OVERDRIVE January 2013

scotland travelogue

RANGE ROVER TESTED

once in a lifetime road trip!

the last word in luxury off-roading

jeep India’s Largest Auto Media

January 2013 ` 150

the real deal is here

9 models from Fiat & Chrysler Grand Cherokee, Wrangler in 2013 B & C-segment SUV expected soon

stunning BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe tested

land rover bestseller FREELANDER 2 refreshed ducati 848 evo on road & track

Mercedes B-Class

Toured & Tested

www.overdrive.in

What is GM thinking? chevrolet sail U-VA Tested

Volume 15 Issue 05

Subscriber’s copy

India’s Largest Auto Media

January 2013 ` 150

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motoringnews L o g o n t o w w w. ov e r d r i v e . i n / n e ws/

Jeep coming to India!

Fiat’s bringing in Chrysler to India in 2013, Abarth and Mopar to follow shortly

• Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee to debut in 2013 • Two new models – a B segment SUV in 2015 and a C-segment SUV by 2016 • All-new Linea and Punto in 2014 along with new CUV

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iat India has made more comebacks than most can even remember, but this is the one they hope will end the trend. Mike Manley, chief operating officer for Fiat Asia and president and CEO – Jeep said, “Our vision for India will revolve around a three-pronged strategy. First, introduction of new vehicles that will soon include the legendary Jeep brand.

Second, the expansion of our independent dealer network and, finally, strong marketing initiatives that will continue to improve

our awareness and brand perception in the market.”

Fiat have already announced their breakaway from Tata Motors and that they will be selling cars from their own dedicated dealers instead of sharing showroom space with Tata. But more on that later.

The biggest news now is the confirmation of Fiat bringing in the Chrysler brand as early as next year. The first two products from the brand are legends in their own right – the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the iconic Jeep Wrangler. Both vehicles will JAN 2013 overdrive

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2013 L and Rov e r F r e e l and e r 2

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now is nice. It makes crunchy sounds under your wheels rather than the squelchy slop of mud. It turns into ice left alone long enough which is great for sliding around on opposite lock. And it can completely coat an otherwise autumnal forest trail, carpeted with dried leaves in just

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one night. And into this white wonderland we got the chance to get a sense of the new 2013 Freelander, Land Rover’s latest.

But first, some background. The Freelander first came out in 1997 as the first compact SUV from off-road gods, Land Rover. A successful launch, the second generation arrived in 2006 billed the Freelander 2, wearing

more Range Rover cues. This car entered production in India last year in May at Tata’s Pune plant. And now the Freelander 2 gets a refresh.

To reveal the new car, Land Rover chose Canada, a cold, sparsely populated country far away from here that is famous for its cold winters and warm people. But as usual, after

Cold sweet

The 2013 Land Rover Freelander driven through snow, over ice and on the road Words Shubhabrata Marmar

all the journalists had enjoyed cool, autumn weather, the Indian crew arrived in Montreal just as an icy rain spell, a snow storm and more hit town.

Added to the driver briefing then, was the warning that temperatures hovering at zero Celsius meant slippy roads, waterlogging from the melting snow during the day and

other flavours of fun. And the temperatures would continue to drop, hitting a scary -15 on the car’s outside temperature readout.

This readout appears on the top right corner of the new five-inch multi function display that now nestles between the tacho and speedometers, the first of the items to note on the all new interiors. Also completely

new is the centre console which looks much classier than the old one and features a complete redesign, down to button style terrain mode selection which debuted on the Evoque. Land Rover are also offering brilliant sounding Meridian infotainment systems with a seven-inch touchscreen on upper end trim levels, guided voice comJAN 2013 overdrive

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O pel Ada m

Jam, Glam and Slam‌ The Opel Adam tries oh-so-hard to be a cool alternative to the Mini Words Ray Hutton

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he Mini has a lot to answer for.

