Mankind’s pathetic attempt at making a tail lamp

Humans have evolved over centuries to become a fairly sophisticated being. The renaissance was huge in terms of evolution of the human mind and its intelligence. The renaissance period led to the industrial revolution which led to the rise of technology. And for most of mankind the evolution has been one that has taken our breed forward in every way.

In the midst of all that the automobile was born. The automobile is a giant scene in the industrial world. Which is all very well and good, because, well, I have a job as a result. Anyway, someone realised that a car is going to need lights for safety reasons. Big and powerful ones at the front to let you see where you are going and lots of little ones at the back to stop things from crashing into the back of a car at night. And everything was fine really, until just over a decade ago.

You see the red lights at the back of a car, called the brake lights were happily doing their job very well until someone came along and said’ ‘we should make them brighter’. For what? We can see them glowing in the dark, and everything has been fine for decades! But, no! No one seems to have bothered with the sensible option and as a result the bright brake lights caught on.

             The left tail light has LEDs while the right one has an incandescent bulb 

The end result are cars with brake lights that manage to damn nearly make you blind at night. I’ am sure if you fix one of those on a space station you could see it all the way from here. But the automobile industry for some reason thinks it’s a good idea to fix the blinding LED bulbs or multi-reflectors in their cars, and my God do they fix a considerable number of them in a tail light. They must have like a vending machine for the same. And that’s just the start of it. Have you seen what happens when the driver hits the brake pedal at night? The whole thing lights up like a Diwali celebration. I bet even Lord Ram never had as many diyas to welcome him home.

When the brakes come on in a modern car, everything behind it goes red and all driver in cars behind it can do is blindly hit the brakes till the car in front continues to do so. I was behind a new Audi the other day and that thing had really bright LEDs, and to make matters worse these cars have automatic gearboxes which means at a traffic signal the driver simply stands on the brakes till he wants to move forward instead of putting the car in ‘park’ mode. In moments like those all you can do is sit in your car and pray for the red horror to get over as soon as possible.

Someone told me the bright lights help other drivers identify a car in front on a foggy night. I’ am sorry, but if the human race can invent an automatic flush toilet I’ am pretty sure we can make a decent tail light that can be spotted on a foggy night and for the rest of the time do the job of a tail light and not of a million watt search light.

So, this is an appeal to car makers across the world really. Stop making us blind and please go back to those normal tail lamps that you lot used on the back of cars till about 2002 in India and get rid of the new rubbish ones which are much too bright to serve any purpose at all.  

A new Hindustan Motors Ambassador after six decades

Hindustan Motors Limited the oldest automobile manufacturer in India is planning to give the six decade old Ambassador a new life. The HM brand along with the Ambassador seems to have faded away into oblivion. Hardly anyone knows that the car is still in production. Technically, the low sales figures should have put an end to the car. Thanks for once, to our corrupt ministers (as we know anything the bureaucracy wants will stay) the car lived on.

Now however, HM has announced that they will be producing a sub 4 meter long Ambassador to take advantage of low excise duty, just like the Indigo CS. The somewhat short Amby will have a smaller boot. Interior comfort and legroom will be the same as the normal Ambassador. Anyone who has taken a seat in the Ambassadors from the Euro II era onwards will tell that the rear seat is more comfortable than that of a Mercedes Benz E Class. The massive bucket seats upfront are criminally comfortable, more like those reclining TV couches. If you aren’t careful it’s very easy to fall asleep in them. I should also mention that the aircon if used on full blast for sometime can turn you into a giant icicle after some time.

The Ambassador always has been and still is a legendarily comfortable car. HM has woken up and finally decided to do the car justice by announcing that in about a year they will launch a brand new Ambassador. The new car will feature a new aerodynamic design along with modern interiors and electronics. The new car will also come loaded with equipment and safety features. HM has decided that while the car will be made modern it will not compromise on its dependability, space and comfort. That’s a good thing. The Ambassador is a bench mark for the perfect comfortable grand tourer. It can eat up kilometre after kilometre without a sweat and will transport you in uber comfort. I’ am a big fan of the Hindustan Motors Ambassador and can’t wait for the new Amby to hit the roads. Let’s hope you don’t have to spend a fortune to maintain it like the current car. Also, HM should address the panel gap issue as goats and elephants can slip in without you noticing through the huge gaps between the doors.

