Turtles

Maserati in namma Bengaluru

Thanks to modern speed enforcement, the idea of leaping large continents in a hugely fast, spectacularly comfortable car has become something of a quaint notion। And yet, upscale manufacturers still compete to build the ultimate GT (Gran Turismo). Reflecting the concept’s European origins, the short list of candidates for this honor all originate on the other side of the pond: the Mercedes CL63, Bentley Continental GT, Aston Martin DB9, BMW 650, Jaguar XKR and the Maserati GT. Having owned or reviewed all but the new Maserati, I decided to see if the mad Italian has what it takes to trump its continental cousins.

Aesthetically, the Maser has their measure. It’s the Jessica Alba of GTs. From any angle, the Italian coupe offers seemingly endless, perfectly shaped curves; all exactly where they should be. From its 60’ F1-style curvilinear maw, to the subtle swell of the front wheel arches, to the gracious sweep of its rear air spoiler, the GT tells the world that Maserati’s roots rock.
The coupe’s wheelbase accounts for much of the design’s success; only the epic Mercedes CL eclipses the Maserati’s 116" length. At 192" from nose to tail, the NBA proportions help make that delicious body look longer and lower than it really is.
Despite its size and girth, the GT’s trunk is puny; hard luck for hard case schleppers. To make matters worse, there is no spare. Since the trunk is opened via an electrically actuated lock, the battery’s location in the Maser's micro-compartment seems ill-advised. The side doors offer a choice of mechanical or electrical opening— which makes their operation feel less than bank vault-like during normal operation.
Maserati has dressed their deeply sybaritic cockpit with a myriad of highest-quality, owner-selected leathers, trim, stitching and wood finishes. It’s elegant, fragrant and sumptuous. On the downside, the seat is strangely unyielding, lacking all but the Jaguar’s range of adjustments. And the headliner is an effrontery in this class, bereft of the Quattroporte’s faux suede option. Even so, only the Bentley Continental GT’s interior can match the Maserati GT’s cabin for sheer indulgence.
A DVD-based navigation system dominates the Maser’s modern dash. Unlike the German competition, the Maserati GT lacks a complicated electronic interface– as there aren’t enough toys requiring mass manipulation. Unforgivably— at least for a GT– there’s no satellite radio, iPod-compatibility or Bluetooth connectivity. That said, the coupe's built-in 30-gigabyte hard drive jukebox and Bose-designed sound system is excellent. Sunroof fans should also look elsewhere (Mercedes is the only GT group member to offer a sliding sunroof).
No push button start contrivances here. Just insert the key, turn and experience the fabulous snarl of a Ferrari-built, 405hp V8. The noise competes with the exterior beauty as the vehicle’s best feature. Sadly, revving the engine at standstill is about as good as it gets.
The previous Maserati coupe must have been judged too sporting for its audience; most of the performance and road feel has been engineered out. With the six-speed automatic transmission left in normal mode, the ride and shift quality is decidedly placid– which magnifies the heft of the helm. The GT’s two-plus tons of mass announce themselves in the corners, with lazy turn-in and relentless understeer. Brake feel is similarly muted and somewhat wooden. Despite the test vehicle’s 20” wheels, the car felt like it wanted to cruise the boulevards rather than bomb the Autobahn.
Pressing the sport button tightens the Maserati GT’s road feel, and the shifts become a little crisper. But there's no dynamic urgency built into this vehicle. Acceleration from naught to 60 takes a little more than five seconds, which is decidedly mid-pack for this category. The avoirdupois makes it feel slower.
I'm told that another 50 horsepower is on the way before the end of this year. It could not come too soon. Overall the GT’s driving experience feels dialed-back many notches from its full potential. At best, it’s a competent cruiser that encourages a relaxed demeanor– the antithesis of BMW’s 6-Series.
Aside from its outward beauty and glorious exhaust note, the Maserati holds one more trump card: its MSRP. The GT stickers at $117k, with most of its meager toys intact. The price undercuts the Mercedes, Aston and Bentley, and slightly exceeds the BMW and Jaguar. Just don’t expect an aggressive lease program; the residuals are dreadful.
The ultimate problem with the drop-dead sexy Maserati GT is endemic to its category: the GT Coupe has lost its original raison d’etre. Since the Maserati lives to look and sound good, perhaps that’s all that’s necessary to compete in a segment of declining relevance. As most wealthy pistonheads already have a plenty fast four-door, perhaps something a little smaller, lighter and less refined would serve their needs better. Audi R8 anyone?
Source: thetruthaboutcars.com

Tigress killed at nagarahole

A female tiger was tragically crushed to death by a speeding truck on Ubdur-Bavali road inside the Nagarahole National park at night on Saturday, the 12^th of July.

