Outgoing Audi Sport boss Stephan Winkelmann has confirmed that Audi’s performance arm will introduce electrified vehicles from 2020 and would produce faster models based on SUVs.

Winkelmann, who will become president of Bugatti from January 2018, spoke at the RS4 launch and said that Audi Sport “will be less evolutionary and more into revolution”.

Audi Sport – rebranded from Quattro, last year – will see “the start of the introduction of battery electric vehicles from 2020 onwards”, said Winkelmann. “This will start by the end of 2020, with the first car of Audi Sport, and then there will be more coming, in the third decade of this millennium."

“We are also looking into cars which are – let's say – in a growing segment or a body segment, which is growing. These are the Qs. We will get more of them and we think that this is going to help us because every car we are building, and every car we are investing in, should have global visibility – not just in Europe but in Asia and the Americas.”

Such models wouldn’t replace Audi Sport’s traditional line-up, though, Winkelmann added: “In 2018, 2019 and 2020, we will have a lot of turbo engines with new models. We are not forgetting our icons, so we will continue to build them. Even if we keep in mind that electrification is important for us; legislators permitting, our turbo engines will stay because we are very proud of these.”

Courtesy : Autocar

Navnit Motors, Ferrari’s dealership in Mumbai, is celebrating the Italian supercar maker’s 70th anniversary by organising a leisure drive in Mumbai on Sunday, December 17, 2017. The drive is one part of Ferrari’s celebrations of the anniversary which was kicked off in March with the highlight of the celebration taking place in September, in Maranello, Italy.

The event is scheduled to begin on December 16, 2017 with a dinner for owners at the St. Regis hotel. Sunday morning will see a bevy of Prancing Horses take to Mumbai’s roads, starting at Navnit Motors in Bandra-Kurla Complex, before heading to Marine Drive via the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The drive will conclude at the Festival Square in High Street Phoenix in Lower Parel, where the cars will be displayed for the remainder of the day.

While it is yet unknown which models will be present at the drive, some new liveries have been promised, to attract crowds.

Ferrari had also celebrated its anniversary in Delhi, last Sunday with a drive from the Claridges Hotel to the Buddh International Circuit, in Greater Noida.

Dieter Knechtel, Chief Executive Officer - Far East and Middle East, Ferrari, was present at the press event. “We are truly proud of the incomparable heritage and history of our brand, founded by the great Enzo Ferrari, which continues to enthral Ferraristi worldwide even today and bring in more people into the Ferrari family," he said. "Our 70th anniversary is a great milestone for us and we look forward to the future with renewed hope and confidence in the company’s ability to produce cars that inspire the dreams of millions of people worldwide.”

At Autocar India, we celebrated 70 years of Ferrari with a comprehensive road test of the 488 GTB as part of our anniversary issue, in September 2017.

Ferrari returned to the Indian market in January 2015. after a hiatus and officially announced two new dealers – Navnit Motors in Mumbai and Select Cars in Delhi. It currently sells the 812 Superfast, GTC4Lusso, GTC4Lusso T, 488 Spider, 488 GTB and the California T in the country. 

Courtesy : Autocar

Aston Martin could race an adapted version of the Valkyrie at Le Mans if the regulations are rewritten to allow race-modified versions of hypercars to compete at the top level of the sport, according to CEO Andy Palmer.

Speaking to our sister publication, Autocar UK, Palmer said he had been consulted by motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, on future regulations for sportscar racing.

The sport is currently in a state of flux because Toyota is the only works team confirmed to compete at the top LMP1 level following the withdrawal of Porsche, Audi and Nissan in recent years.

When asked directly if Aston Martin would compete with the Valkyrie if the rules were changed, Palmer said: “Watch this space.”

The Valkyrie is the result of a collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, with the technical design led by renowned Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey. The partners have already confirmed that they will develop a race version with less weight and more power than the road car for a launch in 2020, although it is thought that a sportscar racing version would have to be more extreme again.

The Valkyrie AMR track model, of which just 25 will be made, costs more than £3 million – around £1m more than the standard road Valkyrie – with all cars already sold out. Aston Martin famously won Le Mans outright in 1959, when Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori took victory in the Aston Martin DBR1.