In many ways, BMW’s baby is a triumph of marketing rather than engineering. What could have been an absolutely average small hatchback turned into a fashion item by adopting bright colours and trim and offering a wide variety of tempting options for personalisation. The premium small car was born.

Rival manufacturers looked on with envy, while dreaming up ways of getting some of same business. Fiat, with the 500, and Citroen’s DS sub-brand were the first to follow the Mini pattern. Now General Motors Europe, in the guise of Opel and Vauxhall, has joined in. Its contender is called Adam.

Funny name for a car, Adam. It might have been appropriate for something utterly new and original emerging from an automotive Garden of Eden but, actually, it is a version of the run-of-the-mill Corsa, prettified in the design studio at Russelsheim.

And although it is expected that a large proportion of buyers will be women, a companion model called Eve was not even

considered. Vauxhall customers in Britain are mystified but Adam makes some sense in Germany as the manufacturer is Adam Opel AG – a company that became part of General Motors in 1929.

GM’s marketeers say that Adam is deliberately provocative, that it engages with a post-modern audience as strong and masculine, and represents Germany’s modern spirit. Hmm… The name game gets worse. Modernspirited Germans are supposed to identify with three trim and equipment themes – Jam, described as bold and friendly; Glam, sleek and luxurious; and Slam, urban street style.

Fortunately, these titles don’t appear on the cars’ badging. They are the starting point for what may be the largest selection of colours, trim combinations and options ever offered by a volume car maker.

Jam, Glam and Slam are not a hierarchy, where one is the entry model and another the most expensive. Opel calls the choice as radial, with these themes at the centre and the possibility of mixing and matching features arrayed around the circumference. This means that every car sold will have to be ordered individually and it is unlikely that any two will be exactly the same. There are said to be a million possibilities.

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N EW RANG E ROV E R

WANDERLUST The new Range Rover promises to go anywhere so we took it there!

Words Bertrand D’souza

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ROAD TEST

1235

OD Rating Price ` 179 ex-New Delhi

+ Luxury + Ride Quality + Off road ability - Pricing

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M e rce d es - b e nz B- c l ass

B-eing versatile The B-Class sport tourer is put to test on road and track Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Varun Anchan, Ashok George

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chevrol e t saiL U-va

Sailin’ away The brand that gave us the almighty Camaro and the Chevelle has a new offering in India? Will it click?

Words Ashok George Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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hevrolet. The name means so many things for me. The bowtie.

The bowtie and a chequered flag. They’ve both adorned some of the cars that make me stop in my tracks and get lost in a world of big block V8s and thundering exhaust notes.

Everything that starts with the letter ‘C’ and ends with ‘amaro’ or ‘hevelle’ has the power to get me down on my knees and crying. So it is no surprise that I have had a certain soft spot for everything adorned with a golden bowtie, be it the underpowered SR-V or the

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boxy Tavera. But as time went on and I realised that the era of muscle and understeer will never come back no matter how badly I wanted it. And I started to pay less and less attention to the brand. Until the Beat came along with its funky styling and Hollywood star power. But that was a while ago and now there is a new kid on the block. It is supposed to take over from where the U-VA left off.

I’ve never been a big fan of the U-VA. If you ask me it never had a very likable face. This new car at least has a better face. But can it force me to take Chevy a bit more seriously?

Design As I said before, I was never a big fan of the way the U-VA looked. I’m fairly certain that the guys who man the design desk at GM are capable of some really eye catching designs.

Just look at the Beat and the new Sonic for example. Quite frankly, everyone at OVERDRIVE was expecting something like the Sonic to make an entry from GM’s stable.

Instead we got the Sail. Let me make one thing clear though. The Sail is not a bad looking car. But the problem is that it would have been a good looking car several years ago.

But right now it just looks dated. Even the signature split grille looks a generation older.

