Daniel Pedrosa, the diminutive Spaniard who broke his collar bone at Le Mans thanks to an overtaking error by Marco Simoncelli, has not yet decided if he wants surgery on the broken clavicle or if he will let it heal naturally. Depending on the decision that he takes and also the healing of the injury, Dani Pedrosa will see if he can or cannot participate in the Grand Prix of Catalunya in about three weeks time. Pedrosa has been dogged by injuries in the recent past and has gone under the surgical knife many times and that cannot all be good for his body. His team mate Casey Stoner has expressed his sympathies and condolences to Pedrosa and hoped that he will get back to racing soon and become a challenger for the world championship.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Yet again ICB or Indian Cars Bikes.in has said that it has learnt that the trial production of the Kawasaki Ninja 650R has begun at Bajaj Auto’s Chakan plant. Bajaj Auto will assemble the Ninja 650R from CKD kits that it imports from Thailand and/or Japan, just as it has been doing with the Ninja 250R. ICB says the possible date of launch of the bike into the market is 8th of June, 2011. It is well known that Bajaj has been running a teaser ad of this bike on its website for sometime now. This bit of news portends to glad tidings for big bike fans who can afford them.
The venerable Indian Autos Blog.com has said that Maruti could launch a proper production version of the R3 MPV that is showcased at the Auto Expo in 2010. IAB has quoted Bloomberg news as its source. The R3 will feature 3 rows of front facing seats and will be smaller than the current king of MPVs the Toyota Innova. It is likely to be built on a stretched SX4 which itself is supposed to be a stretched Swift platform. How much truth there is in this news remains to be seen. But Maruti did appear certain of wanting to do an MPV style vehicle to expand its portfolio.
Here is another piece of news about another “small” car. Our source is again Indian Cars Bikes.com which is claiming that the trial production of the yet to be named mini Xylo may already have commenced and therefore the launch of the said vehicle is in the not too distant future. They mini Xylo is a truncated version of the Xylo and will conform to the under four metre and having a diesel engine of less than 1.5 litre capacity in order to take advantage of the lower taxes for cars falling into this category.
There have been persistent rumours about Tata working on yet another car in the small car space. The project is codenamed Dolphin and this car is supposed to slot in between the Indica and the Nano. Indian Cars Bikes.in is now reporting that this car will incorporate the tall boy architecture as seen in the Wagon R and that this car which will be high on vertical space will target the Wagon R directly. The Wagon R is the second largest selling car model of Maruti after the Alto and sell an average of 12,000 units every month. It seems every manufacturer wants to break the Maruti stronghold.
It seems all car manufacturers have realized that the Indian car buyer is not likely to part with his money too easily. They also seem to have understood that the high volume smaller profit segment is where all the action is. They must also have seen that Maruti has the lion’s share in this segment with its Alto itself selling more than 30,000 units per month. All manufacturers are therefore making a beeline to make small cars and breach the Maruti bastion. Skoda has now put all speculation to rest by confirming that a car smaller than the Skoda and priced much cheaper will be introduced in the Indian car bazaar. The car is likely to be launched sometime in 2013 and will be placed in the price band of INR 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs and will come with both diesel and petrol engines.
India Yamaha Motor has now set its eyes on the game of Football as it exclusively organizes the Yamaha ASEAN CUP, U-13 Football 2011 for the first time in India. The tournament is being held from May 15 – 28, 2011 and will witness participation from 120 players & 8 teams from Pune, Nagpur, Kerala, Kolkata and Assam.
The Tournament winner will be representing India at the third Yamaha ASEAN Cup U-13 Football Finals to be held in Thailand from July 15, 2011 to July 17, 2011. The participants will comprise of 6 teams from 5 Asian countries namely- India, Thailand (2), Indonesia, Vietnam & Malaysia.
The full press release
Yamaha kicks-off Football fever in India
Organizes the ASEAN Cup U-13 Football for the first-time in India
New Delhi, May 17, 2011 – After introducing racing culture to the youth of India, India Yamaha Motor has now set its eyes on the game of Football as it exclusively organizes the Yamaha ASEAN CUP, U-13 Football 2011 for the first time in India. The tournament is being held from May 15 – 28, 2011 and will witness participation from 120 players & 8 teams from Pune, Nagpur, Kerala, Kolkata and Assam.
