Himachal Supercar Run

It’s a dream we all grow up with… the fantasy of gripping the steering ’wheel of a supercar, feeling the engine’s roar in your spine, and navigating mountain roads as the landscape unfolds in cinematic grandeur. Every car commercial, every automotive fantasy begins with that vision — of man, machine and mountain. This fantasy isn’t just about speed; it is about escape, freedom and the raw harmony between horsepower and the horizon. We dream of the icy mountain air rushing past us, the pine-covered cliffs above, the roads snaking into clouds. Supercars built for speed suddenly seem to find their soul at altitude — in grit, in an environment where few dare to take them. A drive such as this is a celebration of passion, performance and the relentless human spirit that dares to take dreams off posters and put them on tarmac.

Planning the drive

This fantasy started off as a simple conversation and ended up being an epic run in the mountains for an unprecedented 18 performance and supercars in the mountains and valleys of Himachal Pradesh. The idea was sowed one morning when we were on our usual Sunday morning drive around Mumbai. Mohit (Chuganee) suggested to Zain (Rais) that he should plan a drive in the Himalayas around Manali — an idea that was quickly dismissed as everyone seemed to have done this drive in SUVs or sedans, never in low-slung performance cars. There was a lot of apprehension — you will end up damaging your cars, you can’t take these cars, you will get stuck, performance cars are too delicate and too precious to take on road trips, you won’t get good fuel. I could go on and on and on. But determined to make it work, Zain called on all the expertise of his outfit, Entertainment Bay Experiences and started work to put it together.

The first bit was to assemble a crew of like-minded friends up for an adventure. Ones that were crazy and passionate enough to be willing to take their performance cars out, drive and not just be mere garage queens. Having done multiple road trips in different parts of the world in rented cars, the prospect of doing a road trip as epic as this in our own cars was too tempting an opportunity to pass up. The fact that we were taking performance cars and not SUVs was all the more tempting. And we soon had a crew of nine ready. Zain also reached out to Zorawar (Singh Suri) in Chandigarh since that was decided as the starting point for the drive. Once Zorawar heard the plan he was immediately on board — not only to join but also to provide any support that would be required for the drive. Once he mentioned it to a few friends in Chandigarh, they jumped on board and then there were an enviable 18 cars ready for the drive.

Recces were planned and carried out by contacts in Manali, videos of every bad patch of road after Manali were sent and analysed, fuel pumps were researched, flatbed trailers were sourced and contracted to follow the cars on the entire drive should a need arise in the event of a breakdown or even something as simple as a ripped sidewall. A service crew was assembled in Chandigarh for support in case of any emergencies. We even bought equipment such as traction boards in case we ended up requiring them, as we were going in blind to what the on-ground situation would be and how our performance cars would deal with it. The terrain was just the first challenge, in the mountains, the weather can turn very quickly and we wanted to be prepared.

Kicking off the adventure

The Chandigarh-Manali leg was largely a transport leg, in rally parlance. With a multitude of speed cameras once you cross into Himachal Pradesh, staying within the speed limits with a bunch of performance cars raring to go was the ultimate test of patience and maturity. Thankfully everyone aced it. The Manali-Darcha leg was what we were really waiting for. The first stage that morning was from our hotel in Manali to the Atal tunnel. As it was early in the morning, we didn’t encounter any traffic and despite the few bad patches en route, the cars enjoyed that climb up to the world’s longest tunnel above 10,000ft. After a quick breakfast at Sissu, we set off for Darcha. Keylong enroute at 10,100ft has two Indian Oil fuel stations and both have XP95 so the days of stressing over fuel in these parts are clearly in the past. We went past Jispa at 10,500ft and crossed the Barsi bridge on the Bhaga river, the second longest iron bridge in the country, to get to Darcha.

We expected the mountains to be unpredictable and they proved us right with rain showers! I’m not complaining — wet mountain roads, misty, snow-clad mountain tops and a Porsche 911 Turbo with its AWD system was a match made in motoring heaven. The Nissan GT-R R35 and I had broken off and gone ahead of the group — and the two of us dancing through the mountains was magical. The 911 Turbo gives you so much confidence to take the corners just that little bit faster, it goes exactly where you point it with the poise of a ballet dancer. Being a slightly old school 997.1 Turbo, the spooling up of the turbos is a lot more pronounced, the hydraulic steering heavier and with more feel and feedback than modern cars. The car was so at home on these mountain roads that all the worries that plagued us before we got here simply melted away.

I really immersed myself in the drive, the scenic beauty around, the traffic-free roads and the roar of the mighty twin-turbocharged flat-six. I felt like I was part of the Early Morning Hakone Runners who get together with their sports cars in the wee hours to drive the mountains of Hakone — enjoying empty, serpentine roads and the spectacular scenery around. We wanted to go beyond Darcha but the roads ahead were restricted and closed due to weather conditions. So we turned around for Jispa where we ate lunch overlooking the Bhaga river before heading back to Manali. Credit is due to the 70 RCC and the BRO for the excellent job being done by them to maintain the Atal tunnel and the roads beyond in very difficult and trying conditions. Also to the Himachal Pradesh government and the Tourism Department of HP for according us a warm welcome and extending all their cooperation.

There is a certain joy, even comfort in road tripping in your own car that can’t really be explained. The fact that I was alone in the car on this trip was also an experience — it had been many years since that had happened. A retro playlist to sing along to, largely good roads and not much traffic made it perfect. The one thing I wished that I could change was to do this in a manual car, although in all fairness, Moin did offer me his manual Porsche Cayman GT4 to drive multiple times. I didn’t take him up on his offer out of some silly sense of ‘what if’. I wish I would have though.

What’s next?

Since I have been back home in Mumbai, we’ve already gotten down to planning the next one. Many options have been discussed, many dates and calendars have been shared. I think all of us are properly smitten with the thought of road tripping in our performance cars. More and more roads around the country are now doable in performance cars and we look forward to the next opportunity. I would certainly encourage more performance car owners to get their cars out onto open roads and drive. That is when you can really enjoy these cars and be one with them. Are our Indian roads and conditions perfect? Far from it, but to me that’s exactly where the joy in road tripping comes from. A lot of knowns and some unknowns that give it an air of adventure. So get out there and plan those driving holidays! Apt to quote John Muir, “Into the mountains I go, to lose my mind and find my soul!”

– Words by Parag Rajda

Read about more such road trips in the latest issue of evo India magazine. Click here to buy!