Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Car India

GOODWOOD. ROLLS-ROYCE CALL IT HOME. The hill-climb is an occasion. The Festival of Speed? It’s always the site of some breathtaking spectacles usually running high-octane petrol. This year, it was the venue for another spectacular reveal ― India’s own Vazirani Automotive took the wraps off the stunning Shul. A hybrid vehicle putting out over 1,000 PS and aimed at blowing more socks off than anything getting its go from electricity. The Shul is the brainchild of Chunky Vazirani, a designer with loads of experience under his belt, including stints at Volvo, Yamaha, and Rolls-Royce. What makes the Shul truly unique is its powertrain. Yes, it’s a hybrid, but it’s not just one electric motor that’s brings the power: there are four, one high-output electric motor in each wheel. There’s also…

Audi RS 6 Avant performance Audi have finally launched the RS 6 Avant performance ― boasting of even more power than the standard version ― priced at Rs 1.65 crore (ex-showroom). The “standard” RS 6 Avant is powered by the 4.0 TFSI twin-turbo V8 which develops 560 PS and 700 Nm. However, the RS 6 performance makes an even higher 605 PS with 750 Nm of peak torque available via overboost. The power is fed to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox and the quattro all-wheel-drive system. The newly launched RS 6 Avant performance is the last iteration of the powerful estate with an all-new version coming soon following the launch of the next-generation A6. The Audi RS 6 Avant performance will take on the likes of the…

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT RAJASTHAN, WE ENVISAGE grand palaces, mighty forts, and, of course, royalty. In the present series we have covered such places. This time around, however, we ended up finding a place that has nothing to do with royalty. In fact, it was the British who founded this place, which is now a heritage hotel. So, to find out more about this mysterious place, we headed to Jaipur from where we drove to Sambhar. Read on to find out more about this historic place in Car India presents Architectural Gems of India in association with Hyundai Motor India. For this expedition, we were in the company of the fabulous Hyundai Xcent, the feature-packed and highly comfortable compact sedan from one of India’s largest car-makers. We started from the…

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST-looking car built and sold by Tata Motors. First seen at Auto Expo 2016, before turning heads at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, the Nexon has been a long time coming. The bold design language gives this car a distinctive look. That wide, smiling grille is similar to the one on the Tata Zest and flanking it are a pair of projector headlamps, endowed with a unique and eye-catching LED signature. The silver cladding on the pillars, and running along the side of the car under the windows, adds emphasis to the sloping shoulder-line when viewed from the side, and those 16-inch alloys do a fine job of filling up the flared wheel-arches for a purposeful stance. The aloof stance is carried over to…

THE COMPETITION IN THE MID-SIZE SEDAN SEGMENT is getting intense. The refreshed Ciaz will be spicing things up even more. Maruti Suzuki maintain that since its launch the Ciaz has been the segment-leader and enjoys about 34 per cent share. While the other big chunks belong to the evergreen Honda City and the Hyundai Verna, the newly introduced Toyota Yaris is inching towards gaining momentum as well. PLENTY OF NEW FEATURES HAVE BEEN ADDED TO MAKE THE DRIVE MORE CONVENIENT With the increasing pressure from competition, Maruti had to up their game and have given their sedan a mid-life makeover. It’s the usual facelift recipe — a heap full of new-age features, a dash of styling tweaks, finely finished cabin, and safety features as standard. Although the basic form remains…

THE MIDDLE-AGED ITALIAN BUSINESSMAN PULLS alongside in his Benz, adjusts his iPhone and starts filming. ‘This is the prettiest Audi – ever,’ he insists. ‘Que bella! The colour, the proportions, everything. Quanta costa?’ Around £67,000 (Rs 60 lakh without extras, at least £97,000 (Rs 87.3 lakh) in our all-options-ticked test car. Aiming at the gap between the BMW X6 and X7, or Range Rover Sport and Velar, or Mercedes GLE Coupé and GLS, the coupé-SUV styling of the 2,145-kg Audi gets it off to a promising start. But there are problems afoot, as we soon find on our 21-hour, 1,610-km drive from Italy into Austria. The only Q8 engine available when it goes on sale in the UK this summer is the 50 TDI — a 3.0-litre diesel V6 —…

THE CONTINUOUSLY SPIRALLING fuel prices have been the butt of many a joke in recent times. However, the average consumer quite often gets cheated even at the ground level. Incidentally, the state of Maharashtra showed the highest number of fuel pump fraud cases registered. With most instances going unregistered, the problem is likely to be graver in proportion. Bad fuel can also cause a lot of problems in your vehicle. FUEL QUALITY: There are ways to protect oneself against such malpractices which, we hope, will help consumers to be on their guard. A common method used by some fuel stations is adulteration: pure fuel being mixed with other liquids to increase their fuel reserves. A quick way to test this is to ask for a filter paper. According to the…

