Sub four-metre sedan, a beauty or a blob in the eye?

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, well they are lying. There are things that are truly beautiful and there are certain things are sadly not. Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) is gorgeous, Majid station is not. Salma Hayak is beautiful, Uma Thurman is not. Now imagine full fledged sedans like Fiat Linea, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Sunny, with no hindrances in design factor, everything proportional to the "T". On the other hand take sub-four metre sedans, a first glimpse and you cant resist twitching an eye, you cant help but wonder if something is wrong with this model.

Maruti Suzuki Swift

Sub-four metre caught the trend due the stringent government's excise duty policy, forcing automobile gods to produce models of car that are anything but beautiful. Compare it with these scenarios: Railways suddenly decides to beautify the Masjid station like Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus with elaborate pillars, tinted glass roofs, gargoyles on roof tops. Or picture this Salma Hayek suddenly decides to have a breast reduction surgery, what would be your reaction, a big smear of absurdity and uncertainty would emerge on your face. So these scenarios prove a point that some things are beautiful and some things just aren't.

We know that a car's beauty is often defined by its curve and lines but the most simple yet complex matter it should retain its proportion. The only thing that I am good in designing is a hyphen and that too with a ruler, but I can even clearly predict the horrendousness that will be in store if someone tries to replicate the erogenous curves of an XK120 in the silhouette of an Ambassador.

Yeah I know India isn't well known in automobile industry for its design styling but rather known for its "Jugaadu" style of manufacturing cars and sub-four metre sedans fit this bracket perfectly. The problem with with the four metre sedans isn't the lack of beauty though. The problem is they are an embodiment of messed up priorities, and stifled innovations. India should be innovating cars with better fuel efficiency, better safety standards, rather than trying to include every nature of vehicular body into four metre bracket, be it be a SUV, MPV or a sedan for excise benefit.

In my opinion excise benefits should be imparted on car having six airbags, traction control, ESB, ABS, etc. A car should be benefited of its excise duty which gives more miles to the gallon, and if they are longer than four metre then I assure you we will survive.

As of now four metre sedans are scorching the sales chart but let me conclude its taking us, quite literally, nowhere.

The demise of Hindustan Ambassador

An end of an era for in Indian automotive industry with Hindustan Ambassador (My respect for Amby can only be shown in bold lettering) finally being relegated to history. The Amby will no longer roll out of depreciated production lines in Uttarpara and Gurgaon respectively. But the eternal question remains, has it left a void? Apart from few people bursting of emotions we think it existed far too long to be missed.

One of the early ads of Amby Source: Team-BHP

Often fondly referred as "The Grand Old Lady Of Indian Roads", Amby in the later part of its presence was only sold for its legacies and chequered history rather than its outdated styling, old technical artillery and safety standards reminiscent of Ford Model T. Based on Morris Oxford III in Britain, Amby was put into production in 1958 and was continued till May-2014, has only been re-tweaked with grille, parking lamps and taillight lenses. A major re-modelling was rumoured much like Royal Enfield, Fiat 500, VW Beetle but with the announcement of suspension of production, all those rumours bit the dust.

Yellow Amby Ferrying Passengers

I am a bong, born and brought up in Mumbai, so I was always biased of the cultures of Mumbai against the culture of my native place Kolkata, preferring good ol' wada pav over rasgullas! But I was always envious of one thing or rather trend that Kolkata had and Mumbai didn't, and that's the yellow Amby taxis. Mumbai's black and yellow PAL premier were always cramped of space, difficult to get in and almost made even a normal person claustrophobic, but come to Kolkata and these yellow Ambys were a joy to ride. The sofa like seats on back side making ease of entry for sari clad women, a build quality reminiscent of Russian T-50 tank, going through the potholes it would jutter up the bones of the passenger but its body and chassis would emerge without even a scratch.

Having seen people treating the Amby as a status symbol and later as a family member and I have also seen being no less than a God, with taxi drivers offering food and sweets to their Amby before taking a morsel of food for themselves, Amby is no less than a heritage, a culture to be cherished in the coming times, but with outdated artillery and diminishing demands, Hindustan Motors should rest this Grand Old Lady to peace.

I have wrote this article as my tribute to Amby rather than a report of it, so send in your comments, any suggestions, advice is welcome.
  

Google unveils its own 'driverless' car, surprises with a live demo too!

We always classify people into two types, one that consider cars as mere modes of transport and the other that can’t resist grinning from ear to ear every time an opportunity to sit behind the wheel presents itself. Unfortunately, whichever group you classify yourself into, the reality is that driving in cities has become a chore these days. 

