May 2020

Dreaming of great roads to drive on once lockdown lifts WIN! COOL MERCEDES -BENZ MERCHANDISE IN OUR CONTEST MAY ’20 LO CKDOW N SPECI AL DI GI TAL M AGAZI NE

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P I S TA T O T H E R A N N

We knew we would end up with spec tacular pic tures when we took the Pista to the Rann. What we didn’t know, wa s just how spec tacular it would turn out to be. Boopesh Reddy, who took deliver y of the first Ferrari 488 Pista in India, spent the morning driving rather fa st, but only in a straight line in the va st expanse of the Rann. He wa sn’t too keen on kicking up mud. To be fair, any one would have been if they were in their prized 700bhp limited- edition track monster. But a s the day went on, he realised how hilariously ea sy it wa s to get the tail to step out, and wa s pulling long , muddy drif ts by the evening. And thus the only ima ge you will see of a Pista drif ting on the salt f lats!

Location: Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

Pista on the Rann

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SLIPPERY SLOPE

It wa s wet. It wa s slipper y. The V W Polo GT’s front wheels were clawing at the wet concrete, strug gling to find purcha se a s the Ed coa xed it up the trail to Sandakphu.

And not too far away, Rohit wa s strug gling to climb up the mountainside to give himself a good vanta ge point. The moss-lined rocks were now deathtraps and Rohit nearly went tumbling down the mountainside more than a couple of times. It’s a deadly combination — the fact that he needed to get up there quickly lest he miss the shot, while in such an unforgiving environment. All in a day’s work!

Location: Manebhanjang-Sandakphu, We s t Bengal

Polo GT takes on the Sandakphu trail

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HAM PI ’S MAG IC

A little fur ther ahead, the trail narrowed down. It wa s all a little unner ving — guiding this ma ssive SUV through rocks that were three times its size. Rohit and Alameen were playing spotter, shouting out instructions to Aatish who wa s ner vously navigating through this. We squeezed through with millimetres to spare — moving a little bit on either side would have lef t long , ugly ga shes on the c ar's body work. It wa s risk y, yes, but it wa s wor th the photo that we mana ged to get by the riverside.

Location: Hampi, Karnataka

Skoda Kodiaq heads to Hampi

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CLIMB HIGHER

Google Maps will show you hairpin af ter hairpin, but the road up to Valparai is so much more. Snaking its way up the mountainside with the Aliyar reser voir on one side and cra g g y rock faces on the other, it ends when you reach the clouds. The scener y dances and shif ts a s much a s we did inside the Toyota Yaris. This isn’t a road to be going f lat out on, but one to find a rhy thm on and maybe even find some time to stop and just breathe in the views.

Location: Valparai, Tamil Nadu

Toyota Yaris takes on Valparai’s hairpins

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THE SNOWS OF SHINGO - LA

While we wa xed eloquent about how the V W Tiguan’s heated seats kept its occupants’ rumps toa st y in the Himalaya s, we didn’t really tell you what the photographers had to endure up there. They followed the Tiguan up the rock y pa ss in a Mahindra Bolero that had seat cushions a s thin a s your travel schedule right now, a driver that insisted he wa s Ken Block’s Indian cousin, suspension that squeaked and rattled incessantly, and the only climate control wa s the amount of layers they wore that morning. Benny, our intern photographer who didn’t realise how bad the glare would be, spent a good fif teen minutes convinced he had gone blind!

Oh, the thing s we do for a good photograph.

Location: Shingo -La , Himachal Prade sh

VW Tiguan takes on Shingo-La

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CLOSER TO HOME

Right outside our HQ in Pune is a road where the legendar y MASA rally wa s held. We got our hands on an old roadbook and tried to track it down — but the cit y and its roads have evolved so much since the ‘80s that this ta sk proved close to impossible. We eventually did find it with the help of an experienced friend who knew these par ts well, and let rip in the Mercedes-AMG GLE 43 Coupe. It wa s all fun and games till said friend informed us that there wa s an army ba se in the area and they probably wouldn’t take too kindly to the pops and bang s from the AMG’s exhaust. Tail between our leg s (and exhaust f laps shut), we slunk home to drive another day.

Location: Purander For t, Pune

Mercedes-AMG GLE 43 on old rally routes

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evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

TH E L A ST VI LL AG E

You know how we come up with cra z y concepts for our features? Back in 2018, we collaborated with Land Rover to do a series of stories c alled Never Stop Discovering — essentially going places only where a c apable SUV like the Discover y Spor t could go, and a week later we were on the Sangla- Chitkul road in Himachal Pradesh. Chitkul is the la st villa ge before the border here, at 11, 320feet. A stone's throw away is China . This place is normally inaccessible once the snow star ts, and there's an army check post right outside to warn you. They saw the Disco when it began to snow, yet allowed us a quick run up to town. This pic ture wouldn't have been possible to take a few hours later, for the nex t five months.

Location: Chitkul, Himachal Prade sh

LR Discovery Sport on Sangla-Kanda trail

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SENDING IT

Two my ths shattered. Spor tsc ar owners don't hustle their c ars. And Kerala ha s no roads to drive a spor tsc ar on. The Ed still remembers this a s one of the cra ziest drives he ha s done, Ashique chucking him the keys to the GT3 and then tearing through the hills in the Hurac an Per formante, urging the Ed to go harder and fa ster, to keep up – gesticulating at his watch while swapping c ars that he wa s 10 minutes behind ETA . This, in two race, super-fa st, cra z y-loud, spor tsc ars. Wake up early enough and you will discover awesome driving roads all over our fabulously diverse countr y.

Location: Calicut, Kerala

911 GT3 & Huracan Performante

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KWID IN THE NORTH EAST

This breathtaking pic ture not only showc a ses the pure unadulterated nature of the Nor th Ea st, but also that an appetite for wanderlust is not hindered by the c ar you drive. In the back ground is the gushing , cr ystal clear Lohit river that crosses the Sino -India border at Kibithu, the ea sternmost point in India, and is on its way to merge with the Brahmaputra . Our Kwid meanwhile, wa s snaking around the transboundar y valley in search of mesmerising views, but a huge landslide blocked the road ahead. We had to turn around and make our way back but photographer Sachin Khot c aptured that one f leeting moment of per fec tion while standing at the edge of a clif f.

Location: Kibithu, Arunachal Prade sh

Renault Kwid in North East

Ed speak SIRISH CHANDRAN WE LIVE IN UNPRECEDENTED TIMES. EXTRAORDINARY TIMES. Unimaginable times. And with that I will stop moaning. Sure our lives are going to be turned upside down. When will we get back on to a plane, and how are we going to socially distance ourselves from that uncle in security check intent on feeling us up... god alone knows. And when will we be able to send you the print magazine, gosh, I haven’t a clue. This month is exactly 20 years since I became an automotive journalist and apart from the short interlude spent on the other side of the fence assigning Porsches to eager journalists, I have never, ever, missed an issue. But that, I guess, is the least of our worries as our country, and the world, tries to make sense of the pandemic. We have a lot to be thankful for so let us say thank you, especially to those at the forefront of dealing with the virus, our healthcare workers, and even the auto industry working on protective equipment, ventilators and community relief efforts.

As for us, we are journalists and we have a job to do. Whether in print or on a big, bright, illuminated screen that you have in your hands right now, you will get your dose of The Thrill of Driving. In between doing the dishes, watering the plants, cleaning out the kitty litter, baking bread, devouring books and whatnot, we have been working from home. The website has been keeping you up-to-date on everything that’s been happening in the auto industry. We kicked off the #evoConversations series on day one of the lockdown and the Instagram Live at 12:30pm, every single day, has become wildly popular with everybody who is anybody in the automotive industry coming on line. We’ve discovered you can #WFH! Of course our job was always to put you in the driver’s seat or in the saddle of the bike and we must live up to our mission statement. Sitting at home what are we all doing, if not dreaming? We’ve always taken you along on the journey – be it wringing a Ferrari V12 up in the hills above Modena or pottering around the countryside in a little Kwid – and now, more than ever, is the time to enjoy the simple pleasures of motoring. That’s what this issue is all about. Dreams. Reminiscing over great roads we’ve been fortunate enough to discover. Walking you through the garage of our dreams that actually exists in reality, the Bren Garage. Strapping you in with Gaurav Gill on an advanced (virtual) driving course. Getting Pratap Bose to showcase the (very many!) careers in car design even if you cannot sketch cars. Teaching you how to take (and edit) car pics with your phone. Listing out the top builds by Race Concepts, and what you can do to your street car. And much more! To dream over! To dip your toes into once things return to a semblance of normalcy.

Stay safe, stay positive and enjoy this e-mag. Before you know it, we will be back in print. Heck, we’ve already wrapped up the next issue’s cover story (check it out on page 138) and boy is it epic! L @SirishChandran

SIRISH CHANDRAN, Editorial director "...making cat videos, using motorcycle gloves to dig up the veggie patch and trying my best not to complain about having to polish off home-made cheeseburgers without accompanying fries."

SELINA CHANDRAN, Managing editor "...entertaining the cat, cooking up a storm and refining the art of being a domestic goddess!"

sirish@gtopublishing.com

Editorial Email evo.editorial@gtopublishing.com | Website www.evoindia.com

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Subscriptions & distribution Email: evo.subscriptions@gtopublishing.com | Online at: www.gtopublishing.com | www.evoindia.com

ROHIT MANE, Senior photographer "...watching my nephew grow up"

The publisher and editors make every effort to ensure accuracy of content. However no responsibility can be taken for any effect from errors or omissions and for any investments or decisions taken on the basis of the information provided herein. The publishers don’t take responsibility for any claims made in the advertising carried within the magazine. All material published in this magazine is copyright protected and unauthorised reproduction is prohibited without express written permission of the editor.

Except as expressly and otherwise indicated in any specific material or editorial content, evo India is published under license from Dennis Publishing Limited. All rights in the material, title and trademark of this magazine belong to Dennis Publishing Limited absolutely and may not be reproduced, whether in whole or in part, without its prior written consent. Printed and published by Sirish Chandran on behalf of Project GTO Publishing LLP. Cover price: Free!

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evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

KARAN SINGH, Correspondent "...eating seven meals a day, spending quality time with family and trying to break lap records in my living room!"

#80

Under lockdown This month the team have mostly been...

ALAMEEN MERCHANT, chief film maker "...Mastering the skills of washing the utensils" AATISH MISHRA, Principal correspondent "...experimenting in the kitchen — more specifically, trying everything I can to avoid tearing up while chopping onions or thinking about how I can't leave the house."

ABHISHEK WAIRAGADE, Principal correspondent “...riding my Ducati around in circles.”

KURT MORRIS, Sr web correspondent "...keeping an eye on the global economic crisis, watching old F1 races that Star Sports is broadcasting, playing wall tennis like Roger Federer and thanks to Sirish, going through a stash of Tintin, Asterix and Obelix."

SREEKUMAR NAIR, GM distribution "...playing board games with Aarya."

K SRIKANTH, Dy GM, south "...reading my old collections, sending courtesy mails and messages to partners and trying out new recipes."

VERNON D'SOUZA, Video editor "...mostly been reminiscing about the days spent shooting along with some nankhatai and kadak chai."

SUVRAT KOTHARI, Correspondent "...overfeeding my cat and ogling at empty roads on grocery runs."

ASLAM KABEER, Sr art director "...WORKING FROM HOME!!!"

SUJATA DEDHIA, GM sales, west "...running up and down like a toddler with my li'l one and reliving my own childhood!"

SUDIPTO CHAUDHURY, Correspondent "...house-husbanding with a vengeance!"

AFZAL RAWUTHER, Sr features correspondent "...trying to get my cat to pose for a photo with me while spending an inordinate amount of time playing PUBG. PS: This is attempt 248, 247 of those were too blurry."

SACHIN S KHOT, Photographer "...staying connected through today's technology!."

VIPUL JAIN, GM sales, north "...helping wifey in the kitchen, doing the dishes and laundry, and Netflixing.

Looking forward to riding my RE Interceptor."

RANVIR BISHT, Manager distribution "....doing yoga."

ABHISHEK BENNY, Photography intern "...trying to outrun the boredom."

C N VENKATANARASIMMAN, Sr manager, distribution "...sending mails and reading books."

JAYESH AMBEKAR, Sr designer "...playing with my pretty dolls."

DEVARAJU GOWDA, Sr manager, distribution "...mostly been cooking."

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Contents

#80

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BREN G A R AGE

MERC FROM HOME

THE T SI S TORY

PHONE CA MS!

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Mercedes-Benz launches their e-commerce portal so you can stay home and buy a Merc, without ever having to make a trip to the dealership

R ACE CONCEP T S

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A walk around the Bren 10, a collection of sports and supercars in India’s most exotic garage

Founder Joel Joseph lists six of his best builds yet

Volkswagen’s TSI is a marvel of engineering, and coupled with its SUVs, makes for an unbeatable combination

74 A RT AT TACK

PAS T v PRESENT

The holy trinity from less than a decade ago square off against the supercars of today

Porsche’s head of design has a few tips on how to brush up your car drawing skills ending up in a lovely sketch of the 992-gen 911

Hyundai is making the turbo-petrol engine mainstream

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TOYOTA’S FIRECR ACKER

CA REERS IN DESIGN

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Is the Supra headed our way? A recent conversation with Toyota India’s senior management drops the strongest hint yet. “Watch this space”, they say!

40 H Y UNDA I’S TURBOS

W IN! MERC MERCH

Pick M-B India’s boss’ favourite Mercs and win merchandise!

Visit

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evoindia.com for the latest news, reviews & videos

NEWS The best resource online for the latest car, bike and motorsport news

Pratap Bose, VP global design at Tata Motors, breaks down the different avenues you can follow to break in to the world of car design even if you aren’t a designer

VIDEOS Sideways cars, bikes on one wheel and interesting people (YouTube.com/c/evoIndia)

REVIEWS Full multi-page in-depth reviews of the cars and bikes that matter

You don’t need a fancy DSLR to take great pictures. Your phone is just fine. Shutterbug Rohit shares some pro tips to up your Instagram game

90 SCA LE MODEL PHOTOGR A PH Y

There’s no better time to take out those scale models and point your camera at them than now

92 FOUR RINGS CH A LLENGE

The coolest entries for Audi’s innovative Four Rings Challenge on social media, from readers and fans like you

SOCIAL Two-way Facebook, Twitter and Instragram policy. Talk to us now! (@evoIndia)

Contents 94

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129

BR A ND LOGOS

PHONE G A MES

RIP, RUDY

SILV ER SCREEN

Noticed how companies like VW and BMW are updating their logos? A lot of it has to do with how these logos look on screens. We dive deeper!

Stay entertained with these brilliant racing games for your phone – so now there’s no reason for you to say you’re bored

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GE T R ACING

Want to get on the esports bandwagon? Here’s how you can get started in the most affordable manner

98 GG A DVA NCED DRIV ING ACA DEM Y

A masterclass on being a better rally driver, from none other than ace rallyist Gaurav Gill

G A MING ONLINE

The absence of motorsport has given esports a platform like never before, with mainstream drivers battling it out with pro gamers

108 RESPONSE TE A M

The automotive industry takes solid steps to battle the covid-19 pandemic. We take a look at what steps it has taken at this critical time, especially here in India

Rudratej Singh, CEO of BMW Group India passes. The editor pens this obituary

118 T VS-NORTON

TVS Motors acquires the iconic British brand. We get into the details

122 COLUMNS

Karun Chandhok on all the racing that’s cancelled, Yohann Setna on food you should be eating and not eating during the lockdown, Shami Kalra on why car guys and gals still wear watches and Bijoy Kumar Y tells you to stay positive, that this too shall pass.

Automotive movies and shows you should be watching in the lockdown

130 BIKER WORKOUT

Plan on getting back in the saddle after the lockdown? You’d better stay fit because motorcycling is going to be just as demanding as it was before this

132 E VO FLEE T

An update on what the cars and motorcycles in the evo Fleet have been up to during this lockdown period when no one is allowed on the streets

B R E N GA RAG E

WORDS by S I R I S H C H A N D R A N

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THESE During this lockdown what are we doing if not dreaming? Here’s a dream garage that exists in reality PHOTOGRAPHY by RO H I T G M A N E & G AU R AV S T H O M B R E

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HE BREN GARAGE IS WHY I GOT ON to Instagram. “Want to check out the first 911 R in the country?”, asked my good friend Manik Bhardwaj when I dropped in at Racetech in Bangalore three years ago.

Racetech is the flying doctor for the majority of sportscars and supercars in the country and an avid user of Instagram. I’d just spent the last hour telling him how the smart guys, the people who read, the people who write, are all on Twitter while Instagram is for the, erm, the Arabs.

“So it is safe to assume you haven’t heard of the Bren Garage,” countered Manik.

I had not.

And I could not believe what Manik showed me on the @BrenGarage Instagram feed. “All of this is in India! In Bangalore!” yelled Manik before we jumped into his car to trek across Bangalore to meet Boopesh Reddy to check out the first and only 911 R in India.

What followed blew me away. Outside his lovely home in Bangalore was an Evo X with a dustbin-sized exhaust. “That’s not his,” said Manik. “That’s not Bren Garage material.” You’d usually dismiss that as crazy talk except the basement garage was unlike anything else I’d seen in India. Now remember I was here to check out the 911 R, the 2016 evo Car of the Year but parked alongside was the Ferrari 458 Italia and Cayman GT4, the 2014 and 2015 evo Cars of the year. Three eCOTY winners, together.

What a story that turned out to be.

“I remember, it was the first article of mine ever in a magazine,” says Boopesh when I caught up with him, virtually, on the #evoConversations Instagram Live session during the lockdown.

“Those are memories which I carry with me. I still have the magazine, about 8-10 copies with me.”

Since then the Bren Garage has been in the pages of evo India quite a few times, and thrice on the cover. The first was when we gathered together five limited edition Porsches at the MMRT race track — Boopesh drove down in his TechArt GT Street R based on the 911 Turbo S while for the story he let us have the GT4 and the 911 R. A year later I took an early morning flight to Bangalore and caught up with him waiting outside the airport with the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, the first in the country. And the third time was the craziest, when we took the 488 Pista to the Rann of Kutch — where we didn’t just do static shots but Boopesh

Left: Bren Garage featured thrice on the cover of evo India.

Facing page, right: The 2014, 2015 & 2016 evo Cars of the Year in the Bren Garage.

Facing page, bottom: The 458 Speciale in the same spec as Boopesh saw it at the Frankfurt motor show

PA R K E D A L O N G S I D E T H E 9 1 1 R WA S T H E 4 5 8 S P E C I A L E A N D C AY M A N – T H E ’ 1 4 , ’ 1 5 & ’ 1 6 EVO CARS O F TH E YE AR

B R E N GA RAG E

S O I T I S S A F E T O A S S U M E Y O U H AV E N ’ T HEAD OF THE B REN GARAG E

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B R E N GA RAG E

“ONCE I GOT THE ALLOTMENT FOR THE TECHART THEN I SAID, O K AY, L E T M E B U Y T H E TURBO S”

drove his heart out, putting pedal to metal, drifting it, and once we were done, we drove from the Rann to Ahmedabad to meet with enthusiasts.

Clearly the cars in the Bren Garage aren’t showpieces. In fact, it was just before the lockdown that I met Boopesh, at the Cannonball trackday at the BIC, where he’d rocked up in his AMG GT R and GT2 RS, taking driving tips from professional racer Aditya Patel and showing me how the big AMG is different from the mad ’2 RS. Now, of course, we are all in lockdown — as good a time as any to talk about the journey of the Bren Garage.

“THE ASTON MARTIN WAS THE FIRST CAR I BOUGHT because I was a big fan of James Bond,” says Boopesh about his DBS. “I just thought if I can't buy any other car, let me buy this one car for my garage since my older house had just a one-car garage space. But I had a lot of difficulties in terms of taking it down the ramp and bringing it out, as [the garage] was not designed for a sports car.”

Which is why before buying another car, Boopesh first designed and built what would become the Bren Garage, complete with a lift for taking the cars down. “It is designed for 12-13 cars. I wanted to avoid the ramp so now I needed 12-foot-high ceilings.

It took me a while to design the lift, because I have a portico above the garage. It's a little complicated, but I enjoyed every part of it.

Today I can see the fruits of it. For me, this a temple, a place for meditation. This is something that inspires me on a day-to-day basis to go out there, work hard, and get back here.”

If you notice the Bren collection, almost all of them are track cars. “I bought the GT4 to learn how to drive on a racetrack. I'm not a race driver. I'm an enthusiast. I have loved supercars from childhood. Now the racetrack is the place to drive such cars because on the roads you need to be safe. There are speed limits

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and safety does matter a lot. So it was important for me as I would need to go to a playground where I can play with my cars. I'm thankful to my brother-in-law Bharat Reddy who took me to the race track for the first time on a bike and I just enjoyed myself on the bike. Then I said, okay, let me buy a sports car which is meant for the race track and that’s where I got the Cayman GT4. I've always loved manuals. I’ve grown up with manuals and I have done a lot of kilometres because I used to drive for my father for almost 8-10 years when I used to work with him.”

The GT4 was Boopesh’s second Porsche and that was the start of a love affair with the brand. “After the GT4, I bought the Turbo S. So now we had three Porsches. Then I bought a Cayenne. I'm a good customer to Porsche. When Pavan Shetty [head, Porsche India] called me up and said, ‘I want to allot you a car because you've been a Porsche enthusiast, which is a 911 R, would you like it?’ I said, who would say no to such a thing!”

The first time Boopesh took it out to the track was for our cover story (July 2018 issue). “You don't go out fast because it's a limited edition car. You enjoy it and you maybe do about 6-7 laps. You know Porsches don't break, but you need to be careful with your cars, especially these ones.”

It is obvious the 911 R is treated with care — it is a collector’s car, the only one in India and one of only 991 in the world. But you’d be floored to hear of his daily driver, the GT Street R. “I saw the TechArt when I was on a business trip to Munich. When I came back I spoke to Manik [of Racetech] and said I need a kit on the Turbo S. Everybody is surprised that I bought the [TechArt] kit before the Turbo S. Everybody was surprised, ‘Why is he buying a Turbo S where you know he's got a 911 R’. Once I got the allotment for the TechArt then I said, okay, let me buy the Turbo S and that's how I got the Turbo S. After that it took 6-8 months for me to get the kit and Manik to install it and all those things. It's a fun car. Absolutely.”

