WHEELS OF RAM

Come on manufacturers

2009-03-16T20:23:00.001+05:30

Whenever a new car is out, be it a supercar or a sports car, the manufacturers are quick to sing praises of its zillion horsepower capability and its nought-to-hundred times. I’m passionate about automobiles and I make it a point to read automotive news from a variety of sources. Now I’m getting a bit tired about all these “it smokes to 100 in less than 5 seconds and has a monstrous 500 Nm torque

Chevy Volt

2009-03-01T05:47:00.001+05:30

The Chevrolet Volt is a new electric car that’s not strictly electric. The car is slated for a late 2010 launch and it looks very promising. Here’s how it works: there’s a lithium-ion battery powered electric motor that drives the front wheels. You can charge the battery by plugging the car into your garage power outlet (yes, it’s a plug-in hybrid). GM claims that an overnight charge is useful

Why American cars are so advanced

2009-02-15T01:35:00.004+05:30

Full leather upholstery, heated seats, remote entry, climate control system, anti-lock brakes. These are some of the features that are not oh-so-rare here in the States. However, if I were in India and happened to see a spec sheet with any of these features, I'd swear that I was looking at a luxury vehicle. If you're going to tell an American (or a European or a Japanese), with a reasonable

America

2008-12-21T23:41:00.004+05:30

It's been a long long time since my last post and it was when I was in India. Being used to small cars (as it turned out) the American automobiles gave me a bit of "man, that is b-i-g!" sort of feeling. Check out the Toyota Tundra pickup if you want to know what I'm trying to say. The speeds these guys do in the highways ("freeways" in US speak) is just...well, you can do Trichy-Madras distance

Dearth of sedans

2008-07-29T17:35:00.001+05:30

It's quite disappointing that the Indian market is short of sedans in the 5 lac range. If you're in the market for a 5 lac sedan, you've the following options: Dzire/Logan/Accent/Indigo variants. That's all! Even in this very short list, the Dzire is ruled out as its bookings have been stopped due to excessive demand. The Accent is an old tooth on the block and with the petrol engine as the only

Tiny, tiny TVS 50!

2008-07-23T21:51:00.001+05:30

It's funny how perceptions change with time. After years of riding the Apache, riding my sweet, little moped today was a satisfying experience! I'm about to part off with my old pal and to leave it in the hands of its new owner in good shape, I gave it a nice, little clean-up job. It's a relatively simple piece of machinery and that might be one of the prime reasons why the oily bits and engine

What Car?

2008-05-22T09:02:00.001+05:30

There are an endless list of cars in the Indian market now. The Benzes, Beemers and even the Rolls-Royces have a presence here. Any soul on earth would want to buy one of these for sure. Practically speaking, however, many cannot afford them. So here are the 'buy-able' cars that I would want to spend my money on: Less than 10 lakhs: We've a range of hatches, sedans, SUVs and MUVs to choose from

Shame On Me

2008-05-18T16:12:00.001+05:30

I love automobiles--that's what people who know me think. That's true. But it's a shame that I don't act like I love automobiles. It's been 4 months since I got my bike serviced; I don't check the air pressure every time I fill up and, as a result, to my horror, when I did check the pressure yesterday, it was 7 psi below the optimum level. Yuck. I'm well aware of the squealing noise from the

RTR Performance Package

2008-04-02T21:16:00.001+05:30

It was the TVS Apache in 2006, followed by the stunning new Apache RTR that has made quite a wave in the market and we're soon anticipating the hyper-tuned version of the already powerful RTR, the TVS Apache RTR Performance Package. Here are the quick stats: 160cc, 18bhp, power-to-weight ratio: 112.5bhp/litre (as compared to 95bhp/litre for RTR, 93bhp/litre for Apache and 90bhp/litre for the

Why Twin Plugs

2008-04-01T18:56:00.001+05:30

The Pulsars have been using twin-plug heads ever since 2003 and it is believed that two plugs firing the charge bring significant benefits to the table. What are they and how does it help? In the minds of any engine designer, there is one very important goal--to combust all of the charge in the shortest possible time. We can split this into two parts: combusting all of the charge and combusting

Why Diesels Are More Torquey

2008-03-30T12:05:00.001+05:30

Most would know that diesel engines, even with the same cubic capacity as that of a comparable petrol engine, produce significantly higher torque figures than petrol engines. This article aims to give a simple explanation on why this is the case. Torque is a function of the force developed atop the piston (due to combustion) and the length through which it acts (the length of the connecting rod)

Perfect Shift Point

2008-03-30T11:47:00.001+05:30

Manual transmission is the one to have if you love driving or riding. That's because, manual transmissions allow you to have full control over the engine power delivery, which cannot be asked of an automatic or a CVT. Engine power delivery is nothing but how much of the engine power goes to the driven wheels. This can be controlled by altering the shifting point of each of the gears of the

Engine Speed And Cooling

2008-03-29T21:01:00.001+05:30

During the 'running-in' period of any new vehicle, be it a car or a bike, extra caution must be taken while driving. We should allow the various mechanical parts of the vehicle to 'bed in' properly before they can be used up to their limits. This applies even more strictly to the engine. The owner's manual of any vehicle will carry information that resembles something like this: "vary the engine

Smoking Four Strokes

2008-03-29T19:30:00.001+05:30

We often see a plume of smoke from the back of a Formula 1 car when an engine blows up. Four stroke engines are not meant to let out smoke. Then where does that smoke come from and what is it? That's what we're going to see in this article. It's the pressurized engine oil that's getting sprayed out of the exhaust as smoke, which might resemble the exhaust smoke coming out of two stroke scooters

No Neutral Please!

