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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/
New Verna ups style ante Hyundai’s 2011 stars will major on style, get new engines
Concept RB previews Verna coming to India next year, will be powered by a new family of petrol and diesel engines
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yundai kick-started the Moscow Motor Show with a concept car that shows the definitive lines of the next generation Accent, or the Verna as we know it in India. The Concept RB is Hyundai’s almost production-ready concept of a subcompact sedan for the Russian and other emerging markets. In line with Hyundai’s ‘fluidic sculpture’ design philosophy, the Concept RB displays sharp creases and a
coupe-like roofline that also gets an aggressive hexagonal grille. This is a new Hyundai trademark and is an even more stylised and aggressive interpretation of the Audi goatee grille which has been adapted by many manufacturers. The L-shaped fog lamps look similar to the new Mercedes E-Class’s LED fog lamps. The Russian-spec model will be powered by 1.6- and 1.4-litre DOHC in-line four-cylinder petrol engines from the new Gamma
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News to share? Call us on +91 20 33223341-50 or Fax: +91 20 33223322 Email us at mailbox@overdrive.co.in
motorcyclenews L o g o n t o w w w. ov e r d r i v e . i n / n e w s
BMW set to launch motorcycles in India! BMW Motorrad sets sights on India. Will use existing BMW dealer network. Products plans not finalised but GS and S1000RR likely
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MW motorcycles are not new to India. They first came, famously, with the Rotaxengined F650 Funduro in a tie-up with Hero Motors. It unfortunately, didn’t go down well. Rs 5 lakh seemed like a hefty price to pay in 1995 and we simply weren’t ready for the motorcycle. After the initial hype and buzz had died down, so did the sales, with the final batch being sold off for a paltry Rs 2 odd lakh as the motorcycle was wound up and taken off the shelves. That the F650 was perhaps well ahead of its time is further demonstrated by the fact that today, the
F650 is faring well in the used bike market. But now, OVERDRIVE has learnt that BMW is ready for the second coming. BMW motorcycles is known internationally as a quirky, expensive brand. Today the brand is changing. Instead of functional but unusual technology, BMW is making rapid strides towards normal motorcycles. With each iteration, the brand is becoming more appealing to the regular motorcycle buyer. That some of the motorcycles are either legends in their own right, or have come out of the box with Japanese-beating performance, is just a manifestation of its late success.
In its expansion plan is, now, India. BMW is understood to be mulling its Indian product plan and will shortly be launching its motorcycles in our market. Generally, BMW has tended to keep its car and motorcycle businesses well segregated and the same model will be adopted in India. However they do have a trick to ramp up quickly - existing BMW dealers will be offered a motorcycle dealership as well which could be an annex to the existing facility. We do expect that backend and service/spares synergies will be kept so that the overheads can be kept in check. Especially given that overall motorcycles
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Don’t tell my mother Yamaha launches its first volume segment player in a really long time Words Kshitij Sharma
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was never much of a motorcycle rider. Primarily because I was never allowed to ride by my mum. But after coming to OVERDRIVE I have ridden enough bikes and clocked enough riding hours to give my mum a nervous breakdown. My recent stints at the Monsoon Scooter Rally and with scooters up to Khardung La are still unknown to my mother. And I certainly do not intend to tell her about my latest caper either, even if it was a heck of a lot smoother than the others. To celebrate the launch of its new motorcycles, the SZ and the SZ-X, Yamaha decided to have us ride the bikes the 400 odd km from
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pink Jaipur to gorgeous Udaipur and then the 120km round trip down curvy roads to Jaisamand Lake. I signed on instantly - I no longer need parents’ consent forms to be signed up, I discovered. Whee! We first cast eyes on the SZ-Xs that we were going to be riding on the eve of our ride. At first sight, Yamaha’s 150cc commuter looks good but not great. The first thing that caught my eye was the disc brake which... wasn’t there! Drum brakes? Not good. The SZ series is based on the FZ and this becomes evident only when you look at the engine and notice the similar engine cases and shape. The frame itself looks less muscular than the FZ’s and that, more or less, sets the tone for the SZ.