But that being the case, the front end is not bad looking. The swept back headlamps and the sculpted bumper come together to make for a smart looking front end. The side profile has kind of an MPV stance going. The excessive sheet metal and the lack of character lines make it just plain boring. There really

The swept back headlamps and the sculpted bumper come together to make for a smart looking front end isn’t much more to say about this. And that is the case for the rear as well. Look at it long enough and another American car will come to mind. The dimensions, tail lamp position and the overall shape look a lot like the Ford Fusion. But like the front end, the rear too is not bad looking.

This feeling of being ‘not bad’ is carried over to the inside as well. The entire cabin is bathed in a beige and grey tinge and as a whole is quite smart looking. But there are niggles. The steering wheel looks like a very Simple and plain looking dash. Tachometer is tough to read. Odd placement of power window switches. Rear passenger space is impressive

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B MW 6- s e r ies G ran Coup e

Gran entry

We drive BMW’s first four-door coupe, the 640d Gran Coupe Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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rom being just an engine mounted onto a frame with seats and four wheels, the automobile has evolved into various body styles.

It is continuing to evolve and in the process has given birth to more forms and styles. The coupe was once a closed fourwheel horse-drawn carriage with a single seat inside. Pull out a dictionary and look for the word coupe and it may read like this - a car with a fixed roof and two doors. Well that was so yesterday. Today it’s seen in various forms, BMW for instance even used a coupe design in their X6 SUV. The chaps at Munich however continue to come out with newer iterations

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and this time it’s a coupe too. They’ve taken the beautiful BMW 640d coupe, given it a slight stretch and added two extra doors, the result? It’s the Gran Coupe. BMW’s first ever four-door coupe.

A four-door coupe is not a new concept, the Merc CLS, Audi’s A7 and the Aston Martin Rapide are all noticeable examples. However, the BMW concept four-door was first showcased way back in 2007, even before the other four-door coupes were on the road.

But BMW took its time and instead launched the 6 Coupe first and then incorporated the two extra doors to it. This incorporation is so seamless that one look at the car and

you’ll think it’s the 640d coupe. The 6 Series is already a gorgeous car. We thought the coupe was even better looking than the convertible and it holds the same with the Gran Coupe too, it’s a stunner. In fact the front and rear ends are exactly the same as the coupe except for subtle changes made to the front air dam. The only noticeable difference is the side. The coupe is a long car but the Gran Coupe is even longer, by 4.4 inches to be exact. This extra length means the wheelbase has also increased. But this doesn’t make the car in any way disproportionate. Some noticeable design highlights are the flared rear fenders and the frameless windows all-round

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toast to t he coast

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Loch, Scot & Whisky Barrels Driving through the Scottish Highlands has to rank as one of the greatest road trips ever undertaken Words & Photography Bertrand D’souza

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S P E C I A L F eat u r e

Road tripping An eight-day road trip around India over the Golden Quadrilateral with Renault’s Duster and Scala Words Alan D’Cruz Photography Varun Anchan

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The Golden Quadrilateral’s foundation stone was laid in 1999 and was declared completed in Jan 2012.

It connects India’s four largest metros and covers a distance of 5846km.

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q uic k s e rvi c e

Make it quick

We look at the quick service option introduced by manufacturers Words Pradeb Biswas Photography Varun Anchan

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News to share?

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motorcyclenews L o g o n t o w w w. ov e r d r i v e . i n / n e ws

RE Cafe Racer specs revealed Cafe Racer to be the lightest, quickest, fastest Royal Enfield yet

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ven as enthusiasts across the country await the launch of the Café Racer, Royal Enfield has unveiled the motorcycle at the Long Beach Motorcycle Show in the USA. The bike will be launched in the US by June or August 2013 as a 2014 model, and the unveiling has revealed some more details about the motorcycle, things we were not told at the Auto Expo in New Delhi in 2012. For the Café Racer, the Classic 500’s 499cc, air-cooled single has been bored out to displace 535cc, the displacement of the erstwhile Lightning 535. Power output is also up, from the Classic 500’s 27PS to 36PS, which is the

highest ever for an Indian Royal Enfield.

