I wish the Xenon had these characteristics ....

Lohith @ Hope these guys ship you one of these machines as a birthday gift ....

drool! nice pics! looked like fun in the slush n all

Hello everyone.. Here we go now for what Tom describes as Keyboard rallying

On friday morning while on the recce for Coimbatore rally I got confirmation that we will be driving the Isuzu D Max prepared by N Motorsport, Thailand. So I told Mouli that after the rally we have only three days to leave on his space trip
This time competition was more tough as every body was more prepared than the first round and we also Thai 4X4 champion Sakchai representing the Mitsubhisi in a Triton.

Stage 1 was 27 km with lot of extremely rutted roads. As we launched our 200+ horse power D Max from the start line of stage 1, which was a steep incline, the Mouli saw stars, which I think is usual for anybody doing it for first time. 2km into the stage and we missed the route and lost about two minutes +.. We were back on the stage and few Kms later the star gazing stopped and navigation started and we were making up the lost time. There was passage control on the stage where there was main road crossing and I stopped after the control to discuss where we lost and where we gained while Mouli kept on telling me to go.. so we lost more than 30 secs and then I heard the horn from Chong wee's D max and immediately took off and managed to get a lead of about 30 secs from him by stage end. My mistake of stopping at the PC was because of not paying attention at the Briefing. Even tgough we had a good lead on others, this car no 13 of Chong Wee had made one and half mins on us.

Stage 2 was pretty good with usual Malaysian Palm estate stages, twisty, narrow but quite smooth. It was 21 km and we caught a petrol pajero which started much ahead of us and had stopped to change a flat tire. Luckily for no 13 who started ahead of us, passed this car before he got back on road. We caught him at around 10th km and had to ease of and follow the dust for remaining 11 km. Here, as the roads were very narrow I couldn't pass the pajero as lot of dust prevented from closing up.

On day 2 we had good morning showers and the conditions got very damp. Stage 3 was 47 km and was again the typical Malaysian estate stage. It was one of the best drives I have had, because of the weather, the terrain, the car and the calls but it lasted only about 10 kms. There was a error in the tulip and every body was running up and down searching for directions, as two cars ran into each other resulting in one car being out with bent axle. So every one stopped at one point and drove back to service in a convoy. This was really disappointing and we and only one stage and 27 km to make up.

On stage 4, which was a repeat of stage 1, I knew we had to catch the car ahead on stage itself, to win. That car was also a D max (no 13) but better than ours as it had wider track, LSD and new engine. I didn't have much hope as it was also a repeat stage. But the heavy morning rains had completely drenched the track and the conditions were quite different. About 2 kms into the stage just afterthe junction where we missed the route on day 1, I overshot a junction going too fast and lost more than 40 secs. So again less hope, but we kept pushing and at the 12km I saw this car going down a hill and we caught him in the next Km but took 5 km to pass him. Thanks to the well marked Malaysian roads and good road manners, we didn't have to use the horn even once in the transport, so I didn't know it was not working and I had to follow this car for 5 kms just blinking my lights. Finally Chong Wee pulled to the side and let us pass.

This was a good rally for both of us and as I said earlier this is the place to learn navigation. Mouli had a very good run except for little star gazzing at the beginning, which I am sure would happen to anyone who has done only recce format. This time we were supported and supported well by Isuzu team and also the service crew from Thailand. We had a good experience with all of them and didn't feel like we were working with them for the first time. All thanks to William Mei and Jagdev Singh, who are responsible for getting Isuzu involved in Malaysia and forming this team. Special thanks to Monsters Pub who hosted the post rally party and my friends Ravi, Srini and Teju who came to receive us at the airport. I thank all of you for your wishes and support..

Lohitt..

that was funny!

sounds like you had a see-saw event, but it all worked out well in the end.


was this a sponsored drive?
will they continue their support for the rest of the season?

,, Excellent report Lohith !!! Seems keyboard rallying is a favorite with the top drivers , though it seems to be coming to the fore only recently ( mazda starting the trend ) !

Good to see that u got a well prepared car .. and Ill repeat Bozo's question , is it a sponsored drive for the full season -- ?? Hope to see similar results from you ... ALL DA BEST for the future rounds ..

Cheers

Awesome report Lohit can u give us an idea as to what top speeds these cars do? Are the stages different from MRC?

Thank you Lohith Really enjoyed going through the report.

Do let me know if Mauli needs an Astronomy crash course before the next event, might help

Yo Bozo, it sure sounds funny now, even to me, but believe me, one more overshoot and we would have had it. Some call Malaysia as rally of thousand junctions, sometimes it feels like thousands of junctions. Anybody and everybody misses it some point. We had a settling in problem in the beginning and then on we were alright, that why we could make up.
The route, most of Malaysian routes are Government owned palm estate roads and are quite similar. But in 4X4 we have some bad sections and some very bad sections, like rutted or deep pot hole sections and water patches.
This vehicle can touch upto 200 kmph, but this time we probably 120 in one or two places, as this time the route was very twisty and stage 1 and 4(repeat) were very rough.
Isuzu could be sponsoring us for remaining part of the season.
Also Khaadu, Xenon is from Thailand and our vehicles also rally prepared in Thailand and from what I know every manufacture (except Tata and Mahindra) selling a 4X4 is or was involved in this sport in this region. Xenon might not be a bad vehicle once it is prepared but whether the company wants to involve or not is the question. When there are other manufacturers supporting drivers partly or fully and provide top class equipment, it is not easy to go for a vehicle which has no manufacturer backing.

@lohit:are these TRUCKS really fun to drive on the stages?Won't the bigger dimension and weight be a problem especially on a tight stage?

BTW,I hope you've already shown enough stars for poor MOULI.