The SZ houses a 153cc carburetted SOHC engine, a detuned FZ motor, in a new frame featuring twin shocks and relative to the FZ, thin tyres. The engine itself offers greater economy according to Yamaha thanks to the detuning. You’re looking at a 12.1PS engine offering 12.8Nm of torque at its very maximum. Like the FZ, the torque peak is low in the rev range, though. But the motorcycle didn’t worry me as much as the leather jacket I had. In this weather, I might as well be branded sado-masochist and paraded, fully clad, through the terrifying heat. So I prayed. For clouds and lots of them. And it seemed to have worked. We left for Udaipur at a leisurely 8 in the
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Incremental The Hyundai i10 gets an upgrade
Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Halley Prabhakar, Rahul Ghosh
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yundai has a reputation for making great small cars which have found overwhelming favour among the masses. The Santro was Hyundai’s first offering in the small car segment. It sold so well that the Korean manufacturer became the second largest car manufacturer and the largest passenger car exporter in the country. The Santro received a face-lift and newer engine but as time passed the tallboy aged and Hyundai addressed it with a newer flagship, the i10. The i10 was an instant hit when it was launched three years ago bagging OVERDRIVE’s car of the year gong and critical appreciation both in India and Europe where it has sold very well. The i10 even created history by fetching more than one lakh export orders in less than seven months when it was upgraded with a more powerful 1.2-litre DOHC Kappa engine. And now to keep it fresh and current till an all-new replacement arrives, it gets a face-lift. With India being the worldwide manufacturing base for the i10, this face-lift premieres in our country before being show-
cased to the world at next month’s Paris Motor Show. So what do you get in the new Hyundai i10 Kappa 2? A new and really attractive nose. Earlier Hyundai looked at cars around the world, picked up parts they liked, and slapped them on to their cars. Jag cues on the old Sonata, Accord cues on the new Sonata, a hint of Audi in the i10’s wide goatee grille. Some worked, most didn’t. But today Hyundai is a manufacturer confident of its own abilities and thus debuts Hyundai’s own signature design element - the hexagonal grille. It’s been popping up on concept cars at motor shows and most recently on the ix35 SUV (the Tucson replacement that might come to India) but this is the first time India has seen that grille. And it looks rather attractive. Fluidic sculpture is another Hyundai design buzzword which is visible in the headlamps that are sharp edged and structural in their design but still flow with the slight clam-shell effect on the bonnet. The strong bar that bisects the grille is an element seemingly inspired by what Chevrolet does on its noses and it would have looked good had it not had the number plate not spoilt the flow of those lines.
At the rear, the bumper is slightly beefed up with prominent recesses for the reflectors. The rubbing strip features a segment first reverse parking sensor available in the Asta variant
The rest of the bumper is also heavily marked with slots and creases and a very prominent recess for the foglamps. Save for the new body-coloured side moulding strips, indicators in the wing mirrors (a segment first and the drivers’ side wing mirror also gets a heating element) and fresh wheel cap design the side profile remains unchanged. At the rear the bumper is slightly beefed up with a thicker rubbing strip and prominent recesses for the reflectors to mimic the treatment to the front fog lamps. The tail lamps too are mildly refreshed but after all the work that has been done to the nose it seems the designers lost interest when they moved to the back. Get inside the i10 and you see a dashboard that is unchanged save for a new colour scheme. Gone are the dual-tone beige interiors and in comes dual-tone grey and brown interiors with dark aluminium finish inserts. Look upmarket and very European. However the door pads don’t get the new colour scheme and the older beige trim looks out of OCT 2010 overdrive
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Baby bimmer The BMW X1 is a crossover marked by its diminutive size Words Bertrand D’souza Photography BMW
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peek through our buyers’ guide pages will reveal cars with prices ranging from one lakh to past one crore. That there is something in there for every budget shows just how much the Indian automobile market has grown. Obviously the fewer the zeros in the price tag the more options there are. Premium car manufacturers are aware of the situation. It’s why they are now rapidly filling every niche with almost everything they have on offer globally. So we have coupes, cabriolets, sports cars, luxury limos and of course the most beloved of them all, SUVs.
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Interestingly SUVs have enjoyed the most success in India. Why, in a nation where traffic is so dense, fuel prices so high and import taxes so steep, SUVs are so popular is a mystery. But they’re extremely popular and, by the year end, BMW will cash in big time on that popularity by assembling its smallest crossover, the X1, at their Chennai plant. That obviously means it’s going to attract far less duties than CBUs thereby becoming the cheapest SUV to sport a premium badge. That, we feel, will spell a windfall, both for BMW and for customers fixated by both SUVs and premium badges. Now the X1 is a crossover that’s so compact it could inspire small car manufacturers to stilt their hatches into SUVs. There are sev-
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Threesome The Honda City faces off against the VW Vento and Maruti Suzuki SX4 Words Bertrand D'souza Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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he numbers game is played out in the hatchback segment, where every effort is made to keep engine displacement and body length under the prescribed tax break norms. But while the hatchbacks clearly spell big numbers, larger profits are to be enjoyed from the C-segment. The reason behind this is simple, because hatchbacks cost less to make and sell they have to be manufactured in huge numbers to make the venture profitable. Investments in hatchback production facilities are huge because of the staggering volumes. But as the cars become more expensive the same profitability can be enjoyed even by selling a lesser number of cars because the margins increase exponentially.
