Overdrive October 2011 issue preview

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October 2011 Volume 14 Issue 2 ` 125

HYUNDAI Alto beware!

Sub-Santro to take on India’s best selling car

WIN!

Toyota Etios Liva • Harison ATV VIP tickets to Indian GP

SCOOP!

HONDA DECLARES WAR!

Mahindra XUV 500

Brio vs Swift

DRIVEN NISSAN SUNNY

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New Jazz vs Swift

Etios price, Corolla space

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October 2011 Volume 14 Issue 2 ` 125

COLLECTOR’S SPECIAL EDITION

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po laris ra ng er 5 00 efi

Four play Think ATVs are about recreation off-road alone?

The Ranger 500 EFI takes a different tack Words Abhay Verma PhotographyDileep Prakash

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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

Eon readies Alto ambush Sub-Santro Hyundai will be priced to compete with Maruti’s best-selling hatch

• Expected to be priced from ` 3.2-3.5 lakhs and to be slotted below the Santro • Well designed high quality interiors • Bold, cheerful design carrying forward fluidic design philosophy • Fuel efficient i10 based 3-pot 800cc engine

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he wraps are finally off the sub-Santro that Hyundai has been working on for a long time now and it sports an equally small name Eon. But don’t let the size fool you, this is going to be a very important car in Hyundai’s India strategy and has all the makings of a game changer; after all what it has in sights is India’s best selling car the Maruti Suzuki Alto.

Like Maruti, Hyundai are also primarily a small car manufacturer offering hatchbacks at various size and price points.

Hyundai’s India story began with a hatchback - the Santro - and though it has been subjected to many a facelift in its life span

there’s no disguising the fact that it is 13 years old and pretty long in the tooth. Sales of the Santro have been sliding and though the i10 has been very well received it is plain obvious that Hyundai lacks a direct rival to the Alto, especially if it wants to close the sales gap to Maruti which, in recent times, has only been widening. That’s the task of the Eon, internally called the HA001, an allnew ground-up design that shares nothing with the Santro.

First impressions are very positive and the styling is definitely going to win over buyers. Hyundai has applied its fluidic design philosophy to good effect with the front end taking cues from the new Verna and i10. The headlamps in fact are more

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Jetfire The Jetta strikes back

Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Gauarav S Thombre

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Tamed beast Koleos has a facelift and excellent ride quality. Will it be enough?

Words & Photography Bertrand D’souza

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’ve just spent an hour staring at the new Koleos and for the life of me I can’t decide on which is more appealing to look at, the present one that I am staring at or the generation before. The last Koleos which I drove in Paris simply hits you in the face, and I don’t mean that in a nice way. The present Koleos is struggling to do the same though the once jaw breaking punch has gone a bit soft. The softness is because of the changes affecting this newly launched in India Koleos, primarily the design elements at the front. Everything behind the grille cosmetically and mechanically is the same as the earlier SUV and yet a few changes called in by Renault’s Indian division have made this a much more acceptable car to digest.

It’s critical for Renault that the masses in the ` 20-25 lakh bracket accept the Koleos, priced as it is at ` 22.9 lakh ex-showroom Delhi, because it’s an important cog in Renault’s brand building strategy. This particular strategy is intended to dilute the Mahindra Renault legacy and help Renault build one of its own before its game changing vehicles hit the market. These are the small hatchback modeled on the lines of the Nissan Micra and the very affordable Duster SUV which we expect will bring Renault a big windfall.

I’m not going to get too deep into the Koleos lineage, I’ve done it before. But in case you missed that the gist is that the Koleos is built under the Renault Nissan umbrella and shares platforms with the Nissan X-Trail. That means it borrows the X-Trail’s chassis, engine and

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Sunny side up We drive the Nissan Sunny in sunny Mahabalipuram Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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Back in the ring Bajaj launches its third 150cc motorcycle, the Boxer BM150 targeting the entry-level buyer Words Abhay Verma Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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ajaj Auto seems to be following in Hero Motocorp’s footsteps, but with a twist. While Hero has famously created motorcycles at different price points in similar segments using the same engine with different cosmetic packages, Bajaj is trying to offer motorcycles in different segments using the same engine displacement.

