Yearly Archives: 2012

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport launched in India

Go.Play. is how HM intends to market the new Mitsubishi Pajero in India. With the 2.5L 16 valve Common Rail DI-D engine with a variable geometry turbocharger, powering the new Pajero Sport, it shouldn’t be that hard. The High-Power 4D56 diesel powerplant is good for maximum power of 178 PS at 4000 rpm and 400Nm torque in the 2000-2850 rev range. The 5 speed manual transmission box is what we expect the Pajero Sport to come with, at least initially.

Pajero Sport unveiled by Mr. A Sankara Narayanan, Director, Hindustan Motors Ltd (left) and Mr. Masahiko Ueki, Executive Officer and Corporate General Manager of Asia and ASEAN Office, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Japan

Initially being launched as a CBU, Pajero Sport is priced at Rs. 23.53 lakh, ex-showroom New Delhi. For this price you also get Mitsubishi’s Super Select 4WD that lets you shift from 2H mode ( highway performance) to the 4H mode (traction, off road) without having to stop, up to a speed of 100km/h.

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport IndiaMitsubishi Pajero Sport India Launch 04

Double-wishbone front suspension with coil springs and a 3-link coil spring rear suspension, both with stabilizer bars working with the ladder-frame chassis endows it with the kind of off road ability that you associate with the brand ‘Pajero’. The rugged ladder-frame chassis is constructed with beams that are thinner, lighter steel while still providing all the strength of thicker beams, with less weight. Collapsible beads built into the frame absorb impact energy before it can reach the cabin interior.

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport India : DashboardMitsubishi Pajero Sport India : Interior

Available as a seven seater, the utilitarian Pajero offers flexible seating design. 60:40 split foldable second row, and flat folding third row make hauling extra luggage easy.

Turning radius of 5.6m makes parking slightly easier. 16 inch ventilated discs up front complete the package. The new Pajero Sport will be available in six colors: Medium Red, Quartz Brown Metallic, Cool Silver Metallic, White Pearl, Black Mica and Eisen Gray Mica. Missing from the list is the Deep Blue Mica which we’ve seen look nothing less than stunning on the Outlander.

BMW has taken the covers off its M3 based challenger that will compete in the Deutsche Touringwagen Masters or DTM series again this year after a many year hiatus.  BMW will fight it out with the Mercedes Benz and Audi cars that have traditionally taken part in the DTM series.  Though it has been a long time since BMW has raced in the DTM series, it has been racing in the World Touring Car Championships till recently apart from being in F1 till a couple of seasons ago.  BMW is confident that it can take the fight to the competition right from the first race.

BMW M3 DTM Car

Ferrari F12 BerlinettaWhat you see is a Ferrari and it is called the F12 Berlinetta and it replaces the Ferrari 599.  It has a potent V12 engine that puts out a gob smacking 730 PS of power from its 6.3 litre capacity and breach the 100 km/h mark in 3.1 seconds. This car has now been officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show but it had been previewed to its potential customers sometime ago.  Most Ferraris are sold on invitation and it is believed that Ferrari already has taken deposits for more than 350 F12 Berlinettas.  The horse is really prancing, one must say.

 

Mercedes AMG SL 63 This ladies and gentlemen is the new SL 63 with AMG magic worked on it.  It puts out 557 PS or 530 PS of power depending on the state of tune that an owner specifies. Mercedes Benz has adopted the lighter twin turbo engine of 5.5 litre capacity in place of the 6.2 litre naturally aspirated unit that did work on the previous SL 63  AMG.  More importantly it is lighter by a whopping 125 kilograms.  The car is capable of reaching 100 km/h in 4 seconds, giving the wind in the hair idiom an entirely new meaning.

