Automobile Blog

2010 Suzuki Kizashi

The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi may be one of the more difficult car names to pronounce, but get used to hearing the name — it’s a flagship worth remembering.

The Kizashi (pronounced: Key-zash-ee) went on sale in December and comes chock-full of amenities.

Of course, Suzuki had to load it up. This is new turf for the carmaker better known for motorcycles.

This is the usual recipe a smaller brand follows when it’s trying to make waves in the bigger fish pond. If your reputation can’t win over new customers, toss in as many shiny trinkets as possible until they bite. Hey, it’s the same sales tactic that sold Manhattan.

Suzuki does a much better job than the Dutch and probably could have gotten all five boroughs with this new entry into the midsize car segment.

The Kizashi has the classic midsize looks: An aggressive front end that looks like a linebacker with black grease under his eyes, a well-proportioned profile with a sweeping roofline and slightly higher back end (that looks as if it’s going to jump), and then the piece de resistance, the Kizashi’s backside, which includes an arching decklid and two big oddly shaped exhaust tips.

Really, you’d think this car is packing a V-8 under its clamshell-type hood, but there’s only a 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder engine in there.

But little engines produce some big numbers for midsize cars when it comes to gas mileage. The Kizashi hits 31 miles per gallon on the highway in the front-wheel-drive model with the six-speed manual transmission. The continuously variable transmission, which is offered instead of a gear-clicking automatic, can improve the manual’s city mileage from 21 mpg to 23 mpg. (more…)

Aston Martin Rapide review

Billed as Aston Martin’s first four-door, four-seat sports car, the Rapide needs some context. The 1941 Aston Martin Atom had four doors and four seats, as did the 1976 Lagonda and the 1994 Lagonda Virage.

There’s also Uli Bez, Aston Martin’ chief executive’s work on the abandoned front-engined 989 Porsche project and there’s the fact that the Rapide is the first Aston not to be built in England, in this case Austria…

Oh, to hell with context, let’s just drive…

With an afternoon and a full tank, I headed off round the original Audi Quattro launch route, running through Banbury, Ledbury and into Wales.

More than 30 years after the launch of the seminal Audi, it’s still a stern test of machine. The Rapide wolfed it up and after almost four hours I arrived back with a sore bottom but thrilled to the core.

In high-torque DB9 spec, the Ford-derived, six-litre V12 has a hair-raising soundtrack as well as the ability to pick you up and hurl you at the horizon like a cricket ball.

Thanks to the DBS’s shorter differential, overtaking is imperious, seldom requiring a downchange, although with the robotised six-speed transmission that is just a flip of a column paddle away.

While the roads were slippery, the progressive throttle means driving was never a heart-in-mouth experience.

There’s a mellifluous quality to the sound, but past 3,800rpm exhaust valves open and the Rapide gets saucy. Apologies to the tractor driver who must have thought a shrieking soundtrack of Armageddon had slipped into his CD player. (more…)

Chasing the ‘Ring of Fire’ in the sky from sea cruise

The Aquamarine is no ordinary vessel. It is India’s first eclipse cruise, which will sail to Male in the Maldives on January 13 to chase the ‘Ring of Fire’, or the millennium’s longest annular solar eclipse. The eclipse will be seen for the longest time in the Indian Ocean nation on January 15.

A science communication organisation SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators) has tied up with Louis Cruises India to run the luxury vessel from Kochi to Maldives carrying eclipse chasers looking to see the ‘Ring of Fire’ when the Sun’s disc will be covered by the Moon.

The cruise will start at 3 p.m. on January 13 and reach Male at 5 p.m. on January 14. People interested in getting on board the cruise will have to shell out something between Rs.17,000 to Rs.50,000 for the four-day three-night trip.