The government is well aware that this crucial 12km stretch of road gives poachers optimum advantage to smuggle various rare natural woods such as teak and rose worth lakhs of rupees besides numerous wildlife products such as tiger skin, elephant tusks, venison and wild boar meat

Trucks and lorries also ply through the Ubdur-Bavali road to evade taxes, which in turn results in losses in tune of millions of rupees for the state. The same route is used at night to ferry cattle from Karnataka to butcheries in Kerala.

This road should effectively be banned for use as the stretch happens to pass through the heart of the Nagarahole National Park and is the crucial migratory corridor for elephants and tigers to pass to Bandipur.

During summer, several hundreds of elephants gather on the banks of river Kabini dam when they are in shortage of food and water, but this road poses as a major hindrance for their movement. This also affects other animals with wide home ranges, such as tigers.

Save the Baby Seals

"We the undersigned" with all our credentials are sometime helpless, showing the incapability of human existence।

In Norway killing baby seals is the ultimate form of extreme holiday sport (fun) for some heartless, brutal people. For them killing a baby seal is the easiest thing that they can do to have fun. This work of sadistic mind cannot be given the name of sport as the animal is totally frail.

Trip to ooty

On the night of 17th August, my friend’s and me boarded a bus from the Karnataka Interstate Bus Terminal to Ooty. The bus was full and we departed at 10.40pm. The bus stopped for a break at Mandya on the way for 10 minutes and then it proceeded for Ooty.

Next morning on 18th of August just before reaching Ooty the bus stopped for 5 mins, requested by the passenger for urgency, but we found it interesting, as the bus had stopped next to the Pykara Lake, the serene was stunning, as the climate was nerve-jangling our body. We reached OOTY "the land of Nilgiris" Ootcamund around 8.00am, due to very bad roads from Gudalur to Ooty. The road was hectic but we enjoyed the journey watching a charismatic nature.

We booked a moderate accommodation and spoke to the lodge owner about the places. He advised us to go for a package tour. There were three to four packages of which we booked ‘Filmy Chakar’, as we found it good.
The journey, had to start by 9.30, due to some reasons it was delayed by 1 hour.
As the sightseeing started, the guide gave a brief introduction about Ooty and all the places where we stopped.
We saw the Kamarajasagar dam, where Roja movie was shot, Pine forests, Pykara dam, Pykara Lake and Pykara falls where we enjoyed a lot. We were back to town by 5.00 and went to Ooty Botanical garden. At around 5.30pm when the Ooty-Coonur traditional train was about to move, we geared up to the railway station for the 1.30-hour amazing journey. The nature seen from the train cannot be described in words its simply was awe-inspiring, which was treat to eyes. We reached Coonur around 8.00pm and caught a bus from Coonur back to Ooty and reached around 9.30 pm.

The next day we got up at 7 am, everyone was fresh by 10 am; we rushed to the Ooty boat club, which was around 2 kms from Ooty bus stand. The boat ride was really nice and while still on the boat we saw a Deer park on the opposite of the lake.

Our bus was at 12.30 pm, back to Bangalore, via Madhumalai wildlife sanctuary & Bandipur Tiger reserve. While on our way back we went back to our teen ages when we saw the animals in the wild. It was awesome, especially a peacock that stood on the road, next to the passing bus.
We were back in Bangalore around 9.15 pm.


Distance: Bangalore to Ooty-300kms
Via Bandipur and Madhumalai Wildlife sanctuary

The Siberian Tigers in China

The Siberian Tigers in China are a rare species of tigers. These tigers look beautiful in
the wild and not in the wildlife park. It is totally inhuman for anyone to WANT to
watch a poor helpless cow shiver at the sight of these tigers. How would any human
feel if some other creature ridicules him when he is voraciously eating? The tigers in
the park are not capable of hunting for themselves unlike the tigers in the wild; they
depend on man entirely to feed them. It becomes monotonous for the tiger to feed only
on chicken and cows; these creatures are better off in the wild where they can hunt on
a variety of preys. Breeding Siberian tigers does not entitle the zoo to get the right of
changing their habitat. It’s high time the Chinese Government to realize that the
Siberian tigers must be returned to the wild. Feeding of live animals to the tigers makes
the park wealthy but not the poor tigers. WSPA is playing a major role in saving the
Siberian tigers.

Lets join hands and save them.

Muthathi trip by bike

Bheemeshwari / Muthathi is located around 100 kms from Bangalore, 50 kms further from Kanakapura. Our trek was around 8 kms, starting from Bheemeshwari to Muthathi ... catching breath ... while enjoying the cool ... balmy breeze We were a team of around 6 and travelled in a 3 bikes . Wasnt the water cool and tempting ? I thought so ... had breakfast on the way near Kanakapura We got down near the Cauvery fishing camp in Bheemeshwari ...
... almost two hours of awesome time in water ...... and it was time to leave. ... and trekked along side river Kaveri (Cauvery) towards Muthathi ... this is on the way back ...