THE THIRD WEEKEND OF AUGUST SAW THE country’s top drivers descend upon Chennai for a weekend of wheel-to-wheel racing. seven classes of race cars are doing battle in this year’s championship and the pit garages were crammed with everything from formidable open-wheel race cars to saloons in the touring car classes and even a few turbocharged beasts taking part in the new turbo class. Qualifying for all classes was held on friday, with races being held on saturday and sunday. here is how it all turned out. MRF F1600 Race One The premier class of open-wheel racers in the Indian National Racing Championship, the F1600 class, saw some serious action with top drivers fighting for the championship lead. Going into the weekend it was Chennai lad Ashwin Datta who led…

ALL FOR FEATURES AND COMFORT I would like some help with making a decision on a car I am looking to buy. I am in the market for a sedan. I am not a person who really cares too much about speed and performance, but more about comfort and luxury. Hence, I have been looking at more feature-rich options such as the Hyundai Verna and Toyota Yaris. I have also been advised to consider the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. I would like your advice in making my decision, keeping in mind that my priorities are more features and comfort. Thank you, Car India, for the great stories. Keep up the good work. Incidentally, I am a big fan of your travelogues. Rohan, Patna Dear Rohan, Thank you for your kind words.…

MIXING AND MATCHING IS SOMETHING HUGELY PREVALENT today. Wherever you go, someone’s mixing shampoo with conditioner, salt with caramel, even performance with tiny engines. Then there are car-makers bridging gaps with segments. Audi did the Allroad in a couple of sizes. Volvo have been making Cross Country versions of their estates for over 20 years and also did versions for their hatchback and sport sedan. Now Mercedes have entered the fray with what I can only describe as a luxury crossover between the E-Class Estate and GLE-Class: the E-Class All-Terrain. It’s not been launched yet. They’re still gauging potential and overall interest, considering how people have always wanted car-like handling and luxury with estate-like practicality and SUV-like all-road ability, but were unable to get anything to satisfy all roles. Well,…

THERE’S A SINISTER CHARM TO DESERTS, ISN’T THERE? Peaceful, empty, beautiful, and serene. The same desert is also hot, dry, arid, and desolate and can leave you in a lurch if you find yourself lost within its borders. We wanted to see how the WR-V, Honda’s go-anywhere compact crossover, would fare in this picturesque yet demanding environment. That meant driving from our starting point in Ahmedabad, the financial capital of Gujarat, across the border into Rajasthan and towards Jaisalmer and the Thar Desert. We started our journey on the banks of the Sabarmati River that snakes its way through the heart of the city and in the shadow of one of her historic 11 bridges, the Sardar Bridge. The tranquillity of the riverside was a perfect environment to calm us…

WHERE’S THE CATCH? A seriously upgraded M2 at a barely increased price sounds too good to be true and yet here it is in the howling, screeching, thrilling metal. The new M2 Competition isn’t a special version of the M2; it replaces the M2. BMW needed to do some work on the M2 to satisfy the latest emission regulations and while they had the spanners out, they gave it a massive performance upgrade. And, even more wonderfully, they have imposed only the most modest of price rises — less than £3,000 (Rs 2.7 lakh) for UK buyers. IT REALLY IS A REMARKABLE PACKAGE: FASTER, SPORTIER, AND PURER What you get is essentially the familiar M2 but with the old M240i-based engine replaced by the M3/M4 engine, the key difference being…

LOOK PAST THE WHITE, RED AND BLACK CORPORATE RACE LIVERY, the Le Mans-ready aero, and, if you can, those delicious centre-lock forged racing wheels. Blank out the faintly terrifying rear diffuser, the wheel-arches pulled wide by broader tracks front and rear and the full-length, turbo-cooling bonnet vents. This, the GR Supra Racing Concept, is the new Supra: an all-new, fun-focused, rear-drive Japanese sports car of a kind widely thought to be extinct — don’t you believe it. When it arrives on UK roads next year, new Supra will serve as proof that CEO Akio Toyoda’s infectious enthusiast spirit has finally woken up Toyota from its vanilla slumbers. ‘THE PHILOSOPHY WAS TO BUILD A MOTORSPORT CAR — PRACTICALITY WAS PUT TO ONE SIDE’— TETSUYA TADA The Supra Saga: Remind Me The…

POLARIS INDIA, A SUBSIDIARY OF Polaris Industries, are manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles (ATV) in a range of sizes and styles. The company has a number of what they call “Experience Zones” around the country. As the name suggests, these are places where potential customers can experience the vehicles in the Polaris ATV range. The events also help Polaris India promote and showcase the capability of their vehicles. Polaris have just inaugurated their 83rd Experience Zone at Sunny’s World in Pune, India. The company says that off-roading and an interest in all-terrain vehicles have been on the increase. They started these centres in 2013 in Chennai, where there were only three units, and today have about 70 units at the same centre. The units in question are quad-bike and buggy-style all-terrain…