Fun is a bit of understatement. The GT Street R does 0-100kmph in 2.7 seconds, 0-200 in 8.5 seconds, 0-300 in 23.3 seconds. “It beats every car on the drag strip. It's so easy to launch that, you just go on, keep launching, and just enjoying that rush, like it is a roller coaster. It is also a very comfortable car because I did not adjust the suspension. I kept it so I can go on the highway, enjoy the speed, listen to music when I want to. It's like an all-rounder.”

Top: 911 R, the first and only one in India at the MMRT. Facing page: Boopesh ordered the TechArt GT Street R kit and then bought the donor Turbo S

B R E N GA RAG E

Boopesh likens Porsches to a comfortable pair of jeans. “You have a full closet but you still go after the same pair of jeans again and again. That's like Porsche for me. They are very comfortable and very easy for me, that’s why I like driving them. Maybe my confidence level is better as I started with them, with the Carrera S. And they’re built like tanks.”

Any serious car collector has to have a Ferrari and Boopesh’s first Ferrari, the 458 Speciale, is an absolute beauty. “I had gone to Germany with my father and on the way back we had a day off and went to the Frankfurt Motor Show. I saw this car and said, wow, but looking at the dealership situation in India, I didn’t think I'll ever get it. And that's when my dad said, ‘You will get it’. I don't know why he said that. Maybe his blessings. After a few months

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Navneet Motors in Mumbai got the dealership and I ask will they give me a special car? I had to show my profile, my business, my contacts, prove that I am not a reseller, so it was a hard thing to convince them.”

Of course he did get the allotment. “I said I wanted it exactly like how I saw it in the Frankfurt Motor Show, the same spec because that's like a memory and I need to remember it. So that's why I didn't change any spec except the wheels. The interior and radio option was deleted. It's really something like a dream come true.”

Want to hear of Boopesh’s more “regular” cars? “It is a regular Huracan, so I said it has to be special. That's when I got the Vorsteiner Novara kit, Novitech race exhaust and it became the Brenacan. The name was given by enthusiasts who followed me.”

Left: AMG GT R on the lift that takes his cars to the basement garage.

Top:Getting track training from Aditya Patel in the GT 2 RS. Below: The first Aventador SVJ delivered in India

“ I WA N T E D A V 1 2 L A M B O R G H I N I A N D I D I D N ’ T WA N T T O R U S H T O B U Y A N AV E N TA D O R ”

“ I T [ T H E R A N N ] W A S L I K E A P L AY G R O U N D , A N D I S A I D , H O W C A N I N O T L E T T H E C A R P L AY ? ”

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B R E N GA RAG E

The other Lambo in the garage is the wildest of the range right now. “I wanted a V12 Lamborghini and I didn't want to rush to buy an Aventador. I've already got a Huracan, so let’s wait for the best. Sometimes you need to have patience and wait for the best.”

Of course the SVJ is a completely different kettle of fish to drive from the Porsches. “It makes it more exciting when it's not so easy to drive. How do you tame the bull? That's the biggest thing.

That's where the real excitement is. You need to see how you can play. It was difficult at the initial stage, but I am telling you that it is full of thrills. Lots of fun adventures. It's crazy. The only problem is it can't do more than six, seven or eight laps unlike the Porsche, which goes on for 20, 30, 40, comes back into the pits and it says, ‘Okay, I can do it again’. The Huracan is in a way better, but the SVJ about six, seven, eight laps, and then it says, okay, I need to go to the pit lane to rest, calm down and start all over again.”

The AMG GT R is another track-focused car in the Bren Garage, which Boopesh took to the BIC last month for the CBC track day. “It's a muscle car, a German muscle car. People don't really understand that everything is not speed. Everything's not about, you know, what goes fastest. The way it behaves on the racetrack, it behaves like a peach. The weight moves and the entire car slides and drifts. The more you let it loose, the more it swings.

There's a lot of fun.”

And Boopesh is getting better on the track, assisted by race drivers like Aditya Patel. “I call it chasing happiness. To explore the best of skills, but not crossing the border because I'm not a racer. I do take assistance because I cannot have the kind of experience a race driver has, but he can share. Some corners, I find it difficult. Aditya Patel has been my trainer most of the time and is a great race driver and a great enthusiast. So he corrects the lines and it has improved my driving. That's how I started thinking about what helps me to be better on race tracks.”

Race tracks are one thing. At the other end is the vast, flat expanse of the Rann of Kutch where we took his 488 Pista.

“When you called me and said you wanted to take the Pista for a photoshoot, initially, I thought it's just going to be a photoshoot.

When we took it there and we saw the terrain, it was like a playground, and I said, ‘How can I not let the car play?’ I should thank you and the evo India team for arranging the entire trip.

Every new adventure, I'd want to try, there's nothing wrong in trying. And this is our country, which I have not explored. Maybe cars will make me explore my country.”

I ask him about the one car he regrets not buying? “I think whatever was offered to me, I bought, except the Phantom Drophead Coupe which was the option when I bought the Aston Martin. Also the SLS AMG Gullwing is such a special car.”

We end with his rationale for buying, registering, using and keeping his cars right here in India. “I was born and made my life in India. So I need to be here, right? Whatever money I make, I need to give it back to my country. So that's the way it is.” That, in fact, is the reason why after the 2014, 15 and 16 eCOTY he didn’t add the 2017 eCOTY, the McLaren 720S. “I would love to have a McLaren. They did offer me one but I had to buy it abroad so I told them if you’re launching it in India, I will buy it. I’m waiting for the dealer to start in India.”

Last question. The next car that will be added to the garage?

“It’s going to be a special Ferrari. I did get an allotment for an SF 90 and right now I was to be in Italy speccing it. But we are in lockdown.”

Our lives have been thrown out of gear with the lockdown but one thing is for sure, whenever the Ferrari does come, it’s sure to blow up the Bren Garage Instagram! L Top: Our epic story taking the 488 Pista to the Rann of Kutch is the only time you will see a collector’s edition Ferrari letting rip on a salt flat

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S P E C I A L S

Race Concepts is one of India’s leading tuning houses having made their name with turbo-charged City VTECs both for the road and race tracks. Here are five of their top builds, from a tuned 1.6-litre Zen to a resto-mod BMW E36 and of course with the obligatory City VTEC WORDS by J O E L J O S E P H

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Left: Strut brace to aid in torsional rigidity and improve the handling. Below: Race Dynamics ECU to handle the fuelling. Bottom: Car looks virtually stock from outside save for the bigger wheels and tyres

Honda City VTEC Naturally aspirated street build UILDS LIKE THIS NATURALLY aspirated Honda City VTEC define our heart and soul here at Race Concepts. The objective was simple — maximise the potential of the SOHC VTEC engine, while keeping the car reliable and requiring low maintenance. Having built Honda Citys whose power output varies from 150bhp+ to a slightly crazy 600bhp+ in our turbo-dragster, we have covered it all with this engine. Also our ITC racing program running since 2011 has resulted in the baddest and maddest R&D of our naturally-aspirated B15C2 builds (in 2019 we switched to the turbo engine, till then it was the nat-asp motor).

This car started life as a bone-stock factory VTEC with the owner wanting Stage 2 updates initially. Being a great fan of our ITC NA car, he was always fascinated by the revs and the purity of the VTEC engine.

He then commissioned a full-blown NA build and to deliver on his needs we had to make it fast, yet keeping it within street reliability limits. The engine was uprated to our custom competition-spec internals with the cylinder head getting our signature motorsport development. Our custom ground camshaft with a special VTEC

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profile was fitted into the engine, along with uprated valve train components. A full close ratio gearbox with driveline updates and brake upgrade with rear disc and braided lines completed the rest of the package.

The chassis was also tweaked with coilovers and strut braces front and rear.

So what does this result in? 190bhp from its 1500cc NA engine with 8400 revs in street, on 97 octane fuel and on a single throttle body. That’s like turning the 106bhp SOHC B15C2 motor into a DOHC B18C Type R!

Click to watch the Raceconcepts tuned City VTEC video

S M A RT P H O N E P H OTO G RA P H Y

Honda Accord 2.4-litre Turbo Dragster E'VE HAD SIGNIFICANT success on the drag strip, building the fastest Indian front-wheel drive car to date. Our Honda City VTEC dragster was the first 1500cc FWD car to make the 11-second mark over a quarter mile and put out over 600 horses with its B15C2 turbocharged engine. Our success in drag racing has led to quite a few builds for customers looking to make a mark on the drag strip. Among the many drag cars we’ve built over the years, the one that stands out has to be the Honda Accord 2.4 in which, we turbo-charged its original K24 engine while stripping it down and caging it to be a purpose-built dragster. This was our first turn-key project car, and the objective was to deliver massive power while also keeping it reliable and running it at the races without having to need any crew or major support.

Arrive, swap tyres, fill gas and race.

Everything is preset and good to go — those were the goals of this project.

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The first event that the car competed in was the Valley Run in 2019, two days after we delivered a box-fresh race car. The car is a full-blown package with fully-forged internals, our Stage 4 cylinder head update, competition clutch and flywheel parts, a massive Garrett twin scroll turbo and all the bells and whistles that go into building the most powerful Honda K series car in the country. The transmission was factory stock and we wanted to see how much we could push the engine and later get to the drivetrain bits, since it was a much simpler thing to do. Running 20.4psi of boost we got a massive 705bhp at the crank.

This was when we knew that we’d finally untapped some of the potential of the K24 engine but nothing close to its limits. We wanted to first ensure the other parts could handle all this power and I still feel there is massive potential to unlock few hundred more horses once we have better drivetrain components and an LSD.

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The most satisfying part of the build was that the car participated in the event without needing a service crew. The driver, who was still getting used to handling that kind of power, managed to do mid-12 seconds runs in its first shakedown with a really tall stock gearbox, no LSD and sitting at a pretty heavy 1280kg despite all the chassis teardown and roll cage setup. The feeling of having 700+ horses at your disposal is a great one, but to us, it is just as crucial to have this level of reliability to go along with the power since it's a remote project. It is proof that we’ve come a long way, and so have our projects.

The lessons we learn by building cars for the road will always be a crucial reason for our success in motorsport.

Below, L-R: 2.4 motor has been cranked out to 700 horses. Custom exhaust that exits from the side.

Above: To aid aerodynamics the nose is blanked out save for the radiator intakes

Maruti Suzuki Zen Steel 1.6-litre build NOTHER GREAT STORY OF a naturally aspirated build maintaining the real character of the engine without boosting it is this 2-door Zen. The car started life as a normal 1.0-litre Zen Steel. Being an avid enthusiast, the client wanted a Stage 2 update with a 1.6 engine swap from the Baleno a.k.a G16B. After a few months we then decided to

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Above: An eye on the revs of the 1.6-litre motor, whose laziness has been cured. Below: The 2-door Zen Steel and Carbon are gaining cult status among the enthusiast community

give it everything, since the owner wanted a weekend-only car and didn’t mind doing occasional races. As usual we started with the bottom of the engine to ensure reliability and core strength. In went our custom rods and pistons and a Stage 4 full race cylinder head treatment with massive flow improvements. Everyone knows the G16 for its long-stroke nature and absolute laziness to rev. We went about doing everything to address that bit. A custom ground cam and individual throttle bodies completed the top half. Added to that mix a standalone ECU, close-ratio transmission upgrade, uprated fuel system, ignition and most importantly better brakes. We designed a radical exhaust system but it was big, it could not be housed within the engine bay so we had to bring it out of the front subframe and route it in a complete bespoke fashion. And it looked completely rad! All the work on this pocket rocket helped us crank out over 190bhp from the G16B motor at 7600rpm and setting a late 13-second pass on the quarter mile drag strip.

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BMW E36 316i Restomod HE 1997 BMW E36 3 SERIES is one of BMW’s all-time classics, designed to give the driver an immersive driving experience. It looks beautiful with BMW’s timeless line, low drag thanks to the aerodynamic body shape and the vortex generators. Of course what I am most interested in is the zippy M40 1.6-litre petrol motor, naturally aspirated of course, and mated to the responsive and dynamic chassis this makes it one of my favourite cars from the 90s.

When this particular example rolled into the Race Concepts garage, it had succumbed to thermal issues. The engine needed a rebuild and the exhaust was rusted. The car was immaculate on the outside and it had a special place in the owner’s garage, having been in the family since new. Ou job was to get the power train right and give it a new lease of life.

Nursing this car back to health was a labour of love. We went about rebuilding the M40 motor and re-engineered the entire plumbing so the cooling system would work more effectively. We did a complete tear down and installed original BMW parts to return the engine back to full factory tolerances while further improving flow in the cylinder head to make this engine work reliably as a daily driver. We then gave it our signature stainless-steel free flow exhaust

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Above: Careful paint treatment and interior treatment to bring out the charm of the old girl.

Right: Engine completely re-built keeping in mind street use and with a custom exhaust job

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for the in-line-4 engine, mainly because the stock exhaust system had almost disintegrated. Finally, we gave the interior some TLC and the exterior was treated to paint correction and some detailed touches.

This BMW E36 now reminds the owner of the joy of 90s motoring, with all the reliability expected of a modern car.

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Mini Cooper S R56 Street Build HE MINI COOPER IS A CAR that has made a reputation for itself as a peppy car with a huge motorsport heritage. So when a Mini rolled into our workshop, it was important that we maintain the DNA of the vehicle while crafting a set of modifications that helps the car play to its strengths.

The first thing we set out to do was to create a fully-custom performance intake and exhaust system and ensure we got the dimensions and fitment correct so that there wasn’t much drone to make it usable on the road. Then we re-mapped the ECU with extensive dyno tests to arrive at a map that suited the turbo size, turbo reliability and enable it to run on regular pump gas. The next addition was swapping out the slightly softer OEM dampers to get the car more corner more happily. For this we put on a set of K-sport coilovers with our custom valving and spring rates to give the car better ride quality at speed, adequate stiffness, remove the damping harshness that the R56 Mini is typically known for and of course lower the car to get that perfect stance. Going

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Above: Custom dampers to improve the high-speed handling while also improving on the Mini’s harsh low speed ride. Below: 240 horses and the ideal size make for an everyday pocket rocket

faster with 240bhp at the crank and with improved dynamics, this Mini was a proper pocket-rocket. This car clearly syncs-in with our philosophy of building the most fun to drive car for the road with perfectly handy track-oriented dynamics and of course this car is the perfect size! L

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S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : H Y U N DA I T U R B O - P ET RO L S

WORDS by A F Z A L R AW U T H E R

TURBO-CRACY Hyundai’s new turbo petrol motor makes their entire range of cars and SUVs so much more fun to drive, giving enthusiasts just what they’ve been waiting for!

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S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : H Y U N DA I T U R B O P ET RO L S

FUN-TO-DRIVE COULD SOON BECOME THE NORM rather than the exception. Nothing in recent memory has promised to shake up the world of the automotive enthusiast than what we are currently witnessing — and Hyundai India has emerged at the forefront. We are talking about turbos, specifically turbo-petrol engines. Yes, they have been around for a really long time, but factors like cost and affordability meant they were never front and centre on the Indian buyers' mind. In fact, some manufacturers have even gone on to say turbo-petrols are too expensive to make and too expensive to run and even claimed there wasn’t enough demand to put these high-tech engines into production in India.

And now Hyundai is proving them wrong!

Hyundai has taken it upon itself to reshape the automotive space in India, especially for us enthusiasts. Hyundai is not the first to offer a turbo-petrol but they’re the first to go through the time, effort and expense to locally manufacture the 1.0 turbo charged direct-injection petrol engine in India. This is the most high-tech petrol engine to be manufactured in India and the acceptance for it has been far better than anticipated, encouraging India's second largest carmaker to offer it across their core models. It started with the Hyundai Venue that was launched last year and continues with turbo-petrol variants being offered in the Aura, the Grand i10 Nios, the Creta and now the Verna. The upcoming i20 will receive a turbo-petrol motor as well. Hyundai India have found a way to make turbopetrols successful in the market — something other marquees have never really been able to achieve.

Stricter BS6 emission norms have, in many ways, necessitated the move but the company has done a lot more than just introduce cleaner powertrains to the Indian market.

Hyundai has introduced the Indian automotive enthusiast to affordable, fun, performance-oriented turbo-petrol powered cars. 'Turbo' is the new buzzword for enthusiast-friendly cars.

Currently there are two turbo-petrol engines in the company's lineup – a 1-litre, three-cylinder unit in two different states of tune (100bhp in the Aura and Grand i10 NIOS and 120bhp in the Venue and Verna) and a 1.4-litre, four cylinder unit producing 140bhp (in the Creta). More importantly, Hyundai India have democratised turbo-petrols by way of six key attributes apart from the engines themselves.

TURBO IS THE NEW BUZZWORD F O R E N T H U S I A S TF R I E N D LY C A R S 42

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Click to watch the Hyundai Creta drive video

Facing page: The 4-cylinder turbo charged direct-inject petrol engine that goes into the all-new Creta and Verna. Above: The new Creta is tonnes more fun to drive with the 1.4 GDI engine. Below: 7-speed twin-clutch DCT automatic gearbox comes with steering wheel paddle shifters, a first in class

S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : H Y U N DA I T U R B O - P ET RO L S

1. Making the turbo-petrol motor accessible A turbo-petrol motor in a sub-four metre compact sedan?

Hyundai has injected fun into a segment where performance has never been the focus. We spent quite a few days with the turbo’d Aura and are pleased to report that Hyundai has found the balance between backseat comfort — coveted in the segment — and performance. And the response to the Aura has led Hyundai to put the engine in the Grand i10 NIOS — which should make it the affordable fast-hatch that Indian enthusiasts have been clamouring for. Both cars are in a segment that first-time car buyers often look to. This has made fun, powerful cars accessible to a large number of enthusiasts.

In addition, the compact dimensions and ever-improving dynamics make Hyundai's new crop of cars inherently fun to drive.

2. Packaging Hyundai India's most recent products are feature-laden and tech-heavy to the extent that they are often class benchmarks.

The Grand i10 NIOS that we reviewed a few months ago was so well-equipped that in a head-to-head comparison it came up trumps over the segment leader from a class above. Evidently, the company has packaged the turbo-petrol variants such that they are head and shoulders above their competition when

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HYUNDAI HA S INJECTED FUN INTO A SEGMENT WHERE P E R F O R M A N C E WA S NEVER THE FOCUS it comes to the features they offer. This makes the overall package stand out as a great one. For instance, even in the Venue and the Creta, the turbo-petrol is available in wellequipped variants and it is hard to not recommend them.

3. Choice of transmissions What can truly mar the driving experience that comes with a great engine? A lazy gearbox. The fact that Hyundai India is only packaging the turbo-petrol motors with a DCT twin-clutch automatic or a manual, says a lot about how the company is keen on offering an immersive driving experience to enthusiasts. The DCTs in the Venue and the

Click to watch the Hyundai Venue drive video

Creta are bonafide benchmarks and add another dimension to the driving experience. The paddle shifters on the Creta elevate the experience even further and are a segment first, something Hyundai does very often. The manual transmission on the other hand ensures that there is added engagement for enthusiasts. The Grand i10 NIOS and the Aura turbo-petrol variants can only be had with a manual and allow seasoned drivers to extract the most performance from them.

4. Sportier aesthetics Hyundai could have just put in a turbo-petrol engine and left everything else unchanged — like some of their rivals have done. But they went a step ahead. The turbo-petrol variants might not look vastly different from the other variants in the lineup but there are subtle aesthetic additions that do make an impact. The red-stitching, red accents and 'turbo' badging on the headrests in the cabin of the turbo-petrol variants is something that will bring a smile to your face every time you step foot in one. On the outside, the 'Turbo' badging announces the sportier credentials and then there are elements that you might not even notice. For instance, the grille in an Aura Turbo is finished in black instead of grey — bragging rights for enthusiasts. And the Creta Turbo has twin exhaust tips and gun metal grey alloys to distinguish it from other variants.

Facing page: You can now have fun with a compact sedan thanks to the turbo in the Aura. Top: 1.0 GDI in the Hyundai Venue makes it great fun to drive, and gets both 7-speed DCT and a manual gearbox. Above: Grand i10 NIOS is the first small hatch in the country to get a GDI motor

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HYUNDAI IS GIVING E V E RYO N E A TA S T E OF FUN BY MAKING TURBOPETROLS A K E Y PA R T OF THEIR S T R AT E G Y

5. Fuel economy Now this isn't exactly at the top of an enthusiast's mind when picking a car, but it is something that makes a huge impact on how many people opt for a turbo-petrol. Sure, everyone would love a quick and fun-to-drive car, but would everyone be willing to forego good fuel economy in the bargain? Truth is that very few people are willing to own higher performance cars with poor fuel economy — at least when it comes to cars that sell in large numbers. Heck, even among luxury car buyers, fuel economy is a critical factor that affects buying decisions. Hyundai India has us covered though. The new Verna turbo-petrol's ARAI fuel efficiency figures are higher than that of the naturally aspirated petrol motors! It's the same with the Venue. Fuel economy figures of the turbo’d Creta, the Grand i10 NIOS and the Aura are very close to their naturally aspirated brethren. This ensures that more buyers will be (and are!) tempted to buy into the more powerful option.

6. Price While other manufacturers thought that turbo-petrol engines wouldn't be viable or popular enough to produce locally, Hyundai has demonstrated that they can be. The company's turbo petrol variants are in fact competitively priced and are often lower than or on par with their diesel siblings. Hyundai

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has achieved this through a high-degree of localisation and economies of scale (certainly helped by the ever increasing large volumes that the company has been witnessing — the turbo-petrol Venue is among the highest selling variants of the compact SUV). Demand, as a result, has been skyrocketing for these variants.

NOW, ALL THESE ATTRIBUTES TOGETHER CREATE a compelling case for Hyundai India's turbo-petrol powered cars. And that makes it easy for us to recommend these cars to everyone. And we still haven't said a word about the engines.

They are unlike anything in the respective segments of the cars they are in. Both the three-cylinder and four-cylinder motors are rev-happy and seem to enjoy chasing the redline.