The Tournament winner will be representing India at the third Yamaha ASEAN Cup U-13 Football Finals to be held in Thailand from July 15, 2011 to July 17, 2011. The participants will comprise of 6 teams from 5 Asian countries namely- India, Thailand (2), Indonesia, Vietnam & Malaysia.
The preliminary round of the tournament will include the intra-state matches amongst the eight teams from across India. The winning teams from preliminary round will then compete at inter-state level for the final round, both to be played in Kolkata.
Mr. Jun Nakata, Director – Sales and Marketing, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd. said, “Football has always taken a backseat in India in spite of being one of the most popular sports worldwide. With more than 50% of the population below the age of 25, we feel that there lies a huge potential in India to take this game to new heights. By organizing the Yamaha ASEAN Cup 2011, we not only want to capture the right talent but also contribute to the development and promotion of the game in the country.”
“Yamaha Motor Company has been successfully organizing the Yamaha ASEAN Cup U-13 Football since 2008. This is the first time that Yamaha has organized this tournament in India and we are committed to promote the spirit of football in India by offering a platform to budding football enthusiasts to display their talent”, he added.
Yamaha’s corporate culture has always given special importance to popularize, promote, and support a range of sports, including motorcycle racing. These activities are a direct reflection of the ‘spirit of challenge’ that the company values highly in its corporate culture as well as in its commitment to youth development and social contribution.
About India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd.
Yamaha made its initial foray into India in 1985. In August 2001, Yamaha India became a 100% subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, Japan (YMC). In 2008, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. entered into an agreement with YMC to become a joint-investor in the motorcycle manufacturing company “India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM)”.
IYM operates from its state-of-the-art manufacturing units at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana and produces motorcycles both for domestic & export markets. With a strong workforce of more than 2,000 employees, IYM is highly customer-driven and has a countrywide network of over 400 dealers. Presently, its product portfolio includes VMAX (1,679cc), MT01 (1,670cc), YZF-R1 (998cc), Fazer (153cc), FZ-S (153cc), FZ16 (153cc), SZ & SZ-X (153cc), YZF-R15 (150cc), SS125 (123cc), YBR 125 (123cc), YBR 110 (106cc) and Crux (106cc).
According to Indian Cars Bikes.in Royal Enfield is planning to renew the chromed out Machismo version of the Bullet Classic 500 UCE. Without the slightest of doubt the bike will look great in a chromed out livery. So here is hoping that this product will hit the market soon enough with all the glitches and problems that plague the current Classic 500 UCE properly ironed out. Anyway it is now known that Royal Enfield is testing a remapped fuel injection system since there have been some problems with the existing system.
No says Indian Autos Blog.com. It was rumoured that the VisionD concept that has spawned a new design language for Skoda will be the inspiration for the Rapid sedan from Skoda which will be based on the Fabia platform. Indian Autos Blog.com now reports that the Rapid will have design cues from the existing Laura while the VisionD cues will be incorporated in other cars which are due to make their debut much later. Seems like an accurate story.
Tata Motors has a lot standing on the success of the little Nano, which has garnered attention not just in India but abroad as well. Touted as the world’s cheapest car and also as a solution to problems in the urban space the world over, the Nano needs to succeed if Tata is to gain a good reputation in all markets, anywhere in the world. However, the story of the Nano did not have a fairy tale beginning thanks to the agitation for land led by the soon to be Chief Minister of West Bengal Ms. Mamata Banerjee which forced Tata to leave Singur in Bengal in the East and go to Sanand in Gujarat in the West. The transition was painful and delayed the launch of the vehicle properly leading to waning customer interest. Negative publicity around the product and few fires in brand new Nanos lead to customers shying away from the Nano. However, many automobile magazines have tested the Nano over long and tortuous distances and have given a thumbs up to the car. Tata in order to restore customer confidence in the Nano had organized a super drive in the past, where the car travelled long distances and stopped at various points on the way telling customers along the way, what the car was all about. Tata Motors’ efforts have seen a small upswing in the Nano’s fortunes but more is required. Tata seems to know this and therefore have decided to do the super drive again. The super drive 2 as it is being called now will see the Nano circumnavigating around India. The drive was flagged off at Mumbai and will culminate at Rajkot after 28 days and having touched 60 cities and towns along the way. A dozen Nanos are involved in the super drive.