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` 100.00TESTED: BMW M5 MAHINDRA QUANTO
PANAMERAPorsche’s diesel sportscar shakes hands with efficiency
Volume 8 | Issue 004 | November 2012
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TRAVELOGUESCAR INDIA TRAVELS FAR AND WIDE TOBHUTAN, KONKAN AND SPITI VALLEY
FEATURESPARIS MOTOR SHOW
VW PLANT VISIT
DRIVENHONDA BRIO ATNEW FORD FIGO
WE DRIVE: NEW TATA SAFARI STORME
INDIA EXCLUSIVE
TESTED:NEW MARUTI ALTO 800
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CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2012T H I S M O N T H ’ S S T O R I E S A T A G L A N C E
CAR INDIA www.carindia.in
TO HEAVEN AND BACK
Story & Photography: Saptarshi R Dutta
HYUNDAI SANTA FE TO HIMALAYAS
TRAVELOGUE
78 CAR INDIA
79CAR INDIA
www.carindia.inwww.carindia.in
HYUNDAI SANTA FE TO HIMALAYAS
TRAVELOGUE
104
FIRST DRIVES30 HONDA BRIO AUTOMATIC ‘Look, mom, no gear-shifts!’
Honda’s youngest family member goes automatic32 TATA SAFARI STORME We drive the latest iteration of the
Safari from Tata Motors, now called the Safari Storme38 REVISED FORD FIGO Ford’s popular hatch gets a mid-life
makeover and goes out to discover the nightlife in Mumbai
FEATURES68 PARISIAN RAZZLE DAZZLE Car India brings to you an
exhaustive report of the Paris Motor Show 201278 TO HEAVEN AND BACK Car India and Hyundai Santa Fe
venture out for an adventure of a lifetime in Spiti Valley 86 WHY ONLY VW CAN MAKE A ‘VOLKSWAGEN’ We take you
to the VW plant near Pune to find out what makes their cars score so high on safety and quality
94 AUTOMECHANIKA This Frankfurt event points to an after-market boom despite the current economic slowdown
96 THE STORY OF TURBOCHARGER Everything youwanted to know about the turbocharger
100 AN UNFORGETTABLE KONKAN EXPERIENCE The title explains how it went for team Car India and Tata Aria
104 ADVENTURE BEYOND BOUNDARIES Around three countries in a week with a Mahindra Scorpio for company. How does it sound?
110 AN EXHILARATING EXPERIENCE It was with the best Jaguars lapping the Buddh International Circuit
REGULARS8 BULLETIN All the latest happenings in the automotive
world to bring you abreast of the scene22 EMISSION ZERO Equipped with the latest F1 technology
and designed entirely in a wind tunnel, the answer to this hybrid supercar is really ‘blowin’ in the wind’
24 TECHNO BIBLE Basic terms used in the automotive world to add to your knowledge
26 INTERACTIVE Just the right platform for your comments, opinions, queries and compliments
28 GEARBOX Three new products to lend a touch of style to your day-to-day life
114 LONG TERM Goings-on in the busy Car India garage127 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY We do the homework
for you to make your choice that much easier154 DID YOU KNOW? A peep into the history of the renowned
Japanese marque, Honda
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ROAD TESTS40 MARUTI SUZUKI ALTO 800 The country’s most popular
small car sheds its old garb and comes dressed to kill46 MAHINDRA QUANTO Mahindra cut inches off the Xylo and
bring in a smaller and cheaper MUV52 BMW M5 Here’s a Beemer to give all the punch that the
petrol head in you craves for60 PORSCHE PANAMERA DIESEL Their four-door fastback
now comes with a powerful heart and has quite a few other admirable attributes as well
MOTOR SPORT116 Polo R Cup, JKNRC, F1, WRC and various
events in Indian motor sport
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BULLETIN ALL THE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
NOVEMBER 2012CAR INDIA www.carindia.in
HONDA’S SHOW-STOPPER COMING SOON
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Diesel powered Brio sedan to be launched by March 2013
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FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE THIS MONTH
NOVEMBER 2012 CAR INDIAwww.carindia.in
The new sedan has strong traces of the Honda City
design. Yes, we noticed the i-VTEC badge on the boot-lid.