Having said that, I think the current Ambassador Grand looks totally cool and retro, you still get those heavenly seats which you sink into. I wish I had the money to go buy one, in black. I know I would have to spend a fortune to maintain it but I don’t care. If Great Britain has the Rolls Royce Phantom we have the HM Ambassador, and we should be awful proud of it because, well at least we wholly own the company.

What I think HM should do is make the new car look like the late HM Contessa, more like a modern take on a muscle car. And they can continue to make the current Ambassador Grand as a classic car, albeit with better panel gaps and lower the cost of ownership by fitting quality parts.   

Here is to HM, although they took their own sweet time, may they make a great new Ambassador without losing its character and turn the old one into a retro luxury car.

Current Engine Trends

With increased environmental concerns and rising fuel prices car makers have come under pressure to build cleaner and more efficient engines. And they are driving down the road pretty well it must be said.

Car manufacturers are building smaller engines to reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions. But it would be wrong to say that only a smaller engine is economical. If the engine technology is ancient you will end up with a small underpowered engine which consumes a lot of fuel and creates a lot of carbon emissions like the two cylinder engine in the Fiat 500 twinair.

Today, a number of technologies that go into making a small engine efficient, clean and powerful are technologies like Variable Valve Timing, Computer controlled power delivery through the Electronic Combustion Unit (ECU) to optimise fuel/air mixture in order to reduce wastage and optimise performance. A turbo charger can be bolted on to the engine to deliver adequate power out of a small engine.

In India, the Maruti Suzuki Swift has undergone this change. The old 1.3 liter petrol engine was replaced with the new K12 1.2 liter engine. The new 1.2 unit returns 14-15 km/pl while the 1.3 unit returned 12-13 km/pl. As a result it is more fuel efficient than the outgoing 1.3 liter and power delivery is better than the old unit too and acceleration off the line is faster. As a result the K12 Swift was a big hit for Maruti Suzuki as they created a win-win upgrade.

Earlier everyone though it was impossible to create a small diesel engine. Along came Fiat with their 1.4 Multijet engine which revolutionised the small diesel unit in India. It is a refined, powerful and economical unit. And the best example of that was in the Swift DDis which uses the same Fiat Multijet engine only Maruti have tweaked and made it more powerful. The Tata Indica’s diesel engine became crude and underpowered in front of the Multijet engine. With fuel prices soaring through the roof the cars powered by the Multijet engine like the Fiat Punto Multijet, Maruti Suzuki Swift DDis, Maruti Suzuki Ritz DDis, Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire DDis, Maruti Suzuki  SX4 DDis, Fiat Linea Multijet have become the ideal choice of the Indian car buyer.

Chevrolet India has stolen the show and announced that they are going to lead the small Diesel engine race by introducing a 3 cylinder 936cc engine which makes 58.5bhp in the Beat. When the Beat diesel goes on sale next month, it will be priced at about Rs.80,000 over the petrol models which will make it the most affordable diesel hatchback apart from the Tata Indica.

Ford India has announced that it will bring its 3-cylinder 1.0 liter ecoboost engine to India which will power its small cars. The engine will be equipped with a turbocharger, direct injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing. Ford say that the ecoboost motor will be as powerful as a 1.6 liter engine while managing to be more efficient.

While all that has been happening at the budget end of the market big manufacturers have taken a look at this small engine business. BMW which makes the ultimate performance saloon in the world, the BMW M5, has replaced the monstrous 5 liter V10 engine in the outgoing M5 with a 4.4 liter twin turbo charged V8 from the X5M.  BMW say it’s going to be more powerful, torquier and will also rev higher than the V10. The new engine will cut emissions by 25% over the old engine. While power has gone up from 500bhp in the old car to 560bhp in the new M5.

