Indian Autos blog

By Gaurav Malik

Mercedes India invited IAB to the launch of the JPSI-AMG Performance Driving Academy and our racer Gaurav Malik was more than happy to oblige. Here is what he had to say -

Have you ever been to one of those religious programs which are meant to enrich and soothe souls? That’s exactly the kind of treatment I got at the Buddh international circuit where Mercedes Benz India kicked off their Performance Driving academy.

The sound of roaring cars, the smell of burning rubber and the name – Buddh International Circuit, sounds like we’re about to reflect on last year’s F1 race, right?

Well not exactly.

I sat down with Fiat India’s CEO Rajeev Kapoor at the launch of the Fiat Caffe in Janpat, New Delhi and asked him three questions our readers have often put across to us through our Twitter, Facebook and comment channels.

Will Fiat India revive the Siena brand in India? Spyshots from various Brazilian websites show a successor being developed on the novo Palio’s foundations.

RK – We are working on several product options for India but certainly I can’t share with you today what different options we’re working on. Rest assured that Fiat is going to be much more stronger as time goes by. We are not here for short-term. When you have to be in the country for the long term it has be based on product strategy. So the time is not right to talk about it. There are several segments that are of interest, several segments that are growing now and one has to keep focusing on where the opportunities are.

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Our new friends at THE ESTD, distributors of exotic brands such as Koenigsegg, Ariel and Gumpert in India, have shipped us a selection of images of the mid-engined Agera supercar finding its way carefully through some rough patches of Indian road. The word Agera in Swedish means “to act.”

The Agera, made using lightweight materials such as carbon fiber, is priced at a cool 12.5 crore rupees (ex-showroom Delhi) and is easily the best alternative to the Bugatti Veyron available in India for a sum of 16 crore rupees.

The Agera is more than just a fine interplay of speed and horsepower. Nothing represents the essence and meaning of Koenigsegg better than this model.

But if you aren’t interested in anything else, then here you go – A 5-liter twin-turbocharged engine develops 910bhp and 1000Nm making it possible for the 0-60mph sprint to finish in under 3.5 seconds.

click through to see some fascinating images of the Agera on Indian soil!

One of IndianAutosBlog.com’s die hard fans Gokulraj Kanagaraj, who if you remember sent us a spy video of the Mahindra XUV500 during its testing stage and tipped us on test mules in Chennai, introduces a new online store, ZapStore.com, retailing electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, digital tablets, music players and cameras.

An ambitious Gokul and team have toiled non-stop from late May to reach fruition. I met Gokul several times during the lead up to the launch and we spent so many evenings discussing online media, eCommerce and visitor behavior.

An avid car enthusiast, Gokul had the confidence in his project to turn down a high paying job offer in a US based automotive company.

Gokul on ZapStore [16 second video]

Here’s a short video I recorded on the sets of the commercial shoot. Gokul talks his mind on the concept of his business. He has no idea I’m uploading this!

ZapStore video commercial – Strip the price [35 seconds]

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Since posting began back in July 2008 we have kept the topics and headlines strictly related to the auto industry. But this development is as exciting as say a set of unseen spyshots for curious followers of IndianAutosBlog.com who write in frequently asking us to share background information, details of authors, our traffic statistics, reach, and what follows when we put out an exclusive or scoop.

An unsuspecting IndianAutosBlog.com team uploaded two screen captures of the men-at-work Ford EcoSport micro site on Sunday night. We received the screen grabs and the momentarily working link from our reader Mallik Kslikiri who in his note said he was searching for information on Ford products when he accidentally stumbled on what would become an international sensation.

The site did not reveal any vital information besides the EcoBoost technology and the two images of the unreleased car were tightly cropped.

Brazil’s most happening auto magazine Quatro Rodas picked up IAB’s story.

About 48 hours later hundreds of websites from all corners of the web have used our text and photographs. This isn’t the first time our story is making an international splash. When Renault projected two images of the Koleos facelift for the first time at the Fluence key-handover ceremony and presentation in New Delhi late June this year, little did they know that they would find no use in holding back the rest of the images 24 hours later.

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A personal blog that started out as a place where three college going auto aficionados would rant about cars every evening has come a long way in three years. I feel as if I wrote our second anniversary thanksgiving note weeks ago and it’s already been a year now.

Before I move on to the rest of the content, I’d like to thank readers, subscribers and webmasters of other blogs for your support. Special thanks go out to my team members Kaustubh Shinde, Shoeb R Kalania, Shakti Budhiraja, Nazish Siddique, Arjun Rajput and Aniruddha Mulgund. You guys are awesome, you’re always pushing the barriers, bringing new things to the table and making the browsing experience better for our readers.

I’d like to give thanks of my guest writers who have pitched in with their thoughts every now and then. I’d like to thank close friends from other blogs who have been a source of inspiration and helped us along with their support – Damon from Autoblog.com, Smokey and Robbie from Autoblog.nl, Moriah and Eber from NoticiasAutomotivas, Brian, Clinton and others from WorldCarFans.com, John from GreenCarReports.com, Muamer from BenzInsider.com, Oscar from Diariomotor, Paul from CarAdvice Australia, Mircea from Automarket.ro, Lorenzo from Autoblog.it, Ashley from ChinaCarTimes.com, John from Carscoop.blogspot.com, Alison from Eurocarblog.com, Daniel from AutoEvolution.com, the entire team of Quatro Rodas magazine, Spyros from Autoblog.gr, Vlad from RPMGo.com, Colum from AutoGuide.com, Marc from TheTorqueReport.com, and Omar from eGMCartech.com. I’m sorry if I have missed any others, it does not mean I’m not thinking about you. Our team is humbled by your love, affection and support.

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Since the demise of the old Octavia, Skoda has kept mum about its successor. There were various rumors circulating in the market about a mysterious car called ‘Felicia’ which is supposed to succeed our Octavia. Unfortunately, this mysterious car was always spoken about. There was no tangible information about it. There were many speculations and countless rendering about the car, but Skoda did not budge from its stance. But now  [ Read More ]

GM India’s most anticipated model that promises so much is this – the Chevrolet Beat diesel. Equipped with a 936cc, 3-cylinder engine based on the Fiat 1.3l Multijet, it will produce around 57 bhp and 140 to 150 Nm of torque. This core focus of this operation would be to deliver big on fuel economy. The ARAI figure could be around 22-23 kpl which translates into a real world figure  [ Read More ]