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March 11, 2010

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Martin Holmes

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By Martin Holmes, January 25, 2010 12:20

The right track`

Basically the impression is positive, the feeling is that the FIA has got something right..

It’s very unusual to hear organisers say that the FIA has got something right. In recent years rally organisers have been through a bad time on account of route restrictions, huge increases in registrations fees - and more than ever, event rotation schemes which stopped even well established events from being run under WRC status each year. In the final months of Max Mosley’s regime it became clear that compromises had to happen. Deta...

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Bertrand D'souza

Goal keepers

The Indian automotive industry is well represented by people who head its various corporations. People who aren’t mere figureheads of power and control but human beings who sweat blood, shed tears and break backs to reach their objectives. A few approach the whole business with flair and flamb..
Speed Limits

Y2K India was boom town, a market fuelled by huge disposable incomes and expanding MNCs. Levis and Wranglers were a rage, everyone wanted a slice of Pizza Hut and KFC, and a sip of Barista or a Mojito irrespective of the time of day. Nike and Reebok were mushrooming all over, Nokia was furiously con..
Urban travel

One of India’s most humble forms of public transport is also one of India’s most dangerous, uncomfortable, unreliable, inefficient and very often the easiest to break traffic laws with. It’s highly visible in every metropolis, city, town and village in India. This mode of transport..

Vijayendra Vikram Singh

OD Garage:Hyundai i10

I never thought I would ever want to commute in a car. Given Pune’s congested traffic, I would rather prefer squeezing myself in and out of the tight spots, pitying drivers stuck in their luxo-barges, but the i10 has helped change my perception. It is every bit a city car, compact, agile and p..
OD Garage : Bajaj Pulsar 200 DTS-i

When the Pulsar 200 was first revealed so smitten were we by the bike that we couldn’t wait for Bajaj Auto to loan us a long termer. So we went ahead and bought one instead and a wise decision that proved to be - the 200 DTSi being a joy to ride and her performance meeting expectations rather ..
OD Garage:TVS Apache

The ‘red hot Indian’ has completed its adventure as OD long-termer - and what an eventful term it has been with the TVS Apache 150. The Apache’s induction into the fleet was marked by the 24-hour run in quest of the 150cc champ, the other contenders being the CBZ Xtreme and Pulsar ..

Karanbir Singh Bedi

OD Garage: Mahindra Renault Logan

The drop in the Logan’s fuel efficiency last month was worrying. With an average fuel efficiency of 13.8kmpl last month eyebrows were being raised since fuel efficiency was its claim to fame. A service ahead of schedule and the Logan was then to face the acid test.Since driving at snail’..

Abhay Verma

Abhay gets fit

My second week at the gym proved less stressful than I had anticipated. But as luck and my excess weight would have it, I missed three consecutive days of workouts owing to my BA exams. Even while I was writing my papers, I was ruing missing out on the cardiovascular and weight training regimen. I a..
Abhay gets fit

It’s a week now since I have started working out at the gym. I must confess that getting back to working out after a long lapse is quite a task that calls for reserves of will power. It has forced me to alter my daily routine radically, and with a heavy heart I have to bid farewell to late nig..

Ray Hutton

Korea's steely ambition

At the year-end, when the talk in Europe was of how close VW had come to world domination and Americans pondered how to cope with a future in reduced circumstances, I went to Korea. There, at Hyundai-Kia, I found a quiet confidence. In the depressed markets of Europe and America, these Korean brands..
Best laid plans

General Motors was supposed to be sorted out. The new GM would be smaller but agile and, thanks to the ‘quickie’ bankruptcy last summer, debt-free. But since then nearly everything has gone wrong. The US government owns 60 per cent and it appointed a new board of directors from outs..
Japan can’t thrive on electrics alone

Not surprisingly, the emphasis at the Tokyo Motor Show was on electric cars, hybrids and fuel cell vehicles. Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn set the tone: “The race for zero emissions has begun. This is a new era for the automobile industry.”Nissan predicts that electric vehicles wil..

Karun Chandhok

Learning the circuit

Learning a new circuit is one of the most interesting challenges of being a racing driver. When you start off, and especially in India, there seems to be a lot of talk about “I only did a couple of days, so I was still learning the circuit.” When you get to Europe, you soon realise that ..
Racing the bar

For a couple of years now I’ve been going on about how the only way for Indian motorsport to grow to the next level is to get manufacturers interested enough to invest in the grassroots level of the sport. It’s fantastic to see that now VW has finally publicly confirmed that it will be m..
Season of change

Formula 1 is going through a big change for the second year in succession. Last year, all the changes were on the technical side with a huge change to aerodynamic regulations and a return to slick tyres. This changed the way we watched F1 in 2009, for all of a sudden, the race weekends turned into a..

