Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Is tata Indigo XL really India's first Stretch Limousine?
Are the claims of TATA for its new mid sized sedan Indigo XL being the India's First Stretch Limousine true? Read these figures and decide yourself...
Monday, January 22, 2007
Buying a mobile handset just got so easy
AS AN increasing number of handset makers are setting their eyes on the Indian mobile consumer, today one is flooded with options to choose from — brands as well as features. Here is a comprehensive, not exhaustive, list of things one must look for while buying a mobile phone. Price: Mobile phones in India range from Rs 1,500 to Rs 40,000. Ideally, one can buy a good phone for around Rs 9,000. Generally, Nokia and Sony Ericsson brands are considered to be the premium brands. Value for Money: Remember, mobile companies use skimming strategy. This means when a new product is launched, it is priced very high, but in a couple of months the price falls drastically. This is especially true for Nokia and a few other brands. On the other hand, Sony Ericsson is slow at reducing prices. Second, ET tests mobiles and publishes reviews on the latest mobile phones in a fortnightly column – Gizmo-logy. Refer to these columns and gauge accordingly. Specific absorption rate (SAR) level: SAR is the unit of measurement for the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone. While India does not have any guidelines on SAR levels, phones with SAR value under 0.4 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue are easy to use. Check the SAR level in the manual before buying the phone. It’s technical but it’s important. Where to buy: If you are buying a recentlylaunched phone, authorised dealers are the best places to buy. But if you want to buy a phone that was launched a few months back, authorised dealers may not offer you much bargain. With prices falling drastically, one can get better discounts in the grey market. However, enter at your own risk, as grey market dealers often don’t provide any warranties. Also, there is no way to find out whether the mobile is used or brand new. Battery life: A mobile should offer 120-150 minutes of talk time. The battery performance will ideally be 65-80% of what is printed on the manual. Also, battery life will diminish over time. One way to extend battery life is to charge your phone only when the battery indicator is on the last dot. Keeping the phone on charge throughout the day may damage the battery. Memory: Many phones have an integrated memory, which is expandable by external memory sticks. Usually an internal memory of 10MB upwards is fine. Check whether your phone supports external memory cards. You may buy a 1GB memory card, but your phone may support memory cards only up to 512MB. Next, is the memory a hard disk one? This could be dangerous. If the phone does have one, then you may need to change the phone if the hard disk is corrupted. Go for an expandable memory than a hard disk. Business v/s entertainment phones: Do you need a business phone or an entertainment phone? At this point in time, no phone offers both. Apple’s iPhone is supposed to incorporate the two. But the launch is still a while away. If the primary purpose of the phone is for business, opt for a business phone such as Sony Ericsson’s P990i, Nokia’s 9300i. They offer you entertainment too, but the features are limited. Style, camera & music: These are add-on features. If you are buying a phone for these features, you better buy a decent phone. This means it will cost you a bit extra. Most cameras attached to mobile phones are just for the heck of it. They have poor resolution. It’s only lately that mobile companies have started offering decent camera phones and there are only a few phones with good resolution. Music too is a must for the Gen-X. Sony Ericsson phones beat Nokia on this front. Functions: Many people are lured towards extra functions that a phone offers. But many people do not even use some of the basic functions. There is no point wasting money on additional features. So, if your phone has the capability of text messaging, FM or/and MP3 for music lovers, internet surfing capability and games to pass time, it should be fine. Also, do look out for a handsfree with it.