The wide powerband is extremely useful while driving through the city – the turbo kicks in at around 1800rpm and there is a surge of power all the way to 6000rpm. All that and the distinctly sporty growl – the engines themselves are thoroughly enjoyable.

Yes, only enthusiasts are likely to go into a dealership looking for a turbo-petrol motor under the hood of their next car. But buyers in general too will be easily swayed by all that these cars have to offer and it got us thinking. Hyundai could have taken the easy way out and offered a couple of models targeted

S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : H Y U N DA I T U R B O - P ET RO L S

Facing page: The newest launch from Hyundai is the Verna, which also gets the 1.4 turbo-petrol engine.

Above: To keep with the sporty positioning of the Verna Turbo, the cabin gets all-black interiors.

Don’t miss the new floating touchscreen, digital instrument cluster and of course a sun roof.

Right: Verna also gets the 7-speed DCT with paddle shifters on the steering wheel

at enthusiasts that are far more expensive — thus keeping the enthusiasts happy and offering less powerful cars at lower prices to everyone else. But they have made a brave decision to make these turbo-petrol variants a key part of their lineup. Now, when someone walks into a Hyundai dealership looking for a new car, they are likely to be drawn towards the turbo-petrol.

Hyundai India has to be applauded for this. They are giving everyone a taste of fun and enthusiastic cars by making them a key part of their business strategy. As a result, us enthusiasts now have the choice to not drive the drab, uninspiring cars that we often end up choosing as our daily drivers. But all this amounts to a bit more than just that. Two decades ago, the VTEC arrived on our shores and changed the game when it came to performance cars in India. Tuners lapped it up and turned them into fast, enjoyable cars. That's how a number of enthusiasts got a first taste of how fun driving a car geared towards performance could be. Its popularity as a tuner favourite was because it was a car that sold in the numbers and was affordable while being inherently fun to drive. Guess what, there is a brand today that sells cars in large numbers, offers enthusiastic drivetrains on all of their cars and makes an effort to make their cars fun to drive. Thanks to Hyundai’s focus on turbo-petrols the future sure looks good for us petrolheads! L www.

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Keeping you inspired and enthused during lockdown with

#evoC nversations PRESENTED BY

The lockdown means we have to stay home, but that hasn’t stopped evo India from striking up conversations with industry professionals. In our Instagram Live sessions we listen to the stories of automotive CEOs, ex-F1 racers, tuners and designers, learn from their professional experiences and ask them what the world will look like after the pandemic blows over. From inspirational to the educational, the #evoConversations series in partnership with Rowe Motor Oils makes for a tremendously engaging watch.

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on the You can find all the videoseven on @evoindia IGTV & and st the Thrill of Driving podca Hit the link and enjoy!

BOOPESH REDDY BREN GARAGE

“It’s important to work for the dream — have a plan and set out.

And the plan has to be in the form of a 10-year plan, attack it phase by phase.” bren_garage

DILBAGH GILL

TEAM PRINCIPAL AND CEO, MAHINDRA RACING “We want this championship to be a powertrain championship, not an aerodynamics one like F1. So very early in the day we had said we’re going to restrict certain development.” mahindraracing

DILIP CHHABRIA FOUNDER, DC DESIGN

“If you love anything from the heart, you will make a success of it. I went to design college after my BCom because I didn’t know there was such a course.” dc2design

JATIN AHUJA

FOUNDER & MD, BIG BOY TOYZ

“When you buy a car from Big Boy Toyz, every single car goes through a stringent 151-point check. It’s about checking every aspect of the car and rectifying every aspect of it.” bigboytoyz_india

JOEL JOSEPH

FOUNDER, RACE CONCEPTS

“Race cars don’t just get built on the dyno. It’s a lot of homework and a lot of work on the racetrack, and the feedback you get from the driver is the most important thing.” raceconcepts

MARTIN SCHWENK

MD & CEO, MERCEDES-BENZ INDIA

“I have fond memories of SLS, driving on the open roads of Germany at 290kmph. That was the fastest I ever drove on a public road, and I won’t forget how my passenger got out shaking.” martins_masala

NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN

INDIA’S FIRST F1 DRIVER

“First time I felt I was driving a rocketship. It was phenomenally quick and 900 horsepower, with VTec, and 18,000rpm, it gives you a shock through the system, but you get used to it.” narainkarthikeyan

NAVEEN SONI

SENIOR VP, SALES AND SERVICE, TOYOTA KIRLOSKAR MOTOR

“Because of BS6 upgradation, many manufacturers have had to exit the diesel vehicle segment. This has come as an opportunity for us to capitalise on the market.” toyota.india

PRATAB BOSE

VP, GLOBAL DESIGN, TATA MOTORS “You cannot sell a [CAD/CAM] picture or a poster to a customer. You’re selling a big 3-D full-size object. A clay model does not lie” tatamotorsgroup

RAJEEV CHABA

PRESIDENT & MD, MG MOTOR INDIA “We believe this vehicle (Gloster) will set the new norms in the segment in terms of technology and features. We’ve committed a launch around Diwali.” mgmotorin

SANJAY SHARMA

HEAD, JK TYRE MOTORSPORT “Like football or hockey, you can’t practice it on a back lane. You need to know the technology side of it. A man and a machine together win, and together lose.” jktyre_motorsport

SANTOSH IYER

VP, SALES AND MARKETING, MERCEDES-BENZ INDIA “When the online world takes over, and the car is going to the customer’s home or office for a test drive, the size of a dealership is not a challenge.” mercedesbenzind

SHANA PARAMESHWAR SPORTSCAR ENTHUSIAST

“I don’t buy cars to park and polish them. The G-Wagen is really capable. I went and drowned it with water almost till the door handles.” drivelikeshana

SHARAD AGARWAL

HEAD, LAMBORGHINI INDIA “It’s the time for us to reach out to our customers and prospects and convey the message that we care. We’re speaking to each of them asking their well being.” lamborghinidelhi

STEFFEN KNAPP

DIRECTOR, VOLKSWAGEN INDIA “The more I look at the Taigun, the more I like it. It’s the first result of our India 2.0 strategy, where we’re going to focus a bit more on domestic in terms of higher localisation.” volkswagen_india

ZAC HOLLIS

DIRECTOR, SKODA AUTO INDIA “I’ve spoken to many RS enthusiasts who meet up on weekends, driving the car… It’s fantastic to see that enthusiasm for the car. The RS as a brand in India is here to stay.” skodaindia

WIN!

MERCEDES-BENZ MERCHANDISE 1:43 MERCEDES-BENZ C-CLASS SCALE MODEL

MERCEDESBENZ HAT MERCEDESBENZ KEY RING

GUESS THE BOSS' DREAM MERC GARAGE! #MercFromHome We all dream of having a Mercedes in our garage.

But if you were the head of Mercedes-Benz India, which three Mercs would you park in your dream garage?

G A R A G E

1

GLE A-CLASS LIMOUSINE C 43 COUPE G A R A G E

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G-CLASS GT ROADSTER E 63 S

G A R A G E

2

GLS C-CLASS CABRIOLET GT R G A R A G E

MARCO POLO C-CLASS GLC 43 COUPE

5

G A R A G E

3

CLS GT 4-DOOR COUPE GLC G A R A G E

6

E -CLASS GLA MAYBACH S-CLASS

Guess Mercedes-Benz India MD & CEO Martin Schwenk’s dream garage from the above six and you could be one of three lucky winners to bag cool Mercedes-Benz merchandise including a 1:43 C-Class scale model, a Mercedes-Benz cap and a Mercedes-Benz key ring.

Hint: on the #evoConversations Martin did reveal his dream garage!

Send in your answers to contest@gtopublishing.com, subject line “Merc From Home” Terms and conditions apply: Visit www.evoindia.com/mercfromhome-contest-terms-and-conditions

Click to shop for your Mercedes-Benz online 52

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MERC FROM HOME

WO R D S b y A AT I S H M I S H R A

REACH FOR THE STARS, AT HOME With the global economic landscape going through a shift like never before, Mercedes-Benz India has taken its showrooms online so you can buy a car from the comfort of your couch

HE TIMES WE ARE GOING THROUGH ARE UNPRECEDENTED — a global pandemic that has brought the world economy to its knees, forcing people indoors and shifting the way we look at the world around us. As much as we may will it away, the virus isn’t going anywhere any time soon even when the national lockdown lifts. We are eventually going to resume our lives, and try to bring back some semblance of normalcy but there is no denying that the way we do business and go about our lives has changed forever. It is in times like these that technology really comes to the fore. Mercedes-Benz India is reinventing the entire process of buying a car. What used to involve multiple trips to the closest dealership can now be taken care of entirely from your home or office — on Mercedes-Benz’s own e-commerce platform through the rather aptly named ‘MercFromHome’ experience.

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MercFromHome Getting your Mercedes-Benz from the comfort of your home is an extremely straightforward process. You’ve just got to follow these steps: 1. Log on to the online Mercedes-Benz shop 2. Pick whether you want a new or pre-owned car, what body style and drivetrain you want, and what city you are in.

3. View all the cars in the vicinity, and pick which one suits you best: you can see on-road prices (in a few days), interior and exterior trims, deals, insurance and financing options right here.

4. You don’t need to go to multiple dealerships looking for the best deal, they come to you!

5. Personalise your car on the car configurator 6. Purchase extended warranty, road side assistance, service packages online.

7. Get a virtual consultation with a sales executive.

8. Pay online.

9. Sit back, relax and wait for your Mercedes-Benz to be delivered to your doorstep!

Stay home, stay safe I’m sure you have questions. How will someone spend so much money on a car without even sitting in it, is probably at the top of that list. We had the same question, so we put it forward to Santosh Iyer, the vice president of sales and marketing when he was live on the #evoConversations segment we host daily on Instagram.

“We are going to ensure this experience remains. We will not take out this experience online”, said Santosh rather frankly. He told us: 1. Dealerships will remain operational, with the strictest hygiene and sanitation standards.

2. Over 60 per cent of Mercedes customers want to drive the cars before buying them and can continue to do so.

3. Test drives will take place in the most non-intrusive manner. Visiting the dealership will not be necessary.

4. You can still go to a dealership and buy a car like you always did.

Demand will pick up Mercedes-Benz and plenty of other manufacturers are unanimous in their opinion that demand will pick up once the lockdown lifts. Santosh says, “This is not an economic impact. This is a demand-side shock if you see because a lot of our customers will definitely feel this is the right time to buy a car.” He shared with us his thoughts on the future of the car industry: 1. New products will excite the market, there is nothing better than new products to excite.

2. The demand in China and Korea is back, and business is back to normal.

3. A lot of people will introspect in the lockdown and conclude that they should allow themselves to indulge. It could be a good thing for luxury goods.

4. Our online portal for used cars has been getting bookings even in the lockdown.

Shifting landscapes “What can we do differently at this point of time? As responsible manufacturers, how do we excite the market?

How do we take care of their apprehensions? Customers may not be really keen to walk into showrooms or meet people or sales guys. So can we do it remotely? Can digitisation help?” These are the self-introspecting questions that Santosh put forward to his team at MercedesBenz India, and the answer that presented itself was ‘MercFromHome’. Industries have faced challenges in the past but never before have they been armed with so much technology to fight the crises. The fact that the internet is so widespread and democratic makes taking the shopping experience online perfect sense. The experience of buying a car was not so much prohibitive as was inconvenient.

Now, with an online shop, you give a customer the choice of using the online platform, the dealership or both. “It’s not about the digital or physical platform. I don’t think they are competing. The key will be how we are able to merge these and how with our dealers we are able to also give a better experience,” ends Santosh.

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“#MercFromHome will be extended to customer service as well” Martin Schwenk, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India talks through the digital initiatives evo India: Will you be able to organise test drives of the cars online?

Martin Schwenk: Mercedes-Benz dealer partners will organise test drives on-ground for customers from the door steps of their houses and detailed precautionary measures will be undertaken – before, during and after the test drives.

Mercedes-Benz India will also set-up a one-ofits kind ‘Live Mercedes-Benz Consultation Studio’ which will be an exclusive offering to prospects to

avail a personal video consultation of the product of their choice, at Mercedes-Benz India’s Center of Excellence or at a dealership of their choice by a Product Expert. Exclusive time slots will be offered for their consultation.

EI: These cars are expensive. Do you see people willing to part with such large sums of money without actually visiting a dealership and seeing the car?

MS: Online car shopping is picking up and we

already have seen a momentum towards it. Our first phase on this platform was with used car sales and we have already seen more than 150 cars booked on this platform over a period of 6-8 weeks. Customers are willing to undergo the entire journey from exploring to purchasing online with us, as Mercedes-Benz has a very high trust and brand value with consumers, whether they shop online or offline. Test drives from home offer customers the possibility of seeing and driving the car before the purchase.

EI: Will dealerships continue to remain open?

MS: Physical touch points along with touch and feel experience of products will remain and all our dealerships will continue to operate like before and they will remain the luxury destinations of their respective markets. We in fact expect online shopping to complement on-ground sales as well.

EI: Will #MercFromHome be extended to service as well? Or is it only for the initial purchasing experience?

MS: #MercFromHome will be extended to customer service as well. It would be our endeavour to provide the customer with all the customer service benefits from the comfort and convenience of their home. The #MercFromHome Customer service comprises: online service appointment booking, online estimates, car sanitisation process, car care at doorstep and video call while servicing the car.

EI: How will the video consultation take place?

MS: The MB Consultation Studio is the first-ofits kind in the Indian automobile industry and will be available to customers who can call the MB India Contact Center and request a video consultation. The MB Consultation Studio will feature Mercedes-Benz product experts from both Mercedes-Benz India and the dealerships.

The customer can hence, from the convenience and comfort of his home, book an online consultation and demonstration of the preferred car, at a preferred date and time.

EI: Will dealerships, as we know it change in the future? Will car buying ever become a fully online experience?

MS: Going forward dealerships will be more digitally equipped and will aim at redefining the customer journey, to enhance the customer experience of the brand. Our new dealerships like Global Star in New Delhi features digital assets like Digital wall, Interactive touch table, Touch TV, Digital Spec Stand to support the presentation and explanation of the products and services to the increasing number of tech savvy customers.

While physical dealerships will continue to be essential touchpoints, the digital shopping experience will develop over time and we believe both the online and offline experience will complement each other to enhance the customers’ brand journey and deepen the brand connect and trust. We are available for customers where and when they wish – be it during shopping hours in the showroom or in the evening, from the comfort of their homes.

M B C O N S U LTAT I O N S T U D I O I S T H E F I R S T- O F - I T S K I N D I N T H E IN DIAN AUT O M O B ILE IN D US TRY EI: Mercedes-Benz dealerships aren’t just dealerships — they are an experience, with the cafe and lounge. How do you replicate that experience online?

MS: Mercedes-Benz dealerships are luxury destinations by themselves and have an attraction of their own for automobile lovers and also for luxury product aspirants. Our aim is to strengthen the on-ground retail experience, at the same time curate an exciting online journey for the customer. Customers until now used to do online research and then purchase a car from the dealership. While that option still exists, they can now conclude the entire purchase process online and can have their Mercedes-Benz home delivered. At the same time there are customers who specifically want to visit the dealership with their friends and family, to make the occasion memorable. We cater to both the requirements depending on individual preference and choice.

Facing page: Martin Schwenk at the sprawling Mercedes-Benz facility in Pune.

Above: Even the newly launched V-Class Marco Polo which was showcased at the Auto Expo can be bought online

EI: Will high-end cars like the AMG and Maybach have a different buying experience?

MS: The online purchase process will be the same for all cars across the available portfolio, including the AMG and Dream Cars. The respective dealerships however can create a special experience while delivering the car to the customer.

EI: Can you still customise your cars with Designo online?

MS: Customers can opt for various individualisation options available with the Car Configurator just like for those who opt for a dealership purchase.

EI: Will we see dealerships becoming smaller to reduce overheads, since footfall (and probably even display cars) in dealerships will be less?

MS: Dealerships will continue to remain key touchpoints for the brand’s product and service offerings. With emerging trends in technology, customer preference will evolve and so will their consumption pattern. Mercedes-Benz will evolve and continue to offer the best brand experience that consumers expect from it — online or offline.

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WORDS by K A R A N S I N G H

EVOLUTION THEORY With every new supercar featuring more power and torque than ever before, have today’s supercars overtaken the hypercar holy trinity, the Porsche 918 Spyder, the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari?

S U P E R C A R S V H Y P E RCA RS

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013 WAS A GOOD year. The final season of Breaking Bad did help, but more so because three revolutionary cars from three legendary manufacturers were launched in 2013. The LaFerrari, the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder. Three hypercars that were freakishly fast, remarkably similar yet strikingly different in their own right. These three were the pinnacle of performance, and were ultra-fast displays of each manufacturer’s technological prowess. Seven years on, we don’t have a replacement for them just yet but their more humble stablemates, have taken the baton and run a pretty solid race. The 991gen GT2 RS for example, is more than 10 seconds faster around the 'Ring than the 918 Spyder, without the fancy aerodynamics and electronic motors. We shall dig a little deeper in to this but first, let's dive into the genesis of the hypercar holy trinity.

The hypercar story The McLaren P1 was the British carmaker’s ticket into hypercar territory. At the time, McLaren was a largely unknown entity and with the lukewarm response the MP4-12C had received, people were skeptical about the P1. The P1 did not disappoint though.

It used a motorsport-derived hybridassist system coupled with McLaren’s now ubiquitous twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8. The P1 produced 903bhp, 900Nm of torque and had an electronically limited top speed of 350kmph. The P1 also used active suspension, active aero and produced the highest downforce of any production car at the time. It was a technological marvel, a middle-ground between the relatively uncomplicated LaFerrari and the tech-fest that was the 918 Spyder.

The 918 was actually the most futuristic of the hypercar holy trinity owing to the fact that it used the most complicated hybrid tech. Its 4.6-litre V8 engine produced 599bhp on its own, while the electric motors added an extra 282bhp, bringing the total up to 881bhp. Combined torque stood at 1280Nm. Porsche says that the entire car was actually engineered around the hybrid drive and that "the 918 Spyder will act as the gene pool for the Porsche sports cars of the future." The 918's clever all-wheel drive system and all-wheel steering, allowed it to keep up with the other two on the track despite the lower horsepower figures. The 918 also benefited from Porsche’s return to LMP1 in 2014, with learnings from the development of the race cars being put to use in the 918.

The LaFerrari was the most old-school of the three hypercars, on the surface at least. Thanks to a naturally aspirated V12,

it sounded like god's personal orchestra at a pitch that could bring a grown man to tears. The LaFerrari was no antique though, it was the first Ferrari to use the HY-KERS hybrid assist system. The combination of V12 and hybrid system put out 936bhp and more than 900Nm of torque. The materials and production techniques used to make the LaFerrari were taken straight from Formula 1. The LaFerrari’s battery pack was even made in the same department where the KERS system for their F138 F1 car was made.

If you want to see some brilliant footage of the three cars go head to head, we highly recommend a film made by Chris Harris that is up on YouTube. It's nearly an hour-long, but its got plenty of footage of these cars doing hot laps, as well as sideways action. He even did this on control tyres, so rest assured this is an accurate representation of how these cars stack up against each another.

The Supercars Fast forward to 2020. The McLaren 720S is already a fast car. It changed perceptions as to how fast a supercar could be, and should be. But in classic McLaren fashion, it didn’t stop there. It dialled things up in the 765LT. It is the latest in McLaren’s LT line of track-focussed cars and follows in the tracks of the widely applauded 675LT and 600LT. It uses a 4-litre twin turbo V8, that has been derived from the engine used

T H E S F 9 0 TA K E S L E A R N I N G S F R O M T H E L A F E R R A R I A N D F E R R A R I ’ S M O T O R S P O R T D E PA R T M E N T

Facing page: McLaren 765LT accelerates to 100kmph in the same time as the P1. Left: Porsche GT2 RS can post faster lap times than the 918 on most circuits. Below: We were to drive the SF90 Stradale and then the lockdown hit!

in the P1, producing 755bhp and 800Nm of torque with a top speed of 330kmph.

No hybrid assist here. If you look at the numbers, the 765LT has no chance against the P1, except the 765LT is much lighter.

This helps it achieve an identical claimed 0-100kmph time of 2.8 seconds. Yes, the P1 does have a larger wing at the back and a more sophisticated aerodynamics package overall, but McLaren has learned a lot in the seven years since it made the P1. The 765LT uses a more advanced version of the door blade that was first developed for the P1. It also borrows the Senna’s anchors, and learnings from the development of the Senna and Speedtail, have helped make the 765LT more aerodynamically efficient and shave weight from the already rather light 720S base car.

Moving to Stuttgart and the GT2 RS probably looks like the dark horse here. It actually looks like a fairly regular 911 from the outside, albeit with an aggressive body kit and big wing, but Porsche has worked extensively on dialling up the GT2 RS to the max. The GT2 RS gets the same 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six unit from the Turbo S, but it produces 690bhp and 750Nm of torque in the ’2 RS. Sure these are impressive numbers but without allwheel drive, electronic assist or even active aerodynamics, how did the GT2 RS crush the 918’s ’Ring record by over 10 seconds?

Well, the GT2 RS is lighter than the 918 Spyder and it is naturally aspirated which means it has a much flatter torque curve.

The 918 Spyder may have to charge up and recover energy at some point, leaving it to be powered only by the ICE. Finally, tyre technology has come a long way in the last seven years. The 918 used custom tyres, but for the GT2 RS, Porsche has worked

very closely with Michelin to produce a compound specifically made to maximise the GT2 RS’ performance. The GT2 RS may be a tenth slower to 100kmph at 2.8 seconds thanks to the 918’s aforementioned electronic wizardry but, over a full lap, the GT2 RS will have it beat on most racetracks around the world.

In the red corner, Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale is the latest in its long line of mid-engined V8 supercars. But it is pushes the boundaries of a supercar and pokes at hypercar territory. It gets a 4-litre V8 coupled with electric motors to give it a staggering output of 986bhp and 800Nm of torque.

Not only does the SF90 have an advantage on paper, but its 2.5 second time to sprint to 100kmph is half a second faster than that of the LaFerrari. The SF90 is also seven-tenths faster around Ferrari’s very own Fiorano test track. The SF90 takes learnings from the LaFerrari and Ferrari’s motorsport department and pushes it a step further.