But the most profitable venture is the one that uses a single platform for various types of cars. You don’t need a separate production line, most of the components are shared and after sales does not require huge investments in both infrastructure and manpower. That is why Maruti has the Dzire, Tata Motors the Indigo, Toyota is busy with the Etios sedan and Volkswagen has launched the Vento. The Vento is an extension of the Polo hatchback. By adding a boot to the hatch, Volkswagen has created a sedan out of virtually the same components as those used on the Polo. So having largely invested in one design, Volkswagen can reap the benefits of two cars. VW also knows that the Polo alone cannot shoulder the responsibility of furthering their intentions of becoming the number one player in the Indian market. That aspiration needs to be backed up by af-
fordable sedans such as the Vento. Yet to obtain a position of leadership means displacing the current leaders the Honda City and the Maruti Suzuki SX4. Game on then!
STYLING & COMFORT Previously we had said the City with its ‘arrowshot’ design was a far more striking car than the SX4. This may be a very personal opinion because I have met several who do prefer the styling of the SX4. What most can’t deny however is that the Honda is an unmistakable form, it is unique and has a racy character. But the Germans have nothing if they don’t have a unique style all of their own. Where the City has this ethereal fragility and the SX4 track suit and sneaker pimp style sportiness, the Vento is enduring. It has the traditional solid teutonic lines draped around OCT 2010 overdrive
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Oil exploration Does the new VW Vento shake up the entry diesel sedans? Words Shubhabrata Marmar Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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he government is scared of raising diesel prices to full where they would achieve parity with petrol prices at the very least. And on that simple to grasp concept rests the sales success of diesel cars in India. We've tried for years to convince you, dear reader, that only the big mileage drivers among you will save any money buying diesels. It hasn't
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stopped you so far and I will admit that in daily use, you do feel like the diesel is actually cheaper to run. Could that be the reason why the Vento's diesel engine is already marked as the volume leader in our minds? The car enters a rather strange segment all the cars in it have been around for a while and only the Hyundai Verna Transform is anywhere close to fresh thanks to its recent face-lift and suffixing. Can the stretched and booted Polo, the Vento beat these cars, then?
Styling and design Let us start from the bottom. The Verna maybe new, but it's also the least good to look at. The busy front end looks like a mildly aggressive mish-mash and the rest of the car looks a little bland. Fit and build levels are good but the materials on the interior look very cheap. As a wag quipped, 'The fake wood trim looks more fake than wood.' It isn't a long term problem, though - just look at the sassy new Verna replacement in Motoring News.
The Fiesta looked nice when it was new. Now it looks familiar. It still has a nicely sporty interior but having said that, I think the car needs a refresh and pronto. The Linea is a debate. Sirish thinks it looks great while I say it has some of the classic design we associate with Italy but it doesn't look as good as the Punto, for instance. Inside, the impact of the neat interior scheme is diminished by cheap feeling silver plastic and some ex-
tremely awkward feature placements - just try plugging a USB stick while in the driver's seat. The Volkswagen then is a breath of fresh air in many ways. The exterior wears the sleek look of the new Volkswagen family and the stretching of the Polo platform and the booting of the car has been executed neatly. There's an elegance of proportion and a sleekness of line that none of the other cars here possess. It isn't flashy but it stands
out clearly. I like that. Inside, similarly, there's a lot of Polo playing going on, but like all German cars, the materials feel good to the touch and the attention to detail is unequalled. As you will see, had Volkswagen widened up the car a bit, the Vento would have been an evenmote emphatic winner. But as is, it's still an easy pick among these four cars for looks, cabin layout and finish. OCT 2010 overdrive
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Status quo The final question. The best C-segment car? Words Sirish Chandran Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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t risk of stating the painfully obvious, the City just doesn’t have an answer to the Vento TDI’s running costs or, for that matter, value-formoney. But that isn’t the question we’re asking here. Our question is slightly more complicated: which is the best C-segment sedan in the country? Or, more to the point, is the City still the best mid-size sedan you can buy? The Vento kicks off the challenge rather smartly with that oil-burner, an engine that is so surprisingly good, it can battle on equal terms with Honda’s iVTEC. Diesels were always engines you opted for because diesel was cheap. Not this diesel though. It has perfor-
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mance to spare, all that low-down grunt makes it is easier to drive in the city, the performance is more easily accessible and it is almost as refined when you’re giving it the beans. In the real world this TDI engine is every bit a match for the iVTEC, plus of course there’s the significantly lower running costs. Then there’s space. By stretching the Polo platform VW has managed to give the Vento a few millimetres more rear knee room than the City's. That’s an outstanding achievement. And the Vento’s interiors are much better made with far greater quality and noise isolation than the City's. The thing is the City’s engine is so refined, it doesn’t need any sound deadening. At idle you can’t hear or feel the engine ticking. But when you rev the engine, it gets almost as loud as the Ven-