You might even be piloting a Porsche 911 but what’s the fun in being stuck for hours in a traffic congestion that leaves you scratching your head? That’s why, when Google announced that it is working on driverless cars, we were all ears! Though a handful of mainstream automotive manufacturers have tried their hands at driverless cars before, when it comes from the world’s leading tech giant, we better pay attention.

Weeks, months and years passed and all we heard about Google's progress in this project were several instances of mainstream cars fitted with weird equipments being tested, often in locations out of sight of the general public. While we just about started shaking this thing off our brains, Google sprung a surprise last week when it unveiled its own ‘driverless’ car. Yup, that’s right. Not content with making all of us hyper-dependent on its search engine, Google built a car on its own albeit without a steering wheel, an accelerator, a brake pedal and the creature comforts.

Now, stop screaming “What constituted the car then?” and scroll down.

Google's Indigenously Built Driverless Car 

A cute toy-like thing with four wheels, one at each end, is what this car actually is. Visualize our very own Tata Nano, this isn’t far off! It’s just that this Google thing is a whole lot cuter. It has two seats, space to accommodate passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop and a screen that shows the route inside. Of course, Google has loaded it with software, complex integrated circuits, a host of sensors and navigation equipment that ensures that this car can drive all by itself. With a restricted top speed of 25 mph, Google claims that the sensors in the car can remove blind spots and ‘see’ objects in all directions as far as two football fields away.

Doesn't that sound better than a human-being behind the wheel that can only ‘see’ ahead but has to rely on mirrors to know what’s behind?

Watch this cool video revealing how awesomely practical this car can be in real life basis.

Will you or one of us be able to buy one? No. Atleast, not now! About a hundred of these prototypes with purpose-built manual controls would be built to primarily be tested by Google’s safety drivers. If that’s successful, a small pilot program would be run in California, the hotspot of technology. And, if the tech develops and evolves as Google hopes it would, we might see a few of these on road. Now, that’s a lot of ‘if’s before we could see one on road for sure.

Chances are, if you aren’t working for Google and if you weren’t one of the lucky few that were part of the live demo last week, you might not stumble upon this car ever, like us! Sigh!!!

This whole thing written by me only, nobody else has the swag to write like this, the ones that doubt can try to write like me but you'll fail as always.

I am celebrating my 1 year since my article got selected for Indian Autos Blog, so please do write in how did you like my blog. your comments will be an encouragement for me.

Ducati bring its Middle Weight contender Monster 821 into naked bike lineup

Naked bikes are often considered raw, aggressive, ugly, hooligans, but the Italians read "Ducati" have managed to bring a certain finesse, beauty to these beasts by introducing 'Monster' range of naked motorcycles, you will be in awe of her curvaceous beauty rather than its beastliness.

Ducati Monster 821 Three-Quarters

Their newest offering Monster 821 promises to be a serious contender in the middle weight category and will bring in some serious sweat to its competitors like Triumph, MV Augusta, Kawasaki, KTM to name a few.
Monster line-up of naked bikes have always a sweetheart for throttle frenzy bikers, and the new 821 doesn't disappoint with its short ratio gearing and torque similar to a freight train, this bike will never make you bore be it be endless straights or twisty and crisp turns.

New Monster 821

  The Monster 821 gets 8-stage traction control, 3-level ABS and 3 different fuel mapping options, integrated into a riding mode system much like other Dukes. It also gets an adjustable seat height, which is nice, and it weighs in at 179.5 kg (395.7 lbs) dry, so it should feel quite nimble on the go. 
Also unlike the traditional air-cooled engine normally boasted into that beautiful trellis frame, this beaut comes with a relatively new oil-cooled engine owing to the stricter emission norms being floated in numerous countries.

Back Three-Quarters Monster 821

This bike is placed between entry level 696 version and the big bad boy 1200 version so one can assume the days of 796 version to be numbered.

You can get this sexy beast in red or white with a red trellis frame or their is a dark black version. Make mine the black!

Do write in your comments, how do you like my blog, your comments is going built up my confidence to carry forward my passion.

Toyota's unorthodox Atkinson cycle engine gives 78mpg

While the car giants are trying to find innovative ways to improve efficiency from the conventional Otto cycle engine, Toyota's engineers have showed their ingeniousness with finding the holy grail in automobile industry by improving efficiency by a whooping 37 percent improvement over current vehicles.

Instead tweaking the same old Otto cycle engine, Toyota have re-engineered the Atkinson cycle engine and were successful churning out a mind boggling 78mpg.

Toyota has announced the development of these hyper fuel efficient engine in the avatar of three cylinder 1 litre and four cylinder 1.3 litre, the smallest one will be boasted into Toyota Aygo delivering 70mpg (US).