Say hello to the third 150cc motorcycle from Bajaj Auto, the Boxer BM150. The Boxer in this case uses a further stripped down version of the Discover 150’s engine, and has only one spark plug. While the Discover 150 is targeted at the urban commuter who heads to office daily with a briefcase, the Boxer 150 is targeted at the semi-urban/rural customer who it appears will head to the marketplace with produce. Let’s get to know it a little better.

at the front and a nothing but a steel grab rail at the rear. Bajaj Auto has given the Boxer BM150 an styling package that is all-new but strongly reminiscent of the old Boxer in a bid to capitalize on its success. Hence, what you see on the Boxer 150 is a round headlamp upfront, with a small shroud, looking similar to the old Boxer’s.

The instrument cluster is a basic twopod unit and gets only a speedometer and fuel gauge. The tank is a simple unit and has minimal graphics with Boxer written on both sides in a large font. At the back of the Boxer’s wide seat is a robust looking steel grab rail reminiscent of the old Boxer’s and is replete with places to anchor loads. Below this sits the tail light, which is identical to the old Boxer’s. Overall build quality is decent, but the quality of plastics is not even close to that.

Design and Quality

Powertrain & performance

Remember the 100cc Boxer that was sold years ago? It was a big hit for Bajaj, and was immensely popular – more so for its value for money proposition and efficiency rather than elements like styling and design. The target market for that bike was the entry-level motorcycle segment, where functionality prevails over form. It’s styling was basic, with a round headlamp surrounded by a shroud

The Boxer 150 uses the Discover 150’s 144.8cc single-cylinder DTS-i unit, but sans one spark plug. The engine makes 12PS of power at 7500rpm and 12.26Nm of torque at 5000rpm, which is roughly 1PS and 0.5Nm less than the Discover 150. The engine is now mated to a 4-speed gearbox with short-ratios, instead of the Discover 150’s 5-speed unit. Given its market positioning, the Boxer 150 has been tuned OCT 2011 overdrive

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Small Change Honda’s latest small car, the Brio, aims to shake up the segment

Words Bertrand D’souza Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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ow do you make a small car attractive enough to make consumers want to buy one? How do you do this in an environment that has around 25 hatchbacks to choose from? And last of all how do you do this when you have never ever been in the compact hatchback segment before? The challenge is immense but we are talking about Honda here, a manufacturer who has gone from strength to strength and that too without either having a very diverse portfolio or a diesel engine option within that range.

But given the importance of the compact hatchback segment when Honda announced their intention to step into that segment at the 2010 Auto Expo, you sit up and start writing notes. In 20 months Honda have a production car ready to hit showrooms.

Now the Brio is a contemporary hatchback built in the vein of traditional Kei cars, which in Japan exploit local tax and insurance structures, quite similar then to its intentions in India. The Brio however is the first car from Honda to be conceptualised and engineered strictly in tune with the demands of the Indian market using lessons learned here. All key inputs in fact came from Honda’s Indian engineers and product development team.

DESIGN & STYLE The Brio has a very distinct identity and the design is quite unlike anything Honda has attempted so far in any of their global models.

It’s attractive and makes heads turn and linger for longer once they notice the Honda badges. More than the face however it’s the rear, principally the hatch, that commands the most attention. The large glass surface which serves as both rear windshield and hatch door is unique in this segment and very stylishly executed. It without a doubt appeals very strongly to me, it’s futuristic, edgy, geometric, tasteful and sensational.

And it is a cheaper engineering and production option to exploit, though as Honda have clearly shown that does not translate to look-

ing cheap, this is a very classily executed affair. Using a glass hatch isn’t a new concept, remember the early Maruti 800.

Yet another strong design flair is the sharply creased shoulder line that begins under the rear window on one side, wraps itself entirely around the car and ends at the same point on the other side. I also like the fact that there aren’t any curves on this car, it’s all hard edges and geometric shapes retaining a lot of the cues that we saw on the New Small concept.