to’s diesel and because there’s not much sound isolation, outside noises intrude very readily into the cabin. The wipers are loud and audible and you can hear the suspension falling into potholes and ruts. The ride and handling may only be a fraction off the Vento’s new benchmark but while the Vento feels robust and Germanic the City feels fragile and Japanese. Looks like the City is finished? Not quite and here’s why. The Vento’s interiors might be well finished and what not but the fact is this is a Polo cabin with a different colour scheme (I actually prefer the Polo’s colours). Sitting in the back of the Vento feels like sitting in a stretched Polo. It feels like a large hatch with space akin to, say, an i20, and when you think of it, maybe this is what the
Polo should have offered in the first place (instead of those cramped confines). And think about this: if you’re buying a Vento at ` 8 lakh, don’t you want to sit in a cabin that’s different to what your colleague bought at ` 4 lakh? The City's on the other hand, horrid silverfinish centre console and bizarre USB-only sound system aside, does feel like a slightly more upmarket cabin. You grip a steering wheel that befits an expensive car. There are audio controls on the Civic-like steering wheel. Even if the quality is not a patch on the Vento, the City’s cabin is more stylish. This is not a stretched Jazz and that’s a crucial point. But even more crucially, the City has the more comfortable cabin. The windscreen is much further away from your nose (and the
dash goes on for longer in front of you) which does wonders for enhancing the feeling of spaciousness. Of airiness. Up front the seats are wider. The footwell is significantly wider with a comfortable dead pedal. The central console doesn’t dig into your knee. The door pad has enough space for you to comfortably rest your right elbow. You feel like you have more space to move around, you don’t feel cooped inside. Get in the back and the Vento’s trick becomes obvious: to liberate more headroom the Vento’s rear seats are sighted lower which means you have a lower H-point and so have to crawl into the car. Since the seat squab is lower, your knees are bent upwards and the back rest angle is too upright. And while they could stretch the Polo they couldn’t widen it
so the shoulder room is tighter. The result is the Vento isn’t as comfortable to be chauffeured around in as the City. Come to think of it, isn’t that why the City is (and always has been) the default choice in this segment? It doesn’t have a diesel engine and I won’t be surprised if the Vento outsells the City on the strength of that alone (and lower price) but the City isn’t a stretched hatchback. Personally I think the City looks nicer but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that it looks and feels unique. It retains that aura of premiumness, expensiveness and exclusivity which the Vento (thanks to many, many Polos) won’t have. And it still has the most comfortable cabin in this class. It’s a close run thing but in the photo-finish the City still remains the car to beat. OCT 2010 overdrive
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Resurgence The newest Alto comes to town
Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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lto is Suzuki’s best-selling name plate, the car that has raked in the most volumes for the Japanese manufacturer. But it wasn’t until 2005 that it became India’s best-selling name plate. That was because while the majority of Alto’s numbers have come from India, out here it has been sold under various guises – 800, Zen, A-Star (as the latest Alto is called) and, of course, Alto. The Alto as we know it was launched in 2000 to slot in between the 800 and the Zen. Powered by two engines – the 800cc threecylinder and 1.1-litre four-cylinder – it initially struggled to gain traction and draw buyers
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away from the 800. But sales gradually picked up and five years later, with a face-lift, price drop and elimination of the VXi variant, the Alto clocked all-time high volumes to overtake the iconic 800 that ruled the charts for two decades. Since then the Alto has been India’s best-selling car clocking monthly volumes of 20,000 units and finding millions of happy homes. But the Alto has competition so to keep pace with the times there’s a new one and it’s called the Alto K10. The K10 refers to the new generation Suzuki K-Series engine that has been shoehorned into the Alto. The three-cylinder engine is the same unit that does duty in the A-Star, Zen Estilo and the WagonR. The 1.0litre three-cylinder engine is one of the best
units in its class and is the only 1.0-litre twincam engine available in India. To accommodate the bigger engine in the Alto, Maruti Suzuki engineers have made a few changes particularly in lengthening the engine bay. The car’s nose is now longer by 125mm with the K10 measuring 3620mm in length compared to the Alto’s 3495mm. This gives it a better stance though overall width and wheelbase have remained unchanged. The Alto K10 also gets cosmetic upgrades to the front and rear to freshen things up. The front gets a new and longer bonnet that gels well with the new eagle-eyed headlamps and body coloured bumpers while the grille is also wider. The Vxi variant gets front fog lamps. The rear gets a new tailgate that now
houses the number plate and a slightly bigger windscreen. The tail lamp cluster is also a new design that looks fresh and funky and goes well with the older design rear bumper. Unlike in the present Alto the rear stop light is now in the upper part of the tailgate. From the side however the Alto K10 is similar to the present Alto and the only way to distinguish it is the increased front overhang, thicker waistline mouldings and bigger wing mirrors. The tyres have also been upgraded to wider 13-inch 155-section tubeless tyres (up from 12-inchers) that come with full wheel covers on the Vxi. The bigger wheels fill the wheel arches much better and gives it a nicer stance.
