Hyundai likely to introduce Verna RB in India next month

Hyundai Motors Indian limited, the second largest car maker and the largest car exporter in the Indian market, is speculated to roll-out its Verna RB in the Indian market next month. The car will be shelved in the C+ segment where it will be taking on the likes of Honda City, Maruti SX4, Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Optra Magnum etc.

As per recent media reports, the all new Verna RB will be rolled-out in four different engine options including 2 petrol versions and two diesel versions. The petrol version of the car will be rolled-out in a 1.4L and a 1.6L version. The 1.4L petrol version will be delivering a peak power of 106 bhp along with a peak torque of 135 Nm. On the other hand, the 1.6L version of the car will deliver a peak power of 122 bhp along with a peak torque of 156 Nm.

The diesel version of the Hyundai Verna RB will be available in a 1.4L and a 1.6L version. The 1.4L diesel version will be delivering a peak power of 90 bhp with 224 Nm torque. On the other hand, the 1.6L diesel version of the car will be generating a peak power of 126 bhp with 265 Nm of peak torque.

Its the swing time for corporate honchos

The corporate cars of Mumbai and Pune are readying to battle for top honours when the final leg of the multi-city The Economic Times Leaders Challenge Tour, presented by Sahara India Pariwar in association with Chevrolet Captiva, tees off at the enchanting Aamby Valley Golf Club on Saturday.

Around 80 top corporate honchos from the two cities are expected to take part in the event. Some of the leading names who will be seen treading the greens and fairways on Saturday include Shashi Kiran Shetty (chairman & MD, All Cargo Global Logistics), Dinesh Lal (Group Director India, Maersk India Pvt Ltd), Jaideep Bhattacharya (Group President and CMO, UTI AMC Ltd), Kuldip Kaura (CEO & MD, ACC Ltd), R Swaminathan (MD, Essar Group), Tashwinder Singh (MD, Citibank), Rudratej Singh (Global Brand Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd) and Deepak Khosla (President, SAARC, Patni Computer Systems Ltd) amongst others.

The quest for this year's 'Best Corporate Golfer' was launched in Bangalore and traveled to Hyderabad, Delhi and Kolkata before the western leg. The grand finale is scheduled to be held at Melbourne in Australia. Played in a unique Peoria format, as many as four golfers from each venue qualify for the grand finale that includes the individual winners and runners-up in the 0-17 handicap category and 18-plus handicap category, respectively.

The grand finale of the Tour is sponsored by Tourism Victoria. The Tour is co-sponsored by Ballantine's, Federique Constant and Shri Ramswaroop Memorial Group of Professional Colleges while Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and Trident Hotels are the hospitality partners, Singapore Airlines are the airline partner and ColorPlus the clothing partner. Qua have joined the elite bandwagon as thirst quenchers for the final leg. The event is managed by Tiger Sports Marketing.

Chevrolet warriors to blood youngsters as seniors get a rest

THE Chevrolet Warriors will not have much time to mourn their Standard Bank Pro20 cricket final defeat, with the SuperSport Series swinging back into action this week already.
The Warriors, who lost by 12 runs to the Cobras at Newlands on Friday, travel to Johannesburg tomorrow for their penultimate match of the season against the Highveld Lions, starting on Thursday.
The fact that the Warriors are out of the running for the title will give them an opportunity to have a look at their younger crop of players.
Senior players Davy Jacobs, Nicky Boje, Makhaya Ntini, Mark Boucher, Ashwell Prince and Rusty Theron will not be playing in this fixture. Jacobs arrived in India last night to join up with the Mumbai Indians ahead of the Indian Premier League, while the others have been given the remainder of the season off.
“If we win our remaining two matches, there is a chance we could finish third on the table. So we still have something to play for,” said coach Russell Domingo yesterday.
“This match also gives us an opportunity to further blood guys like Bevan Bennett, Kelly Smuts and Reece Williams.”
The Warriors squad is: Jon-Jon Smuts, Kelly Smuts, Michael Price, Bevan Bennett, Arno Jacobs, Justin Kreusch, Craig Thyssen, Lyall Meyer, Andrew Birch, Reece Williams, Basheer Walters, Garnett Kruger.

2nd Cartier 'Travel with Style' contests d'Elegance in New Delhi was really about style

Cartier's links with India go back to 1911 when Jacque Cartier visited India to showcase his Rue de la Paix line to Indian royalty. In 2008 Cartier set up shop in India and celebrated by organising the first ever Cartier “Travel with Style” Concours d'Elegance in Bombay. The Best of Show award went to Maharaja Duleep Singhji of Jodhpur's magnificent 1937 Delahaye Roadster by Figoni et Falaschi.