Externally the Brio appears to be quite compact, yet this is a fairly large car. Its 3.6 metres long but 1.68 metres wide and at it’s highest point 1.5 metres tall. The wheelbase is 2.34 metres which is the smallest in the segment, track is 1485mm at the front and 1465mm at the rear which gives it a fairly adequate footprint for city run around but does not give it the dynamic abilities that you’d experience in a Swift or Polo.

One thing that I did not find appealing on this car then is the massive chrome band that runs across the grille and houses the logo. It’s a direct liftoff from the Jazz except its finished in chrome. It is the sole distracting element on this car and it frankly has no business being there.

The cabin however has no blemishes, this is a neat, clean and pleasantly turned out cabin which boasts of the high quality synonymous with all Honda products. The second you close the doors with a reassuring thunk you know that visible signs of quality are high. The two tone dashboard is a classy affair though it’s the quality of materials used that makes it premium. The dashboard is made of very high quality plastic that feels soft to touch with all panels mated to each other snugly except for the chocolate colored plastic surround for the air-con vents and stereo panel - which extends all the way to the driver door, surrounding the dials - that just doesn’t complement the rest of the dashboard. The dials are attractive, the steering wheel chunky and with the audio controls on the steering wheels it all adds a touch of sportiness and luxury to this cabin.

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The gathering storm The new Brio is smaller and slightly less expensive than the new Swift. But is it the bigger deal?

Words Shubhabrata Marmar Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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t isn’t as if the Swift hasn’t faced a big challenge from a competing hatchback before. But when lined up for a head-to-head with the Brio there’s the same sort of sizzle in the air as would precede an Arsenal versus Manchester United football game at Old Trafford. And I cannot quite fathom why. I’ll grant that the Swift update is a big deal for Suzuki, and for the market since it was the top-selling hatch in its segment when it was replaced. The new car itself proved last month quite emphatically that Suzuki is on the top of its game.

But the Brio is an equally significant car.

Honda may have lost its domination in the

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C-segment recently, but their 13-year reign at the top shows what the company stands for and can achieve. And if the City was Thierry Henry then the Brio aims clearly to be Van Persie. Let’s get right to it. And I promise, that the football analogies end here.

Let’s kick off with styling. Er, okay last football insert that was. The Swift update has been a mixture of the sharpened and still the same. You won’t really notice the new details until the new one is seen next to an old one.

Then the details and all that newfound sharpness lights up. It looks a bit too far off the ground and a bit tip-toey but we know from experience this is a smart compromise.

The Brio, on the other hand, looks like it was born a minute ago - which it was - and it’s as modern and fresh as any recent all-new Honda you’d think of. It’s a cheeky, attractive looking car with a very distinctive rear-end. I think a lot of people will like it immensely.

This is a clear toss-up, the polished-up familiarity of the Swift versus the past-less modernity of the Brio. Either is a good pick, but it’s your pick so I won’t dwell on it too much.

Me? I’d swing for the Honda - I’ve never been hung up about the past and modern totally gives me a free kick. But on the more objective parameters, it’s a tie. Both cars display nearly equal attention to fit and finish levels

and display similar (high) build quality with the Swift feeling just marginally more robust than the typically light Honda.

On the interior treatment, the two Japanese companies choose dramatically different strategies. Honda does an amazing job of keeping the price in check without letting the Brio feel like City’s cheap cousin. Beige-black and an inexplicable chocolate around aircon vents and dash are the colours of choice and while the plastics are good, next to the Swift they look a bit, erm, plasticky, it is a highquality cabin where you can smell the attention to detail. From the thoughtful packaging that liberates a bit more room inside front and rear than the Swift, to the cutouts in the slim-build seats to fit knees belonging to taller passengers, the Brio is a pleasure to sit in and spend time in. The seats may feel a bit firm at the beginning but once you settle in, discomfort is held at bay for hours together.