It is the first plug-in hybrid Ferrari and the combination of three electric motors, the engine, and advanced aero means the

SF90 Stradale could well be the benchmark for future supercars to be pitted against.

The race is on It is mind-boggling how far automotive technology has come. According to the law of accelerating returns, technology advances exponentially as we go forward.

This holds true for cars too. With technology improving in all aspects including aerodynamics, tyres and propulsion systems, series-production supercars are now eclipsing hypercars from less than a decade ago. But it also worth pausing and asking the question — are we taking cars in the right direction? Companies like Rimac and Tesla are making electric cars that touch 100kmph in under two seconds. You can never use this kind of performance on the road, unless you own a fairly long stretch of road, and even attempting to harness it in public is foolhardy. Are we heading toward a pointless numbers race over driving pleasure? Probably. Will this mean fun cars will get more affordable? Maybe. Are we complaining? Nope. L

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WORDS by S U V R AT KO T H A R I

TOYOTA GR SUPRA INDIA BOUND? Toyota India’s senior management drops hint about the Toyota GR Supra being seriously considered for India

TOYOTA S U P RA

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F YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED VIDEOS OF souped-up Toyota Supras with excruciatingly loud aftermarket exhausts, smoking their tyres with crazy drifts, you haven’t lived, my friend. Older generation Supras were fine sportscars thanks to their great amalgamation of front-engine, RWD setup and near perfect weight distribution.

In 2019, after almost two decades, a curvalicious new Supra was reborn with underpinnings heavily based on the BMW Z4. The new Supra was no longer a Japanese sportscar, but a Bimmer with Japanese skin. Toyota faced heavy criticism from every corner of the planet for this impersonation. But why was a legendary sportscar the victim of German-Japanese union?

Now Toyota regularly partners with other global carmakers.

For instance, the GT86 is the child born from the ToyotaSubaru marriage while Toyota and General Motors have coowned a production facility in California for 26 years. Even in India, Toyota announced alliance with Maruti-Suzuki last year. If Toyota wants a team-mate for a flagship sportscar, isn’t BMW THE ultimate choice given the German brand’s outstanding CV in performance department?

The BMW Z4 is absolutely brilliant and likewise, the GR Supra is also an extremely solid package that promises proper sportscar performance – with Toyota having tuned the engine, suspension, steering and stiffness to their own liking. There’s absolutely no harm to the world with two 382hp sportscars co-existing.

Now that you have a brief idea of what the new Supra is like, it’s time for revelations that will release automotive endorphins from your brain. One of Toyota India’s senior management members, dropped a hint that the GR Supra might be on its way for launch in India. The world is undergoing distressing times and the news of new sportscars can be therapeutic.

I T ’ S N O T AT A L L CONVENTIONAL BUT I T A L M O S T P U L S AT E S WITH POTENTIAL

Decoding the 2500-unit import route In 2018, the 2500-unit homologation-free import route was introduced in India. This DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) norm comes under the Central Motor Vehicles Act allowing import of 2500 vehicles that comply with international certification, namely the EEC (European Economic Community), ECE (Economic Commission of Europe) and Japanese regulations.

Global carmakers welcomed this move as it simplifies launching low-volume luxury cars in India without additional homologation cost burdens and waiting periods. This allowed many manufacturers to launch some of their exotic cars in India, notably luxury carmakers like Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW.

import route for other products. In an Instagram live session, Naveen Soni, senior VP, sales and marketing, Toyota India, was asked if the carmaker was considering launching the GR Supra in India. To this question, Naveen Soni answered, “We are looking at various options and we have been seriously discussing niche products within our organisation. To those die-hard fans who are looking at such products, I would say, watch this space.”

This is not an official confirmation, but rather a hint at what could be headed our way. The GR Supra is already launched in south-east Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines. That said, Toyota also offers a more economical two-litre four-pot turbo’d engine (also sourced from BMW) with the GR Supra, that produces 255hp and 400Nm of torque and gets a perfect 50:50 weight distribution. This could help Toyota save costs and cater to a wider audience. However, our preference remains the 382hp three-litre six-pot turbocharged unit.

This could be a bright ray of hope after the confinement lifts.

If ever, the Toyota GR Supra gets launched in India, expect a starting price north of Rs 80 lakh. It would lock horns with the BMW Z4, BMW M2 Competition, Ford Mustang GT and the Porsche 718 Cayman. And like Naveen said, keep watching this space! L

How does this clear the path for the Toyota GR Supra?

The Toyota Vellfire, also a CBU, is homologated and that leaves ample room for Toyota to use the 2500 homologation-free

Left: Only 80 21Cs will be built, priced around `15 crore (before all taxes!), although with individual customisation this will likely just be a starting point

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S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : TS I & S U V W

SPOTLIGHT ON TSI

Volkswagen’s new TSI-powered SUVs are setting the stage perfectly for the upcoming Taigun WORDS by A AT I S H M I S H R A

Click to watch the VW Tiguan Allspace video

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HE CABIN LOOKED FAMILIAR, EXCEPT for the digital instrument cluster staring me in the face. A small change, but it goes a long way in elevating the cabin experience. The DSG gearbox selector in neutral, I jabbed at the accelerator pedal.

The revs rose and fell with an enthusiasm that the older Tiguan lacked. This new Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace had a different vibe to it. Maybe it was the bright orange paint on our test car — something unheard of on the sombre-looking Tiguan. Maybe it had to do with that new TSI engine under the hood. I spent the whole day with it, and managed to confirm my initial impression. The TSI engine at the heart of the Tiguan Allspace had really transformed the SUV and how it felt on the road. This shift, however, was a long time coming.

While we were all at home during the lockdown, the much talked about date to switch from BS4 to BS6 passed us by. The shift on April 1 was a momentous time for the automotive industry, and though it was overshadowed by the covid-19 situation, the country is now on par or better than the rest of the world when it comes to tailpipe emissions from automobiles.

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S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : TS I & S U V W

Volkswagen had its strategy in place well in advance — the shift to TSI power was fundamental to meet new regulations, while providing their buyers with an unmatched driving experience.

TSI is synonymous with Volkswagen — introduced in the Passat and Jetta but democratised by the much loved Polo GT — and has come to symbolise many things to the Indian enthusiast.

Great performance tops that list without a doubt, but it also means cleaner tailpipe emissions and unmatched refinement.

At the Volkswagen Group night that lead up to the Auto Expo, VW reiterated its commitment to cleaner technology with the TSI engine leading the charge.

Before we go any further, let us break down what the TSI engine really is. TSI is an acronym for ‘Turbocharged Stratified Injection’. Turbocharging is a concept we are becoming increasingly familiar with as downsizing of engines becomes the norm — it is a method of forced induction using a turbine that is driven by the car’s exhaust gasses. Meanwhile, stratified injection is a manner of directly injecting fuel in to the cylinder such that it is richer near the spark plug and allows for the fuel to be burnt better. Turbos, as we all know, enhance performance significantly without the need to use bigger engines and burn more fuel. Meanwhile, a stratified charge burns the fuel more efficiently and extracts as much power as it can every time petrol is ignited. These two technologies are married together in Volkswagen’s TSI engines to provide impressive performance with a flat torque curve, while being efficient and refined.

The first SUV to get Volkswagen’s TSI engine is the new Tiguan Allspace that had us thoroughly impressed. We've done massive road trips with the Tiguan TDI, to Sandakphu in the Eastern Himalayas and to Shingo-La in Ladakh, both times the SUV battling harsh, difficult terrain to get us to our destination.

Top: Tiguan Allspace builds on the strengths of the Tiguan with the addition of the powerful 2-litre TSI motor, along with a longer wheelbase, three rows of seats, digital cockpit and more. Right: T-Roc introduces India to the 1.5 TSI engine

TSI TECH MEETS NEW R E G U L AT I O N S WHILE OFFERING AN U N M AT C H E D DRIVING EXPERIENCE

S P EC I A L F E AT U R E : TS I & S U V W

T- R O C WA S A N EYEBALL MAG NET AT T H E A U T O E X P O , BRINGING STYLE A N D S U B S TA N C E , AND WILL DEBUT THE NEW 148BHP 1.5 TSI ENGINE

Those abilities now get ramped up with the new, bigger and more powerful Tiguan Allspace. The 2-litre TSI engine with 187bhp and 320Nm is high on performance and gets to the ton in less than 9 seconds, quicker than the already impressive Tiguan. Everything about it is a notch better than the engine it replaces — right from those first impressions of it being more free revving, to the added performance that you can indulge in when you properly spend time in it. The Tiguan’s TSI engine has great low-end grunt and even has snappier gearshifts. The dynamics have always been its strong suit, and now the sporty TSI engine allows you to exploit this better. And just so you can announce to the world that you are driving something special, the Tiguan’s design has been tweaked to match the ramped up performance — the face is refreshed, it sheds the cladding on the side and comes in some really striking colours.

Hot on the heels of the Tiguan Allspace’s launch was the Volkswagen T-Roc. The T-Roc was an eyeball magnet at the Auto Expo and for good reason — it brings style and substance in to its segment like never before. The face will catch your attention first, and you’ll be left gawking till that sloping roofline is well out of sight. More importantly though, the 1.5-litre TSI engine that is going to be VW’s mainstay in the future makes its debut. This truly modern engine makes enough power, and has innovative technology to ensure it is efficient too. It makes 148bhp and 250Nm, really giving it solid performance. It is packed with technology too — ACT, or active

Click to watch the VW Taigun Auto Expo video

cylinder technology for example, can switch off two of the four cylinders when not needed making it extremely frugal. The ability to deactivate cylinders is something normally seen on very high end cars but that technology has finally trickled down to a more accessible price point.

The star of the show though, without a doubt, is the Volkswagen Taigun. Globally unveiled right before Auto Expo and undoubtedly one of the most exciting cars at the show, the Taigun is Volkswagen’s SUV designed and built in, and for India. The design with its sharp bodywork and crisp lines makes it unmistakeable, and it is based on the new MQB-A0IN platform. The SUVW doesn't fall into a category, VW doesn't want it to. It is larger than a compact SUV but still smaller than mid-size. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most highly awaited launches of 2021.

The engines on offer are an interesting choice and tell you a lot about how Volkswagen is approaching this challenge. There will be two engines on offer — a locally built 1-litre TSI that will be shared with the Polo GT TSI. With 108bhp and 175Nm it is sure to get the enthusiast’s pulse racing. But the Taigun will go one step further too, and get the same engine as the T-Roc. The 1.5-litre TSI that produces 148bhp and 250Nm, far more than anything in the class — or even a class above. The ACT that the

1.5-litre TSI will boast of will add another quality to the VW. It could very well be among the most fuel-efficient petrol cars in the price range, even though it might be the most powerful.

Is it the era of the turbo-petrol? Volkswagen certainly believes so. There's a TSI for everyone, be it in capacity, or in the size of the SUV. And there's nothing like combining the performance of TSI with Volkswagen's undeniable strengths like build quality and dynamics. The Allspace has impressed.

And the Taigun is certain to do the same. L

Facing page: VW T-Roc is a cool, funky, lifestyle SUV and introduces the 1.5 TSI engine to India. Right: VW Taigun was unveiled at the Auto Expo by VW brand board member Jurgen Stackmann and VW passenger cars India director Steffen Knapp

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DOODLING

WORDS by K A R A N S I N G H

Get your pencils and pads ready as Porsche’s head of design gives you his tips on drawing a car ET’S BE HONEST, WE’VE ALL DOODLED THOSE dream cars and bikes on the back of our text books.

Whether it was the wedge-shaped supercars from the 80s and 90s or the fairing on that R1, most enthusiasts have taken pencil to paper to see if they have any sort of skills to draw the machines they love. Few do, and they turn their passion in to careers but more often than not, our car doodles look like a threeyear old’s masterpiece. Well, fret not. You can hone your car-drawing skills with some tips from Michael Mauer, head of design at Porsche.

It’s no surprise as to which car he will be schooling you to draw — the 911, but it is a good place to start because of how timeless its lines are.

Step 1: Draw the wheels

Drawing a car is not a very complicated process, but since it is the result of your creativity and imagination every artist tends to approach it in different ways. However, Michael recommends that you start out by drawing both wheels to get the proportions right.

“When you draw your wheels it is up to you whether you start with two simple circles or add a little more: in this case I’ve started to think about the idea of a five-spoke wheel.”

Step 2: Outline the body

You need to start by drawing a line between the two wheels to put your car on the ground. Then continue onto outlining the silhouette of the car, a very iconic shape in case of the 911. “Sometimes you’ll find the silhouette and the wheelbase don’t match, and you have to

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think about moving the rear wheel but that’s no problem: that’s why we have erasers.”

Step 3: Add details

Now that the broad design of your car is in place, you can start to add in stuff like the windows, shape of the lights and more detail on the bumpers. “Designers often refer to the window as the DLO: the daylight opening. I think this term was invented so that we could have conversations no one else would understand. The DLO on the 911 is iconic and very different to a Cayenne or a Panamera, since they are four-seaters.”

Step 4: Add more details

At this stage you will start to add more layers to the drawing, the air intakes, door openings, panel lines and creating a sense of depth to the sketch. “There’s a very fine line between the wheels now, just below the belt line. It’s very fine and doesn’t exist in the previous image. This very fine line gives the side – the surface between the wheels – a more three dimensional feel. It’s not an accident that this very fine line, when it comes closer to the rear wheel, is dropping. It doesn’t mean that on the final product the line drops, it’s just a way of visualising and giving the person that’s looking at the side view an impression of how the car might look in the flesh. If you look at the 911 from above, the rear track of the car is a little wider and these fainter lines help to indicate this.” Michael also adds that one must know when to stop sketching, “The biggest challenge is always to

stop sketching: sometimes a sketch is nicer when you apply the “less is more” principle.”

Step 5: Add even more detail!

Here we are adding finer details like door handles and using a combination of fine and thicker lines to add or take away emphasis from a surface. “If you are able to, park your car against a nice background and take a photograph of it. You’ll see lines that indicate the positive and the negative surface treatment. Try to imitate those lines in your drawings and it will help to bring your sketch to life.”

Step 6: Light & Shadow

Light and shadows play a very important role in the way we view a car and our perception of it. And so, you too should try and replicate how light falls on a car in your sketch. “The shoulder is still completely without colour because we want to give the impression that this is reflecting light. Study photographs of cars and look at the areas that are highlighted, and which areas fall into shadow.”

Step 7: Colour it up!

You can either use Photoshop, watercolours or colour pencils to add some colour and life into your drawing. The parts of the car that face the sky will be coloured lighter and the surfaces that reflect the floor will be darker to add depth. “You don’t need Photoshop – I’m actually not very good with it – try using watercolour paint or crayons. When I am sketching it is often in a meeting, and I only have a pencil and paper with me.”

Step 8: Add glass

You can choose to treat glass any way you like — blacked out, clear or with slight shading. Michael prefers to black it out. “Each designer has their own way of treating glass but I like to colour it black at this stage, and the same with the wheels.”

Step 9: Highlights

Take a close look at how Michael has treated the side window. The top half is dark while the bottom half is light, showing curvature.

“On very old cars the glass surface was completely straight but the side windows now have a curve in the glass. You can demonstrate this with a subtle change in colour.”

Step 10: More colour and depth

Right: Start with the wheels and go step by step until you come to the fully-formed 911 (main pic)

Add further depth into your sketch to truly make it look threedimensional, Michael has added a darker layer on the glass to signify the window frame. You can take another look at pictures of cars to closely see how light is reflecting off different surfaces, “This changes, depending on where your car is parked but it’s useful to study how shadow appears on the different surfaces. Here, we use white paint to lift key areas, and a little colour is creeping into the lights and calipers. Consider adding a steering wheel. Or maybe you can see part of the seat.”

So, your first sketch may not look as good as Michael’s, there’s a reason he’s the head of design at one of the world’s greatest automotive manufacturers. “Keep your sketches,” says Michael, no matter how good or bad they are, they reflect your creative freedom at that point in time and may help add elements to a sketch you make later on, “design is always about trial and error and I encourage anyone to pick up a pencil and have a go.” Practice your skills and hone your inner designer, you never know where it may lead you! L www.

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CA R E E R S I N C A R D ES I G N

Click here to watch the full conversation with Pratap Bose!

WORDS by K U RT M O R R I S

“You don’t have to be a designer to get a job in car design,” says Tata Motors’ global VP of design Pratap Bose. In this masterclass he tells you how RATAP BOSE, VP GLOBAL HEAD OF DESIGN AT TATA Motors, took time out during the lockdown, to join editor Sirish Chandran on the #evoConversations on Instagram, to share insights on design, specifically on careers in automotive design for those who aren’t trained in car design. He highlights the fact that you don’t need a design degree or a background in design to join this field. Narrowing it down to eight topics, Bose says the journey from a sketch to the actual concept car involves people from multiple backgrounds including, even, cost accounting and program management and he encourages people of different fields including mechanical engineering, textile design, graphic design and accounts to look at careers in car design.

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CA R E E R S I N C A R D ES I G N

Studio Engineering This is an integral part of the design process. It starts when you get a brief from the marketing team and the product planning team to start work and development on a new product. The first thing to be done is creating a package that defines the physical outlines of the product.

The marketing department may just say once that it’s an SUV but you have to define it in terms of size and what market it will slot into.

Many times studio engineers are mechanical engineers who learn in the body design department and tend to be more on the creative side but mainly have an engineering background. It is where the raw engineering drawings are created from which, designers pick up and overlay their sketches, which is the part most people see. What they don’t see and what the studio engineers keep an eye out for are the starting points — the engine layout, wheel size options, boot space and the occupant layout. This is also the place where the basic car architecture of the product begins and a package is finalised that everybody in the organisation is happy with.

Design process management

Design is a multi-disciplinary exercise and all of the fields — sketching, Computer Aided Styling (CAS), studio engineering, colour and materials — have to work together within the automotive design studio.

This whole stream of design process management, has to interface with the other departments in the company, including engineering. This point is where project costs

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come into play, such as parts costs, investment into research and development, and timeline management.

A typical candidate for this is usually sourced from a management, accounts or finance background, as they are responsible for project timing, keeping an eye on project cost and overall management delivery of the entire project.

Clay modelling A good clay model can save a bad design says Bose.

That's how important the clay modelling phase is in the entire design process. Clay modellers are basically sculptors who can turn a 2D design into a 3D form that the management can touch and feel, giving them a sense of scale as a whole. It is a very highly underrated part of the development of a new product. Traditionally, the modellers have a background in pattern making, pottery or even sculpting. It is for anyone who likes to work with their hands and create something physical; it is an art form in itself. Formal education is not a necessity but it’s more the skill level and talent that counts in this field.Â

CAS Modelling Computer Aided Styling or CAS is an integral part of the process, as once you finish the previously mentioned areas (the initial sketches, packaging and clay modelling) you now get into the nitty-gritty of actually trying to come up with a definite definition of the entire product in terms of how you can share the design with the engineering departments. CAS is the bridge between both departments. It is done after scanning the entire clay model mock-up and converting it into a digital database. It also aids in providing feasibility checks. For example, it shows whether the visibility is good (or if the windscreen is wide enough) and is a process where all the checks and balances can take place. For this you just need to do a course in 3D modelling and know how to churn out digital models.

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Digital visualisation This phase in the design process is used to help out other departments such as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), senior management team, and marketing department, who may not have a background in design and may need to be convinced about the final design of the product. This is where the 3D CAS model comes to life in terms of where surfaces and visual elements such as paint finishes, glass, other materials like steel/plastic textures and other aesthetics are added to make the digital renders stand out and look realistic.

Here designers collect feedback after other departments in the organisation see these renders. Folks who would want to join this department would need skills in the Autodesk’s VRED software used to create these virtual prototypes. Also, people from the animation industry or digital artists who have any skills in computer-aided rendering can find a career in this field.

Colour and material design It is a fundamental part of the design process and it is when the product is actually made. As most people will see the product in its visual form (usually on social media) before they actually go and see its physical form, this is a very important part of design. It is here where the teams select the tactile elements and materials like fabrics, metals and plastics are sourced. Other choices are made for the materials to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. For this department, you usually need to have a background in textile design or in some cases, a fashion design background.Â

C A R E E R S I N CA R D ES I G N

Design perceived quality It is the point where the fit, finish and quality of the product gets decided upon, and is one of the most important phases in the design process. It is also where the components that make up a particular part of the product have to come together and look uniform.

The process of perceived quality also looks at all the shunt lines, and all the gaps in places like the tailgate, doors and the hood, to see whether everything is uniform and aligned as per design specifications. It is very important in terms of the interiors of the product and it is where even dashboards, surfaces and finishes are decided. So along with proficiency in software such as Alias and Catia (CAS design tools), you also need to have a crystal clear vision of how a finished product should look.

Colour production design Colour and design production is where you have to get the colour right on the different surfaces of the car. Whether it is the plastic bumper or the steel body, the colour has to match and has to be consistent all around. It is an unseen but integral part of this process. Mastering colour is a vital challenge for any OEM as it has to layout these colour patterns and samples for the entire supply chain, and managing this is an integral part of the product development cycle.

People in this department are also responsible for the research and development of the various materials and colours, and the final factory integration of getting the paint finish right, on the product, on the shop floor.

Generally, these people have to be trained in courses with detailed in-depth colour design as a subject, such as graphic design, architecture or fashion design. L www.

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WHIP OUT

A smartphone is all you need when it comes to taking great pictures. Here’s how to up your Instagram game

T H AT P H O N E !

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY by RO H I T G M A N E L O C AT I O N C O U RT E S Y: AT M A N TA N W E L L N E S S R E S O RT, P U N E

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STOP MAKING EXCUSES! SURE, YOU MAY NOT have fancy equipment with you but we live in a day and age where you don’t need any to shoot a car. Everyone has a smartphone and these devices have reached a level where if you just use them right, you can actually create some rather high quality images. Your phone camera is built to point-and-shoot, but there are a few tricks that I can share with you that will take your photos from good to great.

Clean the lens Sounds bleeding obvious but it’s amazing how many people forget the smudges and muck on the lens and nine times out of ten just cleaning the lens before taking a picture will dramatically improve results. Phone cameras have a tendency to get rather dirty as they are in constant contact with our hands as well as different surfaces. Use a soft cotton cloth or microfibre cloth to wipe the lens clean without scratching it, or just carry a handkerchief and use that to wipe the lens before shooting. More often thatnnot I’ve seen the editor use his t-shirt and that also works! We recommend you use your phone in a sturdy case, as experimenting with different angles could cause you to drop the phone and damage it.