The 2011 edition had 56 exotic (some not so) cars gathered at the Jaipur Polo Ground in New Delhi vying for awards in the Classic Class, Classic Rolls-Royce Class, Jaguar Class, Roadster Class, Post-war Classics, Indian Heritage and Preservation categories. In addition there were awards for Ladies Choice, Children's Choice and Resurrection.

Judges back for a second time included HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Gordon Murray. Peter Stevens, Sir Antony Bamford as well as Yasmin Le Bon, the former supermodel and wife of Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon. No Imran Khan or Nick Mason this time around but there was an innovation in getting two judges from Pebble Beach, John McCaw and William 'Chip' Connor, who judged the mainly American Post-War Classic cars. On the judging panel with them were several accomplished personalities including the French actor Olivier Martinez, the singer Bryan Ferry, the philanthropist Sir Michael Kadoorie as well as David Clark,Geordie Greg editor of the London Evening Standard while Alain de Cadenet was the master of ceremonies

The Best of Show award is given to an exceptional car that is extremely rare and has a very compelling aura about it. At the 2011 Cartier Concours d'Elegance, the judges simply could not ignore the 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Limousine with a Dome Roof, in yellow and owned by HIH Princess Ezra of Hyderabad. Known as the Throne Car, it was ordered by Mahbub Ali Khan, the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad. The brief given to Barker & Co was to have a raised seat with a canopy and panoramic glass. Hence the car was called the Throne Car. Unfortunately the Nizam never saw the car - he passed away in August of 1911 and the car was dispatched in December 1911, reaching India in March 1912.. In 1937 the Silver Ghost was modified to reflect Rolls-Royce styling of the day and this work was carried out by the Railway Workshop of the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway. At the Cartier Concourse, the car was back in its 1911 form, restored by Manvendra Singh of Barwani..

My personal favourites included the Diljeet Titus-owned Stutz Series M Dual Cowl Speedster, Ranjit Mallik's Phantom 1 Boattail Tourer which Prince Michael of Kent took for a spin after the event, Rajiv Kehr''s rather European 1934 Packard Super 8 and Dharmaditya Patnaik's Series 1 E Type while in the Preservation class my vote went to the Steyr Cabriolet Typ22o owned by Harshvardhan Singh of Dungarpur. Sadly judging was not in my hands and the judges chose to award TT Raghunathan's superlative 1937 SS Jaguar the best of the Jaguar Class while the Roadster Class went to a magnificent 1959 Daimler SP250 (Dart) owned by V P Singh of Badnore.and driven in from Jaipur.

The Post-War Classics was won by the 1947 Cadillac Series 62 owned by Amal Tanna with two runners-up, an American 1956 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible owned by Sudhir Kasliwal and a European 1958 Mercedes 300D owned by Mr K.C. Anand. The Preservation Class went to another American car, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala owned by Mr Sukhwant Singh while the Resurrection Cup went to a 1929 Mercedes Nurburg owned by Viveck Goenka. The Indian Heritage class went to a 1955 Fiat 1100-103 Millecento owned by Owais Moshin Kidwai. The Judges (Ladies) Choice was the 1928 Lancia Di Lambda owned by Mr Prahlad Agarwalla while Yadupati Singhania's 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom 1 seven-seater Hunting Saloon was the Children's Choice.

The Cartier Concours is testimony to the fact that Indian motoring heritage owes a lot to the Rajas, Maharajas and Nizams of the past, thanks to their taste for the finer things in life and the means to acquire them too. Asked to compare the two Indian Cartier events till date, Prince Michael of Kent commented that the organisers had managed to improve on the first Concours in Delhi, with the large Polo Club ground and the presence of many cars that had not been seen before. HH Manvendra Singh of Barwani, an automotive restorer cum historian and curator of the Cartier “Travel with Style” Concours d'Elegance, pointed out how the Indian vintage and classic cars very special compared to what exists in Europe thanks to the existence of special custom body styles like 'shikaar' or hunting cars and 'purdah' (curtain) cars for ladies.

The first Cartier “Travel with Style” Concours d'Elegance in Bombay in 2008 changed the face of heritage motoring events in India. Earlier and even today, events are localised – Calcutta has it's own annual 'have-car-will-participate' event as do Bombay, New Delhi, Bangalore as well as other Indian cities. The Cartier Concours being an invitation-only, exclusive event has much higher standards of eligibility and judging and brings together the best cars in the country. One hopes the Cartier Concours d'Elegance becomes a regular feature in India.

The India bound 2012 Chevrolet Captiva SUV is coming soon

The 2012 Chevrolet Captiva will soon make it’s way into India and replace the now aging current Captiva, to give GM India enough ammo to take on the likes of the Toyota Fortuner and the to-be-launched Mahindra W201 World SUV.  Stylistically, the 2012 Captiva now harkens to General Motors latest design language, one of boldness and in-yer-face styling.

