Sunil Mathew

Congrats @FERNANDO SYRIO, great to see another fortuner climbing up the ranks!!! See you soon !!!

Excellent drive doc @M.Seidam, really enjoyed the fast pace, the bowls, innumerable criss cross/ switches and climbs… the technical area was also pretty intense , More so for me and my car, trying to save my bumpers and fuel tank guard 😀 ( lost one during a previous tech drive, going over a bush sand mound !!) …

 Great to reconnect again with all fellow drivers, and to engage in post drive chit chat  @Joji varghese @Benjamin @Senthil Kumar and @Rajiv Sam

Hello Doc @M.Seidam..can i sneak in to fill the gap 🙂

Just to add some car specific feedback,  as a  Fortuner owner myself (2014 ,V6) , I drive in "manual" gear, mainly because I like to be in control of my gearshifts. Vehicle controlled upshifts are not advisable when climbing long and steep dunes. In the older version of the car like mine, the "manual" gear selects the max top gear allowed. Eg. If you are in M4, it is same as D and the car up/down shifts with the max gear being M4. If you are in M3, the car up/down shifts automatically with max gear allowed being M3, ie. it wont upshift to M4 even if you hit the rpm limiter (resulting in the rat-a-tat-atata exhaust sound, if you have noticed) .

So , in effect you are actually selecting your allowable top gear, while still allowing "auto" gear shifts within the range . Probably the same in all cars.

Specifically speaking, i choose HL on transfer case, and toggle between M2 and mainly M1 for higher level drives with lot of climbs. For lower level drives with  flat areas and low dunes, M3 will do fine, but M4 is not so comfy for me.

I have tried LL occasionally, toggling between M4 and M3 just to get a feel of it , and felt more grounded overall.

Congrats @Mohit Gurnani, see you soon in your new level!!

Thanks @Looper..i have changed my video settings..

By opting "made for kids" i thought i was just declaring that it was "safe" for kids to watch..and thereby increasing the audience base 😀 and not restricting it. Because there is another option to restrict to 18 yrs or older, which i did not select........anyways...

I see now, it was kind of counter intuitive!!

Thank you for the hot afternoon drive @Davie Chase through a tricky, bumpy, vegetative terrain!!

Faqa is definitely not one of my favourite terrains going forward  , but the drive was pretty intense at many places due to short and steep climbs, technical dunes, avoiding trees, shrubs , bushes , steps etc and keeping our cars stable on low rise side slopes, trying to get on top of ridges, negotiating sharp drops etc. I've got a scary moment of fishtailing captured on my dash cam, posting here for academic purposes 

It was good to see @Islam Solimanback in action after a break, but his car had other plans, decided to boil over and shut down ...hope you get it sorted, and return to the sands to retain your title of Carnity's only LWB truck marshal!!

@Paolo Pellegrini's drive also had to be cut short due to overheat , see you soon mate!

Good to drive with all fellow Carnitians

@Joseph Raju - who had to respond to a good number of terrain warnings from Davie , and reacted quickly. 

@Pierre de Maigret - who is joining after a long break from offroading , and looks like you feel a bit rusty 

and @Bjoern - our paths cross again, good to see you .

Looking forward to more drives in this hot summer, making most of the low traffic in the dunes!!!

Good going @Benjamin..most of us who have driven with you would have expected this ..Congrats on the promotion, and see you soon as a lead!!

My first wadi drive with the club and good to drive with @Fredericafter a really looooo..ng time 🙂…Got to test my modest fortuner in a different terrain and with various gearing combinations, it was a fun learning experience and a different perspective of offroading altogether.

the track is recorded and definitely coming back with friends in cooler times

great to drive with all who joined, old and new faces

see you all soon as and when paths cross 

Half heartedly..joining the list of drop outs... @Varun Mehndiratta... today night looks to be a really long one 😉 for me...

On 6/27/2023 at 7:30 PM, DP1011 said:

Guys any guess

Nope.. not at all.. cant connect a charging bull to a wadi shawka drive 😀🤔

Nice drive as usual Doc @M.Seidam..

On 6/17/2023 at 11:16 AM, M.Seidam said:

I hope your son had enjoyed the black loops 😉

It was my 12yo son's first night drive experience and he enjoyed it a lot, and was wide awake all through the drive, and also loved the recovery , winching etc.

@PETELCZYC PAJERO - luke did a wonderful job of self recovering after the winching efforts by @Ignacio Quindós and @Zulfikhar Naiyar, both doing a wonderful job with their equipment.

It was nice to do the Big Red at night (first time for me) , although we could not complete the full ascents as planned. Looking forward to do a full climb at night 🙂and test limits of our concentration .

Good to meet everyone on the drive, see you all soon

Congrats Simon @Simon D, good going!!...

Congrats Deepak!! @DP1011..way to go!

Another fun drive by the master @Hisham Masaad , thanks for the slopes and climbs ! Driving in Nizwa big red area after a while.

A well executed 2nd lead by Hisham Jr - @Abdelghani...i believe every singl,e warning from hisham was acknowledged with a "copied" on the radio ...

everyone drove beautifully and at their best , resulting in a very fluid drive, and very few stoppages/refusals well managed by @DP1011 in his usual ever present style!

Good to drive with all of you @Deepak Eswar @Cristian @Nadeem Ansari @Juan R @Rk ram @george charbel

3 minutes ago, M.Seidam said:

looks that happened after I pressed enter or during typing

Right doc @M.Seidam,i had removed myself shortly after 9pm 😀...got some unresolved issue at work, so unable to attend..

I will miss what would have been my 100th drive with the club 😒😒.

.as they say, there is always a next time...until then ...🫡

Congratulations @Bjoern, see you soon on IM drives!

Congrats @Patrick van der Loo...see you on IM dives soon!!

Congrats @Krishna R , see you on IM drives soon..!!

Congrats @Felix Obst, see you on IM drives soon!!

Great going and Congratulations @Davie Chase, see you soon on drives!

Great news and congratulations @Looper!!

Excellent drive in an interesting terrain @Varun Mehndiratta...felt like more of an overlanding trip than a desert drive, but it was fun exploring the area . navigating through all that vegetation and climbing whatever dunes were available to us, occasionally reaching heights giving us beautiful views of the area. My last drive here was in 2021, FB drive with the erstwhile blitzkrieg marshal Lorenzo - forum post below , if anyone interested to skim through

The terrain looks more plain in those olderphotos, i think..... All in all , it was a well spent saturday morning with the company of great drivers - @Rajiv Sam - great SL, @Alexanderrr, @Benjamin @Jaro Tuzinsky  @Gok Krish @Joji varghese along with our "always ready and able" ST members @Fabien Monleau @DP1011

Confirmed

Congrats Prem @premindra rajaram..see you soon in the new level!