It is becoming clear now that engines are going to become not only smaller but also more powerful in the future with the growth of technology. A smaller engine consumes less fuel and reduces the weight of the car. It also helps better weight distribution which is why manufacturers are increasingly using turbochargers and superchargers in their cars. And not just in sports cars but also in regular hatchbacks to increase fuel efficiency and power. Very soon all our cars will be turbocharged or supercharged considering the mass production of turbochargers and superchargers will result in cheaper production costs.

Two girls and some turbo lag

As I came to halt at some stationary traffic, I pulled up beside two girls in a Swift Vdi. The traffic started moving and slowing down again and again. As the one driving the car stepped on the accelerator the car would move forward lazily when all of a sudden the turbo charger would kick in and throw the girls firmly into their seats. It was hilarious as the trend in traffic continued for a while and every single time their car slowed down and accelerated they would be thrown backwards into their seat.

They must have been thinking there was something wrong with the car. But, actually there wasn’t. You see the Swift diesel is equipped with a turbo charger. Let me explain what was going on and how the turbo charger was causing it.

A turbo charger is a forced induction system that can be incorporated in a naturally aspirated engine. A turbo charger works on the principle of kinetic energy. A common shaft connects a turbine and a compressor. The turbine is placed in the exhaust manifold and the compressor is mounted on the engine behind the front grill or an air scoop under the bonnet where there is adequate airflow when the vehicle is moving.

Acceleration causes increase in flow of exhaust gases which spins the turbine in the exhaust manifold which via the connecting shaft spins another turbine in the compressor resulting in air being sucked into the compressor. The compressed air which is dense is fed to the cylinders thereby increasing the fuel/air mixture which results in increased power output.

However, there is a downside to turbo charging an engine. At low speeds there are not enough exhaust gases in the exhaust manifold to provide adequate pressure to spin the turbine of the turbo charger. As a result, when acceleration is increased suddenly there aren’t enough exhaust gases to spin the turbine and increase airflow to the engine to significantly increase acceleration of the vehicle. This delay in increasing acceleration of the vehicle is called turbo lag.

It is only after a while that the increased throttle input burns more fuel to create enough exhaust gases to spin the turbine of the turbo charger thereby creating suction in the compressor and increase airflow into the cylinders which increases acceleration.

The sudden boost of air by the turbo charger into the cylinders results in a sudden surge in acceleration which throws the driver and passengers into their seats as the car shoots forward all of a sudden. This is the reason why you may feel that your vehicle does not accelerate well in a particular gear at a particular speed and jumps forward all of a sudden under acceleration. It’s not witchcraft or a malfunctioning engine, its turbo lag.

Choosing the right variant while buying a car

People like to have a life complete with everything they wish for in it. Do not leave yourself wanting in your car or you will be left wanting in your life.

The Indian automobile market is booming. Before the launch of a model is followed up another manufacturer announces that it is launching a new car. Or better still, a sports car manufacturer decides to put off Mr. Jairam Ramesh and announce that it is going to bring an entire range of sports cars onto our shores. Mainstream manufacturers like Renault are in for a share of our market, and a lot others like Peugeot are eyeing a share. All this is going to expand the number of models available by a considerable margin. Not to be forgotten also is the fact that a new model of car is flavored with a list variants, the new Verna has 10 variants!! That makes it extremely tricky for buyers to pick a variant of a car.

When people think of buying a car, they can think of a choosing a variant on the lines of value for money or on the lines of what they need or want in the car. The value for money part is fine, buying a diesel variant for tootling around in the city makes perfect sense. Buying the base model of a car for your driver to transport your family around is fine. But, which model should a person choose if he or she wants to drive it personally? The answer to that depends on the buyer in question.

Let me put the whole situation in context of a car. The Maruti Suzuki Swift petrol for example has three variants, Lxi, Vxi, and Zxi. Buying the Lxi makes sense if a driver is going to be chauffeuring the kids to school and back, but other than that it doesn’t make much sense. As for driving it yourself, it is a pathetic choice because at some point of time the owner will want to put the window down and realize that there are no power windows. Buying a brand new car in this day and age and having to roll the windows down is a seriously depressing idea. And God forbid the owner gets behind the wheel of the car. The whole dashboard is splattered with bits of black plastic which blocks out areas where there would have been a fog lamp switch or a defogger switch, or the switches for rear windshield washer and wiper. All this will make the owner feel depressed and think, what if a little more money was spent on buying a variant that had all the features and buttons that the car was designed with in the first place. As the owner drives around his/her thought process would constantly revolve around what it would feel like to have a car that was complete in everyway, just as we imagine our lives.

