It was the last day of the Mahindra Royal Escape and I was strolling in the Pratap Niwas palace’s open courtyard trying to kill time before boarding my flight to Mumbai. That’s when I heard a thunderous roar from a fighter jet splitting the sky open, and executing a perfect gravity-defying vertical Charlie. This manoeuvre is always the showstopper at the Republic Day parade. From witnessing this spectacle to driving the all-new Mahindra Thar wherever possible, this trip had many firsts for me.
This was the all-new Mahindra Thar’s first official media drive, also my first drive for Motoring. We started from Udaipur at 0900 and I was assigned a hardtop Thar in red that ran on the new 2.2-litre diesel mHawk which produces 130 bhp and 32.63 kgm, paired to a 6-speed manual ’box. As much as I wanted a petrol automatic one, I never got enough of this torquey diesel mill. Our nine-car convoy was led by the exclusive Mahindra Legend and there were a couple of Scorpios that acted as the advance and sweep vehicles driven by extremely skilled drivers. Driving in convoys can be boring for some, but I loved every bit of it. Throughout the drive, the Mahindra Adventure team on the walkie-talkies shared more knowledge than we could have asked for, be it about the old Mahindras or Rajasthan’s culture. Credit to them for making the long journey engaging.
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Motoring World.
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This story is from the February 2021 edition of Motoring World.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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