It has just emerged that HRT has successfully appealed to the stewards at Monaco to allow them to compete in tomorrow’s race, since their no show had something to do with both cars not being ready for qualifying. The source of this news is Team HRT and not the FIA.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Sebastian Vettel has resumed normal service which was disrupted in the last week’s GP at Barcelona by claiming pole for the fifth time in six outings this year. Vettel is also on an incredible run of eleven straight first row starts. Vettel and Red Bull Racing have dominated this year’s races so far, with victory going to Vettel in all but one of the five races held this year. Mark Webber in the other Red Bull car had a poor start to the season but was able to put his car on pole last week only to lose the race to Vettel. Mark Webber qualified third on the grid in the Q3 of qualifying session which was marred by a high speed crash involving Sergio Perez in a Sauber. The session had to be red flagged with just a little over two minutes remaining and when the session resumed Lewis Hamilton who had not gone out till then found himself with only one lap to qualify and that put him in seventh position. In qualifying seventh Hamilton drove his McLaren across a chicane and it is possible that race direction could demote him further if they believe that he gained an unfair advantage. His team mate Jenson Button qualified second while Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari qualified fourth. Michael Schumacher out qualified his younger Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this year to finish fifth on the grid and Felipe Massa was down in sixth in the other Ferrari. Rosberg could only manage eighth and the ninth place went to Pastor Maldonado who yet again made it to Q3 while his more experienced Williams team mate Rubens Barichello did not make the cut into Q3. In what can only be considered bizarre the Hispania Racing Team did not turn a wheel of the cars of either of its two drivers in qualifying. Vitantonio Liuzzi all but destroyed his car in a free practice crash. This year due to the introduction of the 107% qualification rule it means that the HRT cars will not race tomorrow. Narain Karthikeyan can yet again sit back and relax in his pit garage and enjoy the scenic views of Monte Carlo and also watch the race in air conditioned comfort.
This is another old rumour resurfacing again. In the past it had been touted that the Nissan NV200 MPV would be launched in India to take on the Toyota Innova. The rumour then faded away to resurface yet again now. In the meanwhile the NV200 has been chosen by the New York Yellow Taxi to replace its decrepit fleet of Crown Coronas from Ford. We would like to put things in perspective here. Even if the NV200 is launched it will not be and cannot be pitted against the Innova which has car like dynamics and is perceived of as an owner driven luxury vehicle. The Nissan will go straight into the taxi and tour operator segment, of this you can be sure.
It is believed that Honda is in the process of preparing for a Diwali launch for the much anticipated Brio small car. Honda hopes to be back on full steam by July and therefore believes that it can stick to the original schedule that it had of launching the Brio hatchback during the festive season. Enthusiastic auto journos had predicted that Honda would fast track the launch of the Brio to counter the Etios Liva hatchback from arch rival Toyota. It now emerges that there was no such plan in the offing and Honda has always wanted to launch the Brio during the festive season only.
A few months ago strong rumours that Yamaha was on the verge of launching scooters had emerged on various automobile forums. Yamaha had cliniced a few models in Pune and there was also talk of electric scooters coming from the Japanese manufacturer. The rumours quietly died down and the focus shifted on to first the Yamaha R125 which the forums said was actually the new R 15. There was then a rumour of a 250cc Yamaha based on the FZ chassis. Now yet again the internet is witnessing rumours of Yamaha launching scooters in early 2012. Now we don’t know what to believe and what not to.
As was announced sometime ago, the Tatas who own Jaguar/Land Rover have commenced assembly of the Freelander2 model from Land Rover. Parts from the Halewood factory (Liverpool) of Land Rover have reached India and have been put on the assembly line with spanking new Freelander2s rolling of it. Some reports have been suggesting that this will bring the price down by Rs. 7 to 8 lakh!! That seems a little incredible to say the least.
The Tata Nano owes its travails mostly to one lady who goes by the name of Mamata Banerjee. The said lady was instrumental in driving the Tatas out of Singur in West Bengal when she launched an agitation to reclaim lands taken from farmers by the then CPI(M) government for the Nano project. With negotiations becoming very protracted and with the Nano ageing even before it left the assembly line, the Tatas were forced to look for other locations and finally ended up crossing over to the other side of the country to Sanand in Gujarat. While the Tatas transported most of the equipment from the 1000 acre site the sheds and their empty outer hulls remained untouched. The matter is sub judice now. With Ms. Banerjee sweeping the polls and coming to power there were unsubstantiated rumours of a penitent Mamatadi and Trinamool Congress inviting the Tatas to go back to Singur. It now emerges that no such thing is in the offing and the 1000 acres of land remains a dispute.
Drafting in new bikes or revamped versions under the garb of test mules seem to get noticed and more importantly get advertised quite easily than by shelling out wads of money in the form of ads; a case in point being the much-touted R15 upgrade that was caught doing the test rounds few months ago. There’s a flipside to this approach, though; writers and readers tend to get overly optimistic about the product and spike the expectations dangerously high for the upcoming real product to live up to.
