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THE WEEKLY OBSERVER WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
No Country for Fast Cars If owning a Lamborghini is self-indulgence, driving one in India is a lesson in self-control Shantanu
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amborghini, one of the world’s best-known makers of sports cars, builds machines for speed. They can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4 seconds and hit 350 km/h with ease. So what’s a car designed for European autobahns and high-speed motorways doing on India’s rutted and pot-holed roads, punctuated with speed breakers and sundry cattle? Simple. It costs over Rs.2 crores to own one. When Lamborghini opened its first showroom in Mumbai in 2012, its executives knew they had a potential market among India’s wealthy. Businessmen, celebrity sportsmen, showbiz types and their insufferable children, need that special something to remind the world how extraordinary they are. What could be more glamorous to flaunt than a canary-yellow spaceship on wheels? But not even Lamborghini’s CEO, no stranger to the anxieties of the rich and famous, could have imagined the desperation he was about to encounter. He had hoped to sell 50 cars in 3 years; he ended up selling 250 in a matter of months! With its inexplicable fondness for speed breakers, there is perhaps no country less suited to driving a supercar than India. The Huracan, one of Lamborghini’s most popular models, has a ground clearance of 0.13 metres or 5 inches. The Indian Roads Congress recommends that speed breakers must be “0.10 metres (or 4.3 inches)
in height in the form of a rounded hump measuring 3.7 metres in width for a crossing speed of 25km/h.” In reality, speed breakers on our roads appear from nowhere and often exceed 6 inches in height. A pot hole has no known specification to qualify as one and can range from a few inches to several feet in depth. The speed limit on Indian expressways is120 km/h. The entry-level Lamborghini, the Gallardo, or the new generation Huracan can break that in 5 seconds flat. It is little wonder that there have been so many cases of amateur drivers crashing their Lamborghinis or, in their efforts to test the car’s limits, causing their engines to catch fire. With just a light touch to the accelerator, there’s a massive air intake and the V12 6000 cc engine roars to life. Press down a bit and the car takes off like a jet.
A couple of years ago, a valet at Le Meridian Delhi crashed a Lamborghini causing the owner Rs.2 crore in damages. Next, a Lamborghini Murcielago crashed near India Gate when the driver lost control. Recently a BJP MLA’s wife crashed a saffron Huracan into a stationary autorickshaw in a crowded Mumbai suburb. Says Digvijay Tyagi, a mixed martial artist by profession who owns a fleet of superbikes and luxury cars, “There is no fun in driving a Gallardo coupe even on Delhi roads. Owning a supercar in India is utter nonsense.” He says it makes more sense to buy a big luxury SUV than a supercar. “Even superbikes are much better machines to roll on than these supercars.” Driving a Lamborghini seated just few inches off the ground, the driver knows all too well what a pothole feels like: a real bummer. To turn the car around you need the width of two average Indian roads. But for our rock-star college kids that’s no problem. Since the point in owning a sports car is simply to show off, it matters little if it’s mostly parked or crawling in dense traffic or being towed to repair. You can always rev your engine in neutral gear to relieve the boredom or tease your eardrums. And it’s a great prop in selfies. Isn’t that what owning a Lamborghini in India is all about?
