The Innova which is a best seller for Toyota in India is due for a facelift and that has been revealed at the Indonesian Motor Show. The model features a new grille and head lamp treatment and the interiors too are likely to get a mild make over.
Picture Courtesy: Indian Autos Blog
The Hindu newspaper has reported that Hero Honda will unveil their new corporate identity that has been worked out after working with Wolff Olins, on the 9th of August, 2011 at London. The Hero group have the choice of using the Honda name till 2014 but have decided to go ahead straight away to build a strong brand identity will the technical collaboration with Honda is still alive. The fact that they have chosen London as the venue for the unveiling of their new identity indicates their seriousness in becoming an internationally recognizable brand. The company will be called Hero MotoCorp and will have a new logo and other communication strategies as per this branding.
While the webzines have been saying that the diesel engined Chevrolet Beat will be launched today, advertisements on TV indicate that the car will be launched on the 27th, with the husband in TVC telling his wife that from 27th July their life will change. So we shall see if it is today or the day after tomorrow.
Sunny and balmy California saw a memorable MotoGP race in which Casey Stoner displayed his genius in motorcycle racing to snatch victory from Jorge Lorenzo in style. The race started with pole man Lorenzo on his Yamaha getting of to a good start and leading the race till the 26th lap on the race when Stoner on the Repsol Honda put a stunning move around the outside of Lorenzo to snatch the lead and then build a huge gap in the next six laps. Stoner’s teammate Daniel Pedrosa who was in second place for much of the race faded towards the end and finished a distant third. The third Repsol Honda of Andrea Dovizioso was overtaken by the Yamaha of Ben Spies for fourth place on the penultimate lap of the race and Valentino Rossi brought home his Ducati GP11.1 in sixth just a few tenths ahead of his teammate Nicky Hayden on the Ducati GP11. Marco Simoncelli crashed out unaided yet again and that means the question mark is now getting bolder on his MotoGP future. Honda seems to have more or less decided not to renew contract with him but the slew of crashes may make him a rider unworthy of interest for others as well.
The official Mercedes Petronas GP team did not give much to cheer to Mercedes Benz who have the tradition of Silver Arrows at the Nurburgring, but the Mercedes powered McLaren of Lewis Hamilton did not disappoint the company or its many guests at the Nurburgring by winning the German GP. The Formula1 German GP alternates between Hockenheim and Nurburgring and this year the Formula1 contract with Nurburgring ends, until of course, negotiations are successful for retention of the present agreement. Even with this threat looming large along with that of rain, the German GP turned out to be very exciting with a three way battle involving Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. Pole sitter Mark Webber in the Red Bull Racing car found his wings being clipped when he botched the start and allowed Lewis Hamilton to get ahead of him. Right behind Webber on the grid was Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull Racing car who got caught with Webber’s bad start and found himself demoted to fourth and fifth in the order and never recovered properly to fight for a win. In an exciting battle of pit stops that was left till the penultimate lap of the race, the RBR crew tyred Vettel faster than Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and so Vettel managed a fourth place. Not bad, since before the race at the Nurburgring Vettel was leading with 80 points in the championship. Webber’s pit strategy went awry and found him being demoted to third from first, a place he had gained in the first stop. Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari drove a controlled race to get to the second position in the race.
Two wheeler racing is undergoing tremendous challenges. Kawasaki have pulled out of MotoGP and Suzuki is threatening to pull out of MotoGP and World Superbikes after cutting its involvement down to one rider in each of the two series. Francis Batta, the man who has been running the Alstare Suzuki team is unhappy with Suzuki not taking any firm decision on their status for next year. Meanwhile Kawasaki is reportedly unhappy with Paul Bird Motorsport who replaced the Italian Corse-1 as the outfit looking after the factory effort of Kawasaki in World Superbike. There are five teams including PBM to represent the factory Kawasaki effort next year. One of them is Francis Batta. An alliance between Batta and Kawasaki could be very interesting given the fact that Batta is known to run a tight ship and transformed the Suzuki factory effort into an almost World Championship winning one. Everything should be clear in a few weeks’ time since Kawasaki is keen on starting preparation for next year’s season early.
This year Valentino Rossi and the Ducati have been making news for all the wrong reasons. Rossi’s performance on the Ducati GP11 was so underwhelming that he forced them to bring next year’s bike in a destroked form to this year as GP11.1. When this was done there was hue and cry about the ethics and some such as Casey Stoner suggested that this was akin to cheating. But whatever worries they had may have evaporated due to the even more underwhelming performance of the bike and the rider and so everybody has let things be. Nicky Hayden who initially wanted the GP11.1 was not so sure anymore after seeing Rossi struggle. Ducati has taken both the GP 11 and the GP11.1 (one each for Nicky Hayden and for Rossi) to Laguna Seca. In the first practice that had Casey Stoner on top Nicky Hayden rode the GP11 to 7th place while Rossi rode the GP11.1 to ninth. In the second session which saw Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo come to the front turned out to be even more difficult for Hayden and Rossi. Hayden rode the GP11.1 to 10th place while Rossi continued on the GP11.1 to finish in 11th place. It is just as well that Ben Bostrom is riding as a wild card since come qualifying he could be the difference between Rossi and the last place on the grid for tomorrow’s race!!!!
It only seems like yesterday that the alliance between Volkswagen and Suzuki had happened. There were all kinds of speculation about this will benefit both companies and also Maruti Suzuki. In fact, some of the motoring journos went overboard saying that some of Maruti’s small cars could be rebranded as VW models while Maruti and Suzuki found access to VW’s diesel engine technology. But today the alliance is on the rocks so much so that many business publications are predicting a separation. The Japanese are known to be fiercely independent and Osamu Suzuki is known to play hard ball. That is why in two wheelers the alliance between Suzuki and Kawasaki slowly dissolved without anything coming out of it as did the one with GM. Off late Suzuki has been courting Fiat for diesel engine technology and this has made business analysts believe that Suzuki-Fiat is a more natural dalliance because of similarity of portfolios. But we think that that could very well be the reason that Fiat and Suzuki don’t need each other. Suzuki needs small capacity diesel engines to fit its cars and Fiat has them. So the logical thing would be to buy engine tech and that is what Suzuki seems to be doing.
When the BMW X6 broke cover, it was a unique vehicle; one that combined a coupe with an SUV. The X6 has seen enough success for other companies to want to create a similar vehicle. The Audi Q6 and now the Mercedes MLC will soon compete from the same space. Remains to be seen if the X6 retains its pioneer’s advantage.
Picture Courtesy: Indian Autos Blog.com
Autocar India.com has scooped a picture of the Mahindra owned Ssangyong Rexton II being tested in India. The first Rexton was based on the Mercedes ML class while the Rexton II has been extensively worked on. However, the grille is a dead give away of the intent and aspirations of Ssangyong as a company. Autocar India says that the Korando C which is a soft roader as opposed to the body on chassis Rexton will come to India before the Rexton.
Picture Courtesy: Autocar India.com
