Agra to Kanpur in 4 hours

We left Delhi on 10 Nov in the afternoon and reached Agra in the evening. Spent the night at Agra and started for Kanpur at 0430 hrs this morning. Early morning is a good time to start a long drive as the roads are deserted (no jaywalkers or local traffic and also very few trucks move at that time) and it is easy to get out of a city / town. By the time the sun rises one has got nicely tuned to the highway and with increasing visibility one can really step on the gas and enjoy the drive. The picture below shows the sun rising on NH2 this morning.

Whenever I drive in the dark, I try to follow some other driver who is driving at a decent speed. Driver of the leading vehicle does the dirty work of keeping his eyes peeled for perils on the road (and honking to make trucks let him pass). I simply concentrate on following his tail lights and maintaining a reasonable distance. One must always remember not to use high beam while following this strategy. This morning I followed a Scorpio for a considerable distance.

The roads are excellent and I could maintain a range of 100 to 120 kmph throughout. I could do 130 kmph on some stretches and touched 140 a few times. Reached Kanpur in slightly over 4 hours (tea / pee breaks included) -- averaging about 65 kmph overall.

The more I experience this new toy of mine, the more I fall in love with it. At 140 kmph the car was rock steady and smooth and was begging to be pushed harder. I guess the only reason why I haven't pushed the car to its top speed of 160 kmph is that I'm not a young man any more and don't like to like to take any risks on the Indian highways. If I had been driving this same car on the expressways of a civilised country, I would definitely have taken it to top speed as soon as the running-in was completed.

Dead insects stuck on the front licence plate during the drive to Kanpur