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September 03, 2010

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Sirish Chandran

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By Sirish Chandran, May 25, 2010 16:44

Brothers up in arms

VW and Skoda are at loggerheads rather than working to a common goal..

One of the curiosities of India is Skoda’s brand image. It’s perhaps the only market in the world where the Czech budget brand is high up on the aspiration scale with a premium tag attached to it. And it’s an image built on solid Octavia-shaped foundations; ten years ago there wasn’t a car to match the Octi’s combination of style, space, safety, quality, dynamics and a diesel engine and for very long it ruled the most desirable cars list. Subsequ...

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Bertrand D'souza

Made in china

If God is this universal being who created the universe, the planet, the moon and the stars, the birds and the bees, the trees and rivers and lakes, and Adam and Eve all in seven days, his angels who must have constructed it all have to be Chinese. I can’t think of any other race which could h..
All that glitters

The dream most motorsport enthusiasts share is to be on the other side of the screen or Armco. We all want to get into that driving suit, put on those gloves, shoes and lid and slip into the driver’s seat. That dream extends to heated battles mid-corner and down the straight, ending in glory a..
The right pitch

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but she does not. That statement cropped up in 1956 in a New York Herald column and has held true for all advertising ever since. Automotive advertising has accounted for some of the biggest spend i..

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

Fiat's global plan

For months, all questions about the future of Fiat and Chrysler had been met with ‘wait until 21 April’. That was the day when Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both companies, would detail his five-year plan at an investor conference in Turin. This was a bravura performance by ..
Heading to the top

A fter the Geneva Motor Show I was in Wolfsburg, home of Volkswagen, that now seems most likely to take the place of Toyota and General Motors as the world’s biggest motor manufacturer. The board of directors presenting the Volkswagen Group’s 2009 results invited questions. I asked ..
World class player

A year ago at the Geneva Motor Show. Carl-Peter Forster gave a press conference in his capacity as president of General Motors Europe. His message was unusual, to say the least. Instead of presenting lots of shiny new Opels, Saabs and Chevrolets, he put the company up for sale. We now know..

Karun Chandhok

Wild world

It feels a bit crazy to say that I’ve now been a Formula 1 driver for a month. In some ways the launch in Murcia feels like yesterday because everything has moved so fast, but in others it feels like ages ago because we’ve managed to pack so much into a short space of time. After th..
Dream come true

We’re finally here. The road to Bahrain 2010 has been hard, long, complicated but as I write this en route to my first Formula 1 Grand Prix, the feeling is finally starting to sink in that my dream of being a Formula 1 driver is about to come true. I have been interested is race cars sinc..
Competitive spirit

When news broke that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was a serious contender for the second Mercedes GP seat (formerly Brawn GP), I was really thrilled but I must admit not surprised. Schumacher was all set to stage a dramatic return to Formula One last year and replace Massa when the l..

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

Tester’s knots

Road tester syndrome is not an accepted medical condition. But it’s real. What is it? It’s an acute condition where you simply cannot leave things be. You do the simplest of things - like sit on a chair - and your tester-brain kicks in. Instead of just sitting, you’re squirming sli..
Self-reliance industry

I was sitting in the back of a cab when someone on a Kawasaki ZX14 buzzed past, engine gloriously a-burble. It caused my cabbie to exclaim, "Effing idiots. Why do they try so hard to die?" It's not an uncommon view. And given some of the behaviour of some of the riders we've seen on the road..
Road, groovy

Car launches in exotic places make me sad. Ask any motoring journalist and s/he’ll tell you tales of super-exotic locales, roads that defy description. Drives that were genuinely orgasmic. Manufacturers want the absolute best backdrop for their latest car. So they select outstanding stretches ..

Martin Holmes

Rule of tradition

The publication of the names of rallies that the FIA plans for the 2011 championship is the first clear indication of its policies not just for the championship, but also for the control of the sport as a whole. It exposes the strengths and weaknesses, it reveals the double-talk of recent months, in..
Tawdry tactics?

Ever watched professional football? Ever played chess? Is there any top line sport in which tactics play no part? Not many, so why is there such a fuss about team orders in rallying? Well, there are some reasons, but the problem is more the way things are done, rather than doing it in the first plac..
Future of rallying

Slowly towards a new world. Good news. The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council has confirmed essential details about the technical specification of the next generation World Rally Cars. Bad news. We still do not know anything specific about the calendar for the 2011 World rally championship. Good ..

Michael Scott

The danger zone

There were some challenging questions posed at Jerez, by the newest class of racing bikes. There was also one clear answer. Moto2 is motorbike racing at its best. And at its dangerous worst, as an eight-bike pile-up and the subsequent red flag amply demonstrated.The new class throws the spotlight on..
Soap syndrome

Grand prix racing is like soap opera. It comes in instalments, runs for a season, and no matter how much the plot appears to have been resolved at the end of that season, it always starts again for another next year, with the intrigue suitably refreshed.Wonder what the script-writers have in store t..
Uncertainity rules

Motorsport has started now... all over the world. There are bums on grandstand seats, and TV viewers falling asleep on couches for just about every important racing series. Except MotoGP. There is still about a month to go before the first race at Qatar in early April. And about the biggest new..

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

European reunion

It’s official. The Europeans are back and they’re taking back the motorcycle world from the Japanese! Here in Europe, the Big Four Japanese manufacturers have ruled our streets for the past few decades. Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki have been building technologically advanced l..
Mixed fortunes

With the UK officially out of the worst recession since World War Two, it’s time to take stock of the ravages. And a look at the motorcycle market in 2009 shows the industry has been spared the worst of the decline.UK’s Motor Cycle Industry Association statistics show a 20 per cent overa..
A very British Triumph

Triumph, the British manufacturer announced record sales for 2009, despite the recession leading to a 10 per cent drop in the UK’s big-capacity motorcycle market!The British manufacturer increased sales by a whopping 26 per cent in the UK, capturing 13 per cent of the market by selling 7,450 n..

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