The Swift on the other hand, takes its

smart cabin from the last generation and ratchets the details up several notches. It’s a typically black cabin that could easily have descended into a gloomy, plasticky mess. But it doesn’t at all. It’s sporty to a fault, the materials feel great to the touch and while it does lose out to the Brio in interior space, it’s vastly improved over the old Swift and the difference in space is not night and day, more like dawn and early morning.

Where Swift edges Brio out is in features.

Maruti’s digital display has more information and the music system looks upmarket and is well specced. In comparison, the shiny black plastic of Brio’s system looks a bit sparse - 2 DIN with a handful of buttons looks bare. The wiring that accompanies the USB receptacle makes the cubby hole in the centre console perpetually look messy and this whole anti-CD crusade Honda seems to be on is a bit silly given how much messier it makes the car. My first impression was that

the bare face of the system, the cheap-ish gloss black plastic and the wiring cheapened the cabin feel a bit, and I’ve had no cause to change the impression. I’d say the two are tied here - space versus features. Then you spot Brio’s alarmingly small boot versus the more convenient and larger one in the Swift and Maruti edges Honda out by a notch.

There’s no doubt that given the Brio’s ultrashort wheelbase, the interior space is properly gobsmacking. But then again, no one forced Honda to work on such a short wheelbase. A few more millimetres given over to boot space could have sorted this issue out.

The tall loading lips on both cars are inconvenient, however. My motorcycle kit bag, for instance, weighs 19kgs exactly and I’m not looking forward to hefting it high before trying to squash it into either boot. So halfway through the first half, the game is even with the Swift having a little more possession. Now, the powertrains. The Swift’s KOCT 2011 overdrive

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Level up Does the price cut and mild facelift make the Honda Jazz the best hatch in the market?

Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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he Honda Jazz is the most desirable hatchback in India and there’s no disputing that. We’ve liked its space, its versatility, its interiors, its engine - heck everything about the car - except its pricing.

Two years ago on our mega hatchback comparo in Ladakh the Jazz stood head and shoulders above its brethren yet it couldn’t win the test because of its silly pricing.

Finally the pricing issue has been addressed with this refreshed Jazz. What’s new?

There are new bumpers, new grille, new headlamps and new colors, all of which amounts to not very much. The main thing is the pricing which has come down a whopping ` 1.6 lakh with the base variant now at ` 5.50 lakh going up to ` 6.06 lakh. And with that came a flood of e-mails and calls: is the new Jazz the best hatch in the country?

No better way to answer the question than to pit it against the winner of last month’s mega hatchback test to the North East - the new Swift. The Swift has been the best car in its segment since it was launched all those years ago and now the all-new Swift (looks like a mild refresh but it really is allnew) raises the bar yet again. The moot question is has the bar been raised over the Jazz?

STYLING The Swift was always an attractive car but with the new one Suzuki hasn’t moved the game forward and the very close resemblance to the older generation doesn’t make the car stand out. Look closely, or better still stand it against an old Swift, and you will notice the new headlamps and taillamps and that in profile the nose looks longer but you do have to look closely. What you will also notice is the ride height has been jacked up for Indian roads and it leaves a lot of daylight

between the tyres and wheel arches which is possibly the only sore point in an otherwise extremely well-executed design.

The Jazz though gets my vote on the styling front and is that wee bit more eye-catching than the Swift; the fact that you hardly see a Jazz on the road while Swifts are aplenty helps the Honda’s case immensely. The revised nose (which keeps in step with the facelift done to the international model) does make the car sportier in appearance and the big change you will notice is the hexagonal shape to the grille with the Honda logo perched inside it. This is a Honda family signature which is also sported by the Brio (though being fully chromed kind of loses the plot) and will also be seen on next month’s revised Honda City. The headlamps have also been subtly altered and the top edges have become more curvy while the reflectors inside are also new. The new front bumper has raised vertical slashes originating from the headlamps and flowing down to frame the air dam while the fog lamps also get raised surrounds. It all adds up to give the Jazz a fresher and more modern look; even a hint of visual aggression.

The rear bumper is also revised with a strongly defined lip and even a mock diffuser to add to the sporty look. The taillamps, profile and everything else are exactly the same.