Formula for Failure The dominance of technology over driving skills has cost F1 racing its coveted place Rishiraj Bhagawati
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he recent Singapore Grand Prix witnessed 22 of the fastest cars on the planet race the spectacular Marina Bay Street Circuit under blinding floodlights.The finest racing drivers in the world manoeuvred these V6 machines through the streets of the Lion City for 61 laps, before the winner and the runner-up raced past the chequered flag with just eight tenths of a second separating them. Quite extraordinarily, this close contest between some of the best combinations of engineering talent and driving skills in the world barely found mention in the next day’s international newspapers. No, it wasn’t a problem with the Singapore circuit, which to its merit has achieved the unthinkable by hosting night races year after year on a track not originally designed for racing. Rather it’s Formula One itself that is slowly losing its buzz and staring at a potential wipe-out from the sports world. The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association issued a statement early this year to the FIA chairman Bernie Ecclestone voicing their criticism of the way the sport is run. Ticket sales have gone down dramatically since 2008 and by over 7% in just the last two years. Cost of broadcast rights has come down and even Google trends show a dip in online searches. Today, not many outside the world of motorsport
“Ticket sales have gone down dramatically since 2008 and by over 7% in just the last two years. ”
care much about these races. If one wakes up on a Sunday morning and already has a fair idea about which car on the grid will eventually finish where, there is little incentive to even follow the race on Twitter. Things were not always so grim. A few decades ago F1 was one of the most followed sports in the world. It had established its space in people’s imagination after the advent of television. For instance, the rain-soaked Silverstone GP of 1988 gave us the first glimpse of Ayrton Senna’s incredible skills when he drove against all odds and emerged champion. He went on to win the World Championship that year
for McLaren-Honda and gave his countrymen something to celebrate. Soon after that he became a role model for the whole of Brazil, which at the time was struggling to come out of poverty and unemployment. People looked up to him as an inspiration from their everyday problems. Since then, the sport has undergone a plethora of changes both in administrative and track regulations. The most apparent -- and perhaps the most destructive -- is that the sport is now far too mechanised for drivers to make a difference anymore. It has become more about the engineering and design of the car and less about the driver’s skills and risk-taking ability. This has resulted in an anodyne contest on the track and, with drivers almost never risking car damage orfighting for a win anymore, the very ethos of Formula One is defeated. The future of the sport is also threatened by the unorganised and biased management of the sport. Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of the Formula One Group who owns its commercial rights, along with the FIA and a few private companies dictate the business model of the sport. They financially reward certain teams irrespective of their performance and make it difficult for their less-favoured rivals to compete. In the absence of a level playing field, competition will naturally be anything but fierce and lead to a predictable outcome.If the administration, however, finds a way to make the sport less engineering-focussed and its own functioning more transparent, we may once again witness the raw pleasure of racing that F1 once stood for.
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THE WEEKLY OBSERVER WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
Hyundai Raises its Game With the new Elantra, the Korean automaker takes on its big German rivals Aneesh Srinivasan
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ith the launch of the new Elantra, Hyundai has come a long way from their first Indian offering, the humble Santro. It’s the company’s new flagship after discontinuing the Sonata and, judging by its looks, Hyundai could have hit the sweet spot. Add the feature list that every modern Hyundai car sports and the Korean major could well give its big German competitors a run for their money. The car certainly looks handsome. Its large hexagonal grille and pointy fog lamps give it a distinctly aggressive appearance. The J-shaped day time running lamps (DRL’s) is reminiscent of Jaguar. The thick shoulder line that runs along the length of the car gives it both a solid feel and, with its sloping roof, a sporty style. The rear tail lamps with the trapezoidal LEDs coupled with the pronounced boot lip gives it a sassy look. These design cues suggest an upmarket sedan capable of taking on the market leaders in this segment. The same sporty styling continues on the inside. The huge and comfy seats look really inviting. The dashboard looks more like that of Hyundai’s German competitors. What the dash also features is an 8” touch screen that packs in Apple Care Play and Android Auto apart from the usual Bluetooth, USB and aux connectivity. The instrument panel is legible at all times and has 2 dials along with a TFT-LCD screen that acts as a multi-informtion display.