Then comes the Vxi owner and all he has to feel good about is power windows, couple of headrests on the backseat and the fog lamp switch on the dashboard. He still has some blacked out patches on the dashboard. Also, the air conditioning controls seem to have been an after thought by Maruti as the climate control unit was ripped out. Still, the owner thinks it could be worse, he could have been driving the Lxi. Just then a Swift Zxi overtakes the Vxi and the driver of the Vxi notices the lines on the rear windshield of the Zxi and realizes that he does not have those lines on rear window. A memory of the test drive in the Zxi plays a mental slideshow of a Swift dashboard complete with all the buttons and no blacked out patches are present. Even the HVAC controls look and feel decent. The Vxi owner wishes for a sleek looking integrated stereo with steering mounted audio controls and the ability to clean the rear windscreen at the touch of a button so that its possible to see out of the dirty window.

The Zxi owner on the other hand feels life is complete, at least in the car, and drives along feeling good about life as he overtakes a Swift Vxi and realizes his car is better equipped and crucially safer with airbags in the dashboard. Finally, both cars pull up at the lights and the shiny alloy wheels on the Zxi catch the attention of the Vxi driver. At this point the Vxi driver feels all is lost and wishes he was in the Zxi. The biggest mistake a person can make in the world of automobiles is buying the wrong car. Try not to drive a middle of the way car as it leaves you wanting for more in your drive and your life. 

The perfect urban cruisemobile

Take a look at the urban Indian society today. An average person goes to the shops atleast once a week. Spends a considerable amount of money on cosmetics, hair products, clothes, shoes, gadgets, eating and drinking out and the list just goes on. In short, globalization has brought in the retail culture onto our shores and the response has been immense. While this is all very good it leaves us wondering which is the best buy?

Now, its easy to say that the purchase decision is based on the kind of money you have and the choice available within that range. So, if you are a girl and wanted to buy, say, clothes you would walk into Mango or Zara or any of the other brands in that range. And if you were feeling a bit flush you would walk into Fendi or Armani or Gucci, etc. You essentially buy the same thing, i.e. clothes but, there is a significant difference between the products.

And it’s much the same with cars really. You go out and buy a car that suits your budget. But look closer and you will see a world of a difference. However, the criteria for judgment of the products is not based on the differences as is the case normally, the criteria in this case are the similarities. For instance, cars like the Hyundai i10, the Maruti Suzuki Estilo, or the Ford Figo are brands like Zara and Mango. They are there, but you know there is something better at the top.

Then there are the big names in fashion like Fendi, Armani and the lot. Just like there are BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes Benz and others in the car industry. And then there is the designer range like Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc. But let’s leave the designer range out for the purpose of this story as they are made to order.

But what about the stuff that’s just above the basic brands, stuff like French Connection, DKNY, Forever New, Calvin Klein, etc. In terms of cars there are the Hyundai i20, Skoda Fabia, Volkswagen Polo, Fiat Grande Punto, Honda Jazz, Nissan Micra, Maruti Suzuki Ritz, and the Maruti Suzuki Swift. And it’s this bunch I want to talk about.

The Punto is a great looking car with good driving dynamics, but lacks power. A black VW Polo makes you go weak in the knees, it’s that good looking. And in 1.6 format, drives better than all the others too. The Honda Jazz has a cabin that is better than that of a Toyota Corolla Altis. Then there is the Hyundai i20, and its this car which stands head and shoulders above the rest.