Get inside and you’re greeted by a familiar dashboard which is a letdown. The K10 however gets a new three-spoke steering wheel and a sporty gear knob which is similar to the one used in the Swift. The front and rear seats now get integrated headrests and the front seat also has a depression in the rear to liberate bit more rear leg room. However, the front seat which seems to be borrowed from the A-Star lacks under thigh support. The seats also get better upholstery and is well complimented with colour co-ordinated door pads which are available only in the Vxi variant. The instrument cluster is also new and features a digital fuel gauge and tachometer. The Vxi variant gets front power windows and a rear parcel tray.
However the biggest letdown is that there have been no improvements to space inside the cabin. Compared to the Santro or Spark the Alto K10 feels very cramped. Quality of materials used is similar to the present Alto and could have been improved. The K10B engine is a peppy mill that was first seen in the A-Star. The twin-cam engine with a distributor less ignition system and an innovative rocker-less shaft produces 68PS of power at 6200rpm and generates a healthy 90Nm of torque at 3000rpm which bodes well. The Alto has one big advantage over the A-Star – it is by far the lightest car from Maruti Suzuki to get this engine and thus has a much better power-to-weight ratio. The result is the Alto K10 feels like a pocket rocket OCT 2010 overdrive
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Star cast
The Toyota Corolla Altis, Chevy Cruze, Skoda Laura and Octavia vie for star billing Words Vijayendra Vikram Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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Monsters Inc A In the rarefied world of luxury SUVs, big is actually better Words Sirish Chandran Photography Gaurav S Thombre
m I the only one who thinks there’s something wrong with this picture? Three and a half crore rupees – that’s the first giveaway. Like really, when will you ever see three-and-a-halfcrore worth of heavy metal trundling down a tractor-trail? Then there’s the muck. Apart from in the pages of an automotive magazine have you ever seen a Q7 even half as filthy? The answer is no. No, you will never see an SUV
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costing nearly a crore earning its keep on anything other than tarmac. And no, you will never clock a dirty Q7. Actually if you ever clock a Q7 you would do well to crane your neck; if it’s your lucky day it could be Bipasha Basu riding in the back. So if you’re never going to find an SUV getting its boots dirty as it forges its way through the wild, isn’t an SUV wholly pointless? Particularly since at the price of one of these SUVs what you can have is an S-Class – the gold standard as far as comfort, refinement and sheer, utter, decadent luxury are
concerned. Even over Mumbai’s monsoonravaged roads, for the typical drive from Pali Hills to the studios, an S-Class offers a considerably more comfortable back seat to yell at your agent from. Bollywood though is happier to be seen running late from the back of a Q7, and that has only served to amp up India’s traditional obsession with SUVs. It’s remarkable how Audi has managed to pitch the Q7 among the elite of Bollywood, so much so that the Q7, for all practical purposes, is now the default choice here. And it’s that virtual lock-
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Wanderlust On the road with Yamaha’s reincarnated Super Ténéré Words Harriet Ridley
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n the 1980s when the glamour of the Paris-Dakar Rally was in full swing, Yamaha’s Super Ténéré was the bike to have. Like today’s BMW GS1200R, it was built to take on all scenarios from the daily commute, Sunday twisties, touring holiday and off the beaten track through river crossings and dirt roads where only real men venture. And with all the 80s nostalgia going on at the moment coupled with a huge boom in adventure motorcycles – BMW’s GS1200R is the biggest selling motorcycle in many countries including Italy, the land of gorgeous Ducati, Aprilia, Bimota and MV Agusta exotica – no wonder Yamaha has reincarnated its Super Ténéré. Yamaha’s Super Ten, as it was affectionately known back in the day, has obviously
been rebuilt from scratch, retaining nothing of its outdated predecessor. It gets the basic adventure bike specs of twin cylinder engine, shaft drive, 19-inch front wheel and big trail bike style. But Yamaha has also added an electronics package that on paper appears to trump BMW’s, and that includes traction control and ride-by-wire with power modes. And although the electronics package doesn’t look quite as groundbreaking as that of the Ducati Multistrada, the 19-inch front wheel with spokes, sturdy engine bash plate, huge ground clearance and altogether more roughy toughy exterior are clues to the fact it’s more on par with the GS than the roadbiased Multistrada where real off-road potential is concerned. Then again, Yamaha has decades of success in the gruelling Dakar rally to support its claims to authenticity. I manage to get an early ride of the
brand new Super Tenere. My mate Colin who runs a Yamaha dealership, Saunders in Britain’s Hertfordshire, bought one for his personal use, having been brought up on Super Tens in the 80s. Although the bike has been available to reserve online since March 8 at www.super-tenere.com, it didn’t hit our dealers until late June, with the ‘first edition’ making its European debut as a Special Version adventure model with an adventure package that includes left and right aluminium side cases, headlight protector and aluminium engine skid plate, all of which will be optional from 2011. So it’s a pretty comprehensive bike Colin’s loaned me to test. I’m relieved to find the seat height adjustable from 870mm to 845mm. That’s a massive bonus for shorties like me who come nowhere near to reaching the ground on BMW’s GS Adventure, and whose hardened OCT 2010 overdrive