INTERIORS The interiors too are identical and there was nothing really wrong with that, it was (and still is) the most practically and ergonomically designed cabin in its class. Cup holders (ten of them!) and cubby holes are dime a dozen, there are two glove boxes, the steering wheel (from the Civic) is stylish and great to hold, the stereo now gets a USB input (and it also takes CDs unlike the Brio and City),

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No Softy SLS-nosed and bigger-engined the SLK350 has eyes set on the Z4 and TT Words Sirish Chandran Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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ercs are nothing if not inoffensive. Take all of their cars - everything has been styled more or less to please all and offend none and in the main that’s where their image is taking a beating, giving rivals with a sporting bent ammo to pepper Mercedes with. Not any more.

Fed up of being labelled as cars for old people Mercedes is on a sporty offensive. The Formula 1 team. Michael Schumacher. The rip-snorting SLS AMG. Even more AMG-ing of the range. The angry face to the new C-

Class. And the hardening up of the girliest of all girly-Mercs, the SLK. It’s evident in the styling that is very miniSLS but we will get to that later. What really sets the tone is the first time you fire it up and are greeted with a startlingly angry exhaust note. My neighbor didn’t appreciate it which compelled me to blip the throttle extravagantly as if warming a ‘50s 300SL race car, the throaty rumble reverberating off the shutters and knocking the spectacles off his nose. A Merc that wakes up your neighbour’s daughter is a good way to start the day.

All that noise is courtesy the new engine.

Gone is the (cool-sounding) Kompressor 1.8litre four-cylinder supercharged engine that along with the lazy 5-speed auto made the SLK200 more show than go. In comes a new V6 engine, the first Mercedes V6 in India to get petrol direct injection, and that makes for a very healthy 306PS of power and 370 Nm of torque. Launching with the SLK 350 (the fourcylinder SLK 200 will come in eventually) has of course been necessitated by BMW and Audi bringing in beefy six-cylinder engines in the Z4 and TT and even though this has resulted in ` 13 lakh escalation in price the fact that it now gives the SLK’s chassis some work OCT 2011 overdrive

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Miles to go before...

Can the Liva diesel go from Bangalore to Pune on a single tank of fuel? Read on

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ote to self: Do not floor it.

Note to self: Cars passing you is okay. When you are on the highway, in an ultra marine blue Toyota Liva freshly minted out of the factory, it’s an ultimate bummer to have to drive it like a cabbie, an old chap if you must. Why are we putting ourselves through so much torture?

A couple of days before the official launch, Toyota invited journalists to Bangalore to experience the diesel avatars of the Etios and the Liva. During the presentation the Toyota spokesperson, with a smile, announced the ARAI claimed mileage figure for both the cars – 23.5kmpl. The smile was forced.

Just a couple of days back before our test drive, Tata had announced a mileage of 25kmpl for the Indigo eCS. Last minute frantic changes in the powerpoint presentations and the creatives would have followed, resulting in a lot of sullen faces after Tata’s timely declaration. I smell a bandicoot. We are very sure they were looking to impress us by claiming the best mileage in the segment. Alas!

Why are we going on harping about the fuel efficiency bit? Because 23.5kmpl is really commendable. But we never take anyone’s word for it. We anyway needed to get the Liva for testing so then why not drive it down from Bangalore to Pune. But you see nothing

Words & Photography Joseph Koraith

that we do is purely for fun. There’s always logic behind everything we do. Okay, most of what we do. So we decided to see if the Liva would make it from Bangalore to Pune on a single tank of fuel. And, in one day.

The second part wasn’t tough. The first had Team OVERDRIVE engaged in sweepstakes with most of them naysayers. The Liva has a tank capacity of 45 litres. The distance to Pune from where we were holed up in Bangalore, according to Google maps, was 838kms. Which meant we needed a fuel efficiency of 18.6kmpl to make it to Pune on one tank. Game on.