Torque ratings were not disclosed but we expect that to be significantly higher than the Classic as well.

The frame has been designed and developed by Harris Engineering, while suspension has been developed by Paioli. The Café Racer is expected to be lighter than the Classic by about 21 kilos, which should make it as light as a Honda CBR250R. The higher power output, weight loss and the hike in engine capacity should easily make the Café Racer the quickest and fastest Royal Enfield to date. The bike is expected to retail in the USA for the equivalent of Rs 4 lakh. While we do not expect it to be as

expensive when launched in India at the next Auto Expo, we believe pricing could be in the region of Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh. A host of accessories were also announced at the unveiling, which include aluminum bits like fenders, upper and lower triple brackets, aftermarket exhausts and optional clip-on or clubman handlebars.

Options will also include a single or twin saddle seat, different fuel tanks – steel, plastic or aluminum, apart from different gear ratios.

As of now, it is difficult to comment on how many of these accessories will make it to India when the bike is launched, but the engine specifications do have us eagerly awaiting the launch.

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Ducati 84 8 EVO

overdrive JAN 2013

ROAD TEST

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OD Rating Price ` 15,18,000

ex-New Delhi

+ Styling + Performance + Handling committed - Too - Pricey comfortable - Not on the street

Around the corner...

The most comprehensive review of the only middleweight sportsbike on sale in the country Words Abhay Verma Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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he image here shows me doing exactly what the Ducati 848 EVO was built for – hunting apexes around a race track and setting lap times. It’s a middleweight sportsbike after all, a dedicated track machine. The middleweight sportsbike is perhaps the purest form of sports motorcycles. The engines typically make track-friendly power and can be annoyingly peaky for street use. But they are brilliant on track.

Focussed, light and in their element. Their focus and usually high tech nature also makes them super expensive.

But more often than not, I have been part of discussions where the feasibility of sportsbikes for a country like ours has been questioned. Do sports/superbikes make any sense for a country where access to a race track is highly limited and the riding conditions are adverse? A fair number of riders who ride sportsbikes regularly believe that they are perfectly easy to live with, but there’s also a large number of those who believe they are pointless.

The second opinion cannot be neglected

as a naked bike or a cruiser makes sense given our road, traffic and weather conditions. But why would somebody who has spent significantly more money on a sportsbike want to lie? I always wondered how it would feel to ‘live’ with a sportsbike built with the intention of scorching a race track rather than pottering around town. I was to spend a week in New Delhi last month, just before our awards’ jury rounds. What timing I thought! Fresh from having ridden the Panigale S at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia I called up Ducati, hoping the mega superbike would have arrived, but it was still a few days away. However they did have something that suited my needs – the 848 EVO. The 848 EVO for that matter apes Ducati’s erstwhile flagship, the 1098/1198 superbike as far as styling is concerned. Head on, it even reminded me of the Desmosedici with the twin projector headlamps. The overall design is edgy and sharp. From most angles the tank appears slender, but is actually quite wide, and you realise that only once you straddle the bike. The red trellis frame surrounded by various black bits looks de-

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C om pa ro

84 8 evo

vs

st r e e t f ig h t e r 8 4 8

848Evo Versus

Streetfighter 848 So, you love Ducatis, naked or sportsbikes and especially the 848 range. But which to choose? Decisions, decisions...

Words Benjamin ‘BJ’ Kubas Cronin/Fast Bikes Photography Dom Romney

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o far our ‘versus’ tests have been pretty interesting, wouldn’t you say? This time however, things get a little trickier to split.

Previously bikes have been linked mostly by manufacturer name only, with capacity, genre and mission-statement all different.

For this month we’re having a closer look at Ducati’s 848 range, specifically the 848 Evo ‘supersport’ and its 848 Streetfighter (SF) sibling. Obviously, this pair will share a component or six, but just how different can they possibly be?