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Above: Bringing your phone closer to the ground gives you a different perspective and allows you to compose the frame better. Right: Lowering the shutter speed gives the picture a sense of motion

S M A RT P H O N E P H OTO G RA P H Y

Compose Switch on the grid line on your phone and use the rule of thirds. This is where the subject is off centre and on one of the lines that divide your photo’s frame in to three parts. Filling out the frame makes your photos look more dramatic — phone camera lenses have a rather wide angle and so you can get up close to the subject to fill up your frame. Don’t forget to experiment with different perspectives. If a car has a big wing, photos from the rear or rear-three quarters can look more dramatic. Don’t be afraid to look for different perspectives like getting really low to the ground or finding something to stand on, to give you an angle more dramatic than what you see at eye-level. Hot tip — cars look much better from really low down while SUVs are best viewed with your eye at the same level as the headlights.

Use the tools Modern phone cameras have plenty of built-in tools to make your photos look more dramatic. Something that you absolutely must do is set the exposure correctly before you take the shot (possible only on Android phones or if you’re using an app on your iPhone). Newer phones have a portrait mode that allows you to blur out the

IT’S AMA ZING HOW MANY PEOPLE FORGET THE SMUDGES AND MUCK ON THE LENS. CLEAN IT! www.

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SOMETHING T H AT Y O U A B S O L U T E LY MUST DO IS SET THE EXPOSURE C O R R E C T LY

Facing page: A low shutter speed allows you to play with light trails.

Above: This is a great example of nailing the exposure on a photo. This picture: Portrait mode blurs out the background rather effectively

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A PHOTOGRAPH NEEDS TO BE PROCESSED AND EDITED TO BRING THE BEST OUT OF IT

background and focus on the subject — use it, it makes a big difference. This mode works particularly well if you are shooting details like just the headlamps, the wheels, or the badge. The tricky bit is when you want to shoot a moving car. Ideally, you want the car completely in focus with the background blurred out to show motion. It is possible to create such a picture on phones that allow you to manually adjust the shutter speed —adjust it to 1/30 or 1/40 of a second and use burst mode. But you have to have very steady hands as any shake will blur out your image. Light trails and light painting is possible too but you need a tripod to steady the phone for the same.

Processing Not everyone realises it, but a photograph needs to be processed and edited to bring the best out of it. There are many phone apps that allow you to do this, so you don’t even need to import your photos on to a computer. The

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S M A RT P H O N E P H OTO G RA P H Y

in-built iPhone software is actually very good and a basic Auto on the colour correction does pop the pictures if you need a quick edit. Lightroom is my go-to app as it enables me to tweak the images to match my creative vision. There are other great apps available too including Snapseed and VSCO, and the latest version of iOS has much better builtin options for brightness, contrast, exposure et al. When you are editing an image on the phone, the first thing you should do is to put the brightness to full and to switch off the power saving mode or night mode. This will help you to get accurate colours on the screen. If you don’t put the screen on full brightness or you will end up over exposing or under exposing the picture. As for post-production, the thing to get right is exposure and the contrast. You can then adjust the colours, though I don’t recommend you go overboard with the saturation. Images should look realistic and over-saturating images does get them to pop, but they tend to look overdone and unreal. The next step is to adjust the highlights and shadows to balance out the picture as you like it. Dodging and burning (lightening and darkening certain patches) is also possible, but that is something that you need to decide to do according to the image and what you want out of it. Don’t forget to boost the details to get a sharp image!

And now, well, wait till the lockdown ends to get out and shoot your car or bike. In the meantime though pull out the pictures on your phone and start experimenting.

Accompanying this story are some pre and post editing images shot on the phone and you can see how using simple tools enhances them. Enjoy! L

Facing page: Here’s what processing your image can do; the picture on the top is edited while the one below isn’t. Above: This is an unedited photograph, while (below) is what it looks like after colours have been tweaked slightly

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LO C K D OW N H O B B I ES

WORDS by A B H I S H E K B E N N Y

GET THEM TOYS OUT! Bored at home? How about some scale model photography to get those creative juices flowing without leaving the house

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OOK, THE FACT THAT YOU’VE GOT your hands on this e-mag means you are an automobile enthusiast and there’s a very high chance you have a few scale models lying around your house. Yes, you’ve probably got strange looks at the toy store for grabbing the whole stash of ‘toy’ cars, but don’t mind them. They don’t know the joys of owning a scaled down replica of your favourite car. But hey, these models can do so much more than just sit around looking pretty. You can do some extremely creative stuff with them. We recommend a full-blown photoshoot!

The first thing that you have to do is to give the car a good wipe – you don't want the dust and debris in your photograph, right? And don’t stop yourself if you don’t have fancy equipment. You can get brilliant results even with a half-decent smartphone camera. The goal is to make your shot as realistic and dramatic as possible, and

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the most important mantra that you have to remember is to get low and get real close to the subject. Some of these diecast models are really small so in order to get them to look proportionate, the camera needs to get real close.

The next step is deciding how you want to place the car. A front three-quarter shot is one of the best angles to shoot a car from and this holds true even for the life-sized cars we normally shoot. Similarly, you can take a rear three quarter shot, a profile shot and head-on shots. If you have one of those expensive, intricately detailed models, you can go one step further and shoot close-up details of the wheels, interiors and wings. Pro tip: use the macro mode to focus on these smaller details, if your phone has one.

Photography is all about playing with light to bring out the best in your subject. Good lighting can transform an average picture in to a brilliant one. If you look at photographs of the Camaro and the Ferrari 458, they weren’t shot with any sort of fancy equipment. I just used the things that were available at the time. Let me break down the 458 photo for you. I wanted a reflective glass surface to place the car on, but I couldn’t get my hands on one so I used a laptop screen as the base. Jugaad is your best friend. For the background, I borrowed an RGB backlit keyboard from a friend. Alternatively you can use those fairy lights that you have stashed away from last year’s Christmas party. To light up the car itself, I kept my phone’s display on at full brightness and held it above the car while taking the shot. The key here is to use things you can find in your house creatively to make your picture stand out. The government has made it very clear that you should only step out for essentials – and I’m certain that some fancy lights don’t count as essentials.

If you have a terrace, compose a frame such that the sun

Top to bottom: Use natural light to make your picture more realistic; play around with the artificial light you have at home; a smartphone screen on full brightness lights the car rather well; the front/rear three quarter angle makes the car look great

A FRO NT TH RE E - Q UAR TE R SHOT IS ONE OF THE BEST ANGLES TO SHOOT

rises or sets behind the car. This golden light is perfect for photography and will give your picture a mellow look. It is the light we chase on our shoots of full size cars as well.

Remember, this is a hobby you can pursue safely from the confines of your home. You have plenty of things lying around the house that you can leverage to make your pictures pop. All you have to do is get creative!

Once you are done shooting, you should ideally edit them slightly so they match your vision. You can use Photoshop, Lightroom on your PC or if you are using a smartphone you have options like Lightroom Mobile, Snapseed and VSCO. Chief photographer Rohit, has done a whole separate story on editing photos on the phone – I recommend you check it out. If you're interested in automotive photography, photographing scale models can be used as a legitimate stepping stone to the real deal.

You can play with perspective, composition and different angles on a diecast car since it is more accessible and easy to manage. If you’ve got some scale models lying at home, get right to it! Upload your photos on Instagram, tag the @evoindia handle and use the #evoindiadiecastchallenge tag to get featured on our page! L

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4 RINGS CHALLENGE During the lockdown, Audi India asked its fans on social media to recreate the 4 rings in its brand logo from items around the house!

Here are some of the best entries

Doodliyano

thathungrydemuregal

runningfashionlife

Giuseppina Incorvaia

flywheel official

theflatlayguy

pranayshetti

Ekta Jhunjhunwala

Shafique Ali

vinodkashyap

Sunny Nagi

Anila Pendse

WE ARE

OUR NEW BRAND VIDEO IS NOW LIVE! CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO NOW!

Follow us on

evoindia and visit

www.evoIndia.com for more updates

#ForEnthusiastsByEnthusiasts

EVO LV I N G B R A N D LO GO S

WORDS by A AT I S H M I S H R A

FLAT PLAN

Understanding how design is evolving with the rise of technology in our lives is key to making sense of why BMW, Volkswagen and even Audi have refreshed their logos VERYONE’S BEEN TALKING about the BMW i4’s grille, but no one seems to be talking about what sits right above it!

The BMW logo has been given a refresh for the first time in over 20 years, and well, it has polarised opinions much like the car’s grille! The new logo is a flatter design, without the visual enhancements like the shadows and embellishments that give the older logo a 3D effect. We’ll get specifically to the BMW logo in a bit but this switch is not an isolated case. Last year, Volkswagen unveiled its new brand logo and identity alongside (incidentally, another electric

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car) the ID.3. Volkswagen’s new logo follows the same style — it is minimalist, has gotten rid of the 3D effect and chrome treatment on the older logo. Prior to this, in 2017, Audi rid itself of the shadows in its rings and as of last month, Nissan filed for trademarks for its new flat design logo.

The world is flat To understand what is changing when it comes to car logo design, let us compare the two logos side by side. First up, the BMW logo.

BMW’s logo has changed a number of times in the company’s history but this change is the most significant one yet. The most

obvious change is the flat style — no longer does it have borders that are as thick on each element and the 3D effect is gone. That means there are no highlights and shadowy areas, and there is no texture on it. The older design follows an idea called skeuomorphism where an object on a digital interface mimics its real world counterpart, but that is a style that is now considered dated.

The most radical change here has to be the deleting of the black element under the BMW lettering. Now whether this was a smart design choice or not is a whole other debate. The new logo is supposed to signify “openness and clarity”, which is probably

THE NEW BMW LOGO IS SUPPOSED TO SIGNIFY “OPENNESS AND CLARITY” what designers were going for when they made that call to leave the space behind the letters empty. But many argue that the lack of a background could do just the opposite, since BMW has no control over what is behind it. Something else spoken about when the logo was launched is it was done to meet the “challenges and opportunities of digitisation on brands”, followed by the fact that this will be used only on new media, while the old logo will continue to be present on its cars and in dealerships.

This ability to be visible in the new, digital world is precisely what pushed Volkswagen to update its logo as well. Again, reductionism was the polestar when it came to modifying the old logo to the new one and what we are left with is an aesthetically simple, but contemporary design. The idea again, is to be more recognisable on digital media. I remember the Ed coming back from the IAA and recounting a conversation he had with Volkswagen’s Chief Designer, Klaus Bischoff. Bischoff told him a lot of customers are going to start interacting with their cars through phones and even smartwatches.

And while the old logo had no place being

on a smartwatch, the new one did! But at the same time, it has to look good on their factories and in their dealerships. “Light is the new chrome”, he says and the VW factory in Wolfsburg now has a massive illuminated (new) logo at the top of its building. Could logos on cars be lit up in the future?

Volkswagen certainly seem to be hinting at it strongly — the ID. Crozz showcased at Auto Expo had an illuminated logo.

Then and Now Skeuomorphism became popular at a time when digital interfaces were rapidly gaining mass popularity — like with the smartphone, and designers felt a need to provide users with a sense of familiarity. It wasn’t just car companies — think back to Apple’s iOS and app designs in iOS 5 and 6. There, the Newsstand app was literally a bookshelf with the covers visible and the notepad app had ruled lines, just like a regular notebook would. And if I had to draw a parallel with a non-car logo, Instagram is a perfect example. The older logo was a familiar looking camera, but the new one is flattened out with bright colours, a gradient

and camera-like elements. When it came to cars, skeuomorphism transcended logo design and became (and still is, in fact) commonplace on in-car user interfaces.

With the current MBUX interface from Mercedes-Benz, the instrument cluster still has dials with shadows and realistic-looking elements in its gauges.

Flat design, on the other hand focuses less on familiarity to the real world, and more on simplicity of design within the screen. Common themes among all these flat design logos include simplicity, minimalist features, geometric shapes and occasionally, bright colours. The shift first happened with tech companies like Google and Apple leading the charge — redefining the smartphone interfaces we use every day, and even Microsoft with its Windows 8 update. Car companies are known to be traditionally conservative when it comes to digital technology, and have taken a while to catch-up to these trends, but they finally have. Compared to the MBUX, Audi’s Virtual Cockpit is a much flatter design and is far more in sync with current design trends. Audi is actually pioneering this field,

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EVO LV I N G B R A N D LO GO S

having moved to a flat logo design much before anyone else in the mainstream. The outlier here is Mitsubishi, that never even bothered to get on to the skeuomorphism bandwagon.

Keeping it real The benefits of flat design are many. First of all, the logo can be used on multiple interfaces (and in the real world, as demonstrated by Volkswagen) without making any changes to it and keeping it instantly recognisable. It is digital friendly, which means we can use/interact with it on our smartphones, smart watches, tablets and computers far more easily. Just like Klaus Bischoff said, the world is going to be accessing their vehicles using technology a lot more — heck even a `10 lakh Hyundai Venue gets connected car features — and this design plays right up that alley.

It also follows the idea that less is more.

So instead of distracting you with shadows, metallic elements and 3D effects, you are focussing on exactly what you are looking at — the logo and what it represents.

After the whole dieselgate scandal (with Volkswagen at the centre of it) a lot of car companies have had to work on rebuilding their images as clean, sustainable and responsible. Cutting out the clutter from the core of their brand’s visual, the logo,

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Top: The evolution of the Audi brand logo. Above: New logos are being optimised for digital and mobile devices. Below: Volkswagen’s new logo will be used in offline communication as well

evoIndia.com | May Lockdown Special 2020

could help subliminally reinforce what they want you to believe. However, more than anything, I believe that flat design allows the ideal balance between form and function which is why there is seismic shift towards it.

Tech companies are miles ahead when it comes to optimising the user experience with design, but it is only a matter of time before more car companies see the benefits of it and make the switch. Whether flat design is a phase, or is here to stay, only time will tell. Until then, let’s just celebrate the design that gives the cars we love such strong, indelible identities. L

GA M I N G

WORDS by A F Z A L R AW U T H E R

SIMULATION RACING RIG FOR EVERYONE OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BUILDING A SIMUL ATION R ACING RIG TO DEAL WITH LOCKDOWN BLUES

E ARE ALL CONFINED TO OUR HOMES AND there’s only so many times that we can watch that on board footage of our favourite rally/race driver sprinting through a rally stage or on a racetrack. We need to drive. But the ongoing lockdown means that we need to stay indoors. There has to be a solution.

YOU MUST HAVE HEARD OF SIM RACING, RIGHT?

Over the years, sim racing has come a long way and what you once dismissed as just an expensive way of playing your favourite racing game has turned into an entire new genre of gaming.

There are now scores of games specifically made for sim racing and it’s easier than ever to have your own sim racing setup when you want to kill a few hours (or weeks) at home.

There are a variety of routes one can take, but for the sake of easy adoption we will stick to the easiest.

Without a doubt, for serious gamers who want to experience sim racing at it’s best, you need a PC based setup. In fact some of the best sim games are only available on PC. The adjustability and customisations available on a PC based setup are endless and sim racing professionals, of which Lando Norris is one, prefer a PC based setup. Titles like iRacing and rFactor are lauded for their realistic physics and even F1 teams use it - rFactor Pro allows teams to feed in their own custom values for a driving experience that closely mimics F1 cars.

But most of us possess scarcely little by the way of sim racing talent and titles like that might be too overwhelming. Instead, it’s console based setups that might be just right for the casual sim racer.

Without further ado, here’s evo India’s recommended setup for someone just starting out in sim racing.

THE RACING WHEEL AND PEDALS `16,750

The Logitech G29 (G920 for Xbox) is the most popular simulator wheel and for good reason. The wheel itself features a click wheel (only in G29) for adjusting brake

balances on the fly, and programmable positive/ negative buttons for adjusting things like traction control.

It has coloured LEDs (only in G29) at the top of the steering wheel’s central column, which light up to tell you when it’s time to change gear. The pedals (clutch, throttle, brake) are responsive with the brake pedal being non-linear, for a more realistic experience.

The dual motor force feedback mechanism is very good and adds another dimension to the gameplay.

There is no stick shift bundled with the package (it gets paddle shifters) but you can opt for it as an option.

ergonomics to help the driver bring out his/her best.

High quality powder-coated CNC pipes are used to build the sims and all of INRacing’s frames are built in-house and offer unparalleled durability. The seat too has been designed to be comfortable, even during long gameplay sessions.

THE CONSOLE XBOX ONE: `23,990 PS4: `22,190

THE RACING SEAT `39,950

While you can play a simulator racing game without the racing seat, the addition can seriously elevate the experience. INRacing is a Bengaluru based brand that makes simulator seats with mounts for the steering wheel, the pedals and any other hardware. INRacing’s eSport Magic Racing SIM Frame focuses on the

The debate between the PS4 and the Xbox One will go on forever. Both have ardent fans and a number of exclusive titles. The same holds true even in Sim racing. With stellar games like Gran Turismo Sport (only on PS4) and Forza Horizon 4 (only on Xbox One) and Project Cars 2 and Dirt Rally 2.0, you really can’t go wrong with either.

All this is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to simulation racing. You can get custom made racing seats, incredibly accurate steering racks, custom engineered pedals and a whole lot more - at which point affordability goes out the window. Lando Norris famously has a `30 lakh gaming rig at his disposal. Interested? There’s an entire sub Reddit dedicated to what goes into it. For almost everyone else though, a console based setup like the one mentioned above will do just fine.

GAU R AV G I L L A DVA N C E D D R I V I N G ACA D E M Y

WORDS by K A R A N S I N G H

GILL’S SKILLS! Amidst the lock down, rally champion and Arjuna awardee Gaurav Gill takes the GG Advanced Driving Academy online to #evoConversations on Instagram Live. Here’s the GG masterclass

F YOU’RE A BUDDING RACING DRIVER and are in search of a mentor, allow us to introduce you to Gaurav Gill — few can match this man’s expertise. As India’s top rally driver, very few people can drive a car faster than Gill when there’s any sort of loosey-goosey surface. Or even asphalt for that matter, if you look at his racing championships and utter dominance at tarmac rallies. Gill has many accolades to his name, having won the INRC multiple times and is the first Indian to have won the APRC, going on to take the title a total of three times. He has also participated in the WRC2 and is the first person from Indian motorsport to win the Arjuna Award. To share his knowledge and groom the next generation of rally enthusiasts, Gaurav Gill runs a school for aspiring rally drivers called the Advanced Driving Academy. In these times of social distancing we

decided to take the school online with #evoConversations on Instagram with editor Sirish Chandran, and got GG to share his vast repository of knowledge. When Gaurav talks, you listen and take notes. Here are GG's pro tips: 1. What do you do if you enter a corner too hot?

"First and quite obviously, when you enter a corner too fast, you need to lower your speed. Too much speed translates to no grip since your car's components are overloaded. You are heading towards the wall because the tyres, suspension and LSD are unable to provide grip, so you need to break that speed to get them to start working again. When you do that, your car will be able to turn and you will be on your way again. “Sliding is not the fastest way around a corner”, says Gill, but when your brakes only have so much grip to play with, sliding is a great way to brush off some speed and also

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rotate the car for the corner. You can also scrub off some speed using engine braking by downshifting, although that should be done before the corner. But ultimately, do not go too hot into a corner!"

2. How important is left foot braking?

"Very important! But GG clarifies that you must only attempt it if you know exactly what you are up to. Essentially, left foot braking allows you to stay on the throttle while modulating the brakes with the left foot to do one of three things — the first and most important, to transfer the weight of the car slightly towards the front. The second is to allow the tyres to bite in, because there is more weight at the front now. And third, you can use left foot braking to scrub off a small amount of speed, without losing momentum from the engine. Yes, the first time you try it you may almost fly out of your windshield because it takes time to develop feel in your left foot, but that is part of the process. Gill recommends you find an empty space to practice and get a feel of how much pressure the brake pedal needs before you attempt this in a rally or on the road. Gill also goes on to say that left foot braking is not an absolute necessity, and it will actually slow you down if not done correctly."

3. What is trail braking?

"Trail braking is a vital way to get a really fast time on track or on a rally stage. Trail braking is essentially braking while you’re turning into the corner. This allows you to brake later which shaves crucial milliseconds off your time. Possibly the biggest advantage of trail braking is the fact that you are putting the weight of the car in the front and improving grip levels considerably. However if you don’t trail brake absolutely perfectly, you will either understeer because you will be carrying too much speed or oversteer and spin out. It is much harder to trail brake on cars without ABS because it is very easy to lock up since your front tyres will be loaded.

Trail braking is one of the hardest techniques to master according to Gill, but he says if you want to be a pro, you need to trail brake!"

4. Tyres, suspension and diffs — your three tools "Gill highlights that the tyres, suspension and differential aid in generating the grip on a rally car. Your driving needs to be optimised to get these three tools to work for you, and not against you. For example, if you are sliding, you want to slide only up to a certain degree where the tyres are getting grip, the differential is working effectively and the suspension is keeping the car stable and predictable. These tools work best when there is a certain amout of stress on them — they won’t perform as well if you don’t enter a corner at a high enough speed and will leave you with a sense that the car isn’t set up right. But at the same time, you cannot overload the tyres or suspension and expect the car to come out of the corner the right side up. Sadly, the only Left, top to bottom: A day at the GG Advanced Driving Academy at Coimbatore’s legendary windmill stages. Facing page: The ADA is usually supported by Chettinad Sporting running the Team Slideways Industries’ Rally Polos

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“A N Y T I M E YO U R W H E E L S A R E N O T P O I N T E D S T R A I G H T, Y O U A R E L O S I N G T I M E ” way to master this is to get accustomed to your machine, drive it as often as possible and practice, practice, practice to know where the limits lie."

5. How do you rotate the car?

"Rotation can be best described as the ballet dancing of racing or rallying. It is basically pivoting your car to angle toward the exit of the corner, usually without major steering input. So how do you rotate the car? Well, you can use the handbrake when you’re on loose surfaces or the throttle (in a rear or four-wheel drive car) to change the angle of the car. “Any time your wheels are not pointed straight, you are losing time”, says Gill. So, if you rotate your car perfectly, at the apex of the corner your wheels should be straight and pointed toward the exit so you can throttle out."