HONDA GAVE THE ENTRY-LEVEL SEDAN LOVERS ALL THE meat they wanted with the City, took luxury a step higher with the Civic,
The Japanese giant is ready again to take another major leap as they plan
segment to save on the excise duty and thus launch the car with a very
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EMISSION ZERO
NOVEMBER 2012CAR INDIA www.carindia.in
POWER OF ONEA hybrid supercar designed entirely in a wind tunnel. F1 tech overtakes beauty?IF THE MP4-12C WAS EVIDENCE that McLaren wanted to grab a slice of Ferrari territory, the new P1 supercar is surely proof that Woking wants to invade Maranello and occupy Luca di Montezemolo’s main office. This low-slung, rabidly orange chunk of carbonfibre is the pinnacle of McLaren Automotive’s fledgling sports-car range, tilting straight at the Italian supercar establishment – and Ferrari’s forthcoming Enzo replacement in particular. It’s the F1, reimagined for 2013.
McLaren’s 1992 masterpiece is still revered round these parts, and for good reason. Now the wizards of Woking plan to replace it with a cutting-edge supercar
which takes Gordon Murray’s fresh thinking and fast-forwards it two decades. So while the centrally mounted roof-top snorkel and gold-leaf engine bay surround may doff their cap to the seminal ’90s McLaren, most of the attention to detail is decidedly new millennial.
Take the shape, for starters. This is no generic supercar-by-numbers, a charge reasonably laid against the anodyne 12C. Where that car’s design stuck resolutely to the middle of the road, the P1’s style has veered violently to the leftfield. It’s a supercar unlike any other in recent years, one whose teardrop shape and low sports-car tail is dictated almost entirely by the wind tunnel and not the whim of
an exterior stylist.The design you see here is going to
survive almost unmolested in transition from catwalk to showroom. Just soak up that radical rump – all black diffuser, exposed carbonfibre and minuscule ‘eyebrow’ LED lamps – and you’ll appreciate what an achievement that is. Black composites denote the clever aero functions which suck the P1 towards the Tarmac with such gusto that the 600kg of downforce available at around 180mph dwarfs any other road car’s stickiness. Aero tweakery pushes the P1 into the road with five times the force of a 12C.
And check out that enormous rear wing, which swivels by up to 29deg in
ELECTRICEIGHT
MP4-12C’s Ricardo V8 nestles amidships,
joined by hybrid system
AIRHEADRear diffuser part of
complex aerodynamic management system
RON’S LETTERBOXPost all feedback to Mr
R Dennis, McLaren Tech Centre, Woking GU21
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Our monthly dose of guilt-free, clean and green car technologies
NOVEMBER 2012 CAR INDIAwww.carindia.in
angle and slides by 300mm to trim airflow; it uses learnings from Jenson and Lewis’s F1 cars to bring a drag reduction system (DRS) to the road, while active aero flaps behind the front wheels constantly juggle the airflow under and around the car.
It’s not just a load of hot air, promises McLaren. The aero package is said to dominate the driving experience, with unbelievable grip available in corners. It’s already clear this car will be all about top dynamics, rather than pure top speed – just as well since the willy waving of the F1/Veyron crowd seems less and less relevant in the congested and heavily nannied 21st century.
Not that the new McLaren will be slow. Boldly called the P1 in deference to Formula One’s obsession with the top step of the podium, it’ll use the same Ricardo-developed 3.8-litre V8 as the 12C, albeit this time married to a KERS-style hybrid system for even more push. Sixty will pass
in not much more than 2sec and top speed will reach well beyond 200mph.
The P1 will go on sale in late 2013, just in time for McLaren’s 50th anniversary. No word on prices yet, but we’re expecting this composite tech showcase to come in around £750,000. It’ll be a very low-volume supercar virtually hand-built alongside McLaren’s weekend racers and we’ll catch our first glimpse of the final, roadgoing
version next spring.Looks like the supercar is going to
change forever in 2013. And Woking plans to lead the charge into this brave new world.
SLIPPERYWHEN DRY
Tiny frontal area and 0.34 drag factor – handy considering downforce on tap