Price-wise there’s not actually a great deal in it, around Rs 44,000, which doesn’t reflect the usual discount when buying a similar bike based on the same principal.

Take Triumph’s Street Triple R and its Daytona 675, for example, where the difference is more than double this – and if you took the stock Street Triple, way over Rs 1.30 lakh. However, this is Ducati we’re talking about, which means that if you really want it, you’ll have to pay for it.

And I suppose the biggest question is to whether or not that divisional Rs 44,000 is worth losing a modicum of track performance and wind-protection?

We were nearly blown away by the 848’s latest incarnation in 2012, the 848 Evo Corse SE. Aside from the oft maligned riding position, it essentially cured all of the issues we’ve previously aimed at the 848. However, those gripes mainly came when we were on track, as biffing about on the roads I’ll wager there’s very little to separate the two bar the extra Rs 87,000 asking price. Firstly, you get that now iconic design, the one that returned Ducati’s sportsbikes to the realms of the ultra desirable after the Marmite 999/749 predecessors. With the introduction of the Panigale, the 1198 somehow looks quite old and dated. But in 848 form, it’s still extremely pleasing to the eye and loses nothing in the glamour stakes.

The best thing about the SF? It’s a dead ringer for its utterly mental big 1098 brother. And it manages to look barely ➥

versus?

We test bikes, that’s what we do. It’s important because we don’t want you to buy the wrong one and make a four or five figure mistake. So we group together a class and test each machine to the limit to declare a winner. But what happens if you’re choosing between bikes in different classes? Or should you buy old or new? Naked or faired is an increasingly important consideration, and is bigger best, or do the best things come in small packages? This is where ‘Versus’ comes in, where we pitch two bikes against each other.

The connection between the bikes isn’t as obvious as comparing class contenders, but these are real life buying decisions and Versus will come up with a definitive answer – when it comes to motorcycles, decisions are always too important and bikes are too expensive to make a mistake...

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t vs p h oe ni x

vs

H onda st u n n er

Executive class The TVS Phoenix is out. We pitch it against our favourite 125cc bike, the Honda Stunner Words Abhay Verma Photography Varun Anchan

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he 125cc segment has always been considered the premium end of the commuter motorcycle business, but unlike the 100cc segment it has not had a clear market leader. Several manufacturers have tasted success, like Honda with the Shine and Bajaj with its Discover but none have been able to better their competitors by a significant margin. TVS had been conspicuous by its absence after the Flame, and are now back to regain lost ground with their new Phoenix 125. We rode it at TVS’s in-house test track at Hosur last month and came back impressed – the engine and handling seemed to make it fun to ride at the track. We were however unable to assess it in the real world, which is the real battleground for the Phoenix. TVS has billed the Phoenix as a ‘premium’ 125cc commuter and now that we have the motorcycle with us we decided to pitch it against our all-time favourite 125, the Honda CBF Stunner which has held its ground as a high-end 125cc motorcycle for long.

Design, build and finish TVS have played it safe with the Phoenix’s styling package. They have gone the conventional way with a bikini fairing and simple body panels. It does not break any new ground in the styling department but looks fresh, especially in the red colour that our test bike wears along with the black powder coated engine. There are hints of the Apache in several places, though the stickering does a great job of hiding those cues from you, and giving the Phoenix an average look. The fairing looks plain in comparison to the more flashy designs you see on new-age motorcycles, but tries to look elegant with its curvy lines, and houses two parking lights. The design language continues onto the fuel tank – unlike most new motorcycles it does not get knee recesses. The single piece seat is flat, while the body panels and the tail light are all elements that do not stand out, and look conventional. Interestingly, the graphics on the fuel tank are quite in contrast and are the only bits on the Phoenix that try to look sporty.

The Stunner’s styling on the other hand is sporty, with its half fairing and stepped seat. Despite it being launched four years back, it looks appealing, especially to those looking for a commuter that looks larger than a 125. For that matter, it is more accommodating for

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