The top of the line i20 Asta is a good looking car, if fashion experts were to judge they would say it’s a job well done. And its chunky 18 inch alloys only enhance the appeal further. It has the highest ground clearance of the class which means it’s perfect for Indian roads, and still looks very sleek. It has the most spacious cabin of the lot. It can seat one six footer behind another in comfort. Five adults can sit in comfort. The seats are comfortable but not too soft, which is perfect. And it has a big boot. The black and beige cabin is a nice place to be in. Sure, it’s not up there with that of the Jazz or for that matter even that of the Polo, but there is nothing to complain about. The buttons and knobs are just fine.

In terms of kit you get a nice 2 DIN MP3 player with a USB port and aux ports for your ipod and any other music player. There are steering mounted audio controls aswell. Outside temperature gauges, 2 trip meters and a clock dominate the center console. It has climate control and a sunroof. There is rear wash and wipe with defogger. There are lots of cubbyholes and it even has a cooled glovebox.  The i20 is equipped with a host of safety features such as Antilock Braking System, Electronic Brake Distribution and six airbags. And it comes with a 5 Star safety rating from Euro NCAP, that means it’s as safe as a Mercedes Benz S Class!!

The i20 has a plush ride at low speeds. It's driving dynamics are good and it handles in a decent manner, but it is no sports car either. The cabin is well insulated.

And to put the icing on the cake, the i20 comes with a torquey 1.4 liter diesel engine or a 1.4 liter automatic petrol. The one to go for would be the diesel because, well it’s faster than the petrol and more powerful too. Sure, there is some lag below 2000 rpm and it’s not as refined at the top end. But that’s not the point of this car.

This car is meant for driving around in the city in absolute comfort. It is economical because it’s a diesel. Parking and maneuvering is a joy in the city due to its light controls and compact dimensions.

There is no point in going for a big luxury executive sedan to drive in the city because your stress levels would shoot up through the sunroof. Driving a cheap small car leaves you wanting for much in your drive and your life. The Hyundai i20 is the perfect combination of small car practicality with big car quality, equipment and comfort. With groove armada on the stereo and a comfortable drive it is really the perfect car for the stressful Indian city. At it's price of Rs 8,40,000 on road New Delhi there is no car that can challenge it in terms of a package.

I’ am no expert at judging brands of clothes and what they offer at their price, but I can bet middle of the road brands can never offer a product that can rival a luxury brand. However, if there were such a thing it would be a French Connection dress that could embarrass a Gucci dress. And Hyundai has done just that with the i20.

Mitsubishi Motor Corporation to axe its man parts

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (a.k.a. Evo) has been a revered performance sedan for years. Everything about the car from the looks to the practicality to the ground breaking performance made it one of the most desirable performance cars on the road. The first Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was designed from ground up to be a rally car, which means that it was meant to be very fast on just about any road surface, be it tarmac, gravel or snow. That made it one of the greatest street racing machines of all time. As a young boy the Evo was my favorite performance car. To me it was the perfect car. And that was a time when Lancers were really in the stride when it came to the WRC.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution I was first produced in 1992 and since then the car evolved through its rally pedigree to the current generation Evo X. What made the car really stand out was the technology which went on to make it a performance benchmark. You see the tech came from the WRC Lancer Evos’. All the technology that Mitsubishi developed to make their rally cars cope with the extreme conditions of the motorsport was crammed into the production version of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution series. As a result with every upgrade the car became a faster and better machine. The car was such a success that in the real world performance test it would leave supercars in its dust. Topgear went onto give it a cult status when it showed that the Evo was faster than a Lamborghini Murcielago.

However Mitsubishi decided to pull out of the WRC. The Evo IX was the last model to have been honed from a rally going Evo. The Evo X was even better as a performance machine than its predecessors, it was probably made out of all the bits and pieces of rally technology which Mitsubishi had lying around after they cleaned up the WRC cabin.

This year, the Global Product Director for Mitsubishi Motor Corporation, Gayu Eusegi has announced that Mitsubishi is going to kill the Lancer Evolution despite a strong demand for the vehicle. According to him Mitsubishi is heading in a ‘different direction’ now. They do not want to be linked with production of a performance vehicle in any way. Which is why they are going to kill the Evo X in 2013 and it is not going to have a predecessor. He went onto say that Mitsubishi is concentrating on developing electric cars and hybrid cars. Mitsubishi Motor Corporation plans to launch 8 such models by 2015.

