Exponents of a fast cause
| The fastest Accelerating car In a corner of hall 7 is a car that most people overlooked, because Caparo, the creators of the T1, didn't look like they wanted too much attention. They had it in grey, a dark steel grey, so grey that it looked like unpainted panels. |
| But of course, it's made out of carbon-fibre. So they skimped on paint, sheathed in the exotic stuff, so it must be fast, right? Very fast indeed. 570 bhp may sound like something you hear from a Corvette, but because it weighs less than a tonne, it can leave a Bugatti Veyron pulling up its skirts and scurrying for cover. |
| It also is unbelievably agile. And if you read this and still haven't visited the Auto Expo, pay homage to this car, because it has an Indian connection in it, making it the fastest accelerating production car (if you call it a car) in the world. One more reason to feel proud, other than the Tata Nano. |
| The car to burn rubber in Buy yourself a Mitsubishi Evo X, if all you can do is drive like a hooligan. It will actually reward you for your senseless driving with wide grins and chuckles all the way to Mount Fuji. |
| The 300 bhp, all-wheel drive madness is good, and good for just one thing. Burning rubber. It has some really cool stuff like yaw control (should read yaw(n) control) and active differentials and four-wheel drive and nutty acceleration times. |
| It's also got a big-rear spoiler, neat side-skirts and yes, that 'mouth-wide-open' grille that could devour every other Japanese car in its path (before it becomes a snack for the Nissan GT-R). |
| Too bad, HM-Mitsubishi keep teasing the public at every Auto Expo, but refuse to launch it here. Start a signature campaign. Even get Parliament to pass a bill to make the Evo a compulsory import. Heck, if that doesn't work, I don't know what will? |
| The fastest Car This is the fastest car you cannot drive. Tom Kristensen can. So can Allan McNish. But not you. Not because you are not capable, but because it's not for sale. |
| It's the Audi R10, their Le Mans winning (diesel!) car. So what if you can't buy it? Gawk at it, because chances are this is the closest you might ever get to a 24-hour championship winning car. And Audi have been doing this ever since the turn of the millenium. |
| The 650-odd bhp supercar can hit a top speed of, hold your breath, 400 kph! And that too from a diesel that revs a couple of thousand rpm lower than a petrol. It even staved off competition from the Peugeot 908RC and took the top step of the podium in 2007. And then they might do it again in 2008. Call it boring reliability, but it surely is fast enough to want to rush to the Expo to catch a glimpse of. |
| How to be in Miami without actually being there Simple, buy a BMW 650i convertible. You might ask why the 650i, and not the M3. Well, why would you go about driving an M3, looking like a rich college dude, when you can be Hugh Grant with Gucci glares and an Ermenegildo Zegna suit to look the part? |
| Don't agree with us if you like, but a BMW 650i convertible feels at home close to a wealthy coastal town, with all the spunk and attitude of Calais. Or Miami. It's a big drop-down two-door car with a big-gaping chrome grille and lovely multi-spoke 18 or 19-inch wheels. |
| There's also the bit called 'V8 muscle' with 388 bhp off the 5000cc gasoline engine and a dash to 100 kph in less than 5.5 seconds. Top speed is academic, and if your German is as good as mine, 250 kph will be academic. And yes, make that paint finish option in white please. |
| Chop artist No, it doesn't ask you to go to the hair-salon of a certain top-rated filmstar with a six-pack. It demands you to just go to the nearby Tata showroom this February and order the Indigo CS or Compact (or Chopped in our terms) Sedan. |
| Remove the jargon and it's a notchback with a shortened boot, filed front and rear bumpers and new tail lamps. The rest of it is the same old Indigo. |
| So why have Tata bothered to do such expensive re-engineering on the car? Well, the eight per cent excise benefit means you now get the Indigo cheaper, because it measures less than four metres. Oops, you do lose out on the additional 150 odd-litres of the 'normal' Indigo's boot space though. |
| The one pickup we would pick up Yes, it's a Tata. Not an Isuzu or a Ford. Sure, the Xenon XT isn't as powerful as its Japanese or American counterparts, but hey, with something that looks so good, we just wouldn't care. |
| Bijoy, in particular, likes the two door one, I would take the one with the additonal two doors. Whatever your pick, you stand to win a car that looks proportionate and beautiful. Alas, this one has the 3.0-litre Dicor with 115 bhp only. How about a V8 powered, ethanol driven Xenon with 300 bhp, Tata? |
| The most beautiful small car It isn't the Nano, unfortunately, but that's only because Tata's partners, just a couple of feet away, have the Fiat 500 on display. Now you all know its high profile launch and the numerous awards it has won, and not without reason. |
| As a design it's achingly beautiful, so much so that your neighbour in his BMW Mini may feel he was robbed. But then, it also drives just as good as the Mini and has a price, in European terms, that sounds like a Thanksgiving weekend at the malls. |
| Maybe, Fiat could ask Tata to do a bit of their reengineering for India and bring down its price, and watch how it flies off showroom floors |
| The car with the bling quotient It has to be a Caddy. But this time, there's no Escalade, but the CTS saloon. Don't take it lightly, because it's already being touted as a very big competitor to the likes of BMW and Mercedes, an E-Class sized car for a C-Class price. |
| There are also a host of engines, including a V8 or two, and driving dynamics to make the Germans sit up and notice. And yes, there's the bling part. Nice multi-spoke chrome wheels, a large chrome grille, shiny metallic paint finish and the Cadillac badge on the boot in chrome silver. Yummy! |