Toyota's VVT-IE engine

Atkinson cycle engine are famous for their incapability in low and mid range torque but Toyota has claimed to have addressed these issues. In order to improve the thermal efficiency, the Atkinson cycle engine have been lavished with numerous innovations including a re-shaped intake port, increased compression ratio (11.5 : 1), idling-stop, Variable Valve Timing Intelligent Electric (VVT-IE), and a cooled exhaust gas circulation system.

Cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation System (Highlighted in the image)

The end result is a maximum thermal efficiency of 37 percent and a fuel efficiency improvement of "approximately 30 percent over current vehicles" – that's the difference between 60 mpg (US) and 78 mpg (US) and it's an astonishing improvement.

Toyota Aygo owners prize the car for its performance at the petrol pump, not the traffic light Grand Prix, and the Aygo is largely purchased for use in tight, congested, urban roads. The appeal of the Aygo and the other compact Toyota vehicles which will use the unit will be greatly increased.

Toyota Aygo 2014 (source: Autoevolution.com)

The Japanese manufacturer plans to introduce 14 variations of the 1.0-liter three-cylinder and its 1.3-liter four-cylinder bigger brother by 2015.

Newly revealed Ecotec engines to be boasted in next gen Chevrolet Cruze

So following the new trend of engine downsizing, GM has flaunted their engineering capabilities with revealing of the new range of Ecotec engines.

New Range of Ecotec Engines

Following into the steps of automotive giants like Volkswagen and Ford, engine downsizing certainly seems to be the answer to the dipping sales of cars and GM claims to have made the engines only better than their arch rivals.
GM claims that the Ecotec engines to be quieter than the engines currently available in the market. GM compares their 1.4-liter Ecotec engine with VW and Ford saying that noise intensity is up to 50-percent quieter than Volkswagen’s EA211 1.4L four-cylinder TSI (seen on the Jetta TSI and Octavia TSI in India) and up to 25-percent quieter than Ford’s 1.0L turbo three-cylinder (seen on the EcoSport in India).

Opel Adam

This new range of engines will first show its glimpses on the new Opel Adam, later on this range will be boasted on 27 models of GM by 2017. 

Current Generation Chevrolet Cruze

Production of Ecotec engines will take place in five global locations, however, India is not listed to make these engines.

GM has announced that the next generation Cruze, specifically tailor-made for China, will be launched by the end of this year. For the Chinese Cruze, power will come from a 1.4-liter turbo-petrol engine producing 148 hp and 235 Nm of torque, or a 1.5-liter naturally-aspirated engine producing 113 hp and 146 Nm of torque. The 1.4-liter motor will use an all-new dual-clutch gearbox.

The next gen Cruze may be introduced in India early next year but reports are still yet to be confirmed but possibilities are that the model being introduced will have similar or same features as that of Chinese.

Stand back, everyone: it's the new Koenigsegg Agera One:1

Agera One: 1 Three Quarters

A few weeks back, Koenigsegg released a very short statement. "What if we were to produce something that is clearly above the hyper car category... what would you call that class?"

Well, we'd call that class bloody terrifying. Now we learn just what form that terror will take, because Koenigsegg has released more details and pictures of the car that will sit above the already really hyper Agera R.

It shall be called the Agera 'One:1'. And the Agera One:1 will not only be the most powerful Koenigsegg ever built, but possibly the fastest car ever built, full stop. The Swedes are claiming a potential top speed of more than 440kph, which would make it the fastest production car in the world, ahead of the Bugatti Veyron Supersport's piffling 434.3kph and, of course, the recent challenger to the crown, Hennessey's Venom GT which recorded 435.31kph just last week. 

Agera One: 1 Top View

Koenigsegg claims “high power and high rpm capability in combination with strong tyres and active aero” will allow it to hit that top speed. And the car will produce 1340bhp and weigh in at just 1340kg. Hence the name: one horsepower for every kilogram. Yowch. 

Koenigsegg have also confirmed that that power comes from an uprated version of the twin-turbocharged 5.0-litre V8 we saw in the Agera R; a car that produces a not-inconsiderable 1115bhp. With this extra power comes extra stickiness: we're promised 2g of lateral grip, active aero, an active chassis and 600kg of downforce, the same amount the McLaren P1 produces at 257kph.

It'll be officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show next week. However only six examples will be built, and they've all already been pre-sold. As have all the McLaren P1s. So, it is said, are all 499 LaFerraris. Looks like if you're after insane top speed, you need to get your order in for a Porsche 918 Spyder or Hennessey Venom GT quick...

Agera One: 1 Rear View