6. How do you deal with mid-corner understeer?

"If you are new to a track or are driving a new car it is very likely that you will encounter understeer and controlling this mid-corner is especially difficult. Depending on the circumstances, you may need to use the brakes to get the weight in front and grip. If the understeer is too much and this doesn't cut it you will either need to use the throttle to rotate the car or if you are really hot, yank the handbrake for a brief moment to get the car to face the exit of the corner and throttle out. In most cases, you will have to scrub off the speed as explained right at the start."

7. Adapting to worn out tyres "Rally driver Fabid's question to Gill was actually, “How would you change your suspension setup if your tyres were worn?” to which Gill, rather appropriately replied that he

just changes his tyres when they are worn out. But what do you do if you aren’t backed by a tyre manufacturer? Well, Gill says that he would not change the suspension set up at all. Instead, he would adapt his driving style to the car’s condition. Using less weight transfer, not using the tyres as much and doing everything to preserve the tyres to the end.

Swapping the front and rear tyres in between stages also helps keep the tyres alive for longer and priority should be given to the front tyres since they handle the steering."

8. Training with simulation games "One of the most asked questions during the session was about racing games and whether they help in making you faster in real life. Racing games will help you understand the basics of racing, and is probably the cheapest way to practice, but if you want to actually set some stage times you need to get into an actual car. Gill also pointed out that games like Dirt 4, a personal favourite of his, are great for budding rally drivers to get to grips with utilising pace notes."

Gaurav Gill spent a whole hour talking about a lot of driving techniques, and we’ve got the entire video up on IGTV (@evoIndia). We have only skimmed the surface of the knowledge that Gill possesses about advanced driving, but this video would certainly be a good place to start. One last thing, if you’re serious about racing or rallying your best friend is practice. The more you practice, the better you’ll get and driving schools like Gaurav Gill's ADA will help you get much-needed experience under expert guidance.

Keep an eye out on Gill's (@gillracing) and our Instagram handles for dates to GG's next rally school session. L

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Mobile racers have really come of age and are almost at par with console gaming. Here are the best ways to go racing during the lockdown

Do you feel the need? The need for speed? Of course, if you’re reading this, you surely do but safety concerns; both for the pedestrians and everyone else during the pandemic mean we are limited to sticking to our houses. Fortunately, there’s a world of high-velocity racing games just waiting to help you realise your fantasises. And remember, this isn’t a place monitored by the government so forget the lockdown, don’t put the seatbelts on and DO NOT drive carefully!

F1 Mobile Racing Formula 1 is delayed indefinitely but that doesn’t mean you cannot tour the world alongside the F1 circus. F1 Mobile Racing takes you from Monaco to Silverstone, Monza to Spa, all at the helm of your racing career. There’s also the novelty of rubbing shoulders with the champs including Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen but remember, here they’re your competition. Yes, you can face the best of the best as you race your way through the grid and complete the duel against real world players too. And if the game’s crisp, realistic graphics weren’t enough, the haptic feedback will have you facing every bump and crash.

Available for: iOS and Android

Rush Rally 3 Not everyone loves to race on tarmac and that’s where Rush Rally 3 comes into the picture. The game will take you deep into the woods but wont scare you at all. Yes, you’ll be struggling to find traction and while you do, there’ll be dirt-flinging, sliding and drifting filled with a lot of adrenaline. Each stage sees you battle against bumps, jumps, hairpins and even trees. Of course, being a realistic game, there’s also a co-driver on hand to shout out instructions so make sure you’ve put your headphones on. Remember, you cannot reverse out of every problem – just like how we are stuck with the covid-19 situation right now. Life lessons for just `399 on the App Store then!

Available for: iOS and Android

ON THE GO Real Racing 3

Probably the most popular racing game for enthusiasts – Real Racing 3 is free for all. But fret not; it's supremely detailed and has the largest roster of cars that still remains unmatched. You have over 250 cars to choose from, starting from a Ford Fiesta to a Porsche LM GTE Am that allow you to get to the absolute limit on racetracks around the world.

There’s just the right amount of sensitivity for both beginners and pros, and controls are very intuitive. You can put yourself at ease by selecting auto acceleration and brakes or go all-out and choose a stick-shift and put TC off to go slideways all the way to the finish line. You can even participate in various championships and time trials and race against the ghosts of your friends.

Available for: iOS and Android

GRID Autosport Don’t want to go technical? Then GRID Autosport might not be for you. One for hardcore petrolheads rather than casual racers, this stunningly sophisticated racing simulator is rather difficult. Closest to actual racing on a device actually. Even through the early levels, you’ll probably struggle to stick to track limits and spend more time learning the nuances than finishing at the top.

Things will get even more difficult but as you spend more time at the wheel, unlock over 100 cars, you’ll definitely hone your skills and get to the front of the pack. Just like how it works in the real world!

Available for: iOS and Android

Gear.Club - True Racing Escape the limitations of a racetrack and embrace the thrill of open road driving in this simple, globe trotting racer. Gear.

Club’s handling is very easy and suitable for beginners and you have several driver aids to choose from. Of course, there are lots of great cars to choose from too; upgrades included.

But more than anything else, Gear.Club has a rewind function which allows you to scrub driving errors from history. In real life, little mistakes can have big consequences.

How great would it be if we could rewind real life?

Available for: iOS and Android

e S P O RTS

WORDS by S U D I P T O C H AU D H U RY

GOING FAST WHILE STANDING STILL Sitting at home with the need for speed (pun intended), but not a set of wheels in sight, is not a bad thing after all.

Allow us to fill you in on why...

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OTORSPORT HAS A repertoire of toughness, of champions thriving, and not just surviving through unfavourable conditions. Think Michael Schumacher’s outstanding performance in the rainsoaked 1996 Spanish GP, or Toby Price riding to victory in the 2019 Dakar (already regarded as the toughest rally in the world) while nursing a broken wrist! These and many more fabulous stories of determination can be gleaned from multiple formats of motorsport across decades of existence.

So, when people initially heard of a strain of viral influenza on the news, most of them dismissed it as ‘just another case of the flu.’ And they weren’t wrong to think so, as the effects from previous such instances, like the SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak of 2003 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic of 2012 were largely localised, and usually brought under control within a few months. This time around, however, things took on a completely different turn, as this new antagonist ravaged the globe.

“Confirmed. Cancelled. F***!”

Those were the Ed’s exact words on hearing of the 2020 Australian GP’s cancellation on the Friday of its

race weekend. And why not? Even before we could fathom it, the situation had already strayed beyond control. It all started when a positive case of the coronavirus was confirmed within McLaren Racing, causing other teams to scrap the race as well. Next, the Monaco GP was also cancelled; the first time in decades that F1 didn't run this legendary race.

The situation was the same across formats. While events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pikes Peak Hill Climb and 24 Hours of Le Mans were postponed (the latter being rescheduled to September), other races like the Formula E and even the Isle of Man TT were cancelled, an aberration, as this landmark event, set to start on May 30, has rarely seen proceedings halted. In fact, the only times the TT didn’t happen was during a particularly vicious outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 and, oh yes, the world wars!

Top: e-Racing has exploded in popularity during the lockdown and could be all the racing we see in 2020

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Left: MotoGP’s #StayAtHomeGP kicked off at Mugello.

Facing page: Ultimate E promoted

by Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim is bringing together the best Indian real and virtual racers and even has Narain Karthikeyan on board

In all this, MotoGP threw up a peculiar spectacle, starting with an unusual season opener in Qatar where although the premier-class event was cancelled, the Moto2 and Moto3 classes went on as planned with their season openers.

Now, considering the sudden nature of all the cancellations, we can only imagine the amount of revenue, not to mention efforts during the winter practice or prior year-round testing that has gone, it seems, all for naught. While the cancellation of the Isle of Man TT races will undoubtedly have a massive impact on the economy of the isle, the F1 races’ cancellation brings up a particular predicament, that of the delay of the 2021 rules, which were set to kick off the next era of F1 racing. So was it a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go? Well, not quite...

The silver lining After the initial dismay and disarray, being quarantined indoors became but a small inconvenience for the motorsports fraternity. Plans were immediately made for the resumption of activities, notwithstanding the absence of the vehicles. But how, you ask. Well, with the wonders of gaming, of course!

Now, before you baulk at the idea of nerds stooped in front of screens, understand that online racing games are big business, and have been so for a long time. In fact, the Formula 1 Esports Series is a professional esports programme that involves the official Formula

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F 1 WA S T H E F I R S T TO JUMP INTO THE E S P O R T S F R AY, W I T H TH E FIRS T VIR TUAL GRAND PRIX HELD ON MARCH 22

1 video game, and has been promoted by Formula 1 since 2017. The following year, the official Formula 1 teams joined the programme, setting up their own esports teams to compete in the Formula 1 Esports Series championship.

Hence, F1 was the first to jump into the esports fray, with the first Virtual Grand Prix held on March 22 at the digital rendering of the Bahrain circuit, won by F2 driver Guanyu Zhou. This was followed by Charles Leclerc winning the second race of the ‘season’ at the Albert Park circuit, Australia. In fact, at the time of this article going to print...er... whatever, the third edition of the F1 Virtual GP, to be held in Shanghai (albeit its digital avatar) is just a few days away.

For its part, MotoGP too wasn’t far behind, with its race series, aptly titled the #stayathomeGP kicking off on March 29 at the digital rendering of the Mugello circuit. Race one was won by Alex Marquez, with Francesco Bagnaia winning the second race, held at the Red Bull Ring, Austria on April 12.

The Indian connect Remember how the selection rounds for the X1 Racing league, touted as the IPL of Indian motorsport, involved the X1 eSports League? Well, when the foremost racers realise the importance of esports, migrating to the platform would be the next logical step for them, wouldn’t it? This paved the way for the Ultimate E racing series, a great means for Indian racers across disciplines to not only keep their reflexes up and practice sessions going, but also giving us mere mortals a chance to see how a variety of vehicles driven across hallowed locales (courtesy the Asetto Corsa video game), are piloted by the best of the best from the current lineup of drivers, including Amith Kutti, Arjun Maini, Saurav Bandyopadhyay, Advait Deodhar and Karthik Tharani.

The Ultimate E racing series has, so far, had a ‘proper’ three-day race weekend, starting from Zandvoort on Friday, April 10, with Abishek Dwarkanath winning race one and Arjun Maini winning race two. From there on, the proceedings moved to Monza on Saturday, where Arjun Maini won race one and Amith Kutti won race two. Finally Sohil Shah and Arjun Maini won races one and two, respectively at Spa Francorchamps, on Sunday. By the time you read this, there will undoubtedly have been many more races, and you can watch them all (along with the practice sessions) on the Ultimate E Official YouTube channel.

In conclusion, this involuntary lockdown has led to a renewed appreciation for e-racing, of which two chief attributes are apparent: one, the excitement of an actual race weekend can definitely translate to its virtual avatar, and, as demonstrated by the Virtual F1 races, which has had participation from former racers and F1 broadcasters Johnny Herbert and Anthony Davidson, motorcycle racer Luca Salvadori, and even cricketer Ben Stokes, motorsport is always a hoot, and the virtual world of motorsport, even more so! L www. www.

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WORDS by A AT I S H M I S H R A

THE GOOD FIGHT As the world wages its war on covid-19, car and bike makers in India have stepped up efforts to help with the fight

COV I D -1 9 R E L I E F

I

T NOW SEEMS LIKE A LIFETIME AGO, BUT it has been just over a month since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Just a few days before it was announced, news of the virus spreading in India was afloat but the country and its people didn’t seem to fazed by the whole thing. Work was going on as usual, offices were running and heck, even we were gallivanting about creating content for the April issue of the magazine.

But then the virus came too close for comfort. Pune was developing in to the hotspot it is now, and Maharashtra’s chief Minister announced a lockdown in Mumbai and Pune on March 20, a few days before the national one. It was a mad scramble to get the issue ready – we managed to wrap it up in time but by the time it was printed, there was no way to distribute it and we settled on giving out the issue for free.

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CARMAKE RS ACROS S THE COU NTRY AND THE GLOBE ARE COMING TOGETHER TO HELP THEIR COMMUNITIES

The effects of the lockdown, and of covid-19 are massive.

The economy is facing a challenge like never before. The automotive industry is hugely affected too, especially since this happened right at the cusp of the BS4-BS6 switch. The industry has a lot at stake. Right from suppliers, to dealers, to customers and even the communities in which they operate – carmakers have a lot of stakeholders that have been affected by the virus. But they have responded. From work from home policies, to donations and manufacturing of medical equipment to help out at this time of crisis, carmakers across the country and the globe are coming together to help their communities. Here are some of the initiatives that have been taken in India: Manufacturing medical supplies Carmakers have access to their production lines and with just a few tweaks, many of them were getting down to manufacturing essential supplies for frontline workers. At this point of time, we can never have too many ventilators or Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medics and carmakers are pitching in. Anand Mahindra was one of the first to announce that the company will have a proactive role in the fight against this pandemic. Soon after, Pawan Goenka tweeted out a gameplan on how the group will engineer and manufacture ventilators at a more affordable cost to deal with the shortfall. Within just 48 hours of his

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tweet, they had a working product prototype and after 18 days had added 20 machines that were going through rigorous testing and simulation, ready to be put to active use. Mahindra is also using its agrochemical business to produce hand sanitisers.

Ferrari was caught at the European epicentre of the covid-19 outbreak, and had to shut down its factory rather early on. However, it is helping fight the coronavirus crisis by producing respirators and protective masks. The Italian automaker is also producing thermoplastic valves and fittings at its plant in Maranello using 3D printing. Even Lamborghini is also manufacturing protective equipment such as surgical face masks and protective plexiglass visors for healthcare professionals.

Back in India, the largest car makers, Maruti Suzki and Hyundai have started making ventilators, facemasks and PPEs while other carmakers are contributing as well.

Skoda Auto Volkswagen Private Limited has also started to produce face shields at its Chakan and Aurangabad factories and have already supplied 9000 units. In addition to this, it is supplying intubation boxes, while also prototyping an AMBU bag and has used 3D printing to modify masks from Decathlon in to filtered masks for healthcare workers.

Toyota India is producing face shields at its manufacturing facility for healthcare workers and law enforcement agencies in Karnataka, via its suppliers Stumpp Schuele & Somappa Springs. Along with Mahindra, Jawa has utilised its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh to manufacture face shields too, while TVS is evaluating collaborating with 3D printing companies to make ventilators to help support hospitals.

Facing page: Lamborghini is producing face masks at its plant.

Below: Car makers around the world are fashioning makeshift manufacturing lines to make protective equipment

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Donations While some manufacturers have not been able to respond by manufacturing medical supplies, they are pumping crores and crores of rupees in donations to those who can.

They are also getting deeply involved in the communities in which they operate. Headlining them all has to be the Tata Trust that has committed `1000 crore towards the fight against coronavirus. Ratan Tata has also committed an additional `500 crore towards the manufacturing of respiratory systems, testing kits, and setting up modular treatment facilities as well as the training of healthcare workers. The Tata Trust has also been airlifting critical supplies including PPE kits, surgical masks, and gloves worth `150 crore to be deployed across the country.

Other manufacturers have been contributing in every way they can. Honda Cars has pledged `11 crore to the central and state government for relief efforts, and has also sourced and supplied 2000 units of engine-powered high-pressure backpacks sprayers to various government agencies to help with disinfecting public areas. Ford India has committed to contribute to the Prime Minister’s relief fund and has raised aid worth `7.68 crore. Hyundai Motor India, via its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm, Hyundai Motor India Foundation, has contributed `5 crore to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s relief fund. Additionally, Hyundai has also imported and handed over diagnostic kits worth `4 crore from South Korea to help test over 25,000 individuals. BMW India has pledged `3 crore, and is setting up isolation wards for patients at the government

general hospital near its plant in Chengalpattu, in Tamil Nadu. It has also provided critical care equipment like PPEs for medical facilities in Delhi NCR and Chennai. BMW has also set up a food nutrition fund for the families below the poverty line. Kia Motors India has contributed `2 crore for relief efforts towards the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Meanwhile, Force Motors has tied up with the Panchshil foundation to distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to hospitals handling covid-19 patients in Pune. A total of 15,000 kits will be distributed.

More monetary aid has been raised by the likes of MG Motor India, as it will contribute `2 crore in the form of gloves, masks, ventilators and other medical equipment as required to hospitals in Gurugram and Halol, out of where it operates. It is also providing insurance cover for its 5000 employees around the country, while making a fleet of 100 Hectors available for frontline workers replete with fuel and a driver, something that Mahindra has been doing with its ride sharing platforms as well. MercedesBenz has set up a temporary hospital facility with isolation wards with a capacity of up to 1500 patients, and has also donated ventilators to Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune. The company is also supporting 1600 families from Khed and Viman Nagar by providing dry rations and cleaning kits.

In addition to the manufacture of medical equipment, Skoda Auto Volkswagen India has donated `1 crore to Sassoon Hospital, Pune, for setting up a 1100 bed facility.

Along with this, the company has also imported medical supplies via its subsidiary. The company has also donated 35,000 sanitisers to Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Mumbai and the Government Hospital in Aurangabad. The company has also distributed over 50,000 food packets in and around the Aurangabad region. Toyota has also announced a donation of `2 crore to the Karnataka government and has distributed 1000

Left: Hero has converted its motorcycles into ambulances to help ease pressure on the healthcare system. Facing page: The Skoda Auto factory is producing face shields for frontline workers

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M A N U F A C T U R E R S A R E G E T T I N G D E E P LY I N V O LV E D I N T H E C O M M U N I T I E S I N W H I C H T H E Y O P E R AT E essential kits to daily workers that include sanitiser and face masks. Additionally it has deployed 14 of its buses to help the healthcare department move around in the city.

Motorcycle manufacturers have no small part to play either. Bajaj Group has pledged an amount of `100 crore to support the upgradation of healthcare infrastructure and other initiatives like providing food and shelter as well as economic aid in rural areas. The group has also identified private sector hospitals that can use new upgraded equipment, including ventilators and personal protection equipment along with new testing facilities and isolation wards. Meanwhile, Hero has pledged close to `100 crore, half of which will go to the Prime Minister's relief fund, with the remaining to be utilised for other relief activities. Hero has also set up distribution for 100 ventilators to hospitals, and has also donated over 60 custom-made motorcycles, converted to operate as mobile ambulances. It is also distributing more than 10,000 meals

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THE INDUS TRY HA S CO M E TO G ETHE R T O H E L P T H E N AT I O N P I C K U P T H E PIECES IN ITS TIME OF NEED to daily wage workers and stranded labourers at Delhi NCR, Neemrana in Rajasthan, Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and Halol in Gujarat, as well as distributing ration kits to families in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Kerala. TVS, in addition to manufacturing medical equipment, is providing cooked meals to those frontline healthcare workers from its factory canteen. The group has also purchased and supplied 10 tractors fitted with disinfectant spray to the Hosur municipal corporation.

Customers and Dealers At the same time, carmakers also see the need to protect their customers and dealers. Most manufacturers including Audi, Honda, Ford, Kia, Maruti Suzuki, Volvo and Yamaha have announced extended warranty packages and service plans for cars that had their warranty expiring during the lockdown period — all subject to their own set of terms and conditions, of course. In addition to this, they have announced packages to help their dealers as well — Honda Cars India is releasing advance payments to its dealers to help them stay afloat during these difficult times. The Japanese manufacturer has also cleared all pending payments to its dealers as of March. Meanwhile Toyota has extended its support to its dealers in the terms of a restart

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manual that includes a standard operating procedure (SOP) for once they resume business operations. They have also assisted dealers in terms of financial assistance that will help dealer partners to sustain themselves between 38 to 75 days, including claim settlements, offsetting monthly payments, claiming vehicles in transit, relief from interest on inventories and additional incentives. Maruti Suzuki has tapped in to its vast database of 25 million customers and has sent out SMSes to inform them on tips to protect their vehicle during the quarantine period. Meanwhile, some manufacturers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Tata Motors have taken the entire buying experience online so you don’t even need to visit a dealership if you want to buy a car.

How the auto industry will pick up after the lockdown passes is yet to be seen. Some argue that the lack of disposable income will affect it badly, however trends in China show that people are back in dealerships. Whether this is because they now feel public transport is a risk or because a pandemic like this makes you realise that you should be allowed to indulge yourself occasionally — we are uncertain. However, until then, the industry has come together to help the nation pick up the pieces in its time of need. L

Top: The industry has been contributng to society in every way it can

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RIP, Rudy WORDS by S I R I S H C H A N D R A N

Rudratej Singh, the 46-year-old president and CEO of BMW Group India passed away on the morning of Monday, April 20. Our prayers and condolences are with his family and colleagues at BMW India Y THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS go out to the family of Rudratej Singh, president and CEO of BMW Group India who passed away this morning.

It’s terrible, terrible news that has shaken up the entire automotive industry, taking away one of its stars; a rare CEO with experience on two as well as four wheels.

Rudy was the first Indian to be appointed CEO of a big German car manufacturer when he took over last August from Vikram

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Pawah, who had moved back to Australia.

And by all accounts he was doing a good job of steering the ship in the right direction, aided by a slew of brand new cars and SUVs. He was still undergoing his induction in Munich when the new X7 and updated 7 Series were launched and then on, not a month went by when we did not meet at a launch or event. It began with the launch of the new 3 Series that was on a size and scale that we hadn’t seen in a very long

evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

time, especially not from a luxury car manufacturer. And the confidence he had in the 3 Series was not misplaced as three months later he received the Premium Car Award at the Indian Car of the Year.

A statement from BMW Group India said, “The cause behind the sudden and unexpected demise is yet to be ascertained. Our prayers are with his family and loved ones during this difficult period. His transformational vision and

strategic orientation played a crucial role in navigation of BMW Group India in a challenging business environment.

His demise comes at a crucial junction when BMW Group India was in midst of implementing strategic measures for strengthening the dealer network across India.”

It was Royal Enfield that brought Rudy into the Indian automotive world, after he’d spent over 16 years at Unilever. He’d told me his single biggest achievement at the venerable bike manufacturer was bringing down the average age of their buyers from 42 to 26-32 years. Not a small task when you’re talking about the world’s oldest bike manufacturer in continuous production.