Ok, there’s no point in arguing the toss now; the freshly dressed YZF-R bike has unofficially been confirmed to be the upgraded R15. At least that’s what sounds logical now. It’s neither the extremely sporty R125 nor is it the sports 250. What should have gotten launched months ago, has done an unexpected bunk. However, the perennially active automotive scene ensures it jogs our memory by churning out frequent updates about the upcoming R15, true or not.
Image : Bikeadvice.in
Having concurred it’s indeed the updated R15, how exactly will the updates seep into the existing model remains a riddle. Not that it’s no-way-out for the Japanese marquee, it’s a matter of which way to take from a slew of routes available so that it goes down a bomb with the biking fraternity.
Isn’t it pleasing to learn that in line with international standards, Yamaha has not left the Indian YZF out in the cold and has sought to give its first major facelift? The R15, in current state of tune, is adequately fast and reasonably fuel efficient. Knowing the emission norms have a tighter rein over the horses, it’d only be sane to expect little or no power upgrade. This forces us to focus on two things that couldn’t steer clear of the critics due to not being in vogue – rear styling and rear tyre size.
To understand things clearly about R15’s rear faux-pas, park the R15 next to Ninja and you’d get what I’m saying. After all, Ninja is the only sports bike in our country that’s worth comparing with the R15 purely in terms of styling. The rear design of the Ninja leaves the R15’s completely standing while the rest of the assets of R15 would stand toe-to-toe with the Ninja in a slightly scaled down manner, though. The stepped-up split seat is a de-facto way to spruce up the sportiness. This will be at the cost of pillion comfort, but it should not be a big deal as the R15 has already established its sports-bike credentials firmly.
Next in queue are the extremely functional yet eye-repelling tyre profiles that need a revamp pretty badly. Despite performance crusaders raising hell about tangible performance drop if anything above current tyre profile is adopted, the onus is on the engineers to throw their technical weight around to remain true to both function and form. After all, the European R125, despite being a 15PS machine, sports a bigger and better looking tyre profile just shy of FZ16’s and YouTube videos don’t portray them to be a slouch either. Do the engineers have what it takes to pamper both performance and posing facets of biking or would they tend to take sides with one of them also remains a big question. I for one would love to see a bigger rear tyre; retaining or bettering present functionality goes without saying.
Maximum bang for buck or even beyond is what aptly sums up our market, right? When Yamaha compared the R15 with the mighty R1 to highlight the similarities, we retaliated by pointing out the European specific R125 to highlight the design gaps. We were also witty enough to shift the focus to the Pulsar 220 for the want of more low-end grunt and pricing as the R125 is palpably slower than the R15 and astronomically expensive, too.
We want the best of everything, don’t we – the low end of the P220, styling of the R125 while keeping the top end performance of the R15 intact. If the test mules’ images the net was replete with few months back and the more realistic and updated one that showed up few days back were anything to go by, we’re in for a visual feast in few weeks/months’ time. An R125 look alike is on the anvil with a swashbuckling rear, sharper profile and a substantial look to boot. Personally, I feel the golden decals should make a comeback on the revamped version. This, along with a golden paint job on the alloys, should look like a million bucks; like the one here.
Despite this great mirth surrounding what can be done, does Yam’s stony silence especially at the aftermath of CBR250’s entry hint at something else? Is Yamaha playing the waiting game so the CBR250’s launch doesn’t steal its due spotlight, or is it biding time to ensure their latest version means business? Let’s remain a little pragmatic here. The Honda’s new salvo’s not going to heavily revise Yamaha’s plans, but is sure to influence it wee bit. How about slashing a few grands and nudge the OTR figure under a lakh? Keeping the costs lower will be a steep hill to climb at which juncture comes the need to localize remainder of the still-imported components. With India fast morphing into a manufacturing and export hub for many a foreign player, isn’t the time ripe to make it completely Indian?
We aren’t oblivious to how tightly packed The R15 was with technology when it was launched almost three years back. Having been at the brim on almost all the fronts, the scope for improvement is realistically minimal especially in the light of opponents’ not-so-fast-paced demarches. The spy pictures, too, have evoked favourable response from even the usually critical quarters, and have almost solved the riddle surrounding the machine. The final product isn’t going to be way off from what was spied but still the pulse rate shoots up to learn the upgraded version is somewhere lurking around the corner. The expectations have again been heightened and this time, it should be worth the wait.
The Fiat Punto Evo is the face-lifted version of the Fiat Grande Punto that has been adored by cars buyers and auto scribes alike worldwide. The Abarth Punto Evo steps out of the phone booth, donning the scorpion logo and delivers a 0 to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds, thanks to the 165 HP Multiair 1.4 16 V.
We found some design sketches, that we believe you will find interesting.
via Autoblog.com
Chris Vermeulen of the Kawasaki Racing Team in World Superbike Championships is yet to recover from a knee injury that was the result of a crash last year. There have been attempts by Vermeulen to race but all of them have come to naught. This weekend again Chris Vermeulen will be missing from action at the Miller Park in the USA where the next round of WSBK racing will take place.