The Autocar India team has been very busy this month, and with good reason. We have been working night and day on a whole bunch of exciting stories for this 13th Anniversary Collector’s Edition. Here's a preview of what to expect from this 500-page bumper issue.
· Ford EcoSport: Exclusive Drive – We went all the way to Brazil for an exclusive spin in Ford’s very exciting compact SUV, the EcoSport. It could very well be the most important Ford since the Figo.
· Mercedes B-class: Exclusive Test - We got a taste of the B-class last month, but now we've got the real thing. A full road test of the right-hand drive, India-spec B180 in full Autocar fashion.
· Sea test: INS Cankarso – A 65kph top speed doesn’t sound like much on the road, but it’s quite considerable when you are out at sea. We’ve tested our sea legs and the Indian Navy’s 11,000bhp Water Jet Fast Attack Craft this month.
· Great Car, Great Road – There’s nothing like a powerful, compact and grippy hot hatchback to take on the misty and twisty mountain road from Pune to Lavasa. It’s a good thing we had a Mini Cooper S with us.
· A whole raft of new cars driven - Everything from the big Nissan Evalia to the compact Mahindra Verito. A pair of very fast Audis and the brand new Toyota Camry – we've driven them all.
· Two monstrous SUV tests - Mitsubishi’s latest bruiser, the Pajero Sport, wrestles the Fortuner and Endeavour for the supreme heavyweight off-roader title, while the facelifted Chevrolet Captiva sees if it can beat its fellow Korean-built rivals, the Koleos and Santa Fe.
· Autocar Track Test - India’s fastest racing driver, check; the year's best driver's cars, check; one twisty race track, check. This can only mean one thing – the Autocar India Track Day is back.
· Retrospective: BMW 3-series – To celebrate the fantastic new F30 BMW 3-series, we dip our toes in its gene pool to see how the world’s favourite sporty luxury saloon came to be.
· Ratan Tata talks to us candidly about life at Tata Motors, his successor Cyrus Mistry, Jaguar-Land Rover and his plans for retirement.
· A Ninja fights a Monster – Kawasaki’s latest Ninja 650 has the makings of one of the best affordable sportsbikes on the market, but before we can award it the title, it has to answer to our existing favourite – the Ducati Monster 795.
· Motorsport – We’ve got a detailed mid-season report of this year’s F1 season, we’ve been to Spa to check out the JK Racing Asia Series, and we’ve got race reports of the German and Hungarian F1 GPs. Plus lots of news from the motorsport world and columns by Narain Karthikeyan and Aditya Patel.
· Mercedes B-class: Exclusive Test - We got a taste of the B-class last month, but now we've got the real thing. A full road test of the right-hand drive, India-spec B180 in full Autocar fashion.
· Sea test: INS Cankarso – A 65kph top speed doesn’t sound like much on the road, but it’s quite considerable when you are out at sea. We’ve tested our sea legs and the Indian Navy’s 11,000bhp Water Jet Fast Attack Craft this month.
· Great Car, Great Road – There’s nothing like a powerful, compact and grippy hot hatchback to take on the misty and twisty mountain road from Pune to Lavasa. It’s a good thing we had a Mini Cooper S with us.
· A whole raft of new cars driven - Everything from the big Nissan Evalia to the compact Mahindra Verito. A pair of very fast Audis and the brand new Toyota Camry – we've driven them all.
· Two monstrous SUV tests - Mitsubishi’s latest bruiser, the Pajero Sport, wrestles the Fortuner and Endeavour for the supreme heavyweight off-roader title, while the facelifted Chevrolet Captiva sees if it can beat its fellow Korean-built rivals, the Koleos and Santa Fe.
· Autocar Track Test - India’s fastest racing driver, check; the year's best driver's cars, check; one twisty race track, check. This can only mean one thing – the Autocar India Track Day is back.
· Retrospective: BMW 3-series – To celebrate the fantastic new F30 BMW 3-series, we dip our toes in its gene pool to see how the world’s favourite sporty luxury saloon came to be.
· Ratan Tata talks to us candidly about life at Tata Motors, his successor Cyrus Mistry, Jaguar-Land Rover and his plans for retirement.
· A Ninja fights a Monster – Kawasaki’s latest Ninja 650 has the makings of one of the best affordable sportsbikes on the market, but before we can award it the title, it has to answer to our existing favourite – the Ducati Monster 795.
· Motorsport – We’ve got a detailed mid-season report of this year’s F1 season, we’ve been to Spa to check out the JK Racing Asia Series, and we’ve got race reports of the German and Hungarian F1 GPs. Plus lots of news from the motorsport world and columns by Narain Karthikeyan and Aditya Patel.
