Back to the Future

Before the founder of this blog MR.JAIDEEP SHETTY fires me off my post for not having contributed at all I thought I should rather take up some writing. Being my first blog I wondered, for a long time now, what should I come up with? I browsed through the list of cars that I have driven and I couldn’t avoid writing on the best of them all. The HONDA CIVIC.

Honda Civic

The car carries a legacy of its own; the very first generation of civic was launched in America way back in the year 1972. Since then there have been millions sold, and numerous face lifts some of them bizarre while a few of them you would be tempted to have. The one I am referring to is no different.

The eighth generation Honda civic was launched in INDIA in the year 2006. The largest selling car by the Japanese company was launched to target its section of cars and it did storm into the market and in no time was the segment leader!!This eighth gen Civic drives a 1.8 famous i-vtec engine. Loaded with features the c

ar does appear to be very appealing. It carried then, now mandatory features like air bag, abs, automatic operated mirrors and what not. You get inside the car and you wouldn’t stop admiring.

Enormously spacious at the front and the back. Very stylish dual shaded dashboard, the operating panel with easy accessible knobs , unconventionally placed hand brake all just seem to add up to the amazement . And if you think that’s all, there is some more to it. The luminescent blue digital speedometer and the taco display, the funky looking steering all very impressive, stylish and quite sporty I must say. It has a massive boot, so big that you can actually fit in a family or 2 inside, if you are on a trip you won’t have to leave that mango tree you came across. A lot being admired, let’s get down to what we are meant to do over here in this blog…. REVVVVVV!!

The 1.8 L i-vtec, though very quite, produces a good 130 bhp that would definitely let you rev pass most of its rivals. What amazes the most is its composure. Speed up at the corners you will notice the car to be pretty stable. Body roll is evident to some extent but satisfactorily stable. Being a low slung car it just sticks to the ground; 6500 rpm 181 kmph still you will be no close to death experience. A very comfortable drive good seats and driving position that will let you drive for hours without being tired. A very low ride, so low that it would go Cushing and thumping on most of the bumps. It’s being justified as to have made for better road grip and aerodynamic advantage. Well something that your girl friend won’t understand when she is trying to hold your hand while you are driving and u hit another…… bump!!!

What I don’t like about Honda is that you look at their cars and you will feel they have been launched what... around 5 decades too early. The city, the jazz all of them too futuristic and that’s not bad but there is a constant fear of Honda going the “tomorrows world” way. They do tend to emphasize that they are way ahead of the world by putting up in the market something which is everything but impressive..

But this is a fantastic car, though a bit futuristic but very sporty and stylish ,amazingly comfortable and absolutely worth the money!! Emphasizing on being too futuristic the new Honda civic will be there in the market by 2012.. look at it.. do u believe we are really looking in the future………?

Rohan Swamy

-Revrange

Xbox'd Sx4

So the news is out, there’s a new Suzuki on the block. With its exciting body shell from 2008 with a mind numbing 1.3 diesel engine from 2009, it’s called the amazing ‘NEW SX4 Diesel’. And that’s about it, end of news, nothing here will get you that tingling feeling in your pants and to add to the misery by the time you read the above lines the news is going to be so old that it would make a month old loaf of bread seem fresh.

I own a SX4,but thankfully I own the 1.6 petrol, it’s not one of the most exciting things to happen to me, but yes it did get me to 180+kmph,the fastest I every have driven a car (and I am required to say that I did that speed “on a closed stretch of road”:P).  the diesel brother, however will never make it that far and I believe it will run out of steam before it even reaches 150, the acceleration is bad and god save the person behind the wheel if you want to talk driving experience, it is the cheapest to buy in that segment and Suzuki assures you a complete peace of mind in terms of future maintenance experience, nothing path breaking, good for point A to point B transportation in a slightly bigger car….period.