Courtesy :  Autocar

The Bajaj Pulsar has captured the imagination of Indian bikers for over a decade. Ever since its debut, the Bajaj Pulsar has been the go-to motorcycle for Indian bikers who wanted a taste of performance without having to shell out a fortune. Such has been the success story of the Pulsar that the iconic Indian bike has crossed the 1 crore sales mark globally! The Bajaj Pulsar is sold in over 70 countries across the globe and is among the highest exported two-wheelers from India. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Bajaj has launched special edition variants of the Bajaj Pulsar 150, Pulsar 180 and the Pulsar 220F.

Commenting on the introduction of the Black Pack Pulsar edition, Eric Vas, President – Motorcycles, Bajaj Auto Ltd., said, “Pulsar has been India’s No.1 Sports motorcycle brand in the country since its launch in 2001. Bajaj Pulsar is sold in over 25 countries worldwide and is market leader in most of them. We are proud to have achieved the milestone of 1 crore Pulsar customers around the world. To commemorate this achievement, we present the unique Black Pack edition.”

The new special edition bikes have been named “Black Pack Edition - Pulsars” and as the name suggests, will be offered only in a shade of black. The Black Pack Edition Pulsars will also feature white alloy wheels, restyled graphics and satin chrome finish on the exhaust muffler. Apart from the cosmetic updates, no mechanical changes have been made on the three bikes. The Bajaj Pulsar range had received an update earlier this year to make it comply with new BS-IV emission norms. Prices for the new Black Pack edition remains unchanged, the Pulsar 150 retails for Rs 76,723, while the Pulsar 180 has been priced at Rs 81,651 and the Pulsar 220F carries a price tag of Rs 93,683 (all prices are ex-showroom Delhi).

Courtesy :  Autocar 

The Honda FCV Clarity is the first fuel cell vehicle I’ve been around and I can’t seem to understand what the fuss is all about. I’m to be driven around a short course before taking the wheel myself a few minutes later, but from whatever I’ve seen of the car in action at Honda’s R&D headquarters in Tochigi, Japan, it doesn’t seem like a science experiment on wheels. Even when I get inside, I find that the doors shut with a nice thud, the rear seat has space for three (a big deal, as I learn later) and though the seating position on the rear bench is a bit knees-up, it’s quite a comfortable place to be. It’s so, for a lack of a better word, normal; the fact that the Clarity feels like this actually means a job well done by the team responsible for the car. Feedback from FCX Clarity (predecessor to the FCV Clarity) leasers was for a car that was as practical as a like-sized petrol-powered sedan.

Honda has been working on fuel cell vehicles for over two decades and the FCV Clarity that was launched in Japan, and parts of Europe and USA last year, marks a big step in the journey. Like on other fuel cell vehicles, here too hydrogen stored onboard reacts with oxygen in a cell, creating electricity which powers the drive motor, with water being the only by-product of the process. The big breakthrough on the Clarity, however, has been in reducing the size of the fuel cell stack while increasing its volumetric power density. The FCV Clarity’s fuel cell stack is a third smaller than the FCX’s and the smaller size has allowed it to be positioned under the bonnet rather than in the centre tunnel, making a middle rear seat possible. The entire fuel cell powertrain comprising the fuel cell stack, hydrogen and air supply system, and drive mechanism are now combined in one package that is similar in dimension to a petrol V6. Peak power is 130kW or about 177hp. Two high-pressure tanks of differing sizes store the hydrogen while a lithium-ion battery pack under the floor stores electricity generated from the fuel cell and regenerative braking.

Driving the Clarity feels like driving a standard battery-electric car. Initial acceleration is strong and the Clarity responds well to throttle inputs on the go, but power also tails out quite soon. Expectedly, there’s little noise except a mild whirr from the air compressor force-feeding air to the fuel cell stack. It’s an unemotive means of transport, really. Actually, make that unemotive means of long-distance transport. Honda claims a filling time of 3min and a cruising range of as much as 750km. Sure beats charging a battery electric vehicle every other day.

So the Clarity has a long range, emits only water and uses hydrogen, only the most abundant element on earth. Sounds too good to be true? There is a catch. Hydrogen is generally found in compounds with other elements (including in fuel) and separating it is an expensive process and, depending on the method used, also polluting. Storage and distribution are other roadblocks which is why the availability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is so far restricted to small pockets the world over. For us in India, the closest hydrogen pump is a few thousand kilometres away.

You can safely rule out fuel cells coming to India in the next decade or two but who knows FCVs like the Clarity could just become the new normal elsewhere in the world in the very near future.

Courtesy : Autocar