A few days ago we brought you pictures of the facelifted i20 from Hyundai.  The car has been launched officially in Europe at the Geneva Motor Show.  For the European markets the i20 is likely to come with the new three cylinder 1.1 litre engine diesel engine which has been designated U-II.  One can surmise that the said engine is unlikely to come to India where Hyundai is still undecided about its diesel engine manufacturing strategy.Hyundai I20 Facelift

Audi has shown its new A3 three door hatchback, based on VW’s MQB platform which allows for different body styles by taking a modular approach.  For Europe, the A3 will be a three door hatchback since there is a significant market for that there.  But in other parts of the world including India Audi is likely to launch a saloon based on the same platform.  The saloon will have four doors and a boot, much like its sibling the Jetta which is sold under the Volkswagen name.  The front styling of the car is in line with the design trend that Audi has unleashed with the latest generation A6.

Audi A3 Hatchback

Craig Pollock is the maverick and ultra ambitious ex manager of Jacques Villeneuve who tried building the BAR team around the French Canadian driver with great failure.  But since he is a man with business acumen he has taken up the task of making Formula1 engines by the time the new engine regulations kick in, in a couple of years.  He has called his venture PURE and this company though located now in France, will use the Toyota F1 teams Cologne facilities in Germany to test his new V6 engines which he is sure will find takers.  His logic is that Toyota’s Cologne facilities are the best in the world to test an F1 engine on the bed and has therefore tied up with them to use the facility even though the company will continue to operate out of France.  This is interesting since Cosworth Engineering which has a proven record started supplying engines to four teams two years ago but are now down to two with Caterham and Williams having abandoned them for Renault engines.  So under the circumstances it will be interesting to see how the PURE engines will be received by Formula1 teams.  Pollock is no idiot, he must have a strong plan in place to have drawn investors to put their money into the venture.  Already the grapevine suggests that if PURE engines turn out to be good, McLaren could use them by branding them as McLaren engines.  Another rumour suggests that team Renault which has become Lotus this year could also pursue the strategy of calling PURE engines Lotus engines.  Danny Bahar is an ambitious man so one never knows with Lotus.

Marussia F1 Car Of 2012For the last two years this team was called the Virgin F1 racing team.  It experimented with CFD alone and eschewed the use of wind tunnels that were expensive.  It was believed that this was the best way to cut costs in Formula1.  Nick Wirth and his Wirth Research were shown the door last year and Marussia the super car maker from Russia who was till then the title sponsor took over the team from this year on and rebranded it the Marussia F1 Team.  Along with it they also signed up with McLaren for some help and they seem to have found that since Marussia is the only team other than McLaren to stay away from the ghastly looking stepped nose.  The thing is that the car was unveiled without it passing all the tests at Barcelona and since this year’s rules state that unless the car has passed all tests it cannot run in a test, it could not be tested at Barcelona.  But the good thing is that it has now passed the tests and therefore you can expect to see at the first GP of the season at Melbourne. It means that while all teams are racing, Marussia and HRT will be using the GP as a venue for testing.  That is not so great, right?

For those with some interest in how the Marussia road cars look here are the B1 and B2 super cars from the Russian manufacturer.

Marussia B1 A Russian Super Car 1Marussia B2


HRT F1 Car For 2012 Narain Karthikeyan confounded everyone in the Formula1 world when the announcement came from HRT F1team that he would be driving their car along with veteran Pedro De La Rosa.  Vitantonio Liuzzi had been bought out of his contract and it became clear that Narain was occupying his seat.  The car did not pass all the crash tests on its first attempt but subsequently has managed to pass all of them and therefore was able to test at the fag end of the Barcelona test with Narain taking the wheel before Pedro.  The reasons for Narain signing up with HRT and his becoming the first driver to take the car out at Barcelona are clear.  Look at the picture.  The only branding that is there on that car is that of Tata Motors. Narain and Pedro will be reaching Melbourne for the first F1 GP of this season with hardly any testing, so don’t expect them to do well.  What we can hope for is that Narain will drive the full season and not make way for someone else like he had to last year.

Current Chevrolet Cruze This is how the current Chevrolet Cruze looks.  But at the Geneva Motor Show GM has debuted the Cruze with a new body style, the Station Wagon and it has slight modifications to its face.  The Station Wagon will not come to India but the new face shown on it is likely to come to our country on the saloon car.  This is how the new face will look.

Chevrolet Cruze Facelift