Yearly Archives: 2012

If you weren’t convinced by the Panda 4×4 , Fiat has built for you a Monster Truck in collaboration with Mercurio Cinematografica, set designer Andrea Faini and the Fabio Gementi Workshop to highlight the off-road performance of the Panda 4×4.

Fiat borrowed a Jeep CJ7 4200 floor panel from their friends at Chrysler and fit road tractor wheels shod with “High Speed” tyres, 150 cms in diameter and 50 cm wide. The ‘bigfoot’ Panda, is 390 cms tall, 380 cm long and 250 cm wide. Fiat says this prototype was built in two weeks.

Fiat has put out a video (minus the audio) of the Panda Monster Truck that can be found on YouTube. Come 2013 and we should probably see this video on television as a full blown ad telling the story of four friends who set off for a weekend in the mountains. The Panda 4×4 will be the star as you would expect and will be shown transforming into a Monster Truck to climb up to the hostel.

The blue oval reaffirms its status as one of the most creative automotive brands in India that can use social media to its advantage with its new ‘Throw a Pillow’ app that lets you ‘keep your friends awake’ for the Ford Midnight Sale to be held on 5th December 2012 across the 160 Ford dealerships in the country. The Midnight Sale is the start to Ford’s month long ‘December Dhamaal’ campaign.

As with previous midnight sales, various benefits are being offered on the Ford models.

The midnight sale is bigger this year with gifts worth Rs. 3.5 crores for the taking. All customers who book a Ford on December 5 will get a chance to win assured gifts such as LED TVs, washing machines, home theatre systems, microwave ovens and more.

Customers can drop in at any Ford from as early as 8.00 in the morning and as late as 12.00 midnight on 5th December 2012.

The Macan will be smaller than the Cayenne and will be based on the Audi Q5 chassis with changes to make it more Porsche.

The Macan will play a very important role in Porsche’s Strategy 2018, the intention of which is to expand Porsche’s model line up. The site in Leipzig ,Saxony is being expanded into a fully-fledged production plant including body assembly line and paint shop. The 500 million Euro investment is one of the biggest building projects in Porsche’s corporate history. Porsche also says this will create 1000 new jobs.

The SUV will start coming off the production lines in Leipzig in 2013.

A three door version, and a hybrid shouldn’t be too far down the line.

Damian Dinning loved two things as a kid – cars and photography. In his own words ‘With regards to the latter, I wanted to be able to take photography from the nerdy or for special occasions only use it was at the time, to being part of everyday life.’ Which is exactly what he did with arguably three of the best smartphone cameras in the market – the N8, PureView 808 and the recently launched Nokia Lumia 920.

For a multitude of reasons, Damian Dinning has now seen it fit to pursue his other love – cars. In an exclusive statement to the PureView club, Damian Dinning said “As for my future, I am moving to an industry I’ve wanted to be part of for a very long time. My experience in telecoms and smartphones provides me with a great opportunity to make a difference in a company whose own development is inspiring at a time of great change. I am thrilled that I’ll shortly be joining Jaguar Land Rover where I’ll take a role driving future innovations in the exciting new field of Connected Car.”

Jaguar Land Rover has always been at the frontlines with its infotainment system and with Damian Dinning it can only get better.

Remember the bucketloads of fun Jeremy Clarkson had with the Surround Camera System of the Range Rover?

More than just the scope for improvement of existing systems in JLR products, it is the ‘shiny’ new innovations that could take their place in JLR products courtesy of Dinning that have us in a frenzy. Dinning’s crowning achievement has to the PureView 808, with its 41 megapixel sensor. Who would’ve thought that even remotely possible? Yet it was done and a long look at the PureViewClub samples should give you an idea that there just doesn’t seem to be anything impossible with the 808. There have been often repeated comparisons of the 808 images with those from DSLRs and we can only imagine what the mind behind all that could do given the blank canvas of a Range Rover or an XJ.

While we understand you’d rather read about Audis with wheels, we could point out at least two regulars at Riot Engine who might have a word or two about this ‘Made in Germany’ Classic Chronograph wristwatch priced at Rs 21,499. The watch is available only in Black and as Audi says, ‘Crafted with perfection in design & engineering’. The chrono also has a date display, double stop function, tachymeter scale for measuring speed, with the internals being Swiss Ronda 5020.B quartz movement. It is water resistant to 5 atm.

‘A large chunk of luxury car buyers expect their accessories to reflect their style statement along with their car. To cater to this need of discerning luxury enthusiasts, we have a range of Audi Accessories that are in line with our motto of sportiness, sophistication and progressiveness. Etched with four rings insignia, the Classic Chronograph wristwatch testifies progression in our growth story in India and reiterates our commitment to offer Indian customers a comprehensive product range to meet their luxury needs’, said Mr. Michael Perschke, Head, Audi India.

That’s a little too much optimism, if we may say so Mr. Perschke. We’d guess the discerning Audi customer in India would rather splurge on the £1,500 Audi Design Square rather than the 21,499 rupee Classic Chrono simply because the former is much more expensive. There’s a better chance that you would see the Classic Chrono on my wrist while I’m zipping through the city on my Pulsar 220!

The newest addition to Harley Davidson’s Dyna family in India, the Fat Bob has been launched in India as a CKD ( completely knocked down ) unit. This is the sixth CKD from Harley Davidson India giving one additional box to tick for the Indian motorcycle enthusiast.

The Fat Bob is a Fat Bob thanks to the really wide front end with the 49mm tubes and 130mm section tyre, and the signature bobtail fender at the rear. The twin headlamps up front just beneath the triple clamp swathe this Dyna with more attitude than any other Harley in the Dyna family.

Harley Davidson has unfortunately decided to power the Fat Bob with last year’s Twin Cam 96 engine shared with the rest of the Dyna family in India while internationally the Fat Bob gets the newer Twin Cam 103. It makes perfect business sense considering the Twin Cam 103 engine would throw the benefits of CKD right out the window. It’s just as well, as more than one reviews have pointed out that one of the weaker points of an otherwise fantastic street brawler is the lack of feel at the front braking lever and lack of bite at the rear. ABS offered on the Fat Bob should make braking less terrifying. Just as many reviews have also pointed out that the relatively compact wheelbase makes changing direction and ultimately handling fantastic on the Fat Bob.

The air cooled Twin Cam 96 engine delivers max. torque of 126 Nm @ 3500 rpm of peak torque. The 1585 cc engine is mated to a six-Speed Cruise Drive transmission providing smooth, quiet shifting and reduced engine speed on the highway, so you get better road speed at lesser revs. Unlike the other models of the Dyna family, the Fat Bob gets the ‘Tommy Gun’ 2-1-2 exhaust which Harley Davidson says increases exhaust flow to provide heart stopping performance, signature Harley-Davidson rumble and big style.

Mr. Anoop Prakash, Managing Director, Harley-Davidson India said “Along with being an ideal motorcycle for India attitudes and roads, the introduction of the Fat Bob®, our newest addition to our lineup available through CKD, is further proof of our ability to move ahead of the marketplace by listening to our customers. The launch of the Fat Bob® as CKD will allow more customers to experience our Dyna range at an attractive price point. At Harley-Davidson India, we will continue to adopt and invest in strategies that make our products and ownership experience accessible to more enthusiasts and customers in India.”

Now we sit and twiddle ours thumbs waiting for Polaris India to bring home the Victory Judge, which seems to have had the Fat Bob in its sights right from the get go, maybe right from the moment the Victory’s designers first laid pencil on paper!