Malayali Car Enthusiast to drive Tata Nano 25000 Km (Around India in 80 days) !

Mr Thomas Chacko preparing for the trip
Photo Source : www.manoetnano.com

1 Car Nut +  1 Wild Dream + 1 Tata Nano + 25000Km of Road  + 80 Days = Recipe for Epic Road Trip ? Definitely !

Kochi based auto enthusiast and long road trip geek  (among a long list lot of other illustrious achievements) Mr Thomas Chacko cooked up this dream road trip while editing the trip details of Suresh Joseph who covered all Indian state capitals and all zonal railway headquarters in a Maruti Swift.  Rather than do the same road trip he wanted to add some more excitement – by choosing to add in the farthest points of the country in all directions possible , making the distance to cover touch 25,000 Km and to do this in around 2.5 months.  He managed to sweet talk Mr Ratan Tata(through a letter) to have Tata Motors sponsor a Tata Nano as well.  Mr Chacko will be doing this trip without a convoy of on road assistance as well.  He is planning on doing all the driving himself but will have company with him across the trip from his family  – his wife, son, daughter, brother, sister and brother-in-law.The road trip has kicked off on May 3rd and is to conclude by July 20th,2012.

Just looking at the plans things seem easy – plain math says that 25000 Km in 80 days would come to 312 Km per day. Though the details of the specific daily routes/distances is not mentioned – it would mean driving a minimum of 6+ hours (assuming an average speed of around 55Kmph) each day. Of course this may vary depending on road conditions and traffic.

Using the Nano for such trips is not new – The Nano Superdrive event in 2010 covered 15,000 kilometers across 36 cities in around 26 days with multiple cars and drivers primarily with the intent to set at rest fears of the Nano’s reliability and safety. The Nano(s) came out of the experience unscathed.

However I wish there was a bit more to this road trip than the distance, endurance of man, machine and time factor – am sure its still not too late to use the publicity from this drive to benefit some charity or other. So far all that is clear is that the journey will be documented in a book called Mano Et Nano which obviously will be printed by Mr Chackos own publishing company. Will be a fun read am sure either way.

Do follow the updates from his blog www.manoetnano.com (I wish the site is updated frequently – it hasn’t been as of writing this post). Some funny comments to the initial post on the site ask if the Nano would crack first or the Chacko would ?

I salute Mr Thomas first for being a car nut and for being crazy enough to embark on such a trip. Am also happy to see his family come forward to participate and support  him on the trip.  It is truly an inspiration to see such road trips being planned and executed. Hope to do something like this before my bucket kicking.

7 thoughts on “Malayali Car Enthusiast to drive Tata Nano 25000 Km (Around India in 80 days) !”

  1. @Fas – however some vehicles may be better off than others for e.g. better ground clearance, power steerign and safety features may ensdure the drive is a lot more comfortable and safer.

    @Srinidhi – yes the self drive inititive has more appeal – atleast how I see it 🙂

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