AS AN increasing number of handset makers are setting their eyes on the Indian mobile consumer, today one is flooded with options to choose from — brands as well as features. Here is a comprehensive, not exhaustive, list of things one must look for while buying a mobile phone. Price: Mobile phones in India range from Rs 1,500 to Rs 40,000. Ideally, one can buy a good phone for around Rs 9,000. Generally, Nokia and Sony Ericsson brands are considered to be the premium brands. Value for Money: Remember, mobile companies use skimming strategy. This means when a new product is launched, it is priced very high, but in a couple of months the price falls drastically. This is especially true for Nokia and a few other brands. On the other hand, Sony Ericsson is slow at reducing prices. Second, ET tests mobiles and publishes reviews on the latest mobile phones in a fortnightly column – Gizmo-logy. Refer to these columns and gauge accordingly. Specific absorption rate (SAR) level: SAR is the unit of measurement for the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone. While India does not have any guidelines on SAR levels, phones with SAR value under 0.4 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue are easy to use. Check the SAR level in the manual before buying the phone. It’s technical but it’s important. Where to buy: If you are buying a recentlylaunched phone, authorised dealers are the best places to buy. But if you want to buy a phone that was launched a few months back, authorised dealers may not offer you much bargain. With prices falling drastically, one can get better discounts in the grey market. However, enter at your own risk, as grey market dealers often don’t provide any warranties. Also, there is no way to find out whether the mobile is used or brand new. Battery life: A mobile should offer 120-150 minutes of talk time. The battery performance will ideally be 65-80% of what is printed on the manual. Also, battery life will diminish over time. One way to extend battery life is to charge your phone only when the battery indicator is on the last dot. Keeping the phone on charge throughout the day may damage the battery. Memory: Many phones have an integrated memory, which is expandable by external memory sticks. Usually an internal memory of 10MB upwards is fine. Check whether your phone supports external memory cards. You may buy a 1GB memory card, but your phone may support memory cards only up to 512MB. Next, is the memory a hard disk one? This could be dangerous. If the phone does have one, then you may need to change the phone if the hard disk is corrupted. Go for an expandable memory than a hard disk. Business v/s entertainment phones: Do you need a business phone or an entertainment phone? At this point in time, no phone offers both. Apple’s iPhone is supposed to incorporate the two. But the launch is still a while away. If the primary purpose of the phone is for business, opt for a business phone such as Sony Ericsson’s P990i, Nokia’s 9300i. They offer you entertainment too, but the features are limited. Style, camera & music: These are add-on features. If you are buying a phone for these features, you better buy a decent phone. This means it will cost you a bit extra. Most cameras attached to mobile phones are just for the heck of it. They have poor resolution. It’s only lately that mobile companies have started offering decent camera phones and there are only a few phones with good resolution. Music too is a must for the Gen-X. Sony Ericsson phones beat Nokia on this front. Functions: Many people are lured towards extra functions that a phone offers. But many people do not even use some of the basic functions. There is no point wasting money on additional features. So, if your phone has the capability of text messaging, FM or/and MP3 for music lovers, internet surfing capability and games to pass time, it should be fine. Also, do look out for a handsfree with it.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
launches merchandising solution for retailersNEW DELHI: Enterprise software major Oracle on Monday launched its retail merchandising solution in the country to tap the mid-market retailers. The solution will provide a simplified approach to merchandising and enable retailers to profitably and efficiently execute core merchandising activities such as inventory replenishment, purchasing and vendor management across multiple channels, a company statement said here. The retailers can improve the return on their merchandising systems investment by up to 90% and can accelerate payback by as much as six months with this new solution, it said.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Soon on your cell, instant messagin
The slow but steady morphing of mobile phones with the personal computer has hit another milestone. Very soon, consumers, especially teenagers and college students can duplicate the experience of Internet chat on their mobile phones through a new instant messaging (IM) feature. Just like usage has shifted from landline to mobile, chat, too, is expected to eventually move from computers to mobile phones. It’s a direct analogy: SMS is the equivalent of email while mobile IM is the equivalent of Internet chat. Except that now the service will not be restricted to a niche English-speaking audience. Instant messaging planned in all languages New Delhi: Instant messaging on your mobile will soon be avilable in all Indian languages. And it’s not going to be a long wait. The GSM industry is collectively launching mobile IM services in the country by early February. The facility will be accessible on all GPRS-enabled phones, to be offered free for a few months and later charged as a nominal monthly rental or a per message charge. An executive with a leading telcom service provider said, the monthly charge offered could be as low as Rs 30. If you are a heavy SMS user, the IM could well work out cheaper for closed user groups which are all GPRS-enabled IM mobile users. Cellular Operators Association of India director general T V Ramachandran said, India currently has a population of 30-40 million GPRS handsets. ‘‘Even a modest 5-10% growth means at least 2-4 million mobile IM subscribers by early 2008,’’ he said. GPRS or General Packet Radio Service is a non-voice service used by GSM networks to make internet features like web browsing, email, VPN connections, instant messenger (AOL, ICQ, MSN Messenger) available on mobile phones. Sanjay Kapoor, joint president (mobile services), Bharti Airtel said, “Mobile IM is a major step towards internet-mobile convergence. Unlike any messenger service on the internet, users will be able to interact with each other across operators.’’ An America Online-commissioned study of IM trends found almost 66% of 13 to 21-year-olds sending more IMs than e-mails in 2006, up from 49% in 2005. In the UK, after its launch of mobile MSN Instant Messenger in summer, Mobile Network 3 subscribers sent over 100 million IMs since August 1, 2006. 3’s statistics record an average of over 1 million IMs a day, with peak messaging time from 11 to 2 pm. Windows Live Messenger has over 10 million registered users in the UK.
