This isn’t what you’re thinking. No, this is not a Suzuki Kizashi with special hub caps lifted from the accessories shelf. This is a road-illegal Kizashi made for record-smashing.
With a top speed of about 200mph, the Kizashi’s gone absolutely wild. It’s engine displaces 2.4-liters. Modest. But the 4-cylinder 16 valve petrol engine makes no less than 500hp at the wheel and 420 lb.-ft of torque.
The one-off “Suzuki Kizashi Bonneville” was announced by Suzuki yesterday to beat the 200 mph top speed limit on the famous salt flats in Wendover, Utah. The Suzuki
Kizashi Bonneville will be piloted by Sam Mitani who will attempt to reach the magical 200mph mark on August 14.
Interestingly, apart from engine specifications, the Kizashi Bonneville doesn’t differ much from the regular Suzuki Kizashi that’s heading to India with a six-speed manual transmission and features like front ventilated disc brakes. It should be mentioned here that the Kizashi Bonneville, made to beat the land speed record has undergone a weight saving program to achieve high performance.
Volkswagen has issued a press release on the occasion of the launch of the new Vento. The Vento was unveiled during June in Moscow and subsequently, it was shown in a function here in Delhi.
Two engine options are available – 1.6-liter in either petrol or diesel avatar. There is also a choice of automatic (6-speed) or manual transmission (5-speed), with the former available only on the petrol highline trim.
The 1.6 liter petrol engine outputs 105PS @ 5250 rpm and a torque of 153NM @ 3800 rpm. It is paired with a 5-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic gear box and boast of fuel efficiency of 15.83 Km/l and 14.4Km/l respectively.
The diesel variant on the other hand comes equipped with the 1.6 litre engine paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox, with an output of 105PS @ 4400 rpm and a Torque of 250 NM @ 1500-2500 rpm and has a fuel efficiency of 20.54 Km/l.
The VW Vento is manufactured at the Chakan plant in Pune, Maharashtra.
click through to read the press release
click here to read our evaluation of the Polo sedan from the Delhi unveil.
At a function held for motoring journalists in Jaipur this evening, VW released the prices of the much awaited VW Vento.
Engine/ Trimline – Price Index (INR in Lakhs)
1.6L Petrol Trendline (Manual) – 6,99,000
1.6L Petrol Highline (Manual) – 8,23,500
1.6L Petrol Highline (Automatic) – 9,21,500
1.6 L TDI Trendline (Manual) – 7,99,000
1.6L TDI Highline (Manual) – 9,23,500
All prices are Ex Showroom New Delhi
There’s a lot of talk going on about a Skoda Fabia sedan playing the cheaper alternative to the Volkswagen Vento, but listen to what an auto portal in Slovakia is reporting.
SME reports Skoda will premiere an inexpensive car to the Moscow Motor Show which takes place between 25th and 29th of this month. The translation to English isn’t very clear and we’re able to derive is that this vehicle will be the successor to the Octavia Tour (which is the Octavia to Indians).
There won’t be TSI engines on this inexpensive Skoda. It will get the 1.6-liter unit (possibly in both petrol and diesel forms). It seems like this vehicle will share powertrains with the Polo sedan. It could even be priced under the Vento.
Is the Fabia sedan the Octavia replacement? There are several other foreign publications reporting Skoda would bring the Octavia revival only by 2011 end or 2012, which is build to cost less than 13,000 Euros.
The previous generation Fabia was available as a sedan. The current gen Fabia can be bought only as a hatchback or a station wagon (pictured).
Don’t know which one to believe? Guess we’ll all have to wait and see what happens in Moscow later this month.
The 0.5-tonne Tata pickup truck caught during test runs has received a commercial name. Though not official, Financial Chronicle reports the mini load carrier, codenamed Penguin, will be marketed as Tata Ace Zip.
The Tata Ace Zip borrows mechanical components from the Ace and some minor parts have been taken from the Nano’s inventory as well. The vehicle uses a 611cc water-cooled single cylinder diesel engine that was co-developed with Greaves.
The passenger version of the Ace Zip is the Magic Iris which was showcased at the Auto Expo and is on sale in Jaipur. The Tata Magic, remember, is the passenger application of the Ace mini truck. The naming convention is following a pattern and the Ace Zip will benefit from the Ace brand’s popularity.
The Ace Zip is expected to take vehicles like the Mahindra Gio, Force Motors’ Trump 15, and several three-wheelers brands like Piaggio’s Ape and Bajaj Auto’s GC Max. The vehicle could be priced between 1.6 lakh to Rs 2 lakh rupees in line with its competitors.
Image (Tata Nano Europa) for illustrative purpose only
Autocar India reports Tata Motors will reopen bookings for the Tata Nano nationwide on August 15. Bookings have been declared open on August 3rd in Kerala predicting strong demand for this car before the Onam festival in the state.
The company began production of the Nano at the mother plant in Sanand, Gujarat earlier in June and has been working constantly to increase production since then.
Tata Motors, according to Autocar India, hopes to boost volumes to 20,000 Nanos a month by March 2011, which will make it the second largest car manufacturer in our country.
Going through some of the pictures I had taken at VW’s Chakan plant during my visit last month, I came across pictures of two black Polos waiting to go through their run at the in-plant test track. On first glance, it was just another Polo.
Until I looked at the badge.
I had captured two Polo 1.6 cars! They have completed their homologation procedure at ARAI a few months ago. VW has been struggling to meet customer demand on the entry-level petrol and diesel Polo, so the 1.6 hasn’t been launched yet.
We hear that the VW Polo 1.6 will be launched in the next few weeks. VW showrooms have started taking bookings for the 1.6-liter petrol Polo in India. Booking amount is 50,000 rupees, but there’s no confirmation on when the prices will be announced or the deliveries will begin.
The Polo’s 1.6-liter engine develops 103.5bhp of power and 15.6 kgm of torque. It is at least three seconds quicker to the 100kph mark and has a mind-boggling top speed of 184kph.
The 1.6-litre Polo will be priced at around 6.1 lakh rupees ex-showroom Mumbai (estimated) as we reported earlier.
The Mercedes Benz C Class has successfully touched the 1 Million sales mark ever since it went on sale in its current avatar back in 2007. Over 840,000 sedan variants & 160,000 wagon variants of the car have left showrooms across the world in the last three years.
Mercedes Benz introduced a stripped down variant of the car for fleet customers in India a couple of months back. Hopefully this variant will be made available for the general customer in order to further enhance the appeal of the C Class. The C-Class was introduced with Mercedes’ CGI technology recently which offers better fuel economy and lessens environmental impact.
The C Class is the company’s best selling model ever since it was introduced in 1982 & nearly 8 million of these have been sold.
Executive vice president sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz Cars, Dr. Joachim Schmidt -
We are therefore especially pleased that the vehicle is so popular with our customers. In June the sedan was the best-selling vehicle in its comparative class worldwide. Despite last year’s weak market environment, sales of the sedan are currently four percent higher than those of the predecessor model during the same period since its market launch. The estate has also met with an outstanding response, with deliveries increasing by 20 percent in June.
The sedan variants’ best market was USA followed by Germany & China. In India too the C Class has been a success for the company with the car constantly outselling the BMW 3 Series & the Audi A4.