2008-03-29T09:54:00.001+05:30

I'll attempt to explain in brief why one should down-shift while braking. Assume that the car in question is a Swift Diesel. It has the following specs: 3rd gear ratio: 1.233 5th gear ratio: 0.725 Assume that you're driving the car at 100kph in 5th gear and that the engine is doing 2000 revs. Armed with the above data, we'll do a few really simple calculations to understand the theory behind:

Mileage Boom!

2008-03-28T21:40:00.001+05:30

I'm not referring to the increasing awareness about depleting fuel levels. I'm going to talk about the misconception with most drivers that driving in a lower than optimum gear will help fuel economy. Engines are tuned to be driven in a certain RPM range both for power and economy of fuel usage. Above or below that range, you're not going to get the best mileage out of your car. Most cars, in

Scorpio

2008-03-28T21:19:00.001+05:30

Would I put my money on a Scorpio mHawk? Definitely not. The new Scorpio throws in a lot of equipment like steering mounted stereo controls, tyre monitoring system etc. But I would prefer to have quality even if it means being put up with a smaller equipment list. And quality is what is lacking in a Scorpio. Even the pictures of the steering wheel speak volumes about the pathetic quality levels.

Drag It

2008-02-26T16:18:00.001+05:30

As much as I keep saying that I'm not for street racing, I'm forced into doing just that! It so happened that me and my bro were out for shopping one fine after-noon. In a signal, when the lights went green, I inadvertently let go of the clutch a bit too fast and the bike wheelied. A fellow biker, who was on his Yam RX100, (wrongly) took it as an invite for racing to the next signal, let his

Solo Ride in P220

2008-02-21T20:43:00.001+05:30

It's tough to have the P220 all for me 'coz of one main reason that I don't know the Madras roads too well. That's why every time I take the bike out, I'm having to, grudgingly :), allow my bro to ride pillion with me. I, however, got one golden chance of, er, not having my bro anywhere near it, one late evening. My bro and I had gone to one of his friends' house and boy was that area posh! The

Karting - My Experience Part Three

2008-01-20T11:23:00.001+05:30

I did two races, each lasting 5 minutes (5 minutes sets you back by Rs.150). In the first race I came first, a lap ahead of everybody else (there were some 6 or 7 of us competing) and in the second I ended up 5th! Actually the result would've been better if not for a crash I had with a fellow racer who spun in the midst of a "U" turn. While I was about to lap her! The turn was blind; from where I

Brake Test

2008-01-14T10:39:00.001+05:30

The other day I was thinking of learning more about my bike's braking ability--which includes tyre grip levels, feedback from the front brake lever and the handlebar and the bike's overall behaviour under hard braking. I always consider the knowledge of the behaviour of a bike in emergency braking situations to be very important to any rider because, in such demanding situations, when we brake

Tata Nano's = E Class Side Mirror's

2008-01-14T08:47:00.001+05:30

You all would've heard a lot and read a lot about the fantastic new Tata Nano and so I'm not going to bore you with that again. But do you know that the side mirror (ORVM) of a Mercedes-Benz E Class costs more than the base version of the Nano? To quote the price exactly, it is (a whooping, I should add) Rs.123363. I was stunned on seeing that. I got this info from the excellent Jan '08 issue of

Karting - My Experience Part Two

2008-01-12T09:41:00.001+05:30

Most karts' engines are two-strokes and so was mine. It's a carbureted unit with lots of "flat-spot" in the lower rpms. Flat-spot is, feeling no surge in power when the throttle is pressed fully down, suddenly. To be more technical, when the throttle opening is too high for the rpm at the particular instant, the engine will be supplied with a richer mixture, which it can't burn effectively

Karting - My Experience Part One

2008-01-08T20:30:00.001+05:30

I've done karting twice. I'm really fascinated by automobiles and racing and I'd say karting was the best thing that I've ever done in my life. I was really fascinated to drive them at silly speeds around corners. And there was also an element of risk--a mistake when you're at full clip around a corner and you'll smash into the tire barriers. I was, however, never really worried about it when I

Karting and Racing Career

2007-12-30T13:37:00.001+05:30

Karting is the starting point for almost all racing drivers. Even Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton honed their racing skills in karts. To pursue a racing career, the single most essential aspect one should have is, the ability to drive fast. By fast, I don't mean the top speed; any kid can take a Ferrari to 200 kph. By fast, I mean the ability to lap a circuit in the lowest possible time