Now the Liva diesel comes only in one variant the GD. And Toyota has taken nofrills to an extreme with this model. The car which we had was fitted with an after-market Toyota optional body kit which included an all-round skirt and rear spoiler which costs approximately ` 30,000. This does give some spunk to the external appearance. But on the inside, among other things, it doesn’t have a tachometer or a music system, both of which were very important for this trip, the latter more crucial of course. Rishaad wasn’t exactly kicked about two guys making small talk for 800kms. So the famous Indian jugaad mentality came to the fore. We got ourselves a car laptop charger, a small but spirited USB speaker and we were all set.

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Economies off scale The two big small diesel hatchbacks face off Words Rishaad Mody Photography Gaurav S Thombre

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bjectivity, above all else, is the hardest part of my job. Let me put it in perspective. In my case the Swift was the first enthusiast’s car I’d ever driven. The first time I’d experienced fluent steering communication on the twisties, the first time I felt the rear get loose and control it on opposite lock. The Swift diesel was my first taste of a car with a delicious kick in the power band.

The list goes on but in essence, it was a car of many firsts for me and if you haven’t realized yet, I should be up front. I quite like the Maruti Suzuki Swift.

Let’s begin as unobjectively as possible.

Styling. It’s a pure matter of opinion and it’s entirely up to you to decide what looks best.

Nevertheless both look good. The Swift carries over its predecessor’s handsome lines with many a subtle change. The whole car has been stretched and is longer by 90 mm with a noticeably longer bonnet. The rear end gets even swoopier tail lights and the whole effect is a positive step ahead. The only downside is the exaggerated ride height; the car looks like it’s on stilts. Even the 15-inch alloy-shod ZDi look inadequate.

The Liva on the other hand is quite a looker with that blue paintwork and bodykit. The stubby nose looks far better on the hatchback than the Etios. The line that runs from the headlight all the way to the tail above the door handles defines the side profile and makes for an interesting focal point. Especially as it runs into the taillight. Changes to the exterior are few and the only differences being the body coloured grille losing the chrome bar from the petrol, the lack of foglamps and 14-inch steel wheels with plastic covers instead of 15-inch alloys like on the petrol.

Put them together and it’s chalk and cheese. The Swift is modern and chic in its

approach with its swept back headlights, floating roof and highly styled rear end. The Liva on the other hand is an honest old school Jap design whose straightforward simplicity appeals to me. If the Swift instantly grabs your attention the Liva gradually grows on you. It’s a flavour that constantly improves the longer you swill it.

Drivetrains Take an existing engine and knock off all the unnecessary bits or get rid of an entire cylinder altogether. That’s the unspoken rule for today’s manufacturers when designing engines for their smaller solutions. Toyota have gone with the first option for the Liva. It’s a simple recipe. Take one four pot 1364cc D-4D engine from the Altis diesel, chop the variable geometry turbo and replace with a more cost effective fixed geometry unit. Stir well.

The 8-valve SOHC unit produces 68PS of power at 3800 rpm and 170Nm of torque from 1800-2400rpm which looks pretty paltry on paper. But Toyota is very proud of its flat torque curve and it should be. The engine has a nice linear power delivery and a very flat torque curve which is fairly difficult to achieve with a turbocharged oil burner. What this translates into is great drivability.

Driving in start stop conditions is a breeze.

Just get off the clutch and she pulls ahead cleanly. The problems only start to arise when you floor it. The engine runs out of steam as the revs rise and feels very strained at the limit.

Not a car to be driven in anger then.

The figures reiterate this. The Liva is a whole two seconds slower than the Swift to the ton, taking a leisurely 17.36 seconds. Keep her in the sweet torquey zone though and the Liva makes for a friendly, easy car to drive. Efficiency is expectedly high with the Liva returning 17.88kmpl over all.

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Short stick of dynamite Range Rover’s new compact crossover packs a big bang Words Bertrand D’souza

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he Isle of Anglesey is where prince William, the future king of England is stationed at presently serving with the RAF’s search and rescue unit. That alone makes it worth flying the nearly 7000km to drive the new Range Rover Evoque, just in case I don’t enjoy the drive. But I’m not here to mingle with royalty neither is he coming to spend some time with us to do any promotional activity. The only way I see me coming face to face with his royally receding hairline is if I drive the new Range Rover Evoque off a cliff into the sea and he comes to rescue me.