The slow but steady morphing of mobile phones with the personal computer has hit another milestone. Very soon, consumers, especially teenagers and college students can duplicate the experience of Internet chat on their mobile phones through a new instant messaging (IM) feature. Just like usage has shifted from landline to mobile, chat, too, is expected to eventually move from computers to mobile phones. It’s a direct analogy: SMS is the equivalent of email while mobile IM is the equivalent of Internet chat. Except that now the service will not be restricted to a niche English-speaking audience. Instant messaging planned in all languages New Delhi: Instant messaging on your mobile will soon be avilable in all Indian languages. And it’s not going to be a long wait. The GSM industry is collectively launching mobile IM services in the country by early February. The facility will be accessible on all GPRS-enabled phones, to be offered free for a few months and later charged as a nominal monthly rental or a per message charge. An executive with a leading telcom service provider said, the monthly charge offered could be as low as Rs 30. If you are a heavy SMS user, the IM could well work out cheaper for closed user groups which are all GPRS-enabled IM mobile users. Cellular Operators Association of India director general T V Ramachandran said, India currently has a population of 30-40 million GPRS handsets. ‘‘Even a modest 5-10% growth means at least 2-4 million mobile IM subscribers by early 2008,’’ he said. GPRS or General Packet Radio Service is a non-voice service used by GSM networks to make internet features like web browsing, email, VPN connections, instant messenger (AOL, ICQ, MSN Messenger) available on mobile phones. Sanjay Kapoor, joint president (mobile services), Bharti Airtel said, “Mobile IM is a major step towards internet-mobile convergence. Unlike any messenger service on the internet, users will be able to interact with each other across operators.’’ An America Online-commissioned study of IM trends found almost 66% of 13 to 21-year-olds sending more IMs than e-mails in 2006, up from 49% in 2005. In the UK, after its launch of mobile MSN Instant Messenger in summer, Mobile Network 3 subscribers sent over 100 million IMs since August 1, 2006. 3’s statistics record an average of over 1 million IMs a day, with peak messaging time from 11 to 2 pm. Windows Live Messenger has over 10 million registered users in the UK.