VOLKSWAGEN MOTORSPORT INDIA HAVE, SINCE 2010, BEEN organizing one-make championships for tin-top race cars, with an aim to identify and nurture budding talent in the country. The Volkswagen Polo Cup was the first and longest-running one-make car racing championship in India and has been responsible for launching the careers of several young racers who were trained and groomed by Volkswagen Motorsport and now race in several touring car championships abroad. After four years of racing the track-spec Polo, the series evolved into the Vento Cup for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, wherein the racers got to cut their teeth on a race-ready version of the Vento sedan, powered by a 1.4-litre supercharged engine that made 180 PS. Last year, Volkswagen Motorsport introduced an all-new race car, derived from the made-for-India,…

THE FIRST TIME WE EXPERIENCED THE Honda CR-V was way back in 2003. It changed the whole perception about sport utility vehicles (SUV). The CR-V was one of the first soft-roaders with monocoque construction to be launched in India; prior to that, most of the SUVs had ladder chassis with body-on-chassis construction. The CR-V changed all that with its monocoque construction. This SUV had some unique features such as column shift automatic gear selector and a folding table between the driver and the passenger that liberated a lot of space in the cabin. There was a picnic table in the boot. The CR-V set a new benchmark in ride quality and handling; in fact, it was one of the best handling cars from the Honda stable. Eighteen years down the…

MARGINAL GAINS. NOT THE SEXIEST OF CONCEPTS — the idea of a little bit here and a little bit there making a significant difference — but it’s worked a treat for all sorts of sporting set-ups, from Team Sky at the Tour de France to Gareth Southgate’s England at the World Cup. But does it work here? Thing is, the current BMW M5 uses a lot of technology to deliver a lot of performance at a high price. It’s a very rewarding, very full-on driving experience. Add a bit more power, tweak the tech and charge more money, and you get the M5 Competition, offered for sale alongside the regular M5. Gains, for sure, but not gamechangers. The spec sheet tells part of the story. You get an extra 25…

The Mercedes G story stretches back nearly half a century to the summer of 1969. As Neil Armstrong was preparing to step on to the moon, so Mercedes-Benz were deep in discussions with Austria’s Steyr-Daimler-Puch about a collaboration. It led to the formation of a team in 1972 to develop a car focused on ‘extreme off-road capabilities with good road handling’ for both civilian and military customers. A wooden styling model was shown in 1973 and the first G-wagen prototypes were testing on the Schöckl in 1974. Tellingly, it was designed with a narrow body, its 1,700-mm width tailored to fit up Alpine paths. Five years later, the first production car, codenamed 460, was shown to the public, although right-hand-drive production didn’t start until the early 1980s. Over four decades…

KICKING OFF THE PROCEEDINGS was Daniel Ricciardo, with a shock announcement that he would swap Red Bull overalls for factory Renault colours next season. Alongside Nico Hulkenberg, the French outfit hope to see higher positions and more, if not regular podium finishes next year. Carlos Sainz, Jr, whom Ricciardo replaces, has now been confirmed at McLaren following Fernando Alonso stating he won’t race next year in F1. Still with a Renault power-unit behind him, Sainz will have hopes of turning around a McLaren outfit that, ever since dropping Honda for Renault power, still seem to be struggling for pace and have more big names lined up for signing; behind the scenes, of course. Who will partner Sainz? Stoffel Vandoorne may or may not be in orange colours next year. There…

THE GERMAN RALLY HAD ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF AN exciting and thrilling event as the championship leader, Neuville, got a surprise podium and his arch-rival and championship contender, Sébastien Ogier, slipped down the order after damaging the wheel of his car. The event got under way with Tänak taking an early lead in the opening super special stage, which he won by a tiny margin of 0.1 second. However, the following six stages were where the Estonian managed to gain the lead and dominate the event. Tänak did encounter some competition from defending champion and M-Sport Ford driver, Ogier, and current championship leader and Hyundai Motorsport rally ace, Thierry Neuville, during the opening stages; however, he held on to his lead by keeping calm and quickening his pace consistently. By…

NEW THIS MONTH AUDI RS 6 AVANT PERFORMANCE The high-performance estate gets its performance game upped further. Now with 605 PS from Rs 1.65 crore (ex) MARUTI SUZUKI CIAZ The facelift Ciaz has been launched with a new 1.5 petrol and familiar 1.3 diesel starting from Rs 8.19 lakh (ex) LEGENDS PRICES Ex-showroom, Pune (subject to change) BO: Available only by order NA: Price not available FEATURES F: Front only D: Driver airbag only O: Optional equipment ASTON MARTIN BENTLEY BMW FERRARI FIAT HONDA HONDA HYUNDAI ISUZU LAND ROVER LAND ROVER MAHINDRA MARUTI SUZUKI MASERATI MERCEDES-BENZ MINI NISSAN RENAULT ROLLS-ROYCE TATA TATA VOLKSWAGEN VOLKSWAGEN VOLVO…