Putting my royal conundrum aside, the Isle of Anglesey has more significance for any petrol head. This little island off the north west coast of Wales is where the Land Rover was born on Maurice Wilks’ farm. So visiting the Isle to get a first impression of the Evoque is soul stirring. Unfortunately we aren’t driving on the Llanddona beach where the first ever Land Rover was tested, instead we would be touring the countryside, one of the most picturesque in the world designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It perfectly fits the bill for what will undoubtedly be an SUV of outstanding design. And one market that the Evoque will light up with it’s brilliance is India, taking on the established Audi Q5 and the newly launched BMW X3.

The Evoque’s strongest weapon in it’s arsenal is its styling. Based on the LRX concept the Evoque has retained nearly every bit from that concept and offered it in production form. SUVs simply don’t come any cooler than the Evoque. It is in totality from the grille to the hatch a SUV that clearly defines and sets the trend for the future. After the Evoque I no longer expect any SUV to be designed in the same manner.

What makes it all the more special are the millions of details and each of them looking crisp and fresh off the boat. Now I’m not sure how nightmarish it’s going to be to service an Evoque given all those body parts but I have never ever seen any vehicle that blends so many bits seamlessly. The hood that clips the projector headlamps making it look like the Evoque’s got eyebrows. The twin slat big honeycomb grille, the chunky bumpers with myriad scoops and bulges and convex and concave areas, the jewelled driving lamps, OCT 2011 overdrive

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Bird of prey The Deronda Type F manages to knock our socks off Words & Photography Bertrand D’souza

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he day hasn’t begun well for me, it’s wet and cold and I’m not prepared for it adequately. Both conditions are bad to drive a car that looks as track focused as the Deronda Type F does.

The wet surface means less traction and the cold will not allow the tyres to heat up sufficiently which will only make things even

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more difficult. True enough, on my first lap out then I bin it, whacking the plastic Armco on a corner of the Bruntingthorpe airfield’s makeshift circuit hard enough to scratch the fibre glass panels on the nose cone. The throttle’s also stuck, and it puts a pause on my drive until things can be sorted out which eats into the better part of the day since one of the fasteners on the

engine covers refuses to come off.

Time then to delve into Deronda’s legacy and history. Deronda is a small British kit car manufacturer that makes just one car, the Deronda Type F. The company began on the whim of one automobile enthusiast, Andy Round, an airline executive who was looking for a fun to drive car both on track and road that met his specifications. There

weren’t any that were satisfactory so he went and designed his own car and got Racing Designs Ltd and Fabrication Techniques a sister concern to design and build the car for him. That was how Deronda was born and the first car called the F400 was a prototype that was as initial testers claimed a surprisingly good alternative to the Ariel Atom or a Caterham. Being a prototype the

car couldn’t be driven on the road and by the time the car got road worthy it was designated the Type F. Deronda had begun creating waves, small ones but definitely ones that would rock your boat hard enough.

But lets get back to me standing by the side of the track feeling like an absolute tool for binning it on my first lap out. In between thoughts of whether it was me or the car that

did it to itself, I start wondering if this car which is soon coming to our shores has any future here looking the way it does. I mean its tough enough to get Indians to accept cars that don’t look conventional, seat four people and with all the creature comforts needed for a hot, cold or wet day.

On our subcontinent we want a car that makes a style statement, looks richer OCT 2011 overdrive

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F e at u r e

R d 350 vs ninja 25 0r vs c b r 2 5 0 r

Drag king Is the Yamaha RD350 still the fastest accelerating motorcycle made in the country?

Words Abhay Verma Photography Gaurav S Thombre

I

t’s nearing thirty years since the Yamaha RD350 came to India but even today whisper the name and a reverent hush descends. Faraway looks shine in all the gathered eyes and you can see the glowing memories of speed and performance roaring through the enthusiasts’ heads. Until the Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the Honda CBR250R came nothing has had the performance to challenge the venerated two-stroke demon.

