My side of the story:
Featuring:
Rajeev (raj_5004)
Aditya (Renegade)
Arun (Me!)
Abhishek (Abhishek)
Amit (amit)
Naveen (vroom)
Abhijit (torque.addict)
The morning: A lazy morning perhaps. Got up around 10 and quickly called Abhishek. Asked that guy to drop at my place. Abhishek drops in at 10:50. I am busy eating breakfast.
The drive: Aditya gets a call from Rajeev and decides upon a highway meet! Me, Aditya and Abhishek leave from home. Reach the highway in 5 minutes. We wait for Rajeev, who arrives in 5 minutes. Rajeev comes in, flashes his lights perhaps signaling a hello! We flash our indicators in return. A quick stop at the signal, Rajeev sticks his head out and asks, who is Arun? I greet him, see Naveen at the back. A quick hello to them. While entering the venue we see a convoy of Haley-Davidson. Aditya asks a Harley rider to rev the beast. He obliges with a smile. As we see the Harleys disappearing, we reach the venue. We park the cars, get down and meet. All of us get back in Rajeev's Scorpio and have a demo of his head unit.
The expo: All of us, get into the expo hall. Petrolheads unite and blabber about cars!
Adi and Naveen go roaming about. I'm left with Rajeev and Abhishek. Rajeev and Abhishek are clicking pics, I'm busy thinking where Adi and Naveen have vanished.
I tell Rajeev that I'll look for them. I soon find them lunging around the Endeavour and the Fiesta. I ask them to come along. Meanwhile, Rajeev and Abhishek have disappeared, apparently gone mad clicking.
Aditya, Naveen and myself are at the Maisto stall, checking scale models. Aditya then left us going over to the Rio.
Me and Naveen decide to have a walk around. We are walking and we see the Z4 with it's top-down. I notice the GTR-R35 was open, with some foreigners hanging around. Naveen and myself go over and ask a guy to click pics of the interior, which he refuses. The guy asks for the keys of the Skyline, he turns on the ignition and revvs the engine. It firsts sounds like some insecticide sprayer, but when he revved it..ahh!! The feeling! Myslef and Naveen are thinking about the great deeds we have done to experience this! The feeling of a Skyline revving at your face is DIVINE! The sweet aroma of burnt fuel leaves us speechless. In the meantime, Naveen calls up Rajeev and asks him where they are.
Rajeev tells that they're near the 4 X 4 track, beside the GIO. We head towards the 4 X 4 track. We find Rajeev, Aditya and Abhishek quite amused and amazed by the Gio.We then buy Mahindra souvenirs just to get a chance to have a lap across the 4 X 4 track. Five people aren't allowed at one go, Aditya decides to take a spin in the Bolero as he had a trip in the Getaway last friday. We wait patiently for the Getaway to come. We wanted to be in the Getaway, just because the driver [Manish] was absolutely awesome! ( Told by Adi ) We wait for the Getaway to come. People finish four rounds in the Bolero, with the firangs getting two rounds. While we wait, myself and Naveen make fun of the Bolero driver calling him a coconut transporter from the south.I'm conned into sitting in the middle as an airbag for Abhishek and Naveen while Rajeev is in the front seat.
It is now finally time for us to get away in the Getaway. We sit in the Getaway, Manish tells us that he won't be driving. We're highly disappointed. He tells he has an important phone call to attend. We reply that we'll wait. The Bolero completes another round by then. Finally Manish arrives in 3-4 minutes. By then, we click pics in the Getaway. Manish explains us what the 4 X 4 is, and how to take your car off-road. What to do where. Total Gyan! We then go around the track. The first round was how to do what. The second round was the master at work! Great driving skills! When on the incline, we lose the power steering(The belt snapped, I presume). We finish our round thanking and appreciating Manish. Rajeev is happy! Me, Naveen and Abhishek have dirty pants to deal with. We use the Mercedes pamphlet to clean it off.
Rajeev calls up Abhijit and Naveen calls up Amit to ask them their where-abouts. A few strolls along, we find Amit. We con him into sitting in the Gio. We move over to the Bolero "Attitude". Me and Rajeev drool over the car. Super smooth shifter, Kenwood 7043 Head unit and a Harman-Kardon system fitted in. We're mighty impressed. We move over to the Bolero "Stinger" and find it pretty boring! Pretty basic. We find Abhijit and his friends after a few moments. We decide to move to a place for some clicks. Abhijit leads while we follow. Aditya does a few screeches along the way. We allign the cars, click the pics. Get the guys near the cars, click again.
Drive back/Lunch:We're dead hungry by now. We could eat a horse if given! We decide lunch. Abhijit had to leave for some work. We bid goodbye to Abhijit. We decide to head to McDonalds Nirmal Lifestyle (Mulund). I decide to take a ride in the Scorpio. Abhishek and Aditya are content in the Estilo. Naveen decides to get personal with the City. We are at a signal, we see a Gto moving. Amit has a shot of NOS in his head and chases the car like a maniac. He takes a wrong turn and follows the GTO. We are shocked and surpised. We call him up, and tell him to meet us directly at Mulund. The Estilo zooms around, gets a quick refill while the Scorpio waits for it on the Mulund highway. We ask Aditya to follow. Sadly this Schumacher brained guy has his sane side taken over by his racing dna. He floors it, going somewhere. He misses the exit and we have to wait again. He takes a U-turn and meets us shortly. We reach Nirmal Lifestyle and park our cars. Still no clue where Amit and Naveen are. We are about to enter the mall. The security guy, spotting Rajeev's camera says "Photu khicha, to camera japt karega". Rajeev replies "Haan, karlo karlo." We reach Mcdonalds. I go upto to the 1st floor, reserve seats. Abhishek, Rajeev and Aditya get our "lunch". Everyone begin eating. Rajeev apparently doesn't bring me a McAloo Tikki, which I'm miffed about. I call up Naveen and tell him to get it for me. Amit has parked his car and says they'll be there in a while. We finish our burgers, fries and coke. Rajeev says "Main dakar marunga, tab ye aayenge" ( These guys will come till I burp). Rajeev is just about to burp, we find Naveen and Amit smiling at us with their McChicken Maharajas. Rajeev bows down in respect. I get my McAloo Tikki. I'm happy. We talk about where Amit and Naveen were. They apparently have toured Mumbai. We're now full, just about to doze off given a chance. Naveen has a meeting to attend at 5[It was 4:45 by then]. Rajeev offers him a ride. We disperse!
At the end of the day, the TAI meet was a huge success. Pics will be coming up shortly!