Overdrive Team

OD Garage: Honda Unicorn

In true Japanese demeanour did the ‘new’ Unicorn arrive. Packed in a wooden box with generous use of thermocole, this new addition to the OD garage despite just superficial alterations had Vikrant, Sirish and Vikram all eager for first glimpse. I am guessing that this was due to the aura..
OD Garage: Maruti Suzuki SX4 Zxi

At OVERDRIVE we love cars that involve and entertain the driver; cars that communicate what’s happening underneath and deliver that seat of the pants allowing you to push the car to its limits. And the SX4 ticks all these boxes, while being supremely practical unlike some l..
OD Garage: Kinetic Blaze

After the X-treme, the Italiano Blaze has been my mode of commute. Though capable of turning on the heat, the resulting high toll on mileage means the scooter returns a measly 30kmpl. With the puny 6-litre tank and my daily commute of 50km, trips to the gas station are much too frequent for m..

Martin Alva

My first ride

It's hard for me to look at a Kinetic Honda DX, the older, two stroke ones and not choke up. They just have a way of stirring my emotions. It was one of my first meaningful first before the other more meaningful firsts came along. It was more of a trophy, a trophy for my perseverance and enduran..

Sudheer Gaikwad

Summertime Blues

‘Summertime, and the livin’ is easy’ is not a line I can empathise with, not here and now in Pune of 2009, when multiple hour power cuts are the order of every scorching summer day. But I know the feeling. The sun-streaked season is when one gets to thinking beer, beaches, bikinis ..

Shubhabrata Marmar

Auto Expo-se

I don’t know what impression you have of the Auto Expo but this is my umpteenth trip to it and in nature it isn’t dissimilar to the arduous pilgrimage the devout make to the remote Hindu shrines in the Himalayas. But to square the score, motor shows are usually the hardest events to cove..
End of the lean phase

I’ve been at OVERDRIVE now for 14 months, and I thought I’d begin 2010 with a look back at 2009. Then something happened.I was sitting in the back of a cab, heading to work. Just one of those fleeting days when there aren’t any test cars or bikes. I was humming to myself, stuffing ..
In defence of the Nanny State

The other day I parked for the security check at a shopping mall. The burly security man told me three separate times that my driving lamps were on. This wasn’t a remarkable example of his paranormal abilities, my driving lights are always on. It discourages fickle-minded pedestrians.Then, I s..

Michael Scott

Rossi vs history

So the year begins. Engineers may be beavering away back at HQ, but for the front-line troops, racing must wait until the end of February.The close season has been and continues to be rife with speculation. Much of it concerns Rossi. Rossi and his team-mate Lorenzo will return this season one year o..
Back to front

Year 2009 has witnessed a change in GP racing more profound than the switch from 500cc to 990cc four-strokes in 2002. It’s sneaked up on us gradually. But it is the end of racing as we know it. The zeitgeist is broken. A new order is emerging. It’s due in 2012. I can’t beat the way..
The new golden age

The 800cc MotoGP prototypes are in many ways the worst racing bikes ever built. And yet the ‘09 season has been such a nail-biter that some are whispering about the start of a new golden age.Worst ever racing bikes? Well, yes, to the riders and by extension to the spectators. In all measurable..

Daniel Knutson

Life after F1...

It was just like the old days as I stood in the packed Ferrari hospitality unit for a Michael Schumacher press conference. The difference, of course, is that Michael retired last year.“There is a life after F1,” he told us in Spain.Life for Schumacher at the moment is luxuriously unstruc..
Guarding Hamilton

Seventy-eight years ago, when the first ever Monaco Grand Prix was staged in 1929, a mysterious Englishman, whose name on the entry list was simply ‘W Williams’, won driving a Bugatti.In fact, it was a man by the name of William Grover who went on to lead a dangerous, exciting and ultima..
Fighting clean

Following a ‘discussion’ about their duel in Malaysia, Felipe Massa put an arm lock around Lewis Hamilton’s head and proceeded to rain a series of punches on him. But it was all a joke and none of the punches actually landed.The incident took place following an FIA press conference..

Harriet Ridley

The Big Freeze

So far this winter’s been exceptionally bitter in the UK. And I hear things are no better in parts of India. We’ve had nothing but thick snow for the best part of a month now. And this morning I woke up to more snow coming down thick and fast! Although I’m always the first to take ..
Season’s readings

The show season is over for another year. Despite the global recession, we’ve seen quite a few new motorcycles break cover – especially from Ducati. The manufacturer from Bologna appears to be completely unfazed by the economic downturn, investing a fortune in research and development to..
Race advice

I finished second in the 2009 Ducati Sporting Club’s Desmodue championship. And it’s been quite some season! So here’s the lowdown on an adrenaline-packed second half… After a dip in form that sees me take two thirds at Mallory Park’s Round Four followed by two fo..

Sirish Chandran

Waterfall of woes

The second largest two-wheeler market in the world – that’s our country. Predictions are it will go from seven to ten million in the next two years making it a veritable Mecca for biking enthusiasts. And that should mean a teeny-weeny gap, among the sea of commuters, for a few nut-jobs w..
Lost Cause?

It’s been simmering inside for a really long time, filling me with angst, exasperation and depression in equal measure, but after reading a story in a newspaper supplement today my cup of woe truly overfloweth. Before I explode let me offer my apologies to anybody who thinks this might be offe..
Germany vs Japan

What has happened to Japan? On my first visit to the land of the rising sun six years ago I was truly floored by how advanced and technologically savvy the country was. Like India it too has a large population and seems to have lot of people hired to do a lot of bowing and not much else. (Our l..

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