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traveller A trip back in time in the Toyota Camry
Words Charles Pennefather Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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esus Christ walked the earth 2000 years ago, according to the Bible. The Roman Empire stretched far and wide, and Ben Hur was still in a toga probably. That was the time the art in the Ajanta and Ellora caves was created. These World Heritage Site caves near Aurangabad are truly worth a visit, it must be said. Aurangabad was Aurangzeb’s base when he was in battle with the Marathas. Now, centuries later, it’s a city with tourist spots galore, the Ajanta and Ellora caves being the best known. Gaurav and I set off from Pune for Aurangabad in the new Toyota Camry automatic. The Camry is a comfortable mile-muncher, the engine emitting a muted rumble at 100kmph. The Pune-Aurangabad road is a dual carriageway with not many ghat sections, and it was easy to maintain high speeds in the powerful Camry. Though often mentioned in the same breath, the Ajanta and Ellora caves are two different sites. The Ajanta caves are located 110km north-east of Aurangabad. These Buddhist caves were constructed between 2BC and 7AD. They are a very popular tourist destination. Signs that read ‘groups of over forty people will not be allowed at a single time into a cave’ are testimony to the tourists that throng here. The paintings in the caves have weathered 2000 years without too much damage. The Archaeological Survey of India is restoring the caves, and there are safety measures in place – flash photography isn’t allowed, and the caves are dimly lit to avert fading of the paintings due to bright light. A trek across the Waghore river and ascent of the opposite bank to a gazebo offers an excellent view of all the caves. The road to the Ajanta caves was far from smooth at this time of the year, but the Camry’s superb ride quality made easy work of the big craters. One cannot drive right up to the gorge as in the past. We had to take a ` 7 bus ride from the highway up to the caves. There’s a bus every 15 minutes or so. The MTDC provides meals and refreshments and lodgings as well, but booking in advance is advisable. Watch out for overly helpful people who offer gifts of tiny uncut semi-precious stones like amethyst. They are stone vendors who’ll drag you to their stall to peddle stone-crafted boxes, candle-holders or egeodes at astronomical prices. Maybe the prices were decided by the sight of our
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Ah me da ba d - Pune
City to city
Home and dry after a cross-country drive in a Honda City Words Vijayendra Vikram Photography Charles Pennefather
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onda cars have always been aspirational in our country. Given their reliability, refinement and fantastic manners, Indians have always aspired to the City, Accord and CR-V. But now there’s a German invasion underway and Honda needs to fortify its bastion, particularly that of its bread-and-butter City.
To re-introduce us to the charms and capabilities of the City, HSCI invited us to a ‘Drive to Discover’ cross-country trip from Jammu to Kanyakumari, crossing 70 cities. We were in a celebratory mood after our action-packed anniversary issue chores, with all the sleepless nights and long hours of driving but we signed up immediately for the drive. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to unwind after the mad schedules. We were assigned to drive between Ahmedabad and
The futuristic Honda City is a stark contrast to the rustic architecture of Daman (main) and game for some fun too (left)
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tour to coimbator e
Sporty tourers The Yamaha R 15 gets the Hero Honda Karizma ZMR for company Words Abhay Verma Photography Abhay Verma, Halley Prabhakar
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he past two and a half years that I’ve been working with OVERDRIVE I hardly remember a boring day except for the bedridden fortnight after my crash last year – the worst fifteen days of my life as I couldn’t ride. Since my first day, I have stunted on every bike in the country, even wheelied scooters but my holy grail rests in long rides. And this is what I love doing. I’ve been to the mountains,
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touched Khardung La and had a comic ride with mates to Komic, which happens to be world’s highest inhabited village. Saddle sore, I even attempted that before discovering the racetrack. Of late, I’ve been pretty active in circuit racing and this time when I had the chance to go on a long ride, decided to couple both my passions - a long ride, coupled with a track day at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore! I was supposed to attend my level two training in the OVERDRIVE TWO Track Riding School. So for
once, I decide to give away the luxury of taking a flight to Coimbatore and ride to the track instead. Halley, like always, decided to tag along. But what were we going to ride all the way? Had I been Vikram, I’d have a lavish spread - the R1, Hayabusa, Fireblade and what not. But what actually fell into my kitty was our long-term Yamaha R15 and I got Halley a Honda Karizma ZMR. Beggars can’t be choosers, right? But it’s not a bad selection of bikes. The R15 is probably the best
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S koda saf e t y day
Crash course Skoda Safety Day at the company’s test facility in the Czech Republic Words Vijayendra Vikram
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rashes are common on our highways. I cannot recall a single MumbaiPune drive where I haven’t come across a smashed car on the side or a truck flipped over. It is always scary especially when it has just happened. You never know what to expect and it can get pretty disturbing at times. But trust me, all this doesn’t even compare to watching a crash happening ‘live’ before your eyes, even if the cars are carrying crash test dummies instead of real people. My first crash test, that’s what I experienced at the Skoda Safety Day at the company’s test facility in Mlada Boleslav, in the Czech Republic. The sight of two cars banging into each other is so disturbing that you either resolve