I don’t see this as an unexpected move by Mitsubishi. You see Mitsubishi Motor Corporation does not have the technology or the pedigree to develop the next generation Evo because they do not make rally cars any more. They would have to spend a huge amount of money to develop a brand new car such as a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution XI. Instead they are going to produce electric vehicles. Why? Because, Mitsubishi is a large conglomerate and they have a sister company that makes electric motors.

So, Mitsubishi Motor Corporation has decided to save money in making cars and in the process kill its brand name entirely as a performance car maker. What a shame, one of the best performance car makers has decided to castrate itself and become a eco friendly and gutless manufacturer. And in the process please the green party immensely.

About its return to WRC Mitsubishi says, there is no chance for it to join the WRC again. The only way they will join motorsport is if there is a race series for electric cars.

In my opinion all of this is not going to be of much use because Mitsubishi Motor Corporation is heading completely in the wrong direction. The fuel of the future is Hydrogen and not rubbish battery powered cars. If Mitsubishi wants to be in the automobile market in the future, it is best if the stick to performance cars and off-road vehicles or put their resources into developing Hydrogen powered cars. Because, they neither make very good small cars and electric cars have no future. The sooner they realize this the better it is for Mitsubishi Motor Corporation.

Mitsubishi is one of the biggest MNCs in the world and it can very easily put its resources into developing cars that are in demand. And since the Global Product Director for Mitsubishi Motor Corporation has clearly stated that the Evo is still very much in demand. It would be best if they rejoined the WRC and make fantastic cars full of testosterone instead of trying to please the green party and make cars that no one will buy. And if they really wanted to please the green party Mitsubishi can try and make a hydrogen powered car, that’s something people would probably buy in the future.

Here is the thing Mitsubishi, companies make products which people demand because they can make MONEY out of it. So, start doing it.

I have a theory on environmentalists

Ecomentalists are hypocrites and I’ll tell you why. My problem with ecomentalists is with their so called ‘green’ movement and their attack on the car which is on some serious steroids. I wonder why they are attacking the automobile so much. I think it could be because the car can’t fight back. If they really had the guts they should go for the big boys, the industrialists.

The amount of pollution caused by a single factory in a day cannot be ignored. These factories produce everything from canned food to appliances to clothes and the lot. To start with there are close to 333,600 factories in the US alone. The pollution levels in each process of manufacturing cannot be overlooked. Also, waste materials resulting from a production process are huge.

Now imagine how many of these factories there are in the world. Of course the green party would say that they have brought about the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. But to be honest there are a million ‘flexible mechanisms’, which allow industrialists to find enough loopholes in the protocol to get away with damn nearly everything. Let’s not forget that an economy is run by industrialists who contribute to the GDP of a nation. The ecomentalists do not make money for a nation and its people full stop. As a result the most powerful people in a capitalist nation are industrialists. So you tell me who spines the wheel. The fact is, environmentalists do not have the power to do anything about it.

But even that does not put me off. No! What puts me off is that environmentalists are weak and do not have the full fledged determination to go ‘green’ in every sense of the word. Since the eco morons do not know, or to be more precise, choose to ignore the core philosophy of their movement, let me put it down for them. To go ‘green’ is to reduce all sorts of pollution. People are supposed to lead by example, therefore environmentalists should follow what they preach.

So, let’s start with what they are supposed to do.

1. Stop consuming manufactured goods. Because, producing them results in pollution and wastage.

2. Sew their own clothes because that stuff too is created via a manufacturing process that consumes power and results in waste materials.

3. Do not use electricity (and that includes electric vehicles and hybrids) because dams damage the ecology of a river. And a large supply of electricity comes from diesel power plants!!

In essence what I mean to say is, until ecomentalists do all of the above, live in a cave and eat leaves for supper I will have no respect for them. I do support their cause, but in a different way. Because their way is just stupid.