Under his watch as global president, Royal Enfield unveiled the 650 twins to rapturous applause at the EICMA motor show in Milan and then equally high praise at the global media rides in California. This picture was taken when we got back to Santa Cruz after spending the entire day maxing out the Interceptor and GT 650 down the Pacific Coast Highway and through the Redwood forests with Eicher Motors CEO, Sid Lal and Bike India editor, Aspi Bhathena. Rudy not only launched bikes, but he also rode them, something that would hold him in good stead at BMW Motorrad.

Moving to BMW India he brought along a cultural shift, notably in getting rid of the suits and ties. In fact, at the 3 Series launch he was still wearing his Royal Enfield riding jeans. But as his colleagues shed their suits, Rudy developed an affinity for tailored suits Facing page: His first launch at BMW India was the 3 Series that went on to win the Premium Award at the ICOTY (top). Right: Rudy on the Royal Enfield 650 Twins ride in California with editor Sirish, Eicher CEO Sid Lal and Bike India editor Aspi Bhathena

AT B M W I N D I A HE BROUGHT A L O N G A S H I F T, N O TA B LY I N GETTING RID OF THE SUITS AND TIES

and was often seen in a full three-piece. He was a huge golf enthusiast which kept him fit, loved his bikes, and at the ICOTY event we spent an hour at the bar talking about the R NineT he’d just taken delivery of, why he opted for the 7 Series over the X7 as his company car, and our shared love for watches.

That was the last time I met Rudy. We were to have caught up over dinner in Chennai on the 4th of March, a day prior to the launch of the new X1. But that got cancelled due to the fast developing Covid-19 situation which would end up in a nation-wide lockdown less than three weeks later. The last time I spoke to Rudy was a few weeks ago, to offer my condolences for the loss of BMW’s sales director, Mihir Dayal. And now Rudy is no more, gone too soon.

From all of us at GTO Publishing, I send our heartfelt prayers and condolences to Rudy’s family and his friends at BMW India; may god give them the strength to pull through these difficult times. Rest in Peace, my friend. L

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WORDS by A B H I S H E K WA I R AG A D E

TVS Motor Company’s acquisition of Norton Motorcycles has led to a lot of questions. We try to answer a few of them NE OF THE BIGGEST surprises during the lockdown came from Chennai, that of TVS Motor Company acquiring the renowned British motorcycle brand Norton Motorcycles for roughly `150 crore. TVS acquired the under-administration Norton brand’s business and assets through one of its subsidiaries based in the UK. Under the agreement, TVS’ subsidiary has the licence to occupy the existing manufacturing premises for the next six months. Thus, Norton will be run out of its Donington Hall factory for the next six months till other facilities are setup and TVS will utilise its global reach and supply chain expertise to explore new markets with Norton. TVS has agreed to work closely with customers and bring back the glory days of the iconic brand.

But what exactly is Norton Motorcycles all about? What makes this deal so significant?

What is the future of the TVS-Norton venture? TVS hasn’t revealed too many details as of now but here’s what we know after a (virtual) round table with TVS Motor Company's joint MD, Sudarshan Venu.

Norton’s history Back in the day, Norton was one of the most iconic motorcycle makers on the planet. Founded way back in 1898 by James Lansdowne Norton, the brand started making full-fledged motorcycles in 1902.

By 1907, Norton had already developed its indigenous motor — a 633cc single-cylinder that churned out 3.5bhp. The motorcycles were rugged and sturdy and Norton ended up supplying to the British Army. However, the real OG was the Manx which led to a double hat-trick of podium finishes for the brand at the 1950 IOM TT. The Manx was well-known in India as well and was being raced by enthusiasts across the country. The success story continued and Norton won the 1992 TT — a first for a British brand in 30 years. Norton was counted among the

bigwigs when it comes to motorsport, that is Ducati and MV Agusta — even bigger than Triumph.

The Norton Commando was the most powerful and dynamic British motorcycle in the 1960s. Of course, it wasn’t perfect nor very reliable but that didn’t deter the buyers from spending money on it.

In a virtual round table conversation with the media, Sudarshan Venu, joint MD, TVS Motor Company said, “We have been inspired by Norton’s story for sometime. Its bespoke design, motorsport legacy, heritage value and strong customer base excited TVS to have the opportunity to retain its glory.

Norton is focused on loyal customers based out of developed countries. The numbers are currently small but there’s a big opportunity for us to make it big and create value.”

Money matters The revived Norton brand under Stuart Garner went into administration in early 2019 and was pursued by HMRC for GBP 300,000 in unpaid taxes as Norton

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T VS NOW HAS THE RIGHTS T O N O R T O N ’ S I P, G L O B A L DISTRIBUTION AND THE CURRENT L I N E - U P O F M O T O R CYC L E S was busy making a range of investments in export and licensing deals and seemingly selling a lot bikes (well, taking deposits for a lot of bikes).

Back in 2017, Norton and Zhongshen entered a 20-year agreement based around Norton’s 650cc parallel-twin. It was developed by Norton and Ricardo Engineering specifically for Zhongshen.

There was also a GBP 20 million Japanese export deal that was announced in which Norton was supposed to manufacture over 1000 bikes. In July 2015, Norton also received a hefty sum of GBP 4 million from the British investment. Even Santander had announced a boost of GBP 3 million.

And despite all the lending, the company recorded sales of GBP 6.7 million but a profit of just GBP 33,701.

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The Donington Hall factory was churning out 500 examples of the 961 Commando every year, with India supposed to receive its share of 37 units (including 18 Dominators) via Norton’s Indian partner — Kinetic Motoroyale. In fact, Norton debuted in India as well, way back in 2017 as a part of Kinetic Engineering’s multi-brand venture, Motoroyale. There was even a JV to manufacture a 650cc Norton from Kinetic’s Ahmednagar plant. Motoroyale was also to develop 300c-500cc engines for entry-level motorcycles. All that is obviously over and we don’t think more than a couple of Nortons were shipped over to India.

The future Norton’s current portfolio includes the Commando, Dominator and V4 SS and

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T VS & N O RTO N

V4 RR (vast majority of the funds were allocated for the V4). TVS is spending 150 crore rupees on the brand itself and the IP rights to the existing range (left unanswered was what happens to the IP of the Zhongshen connection). Royal Enfield, Triumph and Ducati’s success story is a big example of what a heritage motorcycle brand can do.

TVS now has rights to Norton’s IP, global distribution and the current line-up of motorcycles. And as it's an asset purchase, it’s void of all the liabilities. Sudarshan Venu clarified, “We own the IP rights and product portfolio along with the global distribution network. Because it’s an asset purchase there are no past liabilities. The entire team carries forward except the management.

For now, Norton will be run out of the UK facility (based out of Donington Hall).

We will move to a new facility within six months. The design and manufacturing team will run out of UK. In case of supply chain and distribution, we’ll look at the possibilities in the near future. The interim management has already been appointed,

led by John Russel. A full team will be appointed to support him. John is a very senior person from Harley-Davidson, he has a strong connect with the customers and he understands the products.”

He added, “We will run Norton at an arm’s length. As of now, the focus is to deliver a pending order of 300 motorcycles.

The idea is to connect with the customers.”

Norton in India For now the focus will be on Norton’s current markets and also to deal with customers who have already paid deposits on their Norton motorcycles. Sudarshan pointed out that, “Customers have reached out to us from markets like UK, USA, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia, so the focus is to deliver to those markets first. We are currently present in 21 countries with 76 dealerships. I think there’s potential for Norton to do much larger volumes while sticking to its ethos and catering to the customers. Currently, our plan is to manufacture the existing portfolio of bikes.

The idea is to grow with the large capacity

segment and connect with the customers.”

Of course India is very much on the cards with Sudarshan emphasising, “Other emerging markets will follow up soon. And you will see Norton in India soon.”

From here, to develop a fresh platform from scratch, TVS would require at least five years and at least five times the capital expenditure — but the plan is clearly to improve on the current bikes, raise the quality and tap into the markets where Norton already has a dealer presence.

The future is uncertain but knowing TVS’ expertise, we expect Norton to be a success story in the next decade. “Our aim is to restore the glory of Norton. We want to connect with the Norton customers as we look to rebuild,” added Sudarshan. L Facing page, top: 37 units of Dominator and Commando were brought to India. Facing page, bottom: Sudarshan Venu, joint MD, TVS Motor Company is leading the venture. Top: We are the only publication in India to have ridden the Commando MK 2. Below: V4 RR is based on the SG5 IOM TT race bike. Below left: Harold Deniell at the 1947 Dutch TT on a Norton

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KARUN CHANDHOK

Karun mulls over the fate of Formula One Racing

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HE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS BROUGHT life to a standstill on a global level not seen since the Second World War and sporting events aren’t immune to being affected. The Canadian Grand Prix was the latest to join the list of now nine cancelled or postponed races in the 2020 F1 season but that’s not been a surprise.

In Formula 1’s case, the announcements from the individual races are being drip fed but that is because there is no immediate rush to do so. The promoters and race organisers can take their time as this is a volatile and dynamic situation that needs to be watched on a week-by-week basis in their respective countries before conversations with F1 and the FIA. I personally do not think the season will start before August, and that is probably optimistic. I’m not a medical professional nor a scientist so I won’t pretend to know how long this crisis will carry on.

But from what I’m reading and seeing in the news, there’s a feeling that the summer months will be able to flatten the curve and stop the spread as long as we don’t have a second wave like the Spanish flu over a 100 years ago.

However we have to consider that Formula 1 is a global event, unlike say the IPL in India or Wimbledon. So even if the situation improves in Europe, but not in Asia or South America, then Formula 1 may not be able to resume. The travel restrictions need to be relaxed for people to come in from all over the world, as races take place in every corner of the globe and people need to be able to get into the countries without being quarantined.

With the airline industry in a tough spot at the moment, even chartering planes isn’t going to be an easy thing to do, as the airlines you charter from need to have personnel available and aircrafts prepared.

On the flip-side, we can have a truncated season held later on, unlike Wimbledon, which can only be held during a certain time in a year. In Formula One we can be a little more flexible and juggle the calendar to have some form of a campaign. You can race in Europe from August through to October and race in the Middle-Eastern countries in the winter.

At least eight rounds need to be run in a season to constitute a World Championship as per the FIA statutes. So if we start in August and continue the season till the second or third week of December, I think it’s logistically possible to manage 12 or 13 race weekends. It will be a big commitment from everyone involved in the sport as it could mean triple headers or intense two-day weekends but it’s all do-able. Personally, I would like to see F1 use the time to experiment with less practice sessions and two-day weekends as well as even trying to do two races on the same weekend.

Ultimately, the biggest question is ‘When can we start?’. There are enough European venues which will be willing host races if the World Health Organisation and the various governments clear it. I think all the European Grand Prix can be held quite tightly together. The Bahrain and Abu Dhabi races can be held towards December whereas I think races like Montreal, Baku and Singapore will struggle as they are temporary street circuits and they will have to prepare the track months in advance. I guess Singapore has the weather to run in December, but they would probably need to get the green light in August.

But the Chinese Grand Prix could take place, as the Shanghai track have announced they will be open in June and life seems to be normalising there according to my friends who live in the city. That would be an amazing story since China is where the crisis started.

And finally, a quick North American leg can also happen depending on the pandemic situation there, with races in Texas and Mexico. So potentially a season could take place, but the main question is when it will be able to start.

I think the reality is that the whole world is taking a hit. Regardless of the scale of the business, whether it’s a local coffee shop, the retail stores, the travel and hospitality chains or a multinational corporation, each and every business is going to have their bottom line adversely affected in 2020.

Formula One is no different, everyone is in the same boat. The survival of F1 depends on how the sport reacts to this crisis. But there are changes being made, for example, by carrying over the 2020 cars in 2021 which saves the cost of building and designing another car. The sweeping rule changes that were going to take place in 2021 have now been pushed back to 2022 and there’s a high chance of them going back even to 2023.

The owners of the sport, the Liberty Group are very aware of the problems that are facing F1 and the teams. Think of them like a government, and every government is trying to put together a package to help industries and businesses. Formula 1 Group, on a smaller scale is trying to do something similar. F1 has to ensure that teams are provided with aid, but it is also difficult for them as the sport is also losing out on income. The rights fees for races aren’t coming in and there is reduced sponsorship money because the season is not on. In simple terms, if there are no races, there is less money flowing in.

I think in terms of the teams, for Mercedes, Red Bull, AlphaTauri, Ferrari and Renault, as long as the parent companies and the factories continue to support them, they will be fine. Their parent companies have got enough financial muscle to survive the crisis, but the automotive industry has taken a hit worldwide which means

The survival of F1 depends on how the sport reacts to this crisis. But there are changes being made

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that question marks remain over the manufacturers’ commitments.

Then you have the independent teams. These independent teams spend between 100-150 million pounds a season to operate and compete in F1. That sum is for a full season of 22 races. If there are fewer races, obviously less money will be spent, but the factory overheads of the teams are still the same. Racing Point, Williams, Haas and McLaren have announced that they are furloughing some of their staff which will be a saving in the short term.

A huge portion of the budget comes from TV right, media rights and race hosting rights. All of this rights money constitutes a “Formula 1 pot” from which the teams share about 65 per cent of the sum, while F1 keeps the rest of the profit. Now in order for the sport and for the teams to get through this crisis, F1 could make an exception and change that equation for this year. As an example, MotoGP have given one off payments to the independent teams this year to help through this financial crisis.

Then we also have the whole debate of the budget cap. It seems like most teams are in favour of a lower budget cap from the currently agreed 175 million USD. In fact Ross Brawn indicated that his initial proposal a while ago was around the 130 million mark and that seems to be what people like McLaren are pushing for. However

the big players at Ferrari and Red Bull Racing seem to be opposing that, which has created a bit of a stalemate.

When there’s a will, there’s a way but unfortunately F1 people are wired in such a way that they often think of themselves before the sport. I guess that is the nature of sport, you have to be selfish to a certain degree to be successful. But at this point, F1 needs strong leaders – they need Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt to somehow come up with a concrete plan to deal with the crisis.

We are at a crossroads, where if the auto industry struggles and the manufacturers pull out their teams, F1 could go back to having more independent teams, with the manufacturers becoming engine suppliers. That was the model that existed for a long time till the early 2000s, when you had independent teams with an engine partner like McLaren Mercedes, Williams Renault, Benetton-Ford, etc. That is basically what Honda are doing right now – they are not investing the money to be a full team, they’re just partners with the two Red Bull teams and there’s nothing wrong with that, it is actually part of the DNA of the sport.

So a lot of unknowns at the moment and that goes for life in general as much as F1. For now, all we can do is just stay home, stay safe and sit tight! L @KarunChandhok

Now a full-time F1 commentator, Karun Chandhok is India’s second Formula 1 driver and the first to compete at Le Mans

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C A RS & WATC H ES

WORDS by S H A M I K A L R A

WHY WE STILL WEAR A W R I S T WAT C H

What’s the deal with car guys/gals and watches? The founder of Omologato watches tries to make sense of it

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START BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE MODERN world and how many people tell me they don’t need a watch. The most common reason is something to do with a phone or some device they call a watch that answers it, but I usually turn off at this point. Those that do understand will probably carry on reading.

I am at my desk on a sunny Saturday lockdown afternoon, in London, surrounded by about fifty wrist watches, each telling a story not just the time, and that’s what a wrist watch should do. Let me explain.

I remember a few years ago, a young man showing me his ordinary quartz watch, something that would be worth `500 to you or me but priceless to him because his late grandfather gave it to him for his 18th birthday. His passion for it was as much as his recently restored 1967 MG Roadster. On the flip side, I often meet people who’ve spent a crore on a watch and when asked why they chose that model, the usual reply is something like, “it’s gold”. I know who I’d rather have a beer with.

The fact that men are still buying and cherishing quality timepieces is of great comfort to an industry that, in the early 1970s, thought its time (excuse the pun if you will), had come. The invention of the quartz watch (in analog or digital form) in 1967 might initially have been hailed as a great technological achievement. But it wasn't long before it was also seen as the biggest challenge the traditional timepiece had faced since the wristwatch first became popular at the end of the First World War. The fact that a cheap Casio with a flashing LED time display was what every young hipster soon craved, coupled with the economic doldrums in which the world found itself in the 1970s, spelled disaster.

It took a few years of navel-gazing and re-evaluating what a watch was truly for before, till a few forceful and inventive characters in the mid-1980s came back with a design philosophy and marketing program that brought the sector back from the brink. These horological pioneers decided that watches would not merely be timekeepers, they would be

mini-masterpieces that showcased extreme craftsmanship, represented tradition, incorporated technology and embraced innovation. They would effectively be a Savile Row suit, Ferrari sports car, and NASA spaceship rolled into one package that could sit neatly on your wrist.

The idea that technology would deal a fatal blow to the watch, simply hasn't panned out. Men now own mobile phones as well as — not instead of — their timepieces.

Watches are one of the few items that a man can wear that displays true character, a sign of his passion or his interests – whether it's a Patek Phillipe or an Omologato.

That brings me on to why I started Omologato. Car people like me love most things mechanical, I recently put up a slomo video on social media of the headlight wipers on my 90s Mercedes SL — the interaction was insane! So to have a hand built ‘engine’ on your wrist seems a natural thing for people like us. To then add heritage, a motorsport connection and personality makes it, for me anyway, even more desirable.

Whether it costs `500 or `5 crore, men clock the watch on the wrist of the man (and woman!) they’re meeting in the same way women might take note of another's shoes (though men are doing that as well these days). It's what we do. And the watch industry is very happy about that. L

K E E P I N G H EA LT H Y

WORDS by YO H A N N S E T N A

CULINARY CONSUMPTION DURING COVID-19 Stay away from the chips and fridge! We take inspiration from how race drivers are keeping fit during the lockdown

ID YOU KNOW THAT GIANT PANDAS EAT for almost 12 hours a day? In today’s day and age of #lockdowns and #socialdistancing, we seem to be doing the same thing sitting at home all day. Maybe that’s why they call this a ‘Pand’emic.

I know it isn’t easy to keep your snout out of the refrigerator when there’s not a lot else exciting happening during the day to keep your mind focused, but the need of the day is to remain healthy above all else. A healthy body with strong antibodies is really important if we are to fight this, and the diet of a racing driver would seem like a very smart choice at a time like this.

The key ingredient in this adjusted lifestyle would be creating a daily routine. An exercise regimen of some sort along with a nutritious diet. In a recent conversation with Narain Karthikeyan, he told me that he’s never been fitter than he is right now. It’s the perfect time for us to look after ourselves and heal our bodies, just as our planet seems to be healing itself too.

Eat at fixed times and at evenly spaced intervals. Start the day with a hearty breakfast. The old adage of “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” is actually one that we should all

follow fastidiously. It is also very important to finish your dinner by 8pm at the very latest, as that helps the body to digest your food better and faster, which in turn helps efficient weight management.

Say a big fat NO to refined carbs and sugary foods. Avoid things like pasta, dessert and white bread, as they are instrumental in increasing body fat percentage and weight gain. Fibre based foods, whole wheat foods and complex carbs helps in weight maintenance and prevent food cravings. Avoid snacking at all cost.

Racing drivers eat multiple small meals during the day. They avoid processed foods like the plague. It’s better to eat six to eight small meals, well spaced out during the day, rather than hogging two or three times a day.

Eat plenty of raw fruit and drink plenty of water during the day. If you only drink when you’re feeling thirsty, that means the body has already started dehydrating itself. Remember, it’s very rare to see a racing driver walking around the pit-lane without his sipper bottle in hand, and there’s a sound reason for that.

I guess that many of you are binge watching TV, and hopefully that includes Netflix’s “Drive to Survive”. However, remember to stay healthy, stay home, and stay fit, because at a time like this we all need to “Survive to Drive”. L www.

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BIJOY KUMAR Y

Bijoy foresees a better future and a silver lining to the lock down

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CAN’T BELIEVE ONE MONTH JUST went into a black hole of sorts. Extended lockdown period may mean many things to many people.

For me, I realised that I can exist without riding motorcycles and driving cars. Sure, it is an utterly boring existence. I have also realised that I can do without newspapers in the morning, I don’t need to meet my team every day and I won’t die if I eat wheat dosa for breakfast and dinner.

Certainly, we can learn a thing or two from this and change accordingly. Do we need to print newspapers and magazines? Can’t they exist in the digital format and still be able to make money? How important is it for executives to commute three hours every day to go sit in front of a laptop and push mails? Can’t we avoid the habit of copious consumption and survive on essentials and er… the occasional pizza?

The more we think about it, we will realise that we are the prisoners of our own ways. And habits, good or bad, cannot be weeded out easily. The main culprits to me are the ways of urbanisation that need a new outlook. Allow me to dwell deep.

Let us begin with the schools. You don’t need to be a whiz kid to think that students should go to school for two to three days a week as the rest of stuff can be taught online. This will mean children can play more and be healthier.

Cities like Bengaluru can have some breathing space on roads if 50 per cent of IT employees work from home on alternate days. For other firms, the concept of head office and nodal offices will cease to exist and will be replaced by meeting halls where teams can meet if they have no other options. I really don’t understand why there are so many bank branches for example – I haven’t visited one in years.

Suddenly the existing infrastructure will become more than enough for most cities. There is nothing that you can’t order online these days and all kinds of entertainment is available on the internet or television. I never liked crowded malls in any case.

Manufacturing and industries already have moved away from cities and they can continue to thrive and provide employment to a wider mass.

Less jobs in cities means that there will be more people to work on the fields and agriculture will boom.

Governments, state and central, can do what they are elected for – concentrate on education and healthcare across the nation. Similarly, government offices should spread out rather than be in capital cities

which forces people to travel to meet babus. What is the point of unique identity, Aadhar and the sort, if people still need to travel to city centres to get things done!

The lockdown saw the judiciary work from home on certain cases.

And why not!!

If that continues for a while, unfortunately, the cities will become redundant. And people will start staying in better homes far away instead of cubby holes in congested metroscapes. Now comes the most important part of my theory...

They will need cars. And motorcycles. Fast cars and big motorcycles that can whisk you to office and back, couple of times a week. And enjoy the countryside, beaches and hill stations over weekends. Hopefully that will give a longer lease of life to internal combustion engines. If not, I am ready to live with electric mobility.

