In a move that was anticipated, Tony Fernandes has bought out the specialist car manufacturer Caterham. Caterham makes only one model of car based on the Lotus7 designed by the legendary Colin Chapman who was the founder of Lotus. It is well known that Tony Fernandes is locked in a legal tussle with Group Lotus over the use of “Team Lotus”. The Chapman family has thrown its weight behind Group Lotus saying that they don’t want the dream of Colin Chapman to be torn into many entities. It is being speculated that Tony Fernandes purchased Caterham to put in place plan B that would involve the changing of Team Lotus into Caterham F1 in case he loses the court case. Fernandes has denied that as the basis for his move claiming that he always wanted to be a car manufacturer and therefore has taken this step. Not many are buying this argument. Fernandes has denied that there will be an immediate name change to the F1 team, saying that he will wait for the verdict and that there is nothing wrong with two Lotus teams in F1 just as there are two Manchester teams (United and City) in football in the English Premier League. He however said that at some point he will change his Air Asia GP2 team to Air Asia Caterham GP2.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Even as the deadline to decide the fate of this year’s Bahrain GP looms large (it is the 1st of May), protesters have written to Bernie Ecclestone, an open letter through Facebook and have requested him to cooperate with them and cancel the Bahrain GP because the dictatorial regime in Bahrain was putting down a democratic revolution with an iron hand. They have appealed to the conscience of the F1 fraternity to support them in their fight for democracy and have said that it is not morally correct to have entertainment while people are fighting for their rights.
Bernie Ecclestone seems to have found himself in a corner. He has been accused of paying bribes to the extent of $40 million to one Gribkowsky to ensure the he and present owners of F1 SVC retain control over the sport. However, in an appearance at the trial, Ecclestone has alleged that Gribkowsky had extorted the said amount by threatening to reveal the very secret structure of Ecclestone’s businesses to the world. Bernie Ecclestone is probably cooperating with the prosecution to get away with light punishment if found guilty. This opportunity is being used by Rupert Murdoch and Carlos Slim to take over F1. Bernie has said that he may retire if he found working with new people difficult. Is that an admission that F1 is passing into new owners’ hands?
Motorsport and rock music fans rejoice. The organisers of the first ever F1 GP in India are going the whole hog to make the event a huge success. So they are bringing on all the accessories that go with motor racing. During the GP weekend towards the end of October, the big bad boys of Heavy Metal, Metallica will be playing at the Greater Noida circuit called the Buddha Circuit. You can go and do your head banging and watch the race. Now that is killing two great birds with one stone. But the only fly in the ointment could be the price of the tickets. If you can afford them, you are king. This news is courtesy of Indiancarsbikes.in
Wheelsunplugged.com has revealed that Mahindra which bought out the rights for the Logan platform in India along with the stake of its erstwhile JV partner Renault, has now expressed a desire to take up contract manufacturing of the car for Renault if the latter wanted it. Indian manufactured cars go to many right hand drive markets, the biggest of them being South Africa. Mahindra has only a couple of days ago relaunched the Logan as the Verito minus the Renault badging. Now Mahindra says it will be happy undertake contract work for Renault, since nothing on it has been changed as yet, except for the name that is.
Hindustan Motors has a tremendous knack of selling cars that have long ceased production elsewhere in the world. The shining example of this is the Ambassador, sold about half a century ago in Britain as the Morris Oxford. The Ambassador continues to sell even after the rest of the world forgot about it. Now HM has added another vehicle to its list of old cars, the Pajero of a few generations ago. While newer generations of the Pajero/Montero have come and gone, HM is steadfastly selling the Pajero which many consider to the best made by Mitsubishi. A true off roader, that relied on a ladder chassis rather than the monocoque versions that followed and qualify them more as soft roaders than a hardcore off roader. HM has managed to keep customer interest alive in the old Pajero with its usual bag of tricks mainly involving paint changes. Now the exiting engine has been detuned to make it BSIV compliant. This report is courtesy of Motorbeam.com
Audi has taken a turn from being a maker of sedate cars to making exciting cars that give an adrenaline rush. One of the anticipated launches is that of the Audi A7 Sportback (that is Audi speak for hatchback). The car looks racy and creates flutter even while it is standing still. Now the news is that the car will be launched on the 11th of May, 2011. Great news if you are rich and have a crore of rupees to spend as small change. For the others it is good news as well, you can go to the showroom and ogle or while on the road hope to see one zip past you.
GM has endeared itself to the auto journalist fraternity by launching the Chevrolet Beat almost in the same form that it was, when it was a concept. The funky Beat has many firsts to its credit, the most obvious being the motorcycle style dash board. It has also been the symbol of a resurgent GM. So when GM showed the concept of the next gen Aveo the world went gaga over it and with good reason. The Aveo Concept had even more avant garde design features and when the car received the Sonic moniker in its production form, speculation was rife that the Sonic twins (hatchback and booted version) would come to India as well. Now Indiancarsbikes.com has poured icy waters over that with news that instead of the Sonic twins the Chinese developed Sail twins will replace the ageing Aveo duo of the sedan and the U-VA hatchback, both very competent but somehow not capturing the imagination of the Indian customer. GM may have chosen the Sail twins because those cars are expected to be very inexpensive and competent though lacking the flair of the Sonic twins. India is a very price sensitive market, but GM should perhaps also think about why their Aveo twins failed. Conservative design and lack of excitement. So while price is important, it is obvious that it is not everything.
We have been talking about production cuts that have been forced on Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda due to the huge destruction unleashed by the fearsome tsunami that has taken many lives and has rendered factories useless. Indian Autos Blog is now saying that the facelifted Toyota Corolla Altis which has been talked about for aeons now has been further delayed due to the shortage of parts. Bad news for Toyota fans and there are many of them here in India like there are in the rest of the world.
Indian Autos Blog has reported that the sales of the Ford Figo have crossed one lakh units already. It is just over a year since the launch has happened and the Figo has given good reason for Ford to cheer about. Not only has it sold more numbers than other Ford cars, it has also done it in a record short time. This is good news for Ford since they have been sitting around in India for a pretty long time with not much success to show except for the initial enthusiasm for the Ikon and the Fiesta. The frugal diesel engine and a nice taut chassis have given the Figo good handling characteristics along with fuel efficiency and that has done the trick. Doesn’t matter if it was late, but at least it happened. We hope that Ford builds on this and doesn’t squander the advantage away.