As with the Beat and the Cruze, the 2012 Captiva gets an aggressive split grille up front that makes all the difference. The headlamps get a little flaring and the bumper too gets a redesign for the Captiva to look mean enough to fit straight into GM’s bold new world. Mitsubishi Outlanderish, anyone? Coming to the insides, the dual cockpit approach of the Beat and the Cruze makes it way into the Captiva too with GM giving the SUV’s dashboard a radical new look. But, the dull grey and black seats make it look dowdy and uninspiring.

Brown or all black may have been a better bet. Perhaps GM India will give the seats a touch up before the Indian launch. Seating is expected to remain flexible with up to 7 Indian adults managing to squeeze in. Coming to the heart of the matter, the engine, it remains unclear whether GM India will choose to retain the existing 2 Liter Diesel engine that the current Captiva shares with stablemate, the Chevrolet Cruze, or whether the 2012 Captiva may get the brand new  2.2 Liter CRDI Diesel that produces 163 Bhp of shove and 350 Nm of torque.

While there is a higher tune version of the same engine producing 184 Bhp-400 Nm, we’re leaning on the lower powered diesel mill to make it to India on efficiency concerns, if at all GM India decide to plonk the new engine under the 2012 Captiva’s hood. If you really feel the need for it, you always have after market remap options or diesel tuning boxes, like that of Pete’s to go to for your torque rush.

Along with the new 2.2 liter engine, transmission options too could change with a six speed manual box debuting alongside the six speeder automatic.  The 2012 Captiva SUV will hit Indian roads in 2011 most probably in the second half. GM India is expected to the new 2012 Captiva SUV pretty competitively at a small premium of INR 50,000 to 1 Lakh over the existing version as they have the likes of the mighty Fortuner which continues to outsell the Captiva many times over each month.

GM to raise Chevrolet car prices in India

GM is doing extremely well in the Indian auto industry. Their small cars Beat and Spark are topping sales charts. GM had priced their cars very aggressively in order to keep a check on their rivals in India. But finally it seems like their strategy is taking a toll on their profits.

In an interview with PTI, Mr P Balendran, VP, GM India stated, “We may consider increasing prices again for the second time this year if prices of raw materials continue to increase.The increasing input cost is now the biggest concern for auto makers. We will review the situation (cost of raw materials) by this month-end and will take a call by early next month.”

Earlier this year in January, along with other car manufacturers in the Indian auto industry, GM too had increased the prices of their products by 1-2%. Industry experts had predicted that there will be another price increase coming soon. It seems that car buyers in India should prepare themselves to pay more for their cars once again.

Chevrolet to unveil 6 new cars in India by 2013

In order to keep pace with the growing demand in the Indian auto industry, Chevrolet has announced to launch 6 new car models within the next 2 years. Of these 6 new models, 4 will be hatchbacks (the driving force behind India’s auto market) while the remaining two will be SUV’s.

When confirmed with Mr Karl Slym, MD, Chevrolet India, confirmed the about their latest announcement and also added that they will be investing approximately $500 million (Rs 2250 crores) in India by 2013.

Last year, Chevrolet crossed the milestone of 1 lakh sales figures. Now their immediate aim is to cross 2 lakh sales by 2012 and 3 lakh by 2013. GM will also want to double their growth figure in India to approximately 12-15% in 2011.

When asked, whether India will get their hybrid or next gen cars, Mr Slym said that as of now there are no such plans. Also the budget 2011 does not offer any significant incentive to hybrid cars, so it will be difficult for hybrid cars to survive in India.

Chevrolet’s swing time in Kolkata

The 'City of Joy' is all set to play host to the biggest event on corporate golf calendar this Saturday as the Tollygunge Club throws open its gates to the Sahara India Pariwar presents Economic Times Leaders Challenge Tour, in association with Chevrolet Captiva.

The one-day event will offer an opportunity to some of the top industrialists from eastern India to step out of the boardrooms and take aim on the golf course as they look to take home the title of the 'most successful corporate golfer'. The tournament, in its fourth edition, has found the pride of place in Indian golf and is reserved for leaders from the corporate world, establishing a synergy between the leading business daily of the nation and decision-makers in the industry .

The Economic Times Leaders Challenge Tour is presented by Sahara India Pariwar in association with Chevrolet Captiva. The grand finale will be played in Melbourne, sponsored by Tourism Victoria. The mega event is co-sponsored by Ballantine's, Federique Constant and Shri Ramswaroop Memorial Group of Professional Colleges.