Mar 02, 2007 02:47 PM
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I must tell you about a terrific trip I did recently. This was my first longish drive in my Petra 1.6. I had been planning to do some trip or the other for quite some time. So, when a relative suggested a one day drive to Daman, a return trip of close to 350km, during the long Republic day week-end, I grabbed the opportunity.
We started from Kandivili East where our relatives live, at 8:30 in the morning. Two cars, my Petra and an Indigo diesel.
After about half an hour, having crossed the Dahisar Check naka, I started raising the revs.
There were enough trucks to slow our progress, but in a way, it was a good thing, since I would have gone on and on picking up speed. This car feels rock steady. You can imagine, I had my wife and my mother-in law with me, and while I was constantly ranging between 60 and 120 (slowing for the trucks), they were dozing off every once in a while. Of course, a lot of it was because the road was pretty good, but still, you can not take away from the great car.
I had the windows rolled up, to keep the car clean. So, we never got to know how cold or hot it was outside, but generally, the insides remained cool and fresh. So, the conditions were perfect for a good drive.
As I drove along, overtaking trucks of all sizes, whenever I would reach one truck overtaking another, I would have to spend agonisingly long waiting for the behemoths to make enough room for me to slip by. At first, I did overtake some from the left, but these guys are so disciplined in their overtaking and letting the faster vehicle by, that I too soon picked up their good manners.
Now, at one point, every time I would have to slow down to overtake trucks, a Getz and a Qualis would come up behind, come up close to my left side, try overtaking the trucks from the left, hoot, and generally spoil the well oiled feel of the moment.
Now, what happens is this. The Qualis comes up close to my left with the Getz following, and starts blinking its right indicator. A truck is in front, slowly overtaking another. Now, as soon as the faster truck gets a few feet ahead of the slower one, the Qualis guy swings across, forcing me to brake a little to avoid contact. And man, am I displeased? So, I decide enough is enough. I have to teach this upstart a lesson.
By now the truck has almost finished overtaking. So, even as the Getz guy tries to follow suit past me, I downshift to 3rd. And the gentle giant (if you can call a 1.6 that) wakes up. And roars. Man, that is music to my ears. And the Getz just shrinks in my rear view. I go from 60 to 120 like that! And in doing that, I realise the Qualis too is behind. I maintain 120-130 for about a minute. By now all the displeasure is forgotten. I have a happy grin pasted on that same old frowning face.
And I was hooked. I made sure I did not maintain 120+ for more than 3-4 minutes at a strech, though it was usually shorter, perforce, with all the trucks. But what I must say, is that this car feels rock steady. And very stiff and sorted. At one point, a fast straight stretch led to a curve which I entered at about 100-110. Into the curve, I realised the curve was not as gentle as I had earlier thought. But still, I did not need to slow down, there was no tyre squeal and the steering felt in full control. In fact, I think I left the curve faster than I entered it.
Also, there was almost no body roll, and my ma-in law actually commented on a nice looking hillock that we were passing just at that moment, which goes to show how comfortable she was even under those circumstances. Till Vapi, except for the toll gates, there was no dense traffic, and I got ample opportunities to listen to the car at 4000-5000 rpm. Then on to Daman and back was without incident. Again on the drive back, it was between me and the Petra and the road. With fewer trucks now, I did some nice speeds.
I did not go beyond 150, since I have stock tyres which though new, I do not want to find their limit the hard way. But even at 150, there was no reduction in the steering feel and the car in general felt as planted and steady as at 120. Of course closer to Bombay, the traffic had to get worse and we got home after 3 and a half hours of driving with headaches from the last hour in bad traffic.
Finally, I must tell all of you who have not listened to a Fiat 1.6 engine, you just must. Its heavenly. Its not shrill, its not too gruff. Its the perfect baritone, a kind of serious I mean business sound without being show-off'ish, if you know what I mean. And of course, its not all thunder without rain. This car can move. Its just great for the highway. Its balanced, it does not roll, it has minimal vibrations.
In a nutshell, it behaves like an executive when you ask it to, and like an athlete as your demand changes. So, finally, if you can for a moment ignore FIAT, for driving, the Petra 1.6 is a great car. Oh, and by the way, I did a tank full at the start and again just back home, and I got an FE of about 15.5 kmpl for the 349km I covered.