AMD’s profit under threat
San Francisco: In the turf war that has come to characterise the computer chip market, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), appears to have stumbled in the fourth quarter. AMD, the second-largest maker of the microprocessors, issued a warning that its fourth-quarter revenue would miss Wall Street’s forecasts because of lower unit prices, signaling that the price war between AMD and its main rival, Intel, had taken its toll. AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, said that it expected fourth-quarter revenue to increase about 3%, but $1.37 billion, over the third quarter. Fourth-quarter operating income, the company said, is expected to be positive but substantially lower than the third quarter. In October, analysts forecast AMD’s fourthquarter sales would be about $1.44 billion, excluding revenue gained from its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI. AMD executives said at the time that they expected a seasonally strong fourth quarter, which included the holiday shopping season. The chip maker said its Q4 gross margin and operating income were hurt by lower average selling prices, though unit sales rose over all. AMD plans to issue its Q4 earnings report on January 23 after the close of regular trading. In the last few years, the company has managed to gain market share, as the market leader, Intel, has struggled to revamp its product line. The threat of competition led Intel to lay off over 10,000 employees and cut costs sharply last year. NYT NEWS SERVICE
San Francisco: In the turf war that has come to characterise the computer chip market, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), appears to have stumbled in the fourth quarter. AMD, the second-largest maker of the microprocessors, issued a warning that its fourth-quarter revenue would miss Wall Street’s forecasts because of lower unit prices, signaling that the price war between AMD and its main rival, Intel, had taken its toll. AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, said that it expected fourth-quarter revenue to increase about 3%, but $1.37 billion, over the third quarter. Fourth-quarter operating income, the company said, is expected to be positive but substantially lower than the third quarter. In October, analysts forecast AMD’s fourthquarter sales would be about $1.44 billion, excluding revenue gained from its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI. AMD executives said at the time that they expected a seasonally strong fourth quarter, which included the holiday shopping season. The chip maker said its Q4 gross margin and operating income were hurt by lower average selling prices, though unit sales rose over all. AMD plans to issue its Q4 earnings report on January 23 after the close of regular trading. In the last few years, the company has managed to gain market share, as the market leader, Intel, has struggled to revamp its product line. The threat of competition led Intel to lay off over 10,000 employees and cut costs sharply last year. NYT NEWS SERVICE
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Gadgets that organise a busy life
TECH-SAVVY, well organised and spiritual. We see these traits converging as Ravi Sharma, president, South Asia region, Alcatel-Lucent, speaks candidly about his favourite gadgets. He knows how to make best use of the technology. Before the merger of Alcatel and Lucent he was president Alcatel, South Asia. His life revolves around three gadgets —- cellphone, Blackberry and i-Pod. Blackberry is his favourite gadget. “While travelling, this gadget is of great help,” says Mr Sharma. He checks his mails on Blackberry when travelling. He also uses it while flying. He receives around 150 mails a day and replies to or forwards around 40% of them. He uses his Compaq laptop mainly for presentations. Mr Sharma is fond of listening to ghazals. For this his i-Pod comes handy. Also to keep in touch with his spiritual being, he loves listening to devotional songs and teachings of Chinmaya Mission on his i-Pod. Now, no points for guessing this one. He uses an Alcatel cellphone. “Though it’s not very popular in India, what I like about it is that its a user friendly phone,” he says. He has tried many handsets and keeps changing them every nine months to test various handsets and keep up with changing technology. Though he can use his Blackberry also instead of a cellphone, he prefers not to. “I want to avoid situations where your cellphone rings while you are typing a mail,” he says. Smart one! Though his busy schedule leaves hardly any time to surf the Net, websites that he goes to frequently are Alcatel intranet and Google search. “The Alcatel intranet helps to keep in touch with our 80,000 employees across 137 countries,” says Mr Sharma. He is responsible for the company’s operations in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. “Technology makes life easy, provided you know how to use it in an organised way,” he sums up. If a gadget like Blackberry, which is faster and has some more functions like downloading attachments hits the market, he would definitely purchase it.
