Dawn of a new era........

From 1^st June 2007, Tamil Nadu roads shall see the dawn of a new era, called the 'plastic head' generation. Gone is the craze for customized iPods. the Indian crowd(Aged 5 & up) is busy customising their headgear now with the helmet being made compulsory for all 2 wheeler riders in six districts in Tamil Nadu. You do tend to wonder why it took them so long to come up with such a simple common sense rule. Anyways, now that the rule is there, we have lots of people cribbing over what they deem as an unnecessary act by the government. So here is a brief collection of facts which I have gathered from the net, newspapers etc about why it would be better if one wore a helmet.

When you are traveling at 50kmph, you are doing approx 45 feet/sec, which is the same speed which you attain when you jump from the 4^th floor of a building. That’s suicide!!! Hmm I wonder, who would jump from a building everyday…..

Have you ever thrown a watermelon onto the floor from say a height of 5 metres. It obviously cracks. Try making your watermelon wear a helmet, and now throw it down. Nothing happens. That shows that helmets absorb the impact thus minimizing any damage to whatever’s inside it…..

Per vehicle miles traveled, motorcyclists are about 14 times as likely as passenger car occupants to die in a traffic crash and three times as likely to be injured(of course this somehow varies a little bit in India. I guess you are more likely to die if you were in a intercity bus rather than a motor cycle…).

The average hospital charge for seriously head-injured motorcyclists was found to be almost three times that of motorcyclists without head injuries, so incase you do have an accident while riding with a helmet, you know it’ll be lighter on your purse..

Hmm I think the above few points are reason enough… An aerial view of the roads, will no longer show black heads, but you are more likely to see a multitude of colours, flames and the occasional Schumacher or Iceman and Alonso too riding their Hero Honda Ferrari or Bajaj Mclaren….

10 Cars India could do with... Phase 3

Ahh, the top three. This is the last part in my so called 3 part article.. here goes....

3. Alfa Romeo Brera

Another Italian. This one’s sexy to the core though. It’s a total poser with it’s curves and sculpted lines. This car without doubt was designed with passion and it clearly shows. There is a spider version too which looks cool, but somehow I like the hatch more…With the performance to match, it’s not exactly a cheap car and costs 25lakhs plus, but it’s not in the stratosphere….

Launch probability: 2/5 (Fiat are you listening?? Prove me wrong. PLZ…..)

2. Honda Civic

You may wonder, It’s available in India right? Well I’m not talking about that car which is a JDM and looks super cool in it’s own right. This is a Europe specific model and boy is it out of the world. It looks like it landed in from the future…. It’s got triangular motifs all over the place, the exhausts, door handles etc. and if you notice closely you will realize that the rear door handles are actually missing. They are actually hidden in the black window frame at the rear side, to make the car look like a 3 door sport hatch… it has an option of 1.8l petrol(what we have in the civic here) or 2.2l diesel. They don’t exactly give stonking performance figures, but if you want that there is always the Type-R version….

Launch probability: Nil(Damn I can only dream on can I???)

1. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo

On great public demand this car makes it to the top. It’s almost a cult. There are quite a few units in India with 2 or 3 running in Coimbatore itself. This is one example of ultimate engineering and the best tutorial on how to get super car trashing performance from a streetcar’s 4 pot. It may not be as comfortable as the supercar it trashes, but it’s helluva lot cheaper and can be driven safely on Indian terrain without ripping the underpinnings apart and is as fun too. The Evo has reached the end of it’s lifespan on the current platform, and followers are awaiting with bated breath for the successor….

Launch probabilty: 1/5(Mummy I want one!!!!! Mitsubishi Plz plz i'll be a good kid...)









This is the Evo concept...


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10 Cars India could do with... Phase 2:

6. Citroën C6

Most people wouldn’t have heard of this brand. It’s French and part of the Peugeot group. It’s not exactly a great car, Most French cars aren’t that great, but citroëns have always had a speciality. They were out of the ordinary. Everything about them was different, from the interiors to the exteriors. They were just quirky cars which looked different and worked different. The C6 is no different. The C6 looks cool, though I admit the French have always been good designers so their cars are always the coolest among the crowd of mundane boxes. Citroëns have another trick up their sleeve. They have the best suspension setup giving a very cosetting ride and the C6 caries it on. All in all, good looking, very comfortable and loaded with tech gizmos the C6 is one car which carries it’s character with pride.

Launch probability: Nil(Sad to say it’s a really long shot)

5.Subaru Impreza / Legacy

Subaru is again a Japanese Brand famous for it’s rally exploits. The car that did it is the Impreza WRX. Subaru’s trademark is the permanent four wheel drive system on all models and it’s boxer engine. The impreza falls in the category of the lancer,Corolla etc in India while the Legacy is it’s big brother fighting with the Camry and Accord. The cars are no quirky looking machines by any chance. It’s more about the driving experience here. The frameless windows add to the looks and the sound that comes when you close the doors (it’s a muted sound which is due to the lack of a window frame. So all we have is glass on rubber-gives a sound of solidity) is just so nice you would just want to open and close the doors all day. For now, you can actually buy the Chevrolet Forester in India, which is actually a Subaru, rebadged and sold in India. In the Forester you get almost everything the Impreza and Legacy have…..