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to stay away from the wheel or pledge to drive with utmost caution all your life. But this is not the point. Crash tests are all about making the cars safer for the occupants and, as in this case, to demonstrate how cars have got safer over the years. Skoda Auto has been pretty serious in its endeavour of making sturdy and safe cars, and had organised this safety day to showcase its efforts in this field. While the Fabias at the turn of this century came with only five safety features, Skoda’s latest cars now come with as many as twenty active and passive safety features. Crash tests are an integral part of this and in addition to simulated tests with dummies, Skoda has taken to analysing real world crashes too. It established a road safety research team in 2008 to gather information about road accidents. The team functions
along with the local police, fire fighters and rescue teams. The team has its own toll-free number and is actively on call 24x7. The only requisite is that at least one car involved in the crash has to be a Skoda and not more than five years old (and is only available in the Czech Republic). The team is capable of rescue and first aid but the primary role is to gather technical data regarding the crash and also review the circumstances and physical conditions. Everything right from the braking point, tyre marks, breaking of headlamps to even the black box is taken into account. They not only examine the physical damage to the cars and injuries caused to the occupants but also other people involved in the accident like pedestrians and cyclists. The whole area is scanned using a laser scanner to prepare an
Clockwise from top: Technicians preparing the Superb Combi for the crash test. Plethora of data logging equipment occupies the whole boot. Crash test dummies after the crash are analysed to check injuries. The right way of securing infants on a child seat in a car
exact simulation of the scene which is used for detailed analysis. Then comes the psychological part. Post the crash, the team also approaches the people involved to study why the accident happened in the first place, including the behaviour of the driver and occupants. The data is then analysed after the permissions of the involved parties. Skoda has so far collected data from more than 300 accidents and used it for the development of new cars. This has resulted in the different grades of steel used in the chassis of the cars. Firmer
materials are used at critical areas like A-, Band C-pillars and doors to make them more resistant to crashes. This also has influenced the design of the cars, both internal and external. Skoda not only wants the cars to be good looking and spacious, but also safer. And this is where passive safety comes into play. For those of you who don’t know yet, passive safety features are the ones that aren’t very obvious but assist the driver in driving safely and save the occupants in the event of a crash. This includes adaptive lights, seat belts, airbags, crumple zones and the like. Active safety features are the ones that constantly monitor the driving conditions and help in minimising the chances of a crash. These include ABS, ESP and traction control for example. The crash test was organised to highlight
passive features. This involved a Yeti hitting a stationary Superb Combi at 90kmph. Both cars had four crash test dummies – two adults in the front and two kids at the back in each car. The boot is stacked with equipment that monitors various sensors around the car to measure the effect of the crash on the dummies and car behaviour. The Yeti drove on its own, guided by a navigation system. Watching this is breathtaking. The noise is like a small explosion, because of the collision and the inflation of the airbags. Then there is the dust and debris flying around, enough to keep you away from the road all your life. No kidding! There was a demonstration of how the Skoda team actively works at the crash site along with the fire fighters. Later during the day, the crash test results were disclosed. There was no OCT 2010 overdrive
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Suzuk i s l i ng s h ot
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vs
h on da c b f stu n n er
Face-off
Suzuki’s latest in the executive segment faces off against the Honda CBF Stunner Words Abhay Verma Photography Gaurav S Thombre
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very bike manufacturer seems to have focused its attentions on the executive commuter segment. The number of motorcycles in the 125-150cc segment is simply staggering. And the bikes get better looking by the day. Once a Hero Honda and Bajaj bastion, today it is under attack from the three Japanese heavyweights, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. Suzuki has always seemed to follow a low key approach. It seems as if it is banking on a long-term strategy quite at odds with the rest of the industry. It entered the 125cc category with the Zeus and the Heat. Though these bikes are mechanically very sound, their dated styling did them in and the fact that Suzuki was still in the process of setting up its dealership network probably resulted in relatively slow sales. Despite a few styling updates, the Zeus failed to set the sales registers ringing. Keen on establishing its presence in the executive segment, Suzuki has now launched the 125cc Slingshot. The middle class executive being its target customer, the Slingshot monicker seems off the mark. But what’s in a name, as they say. The proof of the pudding is in its eating so we decided to put the Slingshot to test against the Honda CBF Stunner, which is our current favourite in the segment.