That done I had this friend who asked me the other day if I was kicking myself in the rear for not waiting for the diesel version ,after all my car has stacked up near about 40k in 2years and some months, it’s not like I travelled to the moon and back, but a considerable mileage none the less. But no, my feet are still firm on the ground and my rear still a perfect round; however I am tempted to kick the bosses at Suzuki for not giving us this, the ‘SX4 XBOX360’

Just look at it!!! This car is every man-child's dream come true, you might get various optional extras to your car, I got a reverse sensor and that was a big deal then, my friend got a billion watts stereo, but an Xbox!! Suzuki has taken a éclair and made it into a Hershey Bar. Worrying about a car not having steering controls is so passé…. You get an entire gaming controller here  :D. And don’t think this is done by one of those pimp’s, pimping your ride thing, this is the real deal. It was made by Suzuki along with Microsoft. Why don’t you make this for the masses Suzuki!!! I don’t want a diesel engine that everyone has; I want this, which no one else has. Dare to dream Mr. Suzuki!!!

This car dares and in my honest opinion dose what  we have come to accept and appreciate about Japanese cars. They are a bit of a giggle to look at and a whole lot fun when playing around with its electronics.lets faces it japs don’t make good looking cars but what they are good at is making tall structures and filling ‘em up to the brim with cutting edge electronics, and this sx4 does just that.i would really ask Suzuki to play around with such concepts,  the world is a mad-mad place,and trust me madness gets you farther,in one piece than total logic and sense would.

and ya Just one more thing the controller on the wheel is NICE,but just wait till the driver's airbag's deploy.
- JD
Revrange

The Thumper Ride's On.

I am no biker, and untill very recently wondered why on god’s beautiful earth would anyone even bother to ride a bike. To start with they are horridly unsafe, annoyingly impractical, extremely irritating when that biker thinks that he can fit into that microscopic gap next to you, and all hell breaks loose when that inconsiderate jackass just ride’s  of at a toll gate, riding something thats much more expensive than your car. I used to crib about the government being stupid for this, but I guess; now I know the reason. Maybe and this is only a calculated hunch, Maybe the government is trying to keep the ‘biker’ happy during the short shelf-life he’s inevitably going to have.

But things change,  and trust me change is inevitable, ask your dad how he was when he was young, and pat then comes the reply…”I was smart, handsome, very very active ,prankster, a player and most importantly Happy… but then I got married”. No matter what you do you will change, hell Mr. Barney Stinson is changing what more a proof do you want! The seeds of change were sown into me when I was a kid. I have always liked a bike, bare with me on this, I am not talking about bikes,  I mean A BIKE. The Royal Enfield Bullet.

The bike in question, to be precise, is a Royal Enfield Bullet Std 350.its not like I had a direct access to this marvel on wheels, it belonged to a uncle of mine whom I met twice at the most thrice in a year, and as bad as it was I met him mostly just to sit on his bike. Even at that age when a rx100, rx135, rd350   all seemed the same there was something about the std350 that simply dint escape me. The japs were really good(they still are). Went like a rocket and were the tidiest off the lot, way advanced at that time. But the oil leaking, squeaking, high maintenance, fuel guzzling Enfield was the one that somehow defied all logic and made a hot iron mark in my budding automotive heart.

An alternative to the controversial military green(olive green)

  This British bike seems to have taken the “highway to India” and forgotten its route back home, and in a way it’s quite fortunate that happened;  am quite sure if it would have continued operations in UK the legacy would have died out long, long ago.

in a era where everything is uncertain, keeps changing and most probably wont be the way you left it, its a nice feeling to have a bike, a machine that has hardly changed since the time your grandfather rode it to his marriage. Think about it, your ideal, beloved, together for eternity boyfriend/girlfriend might have changed a couple of times in the past year or two (the competition is pretty high you know) and then you come across this machine that never changed its basics for over FIVE decades! 

the machine does not pretend to be someone else. It knows it’s not a Harley and it knows its not as good (in tech specs) as even the rather mundane commuter bikes around, and it knows it’s the least practical and probably the most high maintenance bike around, but that’s the beauty of it and that’s what RE loyalist admire about it. Being true to yourself.

 I still maintain the headaches that a bikes gives you, pointed out at the start of the article. But this British beauty does things a bit different. The joy of riding a Royal Enfield is at lower speeds and at lower rpm’s so you are never going to fast to hit Anything, you never in a hurry when on a Bullet,so never even bother to squeeze into that microscopic gap .but yes RE never ran away from the problem that plagued bikes since the Adam and eve of  bikes were created, practicality. It’s the least practical bike ever made, but boy do I love it

- JD

Revrange


PS check out this "Royal Enfield, Handcrafted in Chennai" ad