Launch probability: 2/5 (general motors has no plans of bringing these cars as they have other models in those segments)

4. Fiat Stilo

Fiat has a huge history with India. The Stilo I hope will come in one day to add to it. It’s a cool looking hatchback, but the size of a medium size car. It comes with engines ranging from the 1.2l currently here on the Palio to a super hot 2.4l unit which would make it a super hot hatch. It’s Italian and it looks good and comes at a reasonable price (ranging from 5 odd for the 1.4 till 10 lakhs for the 2.4l) so I doubt there are any more reasons why one would want one….

Launch probability: 4/5 (the 1.2l to 1.6l models have a high probability. As for the 2.4l chances are really slim)

The final part with the top 3 cars will be here within 48hours... so keep watching this space... :)

10 Cars India could do with...

Hey people, the next few days or week will see a 3 part article. It’s on one of my favourite topics- Cars!!!!!!! J. Ill be talking about the 10 cars that I would love to see being sold in India and why. This list won’t consist of any supercars. It’s going to be about regular cars with some special traits which puts them a class apart. Luck favouring us, we might see some or maybe even all of those cars on Indian roads sometime… So starting off with no. 10….

10. Hyundai Coupe

I know this seems funny. A Hyundai on this list!!!! But the fact is, this is the best Hyundai that money can buy and it is pretty much worth it. Need For Speed freaks might know this car as the Tiburon which is the name in the US market. It has a whole range of engines from a 1.6l to a 2.7l V6. Now why I think this car should be here is, because of the simple fact that it is a Hyundai. It has all the essentials of a sports coupe and is cheap to buy and maintain. You won’t believe this but this car costs less than 10 lakh rupees in the US for the basic model going upto a maximum of 15 lakhs. I guess now it’s more than obvious why it’s here just making it to the bottom of this list.

Launch possibility: 1/5

9. Honda Odyssey-JDM

Now the Honda Odyssey is an MPV. Something like the Toyota Innova here. But I loved this car the minute I saw it just for it’s looks. It looks like a space ship with those sleek headlights and vast sides. During my internet research I discovered that the US market has a different version of the Odyssey which looks like a geek. Serious. This particular model that I liked is the JDM(Japanese Domestic Model) version.it’s just ultra cool!! The Japanese automakers have lots of models on sale within Japan of which only some go on sale internationally. So models which aren’t normally sold outside Japan or at the max. Asia are known as JDM’s. There is nothing really special about the Odyssey. It’s just a very well equipped and fabulous looking car.

Launch Possibility: 4/5(There has been some serious talk of an MPV in Honda’s portfolio in India)

8. Volkswagen Golf

It’s a Hot hatch. That’s more than reason enough. A fabulous well built German car, it’s been an icon of it’s own for several decades. A street racer favourite in Europe, the GTi version will just blow you away with it’s performance and of course, it looks very cool and composed, if not totally hot…

Launch possibility: 3/5(VW has said it wants a piece of the class A and B markets here)

7. Maxda RX-8

Mechanos, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Wankel or the rotary engine. Well this car has it, and that gives it it’s special characteristisc. It’s a good looker, a great handler & a fabulous car. Mazda has a tradition with wankel engined rear wheel drive coupes and this one carries it on with flair. A must have for drifts and pure driving pleasure. It’s got just a 1.3l engine yet delivering 240 plus bhp giving the performance with all the style…

Launch possibility: 1/5 (Mazda has not even sold one car in India yet, so it’s a long way to come)

Well expect the next lot of cars in a few days.....

P.S.: the Launch possibility rating gives an estimation on the probability of the car making it to our shores within say 3 years.

Two Stroke Magic

Been wanting to write this one for quite some time….

I was recently left wheel-less due to my beloved Dio’s valves going bust. In the interim period while it was being brought back to life, I claimed the use of an ol’ kine’ which belonged to my uncle and was being used as a runabout vehicle by everyone in the workshop and service station that he owns.

Having had faced quite a lot of abuse and not in the best of attire, I expected the vehicle to feel like it was going to split any minute, and I wasn’t exactly wrong. Except for one thing. It was one helluva ride. The two stroke motor just pulled like anything, if u minus the vario lag that is, and I tell u screaming down Avinashi road, I actually had a glee stuck all over my face. Quite like how a kid does when he’s on his favourite ride at the Theme park. I guess it all has to do with the two stroke magic, which is sadly out of production due to higher emissions. All we can do right now is savour whatever’s left of the noisy boys… All hail ye 2-strokes!!.....

Here is a Aswin Top Tip^®. If you have about 10 grand to spend and you need a city run about, Buy a decently maintained Kine’(Go for the Kinetic Honda version before 98’ model) have the engine cleaned, rejetted, Vehicle completed serviced, fit MRF nylogrip zappers and you have one hell of a scooter….. You won’t regret it……