But do these two really have the perfor-

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mance to beat the RD? Today is the day we find out. The odds for once are stacked against the Yamaha. It’s a thirty year old bike, parts are hard to come by, the best bikes are still a bit lashed together and ragged at the edges. And you can tune the engine all you want, but the frame and the overall capability of the motorcycle is likely to be held back by the unyielding rules of Father Time.

Today we are putting the RD to a test it has aced with contempt in the past. The cor-

nerstone of motorcycle, nay vehicle performance, the quarter mile.

What we all wish it would do is thrash the 33PS Kawasaki Ninja 250R soundly and spank the 25PS Honda CBR250R. But secretly we also wish the RD would get beaten. In our depressingly slow-moving market (on product evolution not sales) it would be a blinding ray of hope. A milestone of progress. The end of an era, even.

So we organised the motorcycles, found an appropriately long, completely deserted

piece of tarmac and charged up the batteries on our testing equipment and prayed for the rain to stay away for the duration.

Time for some action. The RD belongs to a different time, when the sounds of motorcycles were not lost in the dreary desert sand of noise emissions to borrow a phrase. It always sounded glorious but it completely overshadows the relatively meek sounds of the other two. It has presence. In the sound, in the smell of burning 2T and in the allmetal no-plastic bare-bones appearance.

The revs rise in anticipation of the start…

Ready, set? Go! Clutches were popped and it was the RD that was the first to leap ahead, front wheel desperate to leave the ground. The Ninja’s whining scream as it heads past 10,000rpm is finally audible as a note not drowned in the RD’s roar. It’s desperate to catch the blue bike just ahead. The CBR isn’t far behind, but decisively in third.

A hundred metres later, one fourth of the way, the RD is still gathering frightening

momentum, its clock passing 90kmph, just 6.12 seconds since the test began. It’s older and the most obvious sign of age is the gearbox. It’s not as slick anymore and I am convinced it would be further ahead if it could shift as smoothly and quickly as the Ninja or the CBR. The Ninja is pressing its advantage. It’s 0.55 seconds behind at the 100m mark, going a 1.96kmph slower. The CBR, the sole single cylinder, the softest of the trio is still the last bike. It crosses the 100 mark 0.81 seconds behind the RD and is OCT 2011 overdrive

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h e av y w e ig h t s

m ah i nd ra mpvi

Indestructible me Mahindra’s first Mine Protected Vehicle is driven and the experience is surreal Words Halley Prabhakar Photography Dileep Prakash

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I

am a big fan of the Transformers – the comics, the series and the movie trilogy. In fact when I was a kid I even played around inside a Transformers’ tent. I just love seeing the two warring alien robot species - Autobots and Decepticons - fighting each other while otherwise being in the guise of machines - cool supercars, superbikes, trucks and huge military vehicles. But what has that got to do with the vehicle you see here? Well it looks and reminds me of the Decepticon ‘Bonecrusher’ from the movie. To my surprise, the Mine Protected Vehicle India (MPVi) as it’s called, is partly developed by the same people who were responsible for the vehicle used in that Hollywood flick, how cool is that! When Sirish asked me if I wanted to drive the MPVi, I couldn’t wait to take on the bad guy. Or is he the good guy?

The trucks that the armed forces currently go across minefields in has a unique testing procedure. A pig is strapped onto the truck which is then subjected to a mine blast in a military facility. If the pig survives then the truck is deemed fit to venture into the most dangerous regions in the country. Or so the story goes. But either or, the Indian jawans desperately deserve better protection and this is where the MPVi steps in. The vehicle has been developed by Defence Land Systems India (DLSI) - a joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and BAE systems. DLSI manufactures various other vehicles such as the Mahindra Rakshak, Marksman (used by the Mumbai police) and the Rapid Intervention Vehicle.

The MPVi is based on a URAL 5730, a cab with a bare chassis and powertrain manufactured by Uralaz of Russia and supplied by URAL India. The folks at DLSI chop the chassis and use it only for the driveline. Special OCT 2011 overdrive

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