The rear seats are as comfortable as your favourite couch back home with ample legroom for tall passengers, though the segment leader is still the Toyota Corolla in this respect. The 485 litre boot is more than enough to accommodate anything you might want to take along on a weekend trip. The boot unlocks if you stand nearby with the smart key in your hand. This comes in really handy when
you have your hands full. The petrol engine is a 2.0 litre motor that develops 150 bhp and 196 Nm of torque. The diesel on the other hand comes with Hyundai’s tried and tested 1.6 litre powertrain that churns out 126 bhp and 265 Nm of torque.The 2.0 litre
naturally aspirated engine has lots of power to play with. This ensures that you don’t have to frequently downshift while overtaking on the highways, unlike in the case of the diesel variant. Once on the move, you are cocooned from the outside environment and insulated from almost all sound. Hyundai claims a mileage of 14.59 and 14.62 respectively for the manual and auto transmissions of the petrol version. The diesel on the other hand has a claimed mileage of 22.54 and 18.23 for the manual and auto transmissions respectively. Hyundai has always been known to add bucket loads of goodies to their cars. Just when we thought they couldn’t stuff anything more into the car, they make the an already sweet package even sweeter. Projector headlamps, dual zone air conditioner, shark fin antenna, electric sunroof, reverse parking camera with sensors, 6 airbags with ABS, EBD, ESC, VSM and HAC, the features list goeson and on. The only issue for a prospective buyer could be price. Hyundai is known to price its cars competitively. Despite stuffing in all these goodies, the new Elantra starts at Rs.12.99 lakhs for the base petrol and goes up to 19.90 lakhs for the top of the line diesel variant with automatic transmission. In conclusion, it would be safe to say that Hyundai has upped the ante and is offering a product that though pricey aims to give full value for the money invested.
AutoA timely Recalls Reflect Safety Awareness and effective auto-recall programme only enhances the value of the brand Konica Kamra
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ith the rapid growth of vehicle ownership in India, issues relating to product defects, warranties and now auto recalls are increasing entering the debate over about consumer protection. Most people are vaguely aware that car companies in other parts of the world have recalled millions of vehicles for problems ranging from faulty accelerator cables and airbags to brake failures and even seemingly minor manufacturing defects. But India too is already seeing a rising trend in auto recalls. The Volkswagen Group has decided to recall its cars in the Indian market due to the biggest emission scandal ever, which broke out in the US when the company was found to have installed software that misrepresented diesel emission data. Several markets have been already received a recall notice from the German carmaker and now, nine months after the scandal broke, the Indian market has been scheduled for a recall. Honda India issued a mammoth recall of over 1.9 lakh cars due to the faulty Takata airbags that have been giving automakers nightmares the world over. Earlier in February 2016, Honda models City along with Jazz and Civic were recalled and 57,676 cars had their faulty airbags replaced. Maruti Suzuki recalled 75,419 units of its Baleno and 1,961 units of Dzire to upgrade the airbag controller software in the vehicles. The company announced the recall in May this year for the
models of the cars manufactured between August 2015 and May 2016. Recalls can relate to anything from entire vehicles to replaceable equipment such as floor mats, airbags, and engine parts. In July 2012, the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers introduced a voluntary recall code for its members, to ensure that Indian vehicles are safe and to provide customers adequate redress if they cause for concern. The principles underlying the code are drawn from the vehicle performance standards set by the United States government. In the US, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards set minimum performance requirements for those parts of the vehicle that most affect its safe operation like brakes, tires or lighting; or that protect drivers and passengers from death or serious injury in the event of a crash such as
air bags, safety belts, child restraints, energy absorbing steering columns and motorcycle helmets. These rules are applicable to all vehicles and equipment manufactured or imported from the US. When a motor vehicle or item of motor-vehicle equipment does not comply with a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, the ‘recall’ procedure is invoked to fix that manufacturing defect.How does it work? When the defect is identified, the law gives the manufacturer three options for correcting the defect -- repair, replacement or refund. The manufacturer may choose to fix the defect; replace the vehicle with another identical vehicle; or refund the whole amount of purchase deducting the reasonable allowance for depreciation. If some part of the vehicle needs some repair including tires and child safety seats, the manufacturer can either repair or replace it. But here is a limitation on the warranty: If the vehicle is over eight years old, it cannot be recalled. In India many manufacturers voluntarily correct any safety-related faults, even if they are reluctant to call such repairs “recalls” because of the stigma attached to the term. In fact, voluntary and free recalls assure customers of the company’s commitment to the implicit assurance of a safe ride that they make when they sell a vehicle and therefore adds to the brand value. Conversely, companies that do not respond to serious manufacturing defects face a very real risk of losing customer trust.