice box kept in the car, for the food, for the journey and finally for letting me share space with such beautiful people.

Image credits: Sanjay, Mahafreed and Pradosh .

This indeed was a Sunday well spent at #BoltDrives with BOLT from TATA Motors in association with BlogAdda.

Annual Parx Supercar Show 2015 – Part 1

January 14, 2015March 26, 2017 Lancelot Quadras Leave a comment

Date – 10^th January 2015

Place – Mahalakshmi Race Course, Mumbai

The 7^th edition of the Parx supercar show lived up to its reputation. This annual congregation is a perfect time for all those owners with those mean envious machines. It’s that time of the year when they get those cars out of hiding and display it for everyone to feast their eyes. Car enthusiasts swear by this show and follow it like ardent disciples.

Forgive me, but I ain’t one of those enthusiasts. After the show maybe my perception did take a turn about. Those cars…. Woof….!!!

So many of them just lined up… but only for viewing. Even the scorching heat could not play spoilsport to the thousands that poured in.

My friend Dwitiy is an ardent fan himself and thus accompanying him and his DSLR, we headed towards the show.

Now honestly with so many people hovering around the barricades separating us from the cars, we had a tough time grabbing snapshots.

Blessed were the guys with the VIP pass for they had a near view and could click pictures of cars from better angles.

Anyways I just couldn’t stop myself from clicking some myself.

The quality won’t be that great so bear with me.

Also, forgive me for not knowing names of almost all cars.

Pictures are clicked using a Samsung S Duos accompanied by a 5 megapixel camera.

20150110_132848 — Well, this was lined up first and the rays of the sun almost gave it a shine which was nearly impossible not to notice!

20150110_132942 — Every line up almost looked like this. The only negative part being that due to the placement of the cars and the barricades, we could almost not get a good angle to click the second car in every line properly.

20150110_133316 — For some reason this reminded me of the game Need For Speed: Carbon..!!

20150110_133113 — This is just the perfect view. Tell me doesn’t this remind you of a race ready to roll? It reminded me of almost every car racing game I’ve ever played.

20150110_133713 — A car show without a vintage setting? Not a complete show then, right? Well after i checked out this beauty, i had nothing else on my mind apart from taking it for a spin!

These are the best I could come up with.

Let me know if ya’ll liked these clicks.

My next post will have pictures of mean machines i.e. vintage and modern motorcycles.

I’ll be uploading the next set of pictures soon!!

TATA BOLT – Car Review

January 9, 2015March 26, 2017 Lancelot Quadras Leave a comment

Date – 4/01/2015

Place – Inorbit Mall, Vashi

The mall was decently packed as you would expect it to be on any weekend. I and my friend cum blogger Dwitiy made it from Andheri all the way to Vashi all for one sight of the BOLT. After 1.5 hrs of gruesome train traveling, we made it in one piece. All we hoped was to find the car quickly.

And yes, it wasn’t tough to find it either. Right in the center of the mall was the “BOLT”. Many prospective buyers, bloggers were humming around the car like bees do. We joined in too. One of the “BOLT” team members helped us around with understanding the brains it took to create this car.

Here’s my review of this TATA creation.

My first view of the car from the front was the emoticon styling. If you look closely in the picture below it looks as though the fog lights are the eyes and there is a wide smile covering it which automatically gets a smile on your face. Like they say, the first impression always gives you extra brownie points.

Here are some features which give the BOLT its unique identity.

1) Boot Space:

This is the best thing I liked in the car. With such ample spacing, you can go for a good vacation without worrying of packing less anytime.

2) Connect Next Touch Screen Infotainment By HARMAN™:

Now the BOLT also gives you a variety of features like Smartphone enabled navigation, Map-My-India™ and advanced voice command recognition. The double den music system not only looks simple and decent but also delivers great sound quality.

3) Generation next safety 9^th Generation ABS by BOSCH™:

With advanced features solely created for your safety along with corner stability control and dual airbags your ride whether it’s on a bumpy road will do no harm to you.

4) Space, Comfort and Adjustable Driver’s Seat:

The spacious interiors let you sink into bliss. You enjoy your ride even before you begin with the journey due to these comfortable rugby seats. They also have an additional feature for drivers of different heights i.e. adjustable driver seat which is mechanically operated with the lever provided aside the driver’s seat. This will make sure no driver has to be uncomfortable and can get a clear view to drive all the time.

The adjustable lever right beside the seat

Spacious seats

5) First time ever Multi Drive i.e. Sport / Eco / City:

Now for the first time you get to choose how you drive. Choose the “Sports mode” when you need the adrenaline rush of speed and power. Opt for the “Eco mode” for its exceptional means of fuel efficiency and finally the “City mode” for a perfect balance between the above two choices.

6) Steering mounted controls:

The controls that are mounted on the steering make it easy for the user to answer emergency calls and also control the music system side by side.

7) Revotron 1.2 Turbocharged MPFi Petrol engine:

This specific engine makes way for an exceptionally powerful driving experience along with the advanced multi point fuel injection system which gives huge power and is also light on your pocket in matters of fuel efficiency.

These are the features which define the BOLT.

TATA Motors has done an exceptional job in matters of designing with added features and not forgetting the main importance of safety. We have witnessed around “60 Million Cars” which were called back globally from many companies due to safety issues and glitches. TATA has taken the cue and now has done its bit.

The pricing is where they have to be very cautious.

Here’s me posing with the BOLT.

What a combo!!

All images used in this post are courtesy of my friend Dwitiy Revankar. Thanks a ton mate.

This post is a part of the Get. Set. Bolt. activity via BlogAdda.

Category: Automobile