Loris Capirossi has announced his retirement from racing (not just MotoGP) at the end of the current racing season. The 38 year old racer appeared on the GP scene 22 years ago as tear away fast rider who won the 125cc World Championship in his rookie year. He also was a World Champion in the 250cc class when the class was most competitive with riders such as Max Biaggi, Luca Cadalora, Pierre Francesco Chilli, Loris Reggiani, Tetsuya Harada, Tadayuki Okada and later Valentino Rossi. Capirossi has decided to retire rather than race on a CRT machine or in World Superbikes.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Claudio Castiglioni the man who created the Cagiva brand (it stood for Castiglioni, Giovanni- father of Claudio, Varese-the name of the place where they came from) and also held Ducati for sometime before taking control of MV Augusta has died recently. We are sorry that we could not bring this news earlier. Castiglioni sold MV Augusta to Harley Davidson who during the recent recession sold it back to him. Castilglioni has an Indian connection. For sometime he was in discussion with the now defunct Kinetic Engineering for manufacture of 125cc Cagiva machines. Most recently however, he created waves by gifting an MV Augusta Brutale to Indian actor Saif Ali Khan, whose style Castiglioni liked enough to give him such an expensive gift. The best part is that he did not even know who Saif Ali Khan was. Rest in Peace Claudio. Your efforts on and off the race track will not be forgotten. His race achievements are considerable having built Cagiva 500s that had the power to beat the Hondas and the Yamahas and the Suzukis of that time. Eddie Lawson rode the bike to some victories. Other notable Cagiva riders were Doug Chandler, John Kocinski and Alex Barros.
Charlie Whiting the technical representative of the FIA and the race director in Formula1 races has visited the Buddh(a) International Circuit in Greater Noida, near New Delhi and has expressed his satisfaction with the work and the progress achieved thus far. This has paved the way for the circuit being homologated and the green light has been given for the first ever Formula1 GP of India. The even will be held as scheduled on the 30th of October, 2011. In another piece of news the final calender for 2012 has been issued by the FIA and the Formula1 GP will be held in India on the 28th of October, 2012. That puts to rest speculation that the Indian F1 GP may have been held in April, that slot now going to Bahrain. The calender shows 20 races and the Turkish F1 race does not figure on the calender.
Continuing on its quest to witness high sales growth, India Yamaha Motor posted a growth of 32 % in its domestic sales during August 2011 as compared to its sales in August last year. The company registered sales of 29,934 units in August 2011 vs. 22,683 units in the same month last year in the domestic markets. The export figures stood at 9,556 units in August 2011 while 7,778 motorcycles were exported in August 2010. The overall sales recorded were 39,490 units in August 2011 vs. 30,461 units in August 2010, a growth of 30%.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Roy Kurian, National Business Head, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are very happy with our consistent sales growth this year built on account of our strong product portfolio and high customer confidence achieved through many of our marketing initiatives including the Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) and the R15 One Make Race Championship. We are focused on increasing our reach in tier-2, tier-3 cities and the rural areas, for which we are planning to set up 3S (Sales, Service & Spares) facilities in these areas. We are also hopeful that the upcoming festive season will help us further boost our sales.”
Yamaha continues to reinforce its relationship with the customers and is conducting the ‘YES!YAMAHA’ campaign that endeavors to provide the Best 3S Experience so that the customer always appreciates Yamaha and accepts the brand like the word “YES”. The company is making steadfast efforts to connect with the consumers by engaging in various consumer-centric marketing initiatives at both National and Regional levels.\
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 & 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), FZ1 (998cc), Fazer (153cc), FZ-S (153cc), FZ (153cc), SZ, SZ-X & SZ-R (153cc), YZF-R15 (150cc), SS125 (123cc), YBR 125 (123cc), YBR 110 (106cc) and Crux (106cc).
The facelifted C class from Mercedes Benz has been launched in India today with prices starting from Rs. 29.79 lakhs (ex showroom Delhi). The new C is surprising cheaper than the old model that it replaces with the petrol model costing less by Rs. 10,000 while the diesel model is cheaper by Rs. 90,000. This is obviously a part of the new offensive that Mercedes Benz is unleashing in India in order to wrest the crown of largest selling luxury car from BMW. Mercedes has also said that it is getting associated with the first ever Formula1 GP of India this October and that it will leverage the fact that there is a Mercedes GP team on the grid along with McLaren and Force India teams which are powered by Mercedes Benz engines.
Picture Courtesy: Motorbeam.com
We Indians have been beating our chests and tomtomming to the world that Bajaj Auto is behind the lower capacity KTM Duke motorcycles. An entry level 125cc Duke is apparently manufactured in India and sold to the whole of Europe and we were informed that we Indians will get to buy a bigger capacity Duke with a 200cc engine. Now that bike too has been launched but in Malaysia and not in India as yet. When will it come to India or should we ask when will it remain in India (since it is supposed to be made in Chakan by Bajaj)? Auto Expo 2012. We hope we are not “Waiting for Godot”.
The second product from Renault for the Indian market after the Fluence is the Koleos softroader. Motorbeam.com has reported that the official date for the launch of the said vehicle has been set and that it would be the 8th of September, 2011. New Delhi is where the formal unveiling of the vehicle would take place.
All is not lost for Tamil Nadu. Despite having lost the race to get Peugeot to set up store near Chennai, Tamil Nadu seems to have attracted Mahindra to its shores. The Mahindras have announced that they will be setting up a new plant in Tamil Nadu though it is unclear as to what products would be manufactured from there. The more fertile imaginations have already started saying that this plant will manufacture Ssangyong vehicles such as the Korando C and the Rexton.
The PSA Peugeot-Citroen group has finally zeroed in on Sanand as the location for its car manufacturing plant in India. It was widely believed that Peugeot would actually set shop in Tamil Nadu already the preferred destination for many automobile manufacturers. However, with Gujarat now getting a new sheen after the Tata Nano plant went to Sanand, it seems to have become the next big destination for auto companies. Ford has announced that it will set up its second manufacturing plant in Gujarat while Maruti and Bajaj are also known to be mulling on setting up new plants in that state. The cost of the Peugeot project is estimated at Rs. 4,000 crores.
Today is apparently a day for bits of bizarre news. BS Motoring.com has reported that the venerable British motorcycle brand Triumph will start the manufacture of 267-350cc for Asia in Brazil. The thus manufactured bike will be assembled from CKD kits in Thailand and will be sold in different parts of Asia. Some of the specific features may include those to suit local tastes and BS Motoring.com is speculating that India too will get this bike. Nice to see Triumph incorporating globalization into its bikes’ manufacture and sale.