TECH-SAVVY, well organised and spiritual. We see these traits converging as Ravi Sharma, president, South Asia region, Alcatel-Lucent, speaks candidly about his favourite gadgets. He knows how to make best use of the technology. Before the merger of Alcatel and Lucent he was president Alcatel, South Asia. His life revolves around three gadgets —- cellphone, Blackberry and i-Pod. Blackberry is his favourite gadget. “While travelling, this gadget is of great help,” says Mr Sharma. He checks his mails on Blackberry when travelling. He also uses it while flying. He receives around 150 mails a day and replies to or forwards around 40% of them. He uses his Compaq laptop mainly for presentations. Mr Sharma is fond of listening to ghazals. For this his i-Pod comes handy. Also to keep in touch with his spiritual being, he loves listening to devotional songs and teachings of Chinmaya Mission on his i-Pod. Now, no points for guessing this one. He uses an Alcatel cellphone. “Though it’s not very popular in India, what I like about it is that its a user friendly phone,” he says. He has tried many handsets and keeps changing them every nine months to test various handsets and keep up with changing technology. Though he can use his Blackberry also instead of a cellphone, he prefers not to. “I want to avoid situations where your cellphone rings while you are typing a mail,” he says. Smart one! Though his busy schedule leaves hardly any time to surf the Net, websites that he goes to frequently are Alcatel intranet and Google search. “The Alcatel intranet helps to keep in touch with our 80,000 employees across 137 countries,” says Mr Sharma. He is responsible for the company’s operations in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. “Technology makes life easy, provided you know how to use it in an organised way,” he sums up. If a gadget like Blackberry, which is faster and has some more functions like downloading attachments hits the market, he would definitely purchase it.
Boys N The Hood
BOYS N THE HOOD
A Zen that can give a Lamborghini a run for its speedometre. A Lancer that’s tweaked to take on the world. A City that vrooms its presence felt on the roads. A Skoda that’s the toast of the drag domain...street cars are no longer just about fuel efficiency and cautious pep. Welcome to the world of engine modifications where being power hungry is being a convert. ET AutoMania talks to the top tuners across the country to come up with the complete guide on engine modifications. ENJOY!
John Sarkar
HP costs money, says Fazal Khan of FRK Racing. Is that the reason we get misers beneath our bonnets in India? There are two extremes to the story. Raw power and fuel efficiency are always at loggerheads when a car manufacturer readies a new launch for this market. Cars with stonking power delivery are handicapped with rev limiters, and tuned for lower power on desi roads. The concern for fuel efficiency is understandable but then this asks an uncomfortable question—don't we Indians have adrenaline flowing through our veins? For years they have patiently fiddled around with cars, burning the midnight oil and getting their hands dirty, while everyone slept. Now, they have their foot on the gas pedal. ET AutoMania speaks to a cross section of car experts in the engine modification business and breaks the myth that Indians lack the hunger for speed. Raj Hingorani, an Indian legend among car tuners, has been in the business of speed for almost 40 years now. Tuning cars for neck breaking performance, he transforms your ordinary fuel-sipping domestic four wheels into an octane guzzling hot rod. “And it does not cost the earth,” he says. Replicating a Lamborghini's racing pedigree might be difficult. Nor can its handling prowess be equalled. But it can be hit where it hurts the most. Speed. Hingorani is presently working on Zens. The advantage of modifying a Zen is that it can accommodate the 1.3 litre Esteem or the 1.6 litre Baleno engines without any fussy modification. “The engines can be just bolted on,” says Hingorani. Immediately, with the change in power to weight ratio, the car becomes much faster than the stock. Hingorani also believes that the Zen is a cheap car to play with. “Since tweaking a Zen doesn't need a lot of upgrades the cost stays low,” he adds. The latest from the Hingorani stable is a 270 