AUTODROME

Of all the major Japanese manufacturers, it is safe to say that Honda has been most committed to creating a legacy for itself in the world of motorsport. This can be put down to the fact that Soichiro Honda, the founder and an automotive genius, consistently believed motorsport success to be the pinnacle of achievement for any auto manufacturer. And this is showcased no better than by Honda’s journey in F1. The Honda RA271, a works effort, became the first Japanese car to race in F1 in 1964. This was followed by their first GP win in Mexico in ’65 with the RA272. A string of consistent performances followed up to 1969. After a 15-year hiatus, the team returned in 1983 as an engine supplier in what was its most successful stint. Honda supplied its engines to six consecutive constructor champions as well as five consecutive driver championships, of which three came from the iconic McLaren-Honda-Senna combination. And all of this was not just a brand-building exercise, ...

The future of the automobile is electric. This is almost a fact. The future of the supercar however, is under debate. Petrolheads are a resistive bunch and don’t take to change easily. They aren’t ready to let go of their flat-plane crank V8s just yet. This is seen in the criticism this year’s Ford GT received for having only a V6, when in fact this car is up there with its peers in pace and dynamism. This outlook has been further aggravated when it comes to electric power. Until very recently, electric power was associated with dull, drab, eco-conscious family cars like Priuses and Insights. It was only after the effective torch-bearers of petrol power, Ferrari, Porsche and Mclaren, showed with the LaFerrari, the 918, and the P1 respectively, that electric power can also make a car exciting and quick, and be way more efficient while doing so. What cannot be argued with are the performance figures new electric cars put out. The Tesla Model S, in P100D spec, has a 0 to 96 kph time ...

At the turn of the century, the world was at the threshold of two sustainable solutions to power cars – hydrogen fuel cells and electric batteries. In fact, electric car technology was fraught with inefficiencies and the cars born out of this were deplorable to say the least. These being early hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Eco image aside, these were pretty much portable washing machines.  On the other hand, cars like the Honda FCX Clarity and Toyota Mirai, both hydrogen powered, were ushered in as the new hope in keeping the automobile relevant going forward. The situation now though, has completely turned on its head, Elon Musk and his firm, Tesla, have captured imaginations the world over – be it the general public, automakers or governments. This is also entirely due to approaching the problem from a completely different viewpoint. Rather than path-breaking tech. Tesla used already existing technology, be it the motors, the batteries, design, packaging ...

This thought would have probably been inconceivable a decade ago. But now, there is a real possibility that this is a fair assessment. Ever since the post sub prime crisis bailout, GM has taken pointed steps to reinvent itself and be more relevant in this, what can easily be called, the golden age of super and hypercars. It has offloaded loss making brands (Hummer, Saturn, Opel – Vauxhall), exited countries where production was expensive (Australia), had a thorough rethink of how the business is managed and has invested in newer technologies (electric cars) & trends(ride-sharing). Product development too seems to have become more engineering & design oriented and less hampered by budget​ cuts. A prime example of this is the present generation C7 Corvette. This car in its Sting-Ray & Grand Sport variants can consistently hold a candle to the latest variants of the Porsche 911 – the class standard. This is not just in outright speed but also in all manner of handling tes...

The Indian car market’s relationship with performance cars is scratchy at best. The heavily taxed imports make it very expensive to own fast cars for the common people and there are barely any affordable options. Further, the entire culture around cars in the country is not conducive to fast cars being popular. The patchy quality of the road network, congestion and extremely high number of fatalities are also factors which limit the market for such cars. Ferrari 488 GTB Credits: Top Gear However, there have been some positive signs lately. The most prominent of which have been car launches in the ‘warm’ hatch segments. Cars like the VW Polo GT TSI, The Abarth Punto and the Maruti Suzuki Baleno RS show a shift in the perception of buyers. There is still obviously a long way to go. These cars would figure nowhere in the list of fast cars abroad. However, they seem to be buckling the age old Indian tradition of cars being drab tools and vehicles to depict social stature. The h...

For some, the subject of cars has always been an emotive one. While they may be mere machines, they have always seemed greater than the sum of their parts. Ever since they first came around about 130 years ago, cars have been objects of desire and aspiration. One of the reasons for this, as Henry Ford put it, was that cars helped people get over the limits set upon them by geography. The origins of the automobile date back to 1886, when the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was produced by Karl Benz in Germany. This was the first contraption that followed the general layout of the car as we know it today. In the early days of the car, from the late 19 th to the early 20 th centuries, they were accessible only to the rich. Many people dismissed it as a passing fad and thought it would never really catch on. Car manufacturing was a strictly small scale, artisan industry then. Some of the more bizarre thoughts going around at the time were that car production would be limited by our ability to...

The global automobile industry has being growing at its fastest since after the 2008 crisis. This has mainly been due to the growing economic might of China and other developing countries like India. Also, car sales in the USA have reached pre-recession levels.  The car industry is at its liveliest in terms of technology with new technologies like hybrid power and electric vehicles gaining traction among manufacturers worldwide. Furthermore, the consumer base is now younger than ever, as such, consumers are more than ready to lap up such advances. However, in this scenario the biggest gains have been made by luxury car manufacturers. These include brands like Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche to name a few. These brands are all growing at their fastest and with an ever expanding model range. However, the aberration here is that while European luxury brands like the ones mentioned earlier, have witnessed tremendous growth, the Japanese brands have remained laggards...