Four astronomers along with three telescopes, besides a number of binoculars with solar filters will be on hand aboard the vessel to facilitate eclipse viewing. (more…)

Maruti Suzuki Eeco: Specially Designed For India

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s number one automobile manufacturer, is set to launch an all-new car named Eeco.Maruti Suzuki Eeco is a five-door, C segment vehicle, which has been specifically designed for India by the auto-major.

Eeco comes with a new, powerful and highly fuel efficient 1200 cc engine. This new engine delivers 73 bhp of raw power @6000rpm, a high torque of 101Nm@3000rpm specifically designed to meet the Indian driving conditions.

The Eeco will come with a flexi design, offering 7-Seater and 5-seater options with air-conditioning option making it an ideal vehicle for dual usage.

Maruti Suzuki is spearheading the adoption of more stringent BSIV Norms and Eeco is the fourth model to meet these norms well ahead of the April 2010 deadline. (more…)

Bugatti Veyron, most expensive and fastest production vehicle of all times

We just saw the launch of the new ‘Beetle’ by Volkswagen, the German car-manufacturer. Now it is believed that Volkswagen AG is all set to launch the fastest and most expensive car in India, the legendary French car brand Bugatti, Bugatti Veyron. Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is the most recent version of a mid-engined full-sized grand tourer. It is produced by the Volkswagen-brand Bugatti Automobiles SAS at their headquarters in Château St. Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France). The car is named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti Company.

Bugatti Veyron is all set to hit the Indian roads by next year, mid- 2010.

Bugatti Veyron would be the most sophisticated vehicles of all times with its 16-cylinder four-wheel drive. Bugatti Veyron is nonpareil in the super sports category that boasts a maximum speed of more than 400kph. (more…)

Subaru has unveiled the Japanese domestic specification version of its Model Year 2006 Impreza WRX STi. It features new look front bumper, grille and headlights, using Subaru’s design theme that draws on its origins as an aircraft maker.

The headlights are designed to project a sharper image and rear light clusters also feature a rounded design, complementing the headlight style. Sweeping character lines run from the grille over the bonnet, highlighting the distinctive new style.

Saleen knows all about power. As in S281 Mustangs, N2O Focuses and the S7, America’s first (and still the only) mid-engine exotic supercar. When it went on sale in 2002, the S7 was the only street-legal car in the U.S. with more than 500 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque.

While there are a number of different roads Saleen’s engine designers could have traveled down to achieve those high-altitude horsepower and torque figures, for this second edition of the S7 they decided to think beyond atmospheric. And because this is Saleen, they added a double twist to a tried and true racing technique for boosting power and torque: twin turbos.

Designed by Saleen engineers, the S7’s engine and drivetrain incorporate the latest in modern racing technology. The new all-aluminum V8 engine casting was engineered and tooled by Saleen to displace seven liters. Redline is 6500 rpm. Space age materials and engineering are used throughout, including stainless steel valves, titanium retainers, beryllium exhaust valve seats, an aluminum throttle body, Saleendesigned aluminum CNC-machined cylinder heads and stainless steel exhaust system.

The S7 chassis and suspension incorporate decades of Saleen’s experience in racing, racecar construction and high-performance road car manufacturing. The Saleen S7 architecture begins with a space frame chassis to which honeycomb composite reinforcing is grafted. The body is structural, aerospace-quality, autoclave carbon fiber. Suspension is via fully independent unequal-length double wishbones with coilover springs, lightweight aluminum dampers (shock absorbers) and stabilizer (anti-roll) bars front and rear.

The S7’s beautiful shape was “designed� by the wind. Optimal aerodynamics and top speed performance objectives were achieved with extensive wind tunnel work. Targets included a low coefficient of drag, optimum drag-to-lift ratio, and extreme down force. The S7 has “full tray� body sculpting underneath.

For the 2005 S7 Twin Turbo, the redesigned front and rear diffusers, along with the new rear spoiler, result in a 40 percent reduction in aero drag and a 60 percent increase in down force. Those of you who know anything about aero forces recognize the significance of that last statement. Typically, you would have to trade down force to reduce aero drag.