Since governments around the world are all busy formulating the post covid-19 order, all we can do is brace for impact. And if you thought we have seen it all, you are wrong. Try and hide till the day monkeys stop dying of the stupid virus in laboratories around the world and a vaccine is made available.

Till then you can’t stop me from painting a brighter picture. L

We realise that we are prisoners of our ways and habits, good or bad, cannot be weeded out easily

@bky911

Bijoy Kumar is the founding editor of BS Motoring magazine and now heads Mahindra Adventure

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CA R F I L M S

KEEP THE MOTOR RUNNING Get your heart racing with car-themed movies, ocumentaries and series to keep your lockdown blues at bay

FORMULA 1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE (2019) NETFLIX Most F1 races of the 2020 season are cancelled or postponed. A great opportunity then, to delve deep into the drama and thrill of the sport with this series.

It’s extremely well documented and captures the intimate, political and emotional aspects of this multi-billion-dollar motorsport business. Following the entire race season, it gives you a glimpse at what goes on behind the scenes and gets you up close and personal with the sport like never before.

WILLIAMS (2017) NETFLIX Williams is a thrilling account of Sir Frank Williams’ enduring F1 racing business and how his team won nine constructor’s titles in the last 40 years. In 1986, things dramatically turned upside down after Frank’s near-fatal car crash that put his life and the team’s future in jeopardy. With a 93 per cent score on the Tomatometer, Williams is a promising watch.

GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS (2000) VUDU Remake of the 1974 action flick, this Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie starrer, highlights the car-stealing skills of Memphis Raines, a master thief who along with a motley bunch of friends and family (who support the crime), steal fifty luxury cars in one night! The action scenes will keep your eyes pinned to the screen and so will the erotic 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 named Eleanor.

DRIVE (2011) NETFLIX Drive is an intriguing blend of adventure, mystery, suspense and drama. Ryan Gosling plays the role of an unnamed driver, who films stunts by day and earns extra cash by piloting getaway vehicles for armed heists by night. He falls for a beautiful young mother, Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband gets involved into an underworld money scam. Gosling and his gorgeous 1973 Chevrolet Malibu are now in trouble!

APEX: THE STORY OF THE HYPERCAR (2016) NETFLIX Hypercars, more often than not, are at the centre of brilliant technological innovations and carmakers often present radically different solutions to move the game on. This documentary focusses on some of the biggies like Porsche, McLaren, Pagani, Koenigsegg, Ferrari and BMW while decoding the ideas of brilliant engineers and designers.

THE LOCKDOWN HAS MADE GREAT chefs out of us all and if there was an audition for Masterchef India right after the lockdown was lifted, we’d have more contenders than even for Roadies. Of course, yummy food also equates to empty calories.

With absolutely zero physical activity you’re not burning any which means all the excess calories are going to magically appear around your belly or glutes. And if you’re a motorcyclist, you don’t want anything to come between you and the fuel tank, even if its your own belly. If you’re a sucker for Instagram likes, wouldn’t you be happier with a knee down shot over a shoddily clicked picture of Maggi? You obviously cannot ride your motorcycle today but you can prep for the next ride by working out in your own drawing room. Allow us to tell you how to be faster and fitter.

Hard-core The Cervera native places a strong emphasis on core work to navigate through continuous track bends as well as elasticity to prevent injury on the rare occasion when you roll on the earth. But of course, not all of us possess superpowers like Marc Marquez. However, your upper trunk is super important and so are your abdomen muscles as you’re moving from side to side even on a regular ride and thus it is important to keep your core stable to keep the bike on both its legs. There are a lot of exercises to keep your core strong sans any weights. You can begin with a circuit of five sets of Planks, Dead bugs and Boat with a rest of 1min in between every set. If you think you’re fitter than most then you could also try doing L-sits and Wall planks. Make sure you don’t take more than 60sec rest to keep the heart pumping. For those who own a big ADV, you could use the machine’s weight to perform various compound exercises which work on your core anyway.

Everyone hates leg days Some feel more fatigue on the upper part of their body and others feel it more in the legs.

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WORDS by A B H I S H E K WA I R AG A D E

FIT, FITTER, FASTEST If you’re planning to hit the road right after the lockdown is lifted, it is important to stay fit and keep away the fat

evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

B I K E R WO R KO U T

It depends on their structure. Mick Doohan said he always felt his legs were giving a little bit more than the upper body, and that was in the days of the 500cc two-strokes.

Marquez has put on a lot more muscle on his upper body as some call his riding style very ‘loose’. If you are a trackday specialist then you cannot ignore your upper body at all.

Make sure you’re doing pushups, pull-ups, tricep dips, close-grip push ups, bicep curls (using water bottles) and shoulder press (again, using water bottles). "Physically your legs go through a lot of work because ultimately you are pushing away from the ground and your other leg is pressing against the bike," says Marc Marquez. That’s why working out your legs is of utmost importance. To work on your quads and hamstrings, make sure you’re getting a good dose of squats, lunges, pistol squats, donkey kicks, side lunges, calf raises and good mornings.

CORE EXERCISES PLANKS

1. Lie down on the floor with your back facing the ceiling.

2. Plant your hands under the shoulders. (ever done push ups?)

3. Ground toes on to the floor and squeeze your glutes to stabilise your body.

4. Look ahead.

5. Hold the position for as long as you can.

DEAD BUGS Refuel Working out is just 30 per cent of the job while 70 per cent still depends on your diet. Try and maintain a ratio of 50:30:20 (Protein:Fats:Carbs) for your daily intake of calories. If you workout regularly and maintain your diet well, there’s no reason for you not to take that dream ride to Ladakh or wherever once the lockdown ends! L

1. Lie down with your face towards the ceiling.

2. Raise your arms in the air above the torso.

3. Do the same with your legs. Make sure they’re bent at 90deg.

4. Lower the opposite arm and leg toward the floor slowly.

5. Return to centre and repeat with the other set of limbs.

BOAT

1. Sit with your knees bent. Grasp your legs under your thighs.

2. Lift your feet off the floor keeping shins parallel.

3. Facing palms up, extend your arms straight out in front of your shoulders.

4. Bend knees for 30 seconds.

5. Relax. And then start again. Repeat for as long as you can.

L-SITS

1. Take a couple of dining chairs.

2. Rest both your palms on each of the chair’s stable points with the chairs facing each other.

3. Raise your legs to 90deg, keeping them parallel to the floor.

4. Hold the position for as long as you can.

Repeat.

WALL PLANKS

1. Stand with your back facing a wall.

2. Squat down to the ground with hands at shoulder width.

3. Put the palms on the ground (push-ups style) 4. Walk your legs up the wall 5. Hold position as long as you can!

THERE’S NO REASON FOR YO U N O T T O G O O N T H AT DREAM RIDE ONCE THE LOCKDOWN ENDS www.

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Hyundai Kona Electric What’s it like to live with an electric car you’re barely using?

8KM IN 3 WEEKS. THAT’S IT. WHO would have imagined we’d live in times where we cannot drive, cannot ride, cannot do the things that we absolutely, unconditionally love. And 58km is 58km too many in times of a national lockdown, but then again one needs to get supplies and I made one trek across the city to take the cat to the vet. With permission. And apart from the 5km I did on the scooter to the medical store, this month I’ve only driven the Kona Electric.

Why? For one petrol pumps aren’t giving fuel unless you have a pressing reason. The Tiguan has a full tank of diesel, which will go for 800odd km, but that’s my backup. I don’t want to use it unless I really have to. No stress with the Kona Electric. We only have a 15Amp plug

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downstairs but that doesn’t matter, it can take all the time in the world to get juiced up.

I haven’t had the need to juice it up in any case. Now on Twitter I got asked if the battery gets drained if the car is stationary and truth is, not really. Usually I get around 280-300km on a full charge and now after 20 days and

evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

58km, the range has dropped to 210km — that means around 30km has leaked away. Actually 20km, if you account for empty roads giving me a chance to drive it faster than I usually would and thus using more of the juice. And with that I think I’ll stop obsessing about juice; with a long-range electric car like the Kona, range isn’t a worry.

Among other advantages of using the Kona Electric is that I can sneak out of the society without anybody coming to know… or I could if only the horn wouldn’t go beep-beep like all Hyundais when you lock/unlock. I don’t know why I’d need to sneak out of the society either, looks like this lockdown is getting to me. God, I need to get out of the house. L Sirish Chandran (@SirishChandran)

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Hyundai Venue The venue is no longer the streets, but the quiet comfort of my parking space THOUGHT I’D START THIS STORY with how the ‘venue’ is no longer the streets, but my parking spot.

It turned out terrible, so I’ll just cut to the chase. The story is pretty much the same everywhere. We’re locked down, we can’t drive, we haven’t been putting too many miles on our cars. Yes, it is incredibly frustrating especially after getting out on to the road is practically muscle memory, but we need to stay home.

Like pretty much every other car in the Fleet, the Hyundai Venue is only being taken

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Getting out on to the road is practically muscle memory, but we need to stay safe and stay home

out of the garage to get essentials. On one such ‘essential’ grocery run, it hit 10k on the odo! I actually chose not to post the milestone on social media lest the armchair critics bash me for being irresponsible and driving at such a critical time. In retrospect, I should have gone ahead and posted it, and if they acted smart, invited them to carry the 20-litre

drinking water canisters I was carrying on their heads instead.

I remember cursing my luck at having got the diesel instead of the turbo petrol when the car was first assigned to me, but in times like these, I’ll have the diesel any day of the week.

I was foresighted for a change, and tanked up well before the lockdown was announced.

By the time the lockdown was official, I had half a tank of gas and a range of little under 400km. That would more than suffice for essentials and leave enough buffer for any kind emergency.

My car is still shiny clean, because the guy who cleans it lives in the area and insists on cleaning it every day. He’s just as anal about cleaning cars as I am. There’s not much else to report from here — the car is running fine and I get it started at least twice a week to make sure the battery doesn’t run dry. I hope the lockdown is treating you well. See you on the other side! L Aatish Mishra (@whatesh)

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evo Fleet HESE ARE WEIRD TIMES THAT WE live in. It has been close to a month since the lockdown was first announced and it is possibly the least that I have driven in a very long time. Thankfully, the Renault Captur didn’t mind sitting idle for so many days. The only reason I left the house was for groceries and the Captur didn’t have any issues starting up. Sure, the brakes squeaked. But that was about it. The roads have been empty and I could easily get through my grocery runs in a jiffy. With the world around us eerily quiet, you are intimately aware of the slightest change in the quality of the surface that you are driving on. Previously, stuck in traffic, I couldn’t care less about the broken, patchworked sections of road. And even now I don’t. The Captur’s great ride quality comes to my aid every time and the bad roads in my neighbourhood don’t rattle me at all.

Now that everyone is stuck home, I did get a few glances from the upstairs neighbours whenever I would get into the car and perform the 15-step manoeuvre that getting in or out of my parking is. Although, I’d like to think that they couldn’t get their eyes off my longterm Captur, they were probably just bored.

Speaking of which, I have somehow found

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Renault Captur

Observations on our Captur during the lockdown

myself looking at the Captur for inordinate amounts of time. The fact that it is parked right outside my window doesn’t help. I have started to admire a few things that I hadn’t earlier. The shade of red on my long-term Captur makes it stand out in a sea of mid-size SUVs that our country has recently fallen in love with. Its unusual, almost European lines all

over the body, make it look muscular and very contemporary at the same time. Even without much attention being paid to the fibre panels apart from regular servicing and washing, they have retained their charcoal grey/black colour – fibre panels in most cars turn into a dull, washed out grey. L Aslam Kabeer

hassle-free AMT makes it effortless – exactly what I need. Fuelling up your car right now is a challenge in itself. But thankfully, the Kwid, with my gentle right foot, has returned a very healthy fuel efficiency figure and I have been able to avoid a visit to the fuel station despite running low on fuel.

Weirdly enough, people tend to look at your car a lot more when you are queuing up for

groceries – they are probably just bored. But anyway, the Kwid has been receiving quite a bit of attention even though I have not really been able to shower it with any TLC whatsoever in the past few weeks. A thin film of dust has settled on it, but still the Kwid’s attractive looks has had more than one person ask me, “On-road kya price hain?” L Afzal Rawuther (@afzalrawuther)

Renault Kwid Living life in the slow lane

KAY. I HAVEN’T DRIVEN THE KWID at all – less than 30km this month.

I have tried to stay home as far as possible and ventured out only for groceries.

On these drives, I would drive maybe a few kilometres every time. Deserted roads, shuttered shops and establishments are the norm today and it is difficult to spend time driving through the city without being shocked every time. The ‘Thrill of Driving’ has been replaced by a conscious effort to drive as slowly as possible, partly because it allows me to look for shops that might be open. The part of the city that I reside in has been declared to be a containment zone and very few grocery shops remain open for only a couple of hours every day. These slow, peaceful grocery runs serve as a coping mechanism for me – these times are difficult for everyone, me included.

The Kwid is a joy to drive around at a leisurely pace. The light steering along with the

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TRAVEL 15 DAYS A MONTH (AT least) and only the airline companies can give an account of how many thousand kilometres I must have covered in the past few months. I no longer categorise this under work perks. It is, by default my way of life and I absolutely love it. However, a certain type of virus has turned everything upside down and most people’s daily drivers are sitting in the garage longer than usual.

Naturally, I have clocked a humble 30km this month in my Grand i10 Nios.

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Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS Tough times never last, tough people do, and tough cars too!

The Nios usually covers hundreds of kilometres on a monthly basis, as a support vehicle for shoots and otherwise, doubling up as a trusted companion during regular commutes. Although, life is now confined to the walls of my house and seeking pleasure

Renault Triber

Big space means the once-a-week grocery run is easy!

HIS IS A DIFFICULT TIME FOR everyone. For auto-journos like us, it is a weird time. Never have we ever spent so much time away from cars and bikes, away from travelling. And keeping our cars parked for such a long period is something we certainly aren’t used to. The Renault Triber that has been parked under my house for the last 21 days and will continue to be so for the next couple of weeks by the look of things.

To keep the Triber in good condition, I switch it on for idling once in 3-4 days. Since the lockdown, I have driven the Triber for around 40km in three weeks, that too for stocking up my house with the essentials and thanks to the Triber’s boot space with the last row seats tucked away, I could easily carry all my groceries and that of an elderly neighbour too. Mind you we are not getting any fuel at the fuel stations, but thanks to the excellent fuel economy of the Triber (13kmpl), running

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out of fuel has never been a concern and it has kept me going in this period with a range of 170km still available. The ride, I have observed, is really nice over some bad roads that I simply wouldn’t have noticed earlier with all the traffic around. The efficient air-conditioning has been

out of brief grocery runs is all I am left with.

And with that, the practicality and hassle-free nature of the Nios has come to the fore (my Daytona 675 isn’t ideal for grocery runs). It’s compact, the driveability is excellent, the boot always has ample space to accommodate my filming equipment. Speaking of space, in the early lockdown days, I succumbed to panic buying and believed that piling food up was necessary in these seemingly apocalyptic times. I simply dropped the rear seats down, and a few sacks of grains and other household items easily fit into the little Hyundai.

Another notable aspect about the Nios is its powertrain. Hyundai’s Kappa series of petrol engines are some of the most refined and low on maintenance engines out there. I have been following regular vehicle maintenance tips and making sure the car remains spick and span and disinfected. I’m sure that is all I will need to keep the Grand i10 Nios in good shape before work and travel resumes. L Alameen Merchant (@alameen.merchant)

a boon in the scorching heat too while the cooled storage bin is a life saver while storing cold beverages when out for a grocery run. If the pandemic had not worsened, I would have been on an outstation trip with my friends and judging by the comfortable ride, great airconditioning in the scorching heat and loads of space, I can safely say that the Triber will prove to be the right bet when I can eventually go out. L Rohit G Mane (@rohitmane93)

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Maruti Suzuki S-Presso

Before the lockdown, our longterm S-Presso was driven extensively through old Pune’s narrow lanes

F YOU EVER LIVED LONG ENOUGH in Pune, you would have heard of the peth areas. 17 of these peth (meaning locality) areas make up for central and old Pune and here you find some of the narrowest lanes in the city, tightly packed with shops and street vendors. I hate going here.

But when it’s absolutely necessary, I wish to be air-dropped, like a paratrooper, to avoid the harrowing commute through these lanes.

But things have changed lately. Our longterm Maruti Suzuki S-Presso arrived two months ago, and thanks to its compact proportions, the fear of narrow lanes has withered away.

The S-Presso is one of the most compact hatchbacks out there. At 3565mm, it’s 166mm shorter in length than the Renault Kwid and its turning radius is only 4.5 metres, and before the lockdown kept me confined to the walls of my house, I was fearlessly venturing into the old town and its narrow lanes. Despite lacking a rear parking camera, it fits into the tightest

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of parking spaces. That said, the high seating position makes the bonnet edges visible, and you can place it precisely where you want to.

Shorter drivers will certainly appreciate this.

It’s quite an incredible car for the urban jungle.

No automotive journalist I know admires its design, but over time you don’t mind being around a funky little car that’s trying hard

RE Interceptor 650

Reminiscing the days gone by when the Interceptor was free to roam the streets

ALWAYS HAVE TO TURN MY HEAD TO have one last glance before I bid her adieu every day after coming home and leaving her in the parking lot. It isn’t even that long of a glance but long enough, just so

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you realise you’re smirking; smirking because you know you’re gonna be taking her out again for another midnight city run.

What makes the Interceptor so desirable to me? I mean, I love things that are old school,

evoIndia.com | May ’20 Lockdown Special

to impersonate an SUV. Despite its compact dimensions, the cabin is roomy and there are ample connectivity features. The boot too is large enough for two medium-sized suit cases.

Clearly, the strength of the S-Presso lies in its practicality and on that front it shines. The low 763kg kerb weight and an efficient engine allow decent fuel economy as well – 14kmpl in the city and over 18kmpl on the highway.

The S-Presso is currently parked at Afzal’s house in Navi Mumbai and I never thought I’d say this about a tiny hatch, but I can’t wait to get it back as soon as the lockdown lifts! L Suvrat Kothari (@suvratkothari)

like synth waves, ‘80s music and all things retro. With the Interceptor, it’s almost like you’re reliving those times in your own funny way.

Of course, the Interceptor we have isn’t all retro. This one’s got a touch of modern tech to keep you company. A quick shifter so that every time you hit the redline, you can just ‘clunk’ up to the next gear and LOL under your helmet. Matte black bar-end mirrors that are as minimal and beautiful as the motorcycle herself. An ECU remaps with two modes where each mode puts out 48bhp and 50bhp respectively. A stiff yet comfortable touring seat; although being quite flat, you could experience some mild slips to the back when ‘flatting’ out – unless you’re riding slow and not the way she’s asking you to, yeah you’re good then.

Now the 650 is not the most economical motorcycle to own. With an average fuel efficiency of 18-22kmpl, I can hear the ‘blues’ cue in every time I head out to the gas station.

But right after you fill ‘er up and hear that first grunt echo in the gas station… oh good lord... here we go again. L Vernon D’Souza (@vernon_d)

Bajaj Dominar 400 UG A loud exhaust note and a good-looking Greenie-Meanie keeps our shutterbug busy during the lockdown

ORONAVIRUS HAS TURNED OUR motto of The Thrill of Riding to The Chill of Riding equating to a lot of nap time than saddle time. Most of the 142km that I’ve logged this month was during the pre-Corona days. Of course, there have been some grocery runs too but very limited.

Now the long rides that I have taken before the pandemic have been great. The not-so-aggressive rider’s triangle and a robust chassis means the Dominar can really keep you happy on long rides. The sixspeed transmission is smooth and the gears slot into place effortlessly. I like the way the exhaust sounds. It has a full-bodied tone and gets quite loud once past 6000rpm.

Well, now after the lockdown, I have just been looking down at the Dominar through my window and praying for the situation to

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get better so I can go riding. But of course, the Dominar is a good-looking bike and keeps my Nikon busy. Once every 3-4 days I start the engine to keep the fluids flowing but actually it’s just an excuse to hear that exhaust note. And when the petrol hits me, it takes me back to the good old days, reminding me about that wonderful feeling of riding a motorcycle. L Abhishek Benny (@abhishekbenny1)

The not-so-aggressive rider’s triangle and a robust chassis keep you happy on those long rides

Hero Xpulse 200

What does a motorcyclist do when he is locked away from his steed?

MAGINE THE EUPHORIA OF GETTING the Xpulse back after three long weeks at the service centre. Three weeks to get the busted transmission fixed!

After that long wait, fate had other intentions.

Plans of hitting the trails over the weekend and going on my monthly sprint to Mumbai were rudely cut short after the government announced the lockdown the very next day.

Tough times, eh?

In the nine years that I have been riding, this is probably the longest that I have had to stay away from my bike. I did manage to take her out once, for a grocery run to stretch her legs (and mine), and over the 24-odd kilometres I rode her, she feels just as spirited as the day we got her, or maybe it was the empty road that tempted me to be a tad generous with the throttle. The new transmission is noticeably smoother and in fact is almost as good as the one on the newer batches.

The dream of getting down and dirty with the Xpulse might be shattered for now, but she still gets her much-needed TLC. And along with my RC 200 for company, the Xpulse gets a weekly scrub and a stroll around the parking lot to avoid flat spots. I have toured, commuted and hit the trails with the Xpulse and though she does it all without any protest, she is a hoot off the beaten track and now that I am locked away, I can’t help but wonder what she could pull off once armed with the Rally Kit (take the hint, Hero). L Manaal Mahatme

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APRIL/MAY ’20 ISSUE IN PRINT

GROUP A HEROES Road-going rally-rockets including Mitsubishi Evo 6.5, Subaru Impreza Type RA, Delta Integrale, Toyota Celica GT-Four and Ford RS Cosworth. And our experiences of running them here in India.

Plus all the new cars and SUVs that’ll be hitting the roads once lockdown lifts Pre-order your copy at: www.gtopublishing.com/evoindia Magazine will be delivered as soon as the lockdown lifts Want to be notified when the magazine is out?

Subscribe to our WhatsApp list at +91 93075 07326 or drop us an e-mail on evo.editorial@gtopublishing.com

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