I hope I’ve been able to put my message across very clearly. And I sincerely hope environmentalists will lead by example. Boy would it be fun to watch those imbeciles living in caves and fighting a cause. Let’s see how many true blooded environmentalists there really are, and more importantly let’s see how many people support their cause and follow them.

I end with the same line I began with, ecomentalists are hypocrites.

Car Designs - Car makers need to tell the design guys to layoff the photocopier a bit

There was a time in car designing when originality was something that manufacturers dared to venture onto, a virtue that seems to have been long lost or forgotten.

The trouble is car designs much like fashion is bound to change. The obsession of an age or an era influences car design. Another factor which could have something to do is that the human brain is running out of design ideas (probably a reason why retro is considered a new design option, not that I ‘am complaining). Also, health and safety norms in the developed parts of the world (where most of the designing happens) prevent some of our most loved design elements to be produced anymore. Pop up headlamps, a design marvel, is not allowed anymore because of safety norms!!

Whatever the reason maybe, it’s no excuse for manufacturers no stick around with the current design of euro boxes which cosset occupants from the world and transport them in a separate universe. That as an aspect of motoring is fine but it does not have to come at the cost of boring and redundant car designs.

In the US of A during the 1950s the jet age influenced car designs with sprout wings, turbines, after-burner taillights and the lot. However, it failed to influence European car designs and thank God for that. The Europeans preferred more elegant designs like that of Bristols and the Jaguars and Mr Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 in England. In Italy the Ferrari 250 GTB SWB was on the scene in the 60s, and my God was it beautiful, every time you look at one you are transferred onto an era where the roads were empty and the silence broken by chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves, when, from the distance the V12 bellow of a 250 GTB driving by would make your hair stand on end. In Germany, the Merc 300 Gullwing and BMW 507 were the gossip. Of course, this is only a small collection of the design greats of the time.

One cannot forget the British sports car and its impact on car design. That long swooping bonnet followed by a miniature passenger compartment and tiny boot, which meant that the driver sat on the rear wheel arch that probably is the best place to be seen behind a wheel.

The 60s was the era of muscle cars and the likes of the Jaguar E-type, Porsche 911, Lamborghini Muira, Ferrari 275, Aston Martin DB5, Ford GT40 and countless other designs that are still revered today, the designs then were synonymous to speed and beauty.

The 70s was a decade that belonged to the wedge, a shape in which the front of the car is lower than the boot of the car. Cars like the BMW M1, Lamborghini Countach, and the Lotus Esprit wore the look at the time. The wedge was carried on in car design till the 90s. But overtime the designs became more purposeful and less beautiful.

From the mid 90s cars started taking more curvy shapes as opposed to the sharp lines of the wedge design. This became possible with the development of technology, and ever since the curves have been around. Today cars are becoming more about being gadgets and less about passion. The art of striking the perfect balance between ergonomics and aesthetics is a difficult one. Few cars have hit the perfect spot and the bulk has either been too irrelevant to be noticed or has caused aesthetic damage to the environs.

The end of the wedge design came with the beginning of the fluid design which is the current trend in car designs. I personally do not like this design concept. It’s too swoopy all around. I’ll tell you what a car with this design looks like. It’s as if someone put a block of jelly in a plastic bag and placed it on a table, then held it from the back and pulled. The plastic bag tightens on the jelly and forms lines here and there, these lines due to the physics of the situation flow backwards. That’s fluid design for you, it’s just a block of metal with some lines flowing backwards on it. Apparently it cushions pedestrians in the event of a crash, but people are not supposed to be in front of moving cars anyway. 

 Also, fluid design is supposed to be more aerodynamic, yeah right. I mean look at the Hyundai Accent and the new Hyundai Verna (which is actually the new Accent), the Accent is much sleeker and has cleaner lines the Verna is just a modern euro box. And to be honest the new Verna and Fiesta look exactly the same. It’s just disappointing, there was a time when every car looked different and that time was not too long ago. In fact today when you look at car designs, from the outside they are almost all the same. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, let cars look like cars and not like stupid fishes.