Design and quality The Slingshot is a much better looking motorcycle than the Zeus. It borrows styling cues from Suzuki’s international line-up of streetbikes, like a sharp, rakish front end. The fuel tank is very neatly executed with a central crest and handy knee recesses. The mean looking bikini fairing up front declares a sporty intent. However the headlamp unit seems inspired by the previous generation Bajaj Pulsar’s. The small instrument housing is neat but is reminiscent of the Yamaha FZ unit. The Slingshot does not sport tank cowls, as per the current trend. But it has a tiny belly pan fairing carried over from the Zeus that is barely noticeable in black. The side panels blend well into the rear seat cowl, which ends in a sharp tail piece. The stop lamp feels rather small between the wide tail piece. The 10-spoke alloys wheels are unique and among the best looking in the country. The clocks though are a letdown and forget digital meters, I can’t understand why there’s no tachometer. The front number plate has been mounted on the front mudguard instead of on the fairing. The glossy black paint on the engine feels out of place. Overall build quality is good, and the bike has a solid, rugged feel, thanks to the minimal use of plastics. OCT 2010 overdrive
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Horn OK
please
We take the ICML Rhino to meet its mammalian namesake in the forests of Assam Words Charles Pennefather Photography Charles Pennefather & Ravi Agarwal
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still remember my mother reading out to me the story ‘How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin’ from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories’, when I was a child. Even after all these years, with growing up, and all my biology classes, I still prefer Kipling’s story, or even the legend of how the rhino got its ‘armour’ from Lord Krishna’s experiment of using it in battle. To me the rhino is like a gargantuan sausage with an armour-like hide and a horn at the front end. Of course I’d be wary of ruffling its feathers since an angry rhino is the stuff of nightmares. Ditto the ICML Rhino. It may appear like a boxy, old-school MUV but one look at the spec sheet and you notice that the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine now makes 121PS of power and 285Nm of torque, the latter figure a match for the Mitsubishi Pajero. Like its flesh and blood namesake, the ICML has a big heart. To zero in on any other similarities, we drove an ICML Rhinos to the Kaziranga National Park, home to the largest concentration of the Great Indian Rhinoceros. Kaziranga is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, established as a reserve forest in 1905, one of the oldest in the world. It’s a shining example of what diligent conservation efforts can achieve. You know you’re entering a reserve forest on seeing the first signboard that advises you to allow elephants to cross before you move ahead. With images of locals on 100cc bikes dicing between the legs of placid pachyderms crowding my head, I clicked a pic of the car to mark my journey into the unknown. Barely a kilometre later, our sharp-eyed host asked me
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Advertorial
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Gear & Gadgets To p - n o t c h t o y s f o r t h e m o s t d i s c r i m i n at i n g t a s t e s
Red bull Team collection Red Bull F1 paraphenalia for your living room
Red Bull Racing, along with Racing Gold has turned a bunch of F1 components in to art forms for the F1 enthusiast in you. Available in limited quantities, each comes with a certificate of authenticity and a description of where the part was used. www.redbullracing.com/art
Play clan
Play clan captures the essence of Indian roads on collectibles like coffee mugs, coasters and notebooks. We love the rowdy rickshaws, splattered Ambies and decorated trucks. Visit Play Clan for more details. http://shop.theplayclan.com
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Oakley C-Six
Race grade aluminium, carbonfiber. No, we aren’t talking any new race car but the snazzy new Oakleys to go with it.
` 1,99,990 (yes!) www.oakley.com
World champion cars calender
This 2011 calender features highly detailed artworks of championship winning F1 cars right from Alberto Ascari’s 1952 Ferrari F500 to Schumacher’s F2004.
` 2,090 approx
Great Races DVD Vol 2
167 minutes of nonstop action from 11 thrilling races. Perfect for that non-MotoGP Sunday afternoon.
` 1,451 approx www.DukeVideo.com
www.nordschleife.us
F1 2010
The official Formula 1 game is finally here for all popular formats. Time to grab your copy and play Schumacher.
` TBA
www.codemasters.com
Harley Collection
Wearables from the legendary American Harley-Davidson India has launched the latest range of apparels, accessories and safety gearin the country. Available at your nearest H-D dealership.
Price on request www.harley-davidson.in
Twistdock for PS3
Got the game? Get rid of all the clutter with this smart dock with USB ports and cable winder
` TBA
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