bhp Zen that has clocked 13.8 seconds in the quarter mile sprint. Phew! Keshav Arora, a modification expert from Bangalore says that there are three stages for modification. “In the first stage people usually go in for a free flow exhaust, engine headers and K&N filters. This increases the power by 6-7%,” says Arora. Stage Two mainly consists of porting, ECU swaps, and removing the rev limiters and putting in bigger throttle bodies. “Stage Three is mainly for serious car buffs since the slam-dunk fuel NO2 comes into the picture. Then there is a bit of playing around with valves, camshafts, gear shafts and turbo charging that can boost the power beyond imagination. Arora further adds, “The trend among the masses is mainly the modification of Zens, Esteems and older Honda VTECS. We also import the more powerful Swift engines from Japan and bolt them on to the Swifts here. Another interesting move might be transforming the Zen into four wheel drive that will set you back by Rs 25,000.” Karan Shah runs KS Motor Sports in Mumbai. People in Mumbai prefer doing up their Honda Cities and the Lancers. “We have engine modification solutions ranging from Rs 4000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For the Cities we import Honda engines from Japan that increases the power by 70-80%. For converting an Indian Lancer into an all-wheel drive Evo 5 or 6 with a 2 litre engine, the cost might go up to Rs 8 lakh, excluding the price of the car. After the power increase the car might generate 260 bhp.” The scene in Chennai is no different. Kamlesh Patel of Electra Automobiles says, “People in the age group of 25-35 years usually go in for the modification. The older Honda VTECs and the Lancers get the maximum attention.” Patel has transformed quite a number of Lancers into asphalt scorching Evos till date. “The best way is to implant the parts after importing them, because these have been tested and they don't require any further drilling or cutting.” So how much would an 'Evo' cost? “I can give you the Evo 3 at Rs 5 lakh excluding the price of the car,” says Patel. In the meanwhile, it would help to know that the fastest car to be built or rebuilt in India belongs to Fazal Khan of FRK Racing. Operating from Bangalore, which seems to be the hub of performance enthusiasts, Khan had modified a Toyota Supra with 800bhp on tap and established a quarter mile record of 11.5 seconds. He recently bought a Civic for himself and is waiting for the warranty period to end. “A Race Series B16A engine with turbo charging can propel the Civic to finish the quarter mile really fast,” he says. Khan's personal choice would be the Baleno since it generates higher torque at lower RPM. “The interchangeability of parts, its low cost vis-à-vis a Honda makes it my favourite car to modify for performance,” he says. Delhi's Arush Vohra of Autopsyche has also satisfied many a power hungry car owner. He loves the Skoda. “The main disadvantage of the Skoda is its weight. But it has a strong engine that can take stress. There are many packages for an engine upgrade. The maximum power reached can be around 250 bhp,” says Vohra. Other than that Vohra says that the suspension has to be fixed a bit and performance brake pads can be used to increase the stopping power. Fazal Khan says, “To modify a Skoda RS to enable 250 bhp power generation the cost can set you back by Rs 3 lakh.” A Zen that can drag race a Lambo, an Evo that can evoke goose bumps or a time-thrashing Civic, car manufacturers cannot limit the revs of your imagination now. Indians are not far behind in the speed race. If you own a DVD of The Fast And Furious, if you are still aroused by the howl of the engine and if your last wish is to grab the steering wheel of a Lambo, it's high time you got in touch with a modification expert. And remember Indian roads are getting better by the day.
A Zen that can give a Lamborghini a run for its speedometre. A Lancer that’s tweaked to take on the world. A City that vrooms its presence felt on the roads. A Skoda that’s the toast of the drag domain...street cars are no longer just about fuel efficiency and cautious pep. Welcome to the world of engine modifications where being power hungry is being a convert. ET AutoMania talks to the top tuners across the country to come up with the complete guide on engine modifications. ENJOY!
