He’s rammed the brake six times in the last minute. Chennai’s traffic is at its worst at 8 a.m. on a weekday and for Vishnu Rajam, who’s trying to make his way out of the city, this is a stressful way to start the day. As he hits ECR, he finally feels free. He accelerates. His black Ford Endeavour rips through the roads, with its proudly modified steel bumpers, two-inch suspension lifts and monstrous 33-inch tyres. It goes so fast that, eventually, the inevitable happens: it gets pulled over.
Vishnu gets out, looking sheepish and wondering how to talk his way out of this one. The policeman, however, doesn’t care. His agenda is entirely different. “The cop loved the vehicle; he wanted to take a picture with it,” says Vishnu, grinning despite the speeding ticket he eventually received.
For men who belong to Chennai’s off-roading community, having their modified SUVs, jeeps and Gypsys gawked at is no new phenomenon. The work they put into their vehicles is more a matter of functionality than aesthetics though. For when they are perched atop a 30-foot sand dune, trying to manoeuvre their way to level ground, it’s paramount that their vehicle is prepared to handle the feat it is about to undertake.
Welcome to Chennai’s niche, yet growing off-roading scene. Men, who love their machines, enjoy the adrenaline and want to challenge the potential of their vehicles, band together once every month to head off into the wilderness to spend a day off the road. While some off-road for sport, others use it as a means to discover areas they would otherwise have been unable to access. They navigate the slush and rocks in Keerapakkam, or drive through the sand dunes of the Palar riverbed. They conquer the obstacles of sand quarries in Red Hills or Sriperumbudur. Or, they get extra adventurous and make an elaborate road trip out of it, going on to navigate the water falls of Nagalapuram, the streams and marsh lands of the scenic Chembarambakkam lake or the hilly terrain of Palani hills.
“There are not many skills you specifically need; you just have to be a decent driver and have some common sense,” says Major Swaraj Robert Roy, owner of Adventure Zone, adding that its appeal is still niche as it is a time-and-money consuming sport. While a jeep costs nothing less than two lakhs and the price escalates from thereon, a more comfortable SUV starts at about 13 lakhs.
While any vehicle with a four-wheel drive can be used off the road, modifications, which are costly, make the vehicles more powerful and ensure that it can take abuse without damage. “If vehicles are equipped with snorkels, we can drive through water that reaches up till the bonnet,” explains Amit Tomar, owner of Torque Factory that does off-road modifications for vehicles. He is also Chennai’s administrator for the online off-roading group, 4x4, and says that during one of their off-roading trips, his Pajero got stuck in water and had to be towed all the way from Chengalpet to Adyar.
“When a vehicle loses mobility, we’ve taken as long as six hours just to pull it 200 metres because it was stuck in the sand,” says Arkaprava Datta, who has been a part of the off-roading community for close to a decade now, and organises the Palar Challenge, under the Terra Tigers banner. He insists that off-roading isn’t an individual sport, and for safety reasons, recommends that at least three vehicles venture out together in case things go awry.
A major part of off-roading is recovery, says Arkaprava, who owns a 1996 Mahindra jeep, which he’s equipped with recovery tools like winches and cables. While off-roading is more about skill than speed, and causes very little harm to the driver, Arkaprava says it’s important to wear a seatbelt always to ensure that those in the car don’t wobble when the vehicle does.
“Lots of people have the misconception that off-roading damages your vehicle; it’s like saying if I play football, I’ll break my leg,” says Arkaprava, and adds that properly equipping the vehicle will prevent it from damage. Yet, many SUV owners opt not to use their vehicles for serious off-roading because even a minor dent can prove to be an expensive affair to fix. Many serious off-roaders own jeeps and Gypsys, and some even opt to purchase all-terrain vehicles for personal use. While they leave the drivers more exposed and aren’t road legal, they can be used to navigate narrow spaces off the road that bigger vehicles cannot access.
Anyone who is interested in foraying into the sport will find that Chennai’s off-roading community is more than happy to help. The Terra Tigers organise SUV excursions once every two months, inviting people who own four-wheel drive vehicles like the Mahindra Thar, TATA Xenon, Toyota Fortuners, Mitsubishi Pajero, and Ford Endeavour, to introduce owners to their utility vehicles’ potential off the road. “A lot of people don’t know what an SUV is capable of even in stock condition. That’s the awareness we are trying to bring,” says Vishnu, who is an organiser with Terra Tigers. The 4x4 Facebook community is also a place for off-roading enthusiasts to discuss experiences, air concerns and ask questions about the sport. The community in Chennai also has a WhatsApp group with about a 100 members, and those interested can be a part of the monthly off-road expeditions.
Everything said and done, off-roading is a fairly lesser-known sport and one dominated by men. There is, however, the occasional woman willing to test the terrain. Forty-one-year-old Reen Graham is one of them. She off-roads with the Chennai 4x4 group and for her, it’s a family affair. When she tries to tackle 30-foot sand dunes, and murky water, her husband and 13-year-old daughter are in the car with her, cheering her on and shouting manoeuvring instructions. Her vehicle, a Scorpio four-wheel drive, is a stock vehicle and does all that it does, without any modifications.
Some, like founder of Chennai Trekking Club Peter Van Geit, set off alone or with a small informal group to explore the wilderness. Peter says he has butterflies in his tummy every time he has an off-road challenge to overcome. He often drives off by himself in his Fortuner to the Palar riverbed to tackle the sand and water obstacles there. “You get stuck once in a while and the challenge then is to get the vehicle out of the loose sand or water,” he says, adding that if he’s unable to shovel himself out, he usually goes to the nearby village to find a farmer with a tractor that can pull his vehicle out.
Many like Peter have found their own groove when it comes to going off the road. They go exploring on farms and estates, band together with friends and family or join a bigger group. They drive through marsh lands and climb steep slopes, and while they tackle the worst of obstacles, their engines rev, threatening to stall, and their wheels spin on madly in whirls of sound. However, when they’ve conquered it all, and done what seemed impossible, all that’s left to show for their feats are the tread marks their tyres leave behind.