Clearly, designers have understood this. But instead of heading for newer design cues, they have gone for the easiest theme, retro. The Ford Mustang for example has gone retro while brand new cars like the Mercedes Benz SLS have been created to replicate a design of the past. And it hasn’t stopped there The Lancia Stratos has been brought back from the dead. And the Jaguar E type is to come back to life. This is all great and is not a bad thing at all, it’s just that side by side designers and car makers should go for fresh and appealing designs.

Ofcourse some car makers have come up with brilliant designs. Maserati has done that with their entire range of cars. The new Merc E Class looks nice, the BMWs are looking better too these days.

The second kind of car maker is like Audi and Porsche who haven’t bothered to change their styling. The only difference is that Audis look okay while Porsches are lesser so.

Then there are the likes of Lamborghini who always makes great looking cars. And they said their new car, the Aventador was going to look like something else, and all they gave us was a restyled Reventon. That is not a bad thing except it isn’t something else, its something they already had made earlier. Actually, to be honest the Reventon looked better. Come on Lambo you can do better and we know it.

If engineers can come up with all sorts of magical technology in cars to make them safer, faster, cleaner and more efficient. Surely, the design departments can put their heads to better use rather than playing follow the leader and copying industry trends. But for now let’s just hope that the crappy fluid design concept does not catch on. After all we don't want our cars to look like the Porsche model line up, we won't be able to tell which one is which.

 

If money could buy

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Spyder

Aston Martin DB5

Audi Quattro Sport

Lancia Delta Integrale

BMW M3 E30

BMW M5 E28

Dodge Charger

Lancia Stratos

Lancia O37

Lamborghini Diablo SV

Lamborghini Countach 

Lamborghini Gallardo Valentino Balboni

Lamborghini Reventon Roadster

Ferrari 250 GTO SWB

Ferrari F40

Ferrari 355

Ferrari 512 Testarossa 

Ford Escort Sierra Cosworth

Jaguar E Type

Mercedes Benz SL

McLaren F1

Mercedes-Benz SSK

Porsche Carrera GT

Shelby Cobra 427

Blower Bentley

1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 fastback

If I had the money

Maruti Suzuki Gypsy - It takes you straight back to the primitive, raw & pure feeling of man and machine. This rally crazed machine is not to be taken lightly. Its light weight and relatively small dimensions means it can outperform & and shame most modern day SUVs at offroading. 

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ 400 - Get one of these and you can put almost any supercar on the streets to shame, while having a lot of fun .

Maserati Quattroporte GT S - The best looking four door sedan in the world. It also happens to have one of the best soundtracks.

Jaguar XJ - The best allround executive sedan with a great petrol engine and lots of charm.

Land Rover Range Rover - The most luxuriously capable off road vehicle in the world.

BMW Z4 - The perfect looking roadster.

BMW M3 - The yardstick for every performance sedan.

Holden Monaro VXR8 Bathurst S - An insane amount of fun.

Jeep Wrangler - The picture says it all.

Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe - Drive one and feel like a prince.

Volkswagen Golf R - A hotter version of the evergreen hot hatch.

 Bentley Brooklands - A luxury yacht with atomic power. Its also charmingly luxurious inside.

Alfa Romeo Brera - Just look at it.

Dodge Challenger - The way it looks and sounds.

Mercedes Benz E 63 AMG - The best looking E Class with a fantastic engine. A great muscle car.

Hindustan Motors Ambassador Grand - Only people with an acquired taste buy it. Great car, with enough potential to get better as a luxury product.

Ford GT 40 - The supercar for the working class man with a credible history proves its point again.

Mazda RX 8 - For its rotary engine.

Lancia Stratos - 3 time WRC champion is back, its still a looker and goes like hell.

Nissan GTR - It has special wheel rims to stop the tyres coming off while going sideways.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport World Record Edition - The fastest production car in the world is also naturally the ultimate hypercar.

Koenigsegg's Agera R - One of the most exciting hypercars, wonderfully mechanical too.

Pagani Zonda R - The most hardcore supercar.

Vanwall GPR V12 - Because its a 1950s V12 F1 car that is completely road legal.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage - For the way it looks, sounds and for those vents on the bonnet.