John Sarkar
HP costs money, says Fazal Khan of FRK Racing. Is that the reason we get misers beneath our bonnets in India? There are two extremes to the story. Raw power and fuel efficiency are always at loggerheads when a car manufacturer readies a new launch for this market. Cars with stonking power delivery are handicapped with rev limiters, and tuned for lower power on desi roads. The concern for fuel efficiency is understandable but then this asks an uncomfortable question—don't we Indians have adrenaline flowing through our veins? For years they have patiently fiddled around with cars, burning the midnight oil and getting their hands dirty, while everyone slept. Now, they have their foot on the gas pedal. ET AutoMania speaks to a cross section of car experts in the engine modification business and breaks the myth that Indians lack the hunger for speed. Raj Hingorani, an Indian legend among car tuners, has been in the business of speed for almost 40 years now. Tuning cars for neck breaking performance, he transforms your ordinary fuel-sipping domestic four wheels into an octane guzzling hot rod. “And it does not cost the earth,” he says. Replicating a Lamborghini's racing pedigree might be difficult. Nor can its handling prowess be equalled. But it can be hit where it hurts the most. Speed. Hingorani is presently working on Zens. The advantage of modifying a Zen is that it can accommodate the 1.3 litre Esteem or the 1.6 litre Baleno engines without any fussy modification. “The engines can be just bolted on,” says Hingorani. Immediately, with the change in power to weight ratio, the car becomes much faster than the stock. Hingorani also believes that the Zen is a cheap car to play with. “Since tweaking a Zen doesn't need a lot of upgrades the cost stays low,” he adds. The latest from the Hingorani stable is a 270 bhp Zen that has clocked 13.8 seconds in the quarter mile sprint. Phew! Keshav Arora, a modification expert from Bangalore says that there are three stages for modification. “In the first stage people usually go in for a free flow exhaust, engine headers and K&N filters. This increases the power by 6-7%,” says Arora. Stage Two mainly consists of porting, ECU swaps, and removing the rev limiters and putting in bigger throttle bodies. “Stage Three is mainly for serious car buffs since the slam-dunk fuel NO2 comes into the picture. Then there is a bit of playing around with valves, camshafts, gear shafts and turbo charging that can boost the power beyond imagination. Arora further adds, “The trend among the masses is mainly the modification of Zens, Esteems and older Honda VTECS. We also import the more powerful Swift engines from Japan and bolt them on to the Swifts here. Another interesting move might be transforming the Zen into four wheel drive that will set you back by Rs 25,000.” Karan Shah runs KS Motor Sports in Mumbai. People in Mumbai prefer doing up their Honda Cities and the Lancers. “We have engine modification solutions ranging from Rs 4000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For the Cities we import Honda engines from Japan that increases the power by 70-80%. For converting an Indian Lancer into an all-wheel drive Evo 5 or 6 with a 2 litre engine, the cost might go up to Rs 8 lakh, excluding the price of the car. After the power increase the car might generate 260 bhp.” The scene in Chennai is no different. Kamlesh Patel of Electra Automobiles says, “People in the age group of 25-35 years usually go in for the modification. The older Honda VTECs and the Lancers get the maximum attention.” Patel has transformed quite a number of Lancers into asphalt scorching Evos till date. “The best way is to implant the parts after importing them, because these have been tested and they don't require any further drilling or cutting.” So how much would an 'Evo' cost? “I can give you the Evo 3 at Rs 5 lakh excluding the price of the car,” says Patel. In the meanwhile, it would help to know that the fastest car to be built or rebuilt in India belongs to Fazal Khan of FRK Racing. Operating from Bangalore, which seems to be the hub of performance enthusiasts, Khan had modified a Toyota Supra with 800bhp on tap and established a quarter mile record of 11.5 seconds. He recently bought a Civic for himself and is waiting for the warranty period to end. “A Race Series B16A engine with turbo charging can propel the Civic to finish the quarter mile really fast,” he says. Khan's personal choice would be the Baleno since it generates higher torque at lower RPM. “The interchangeability of parts, its low cost vis-à-vis a Honda makes it my favourite car to modify for performance,” he says. Delhi's Arush Vohra of Autopsyche has also satisfied many a power hungry car owner. He loves the Skoda. “The main disadvantage of the Skoda is its weight. But it has a strong engine that can take stress. There are many packages for an engine upgrade. The maximum power reached can be around 250 bhp,” says Vohra. Other than that Vohra says that the suspension has to be fixed a bit and performance brake pads can be used to increase the stopping power. Fazal Khan says, “To modify a Skoda RS to enable 250 bhp power generation the cost can set you back by Rs 3 lakh.” A Zen that can drag race a Lambo, an Evo that can evoke goose bumps or a time-thrashing Civic, car manufacturers cannot limit the revs of your imagination now. Indians are not far behind in the speed race. If you own a DVD of The Fast And Furious, if you are still aroused by the howl of the engine and if your last wish is to grab the steering wheel of a Lambo, it's high time you got in touch with a modification expert. And remember Indian roads are getting better by the day.
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