Porsche now has 18 overall victories at Sebring, the last one having been in 1988. This one came in an underpowered Le Mans Prototype 2 class entry. Romain Dumas, Timo Bernard and Emmanuel Collard were co-drivers of the winning car.

An Acura ARX-01B driven by Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz was 2nd, 12.9 seconds behind, but was disqualified in post-race inspection. That gave Porsche a sweep of the top three spots.

The victory for team owner Roger Penske came almost exactly a month after Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 and makes Penske the first racing-team owner to score victories in the Sebring and Daytona races, plus the Indianapolis 500, which Penske cars have won 14 times.

The mighty Audis fell victim to an early penalty and brake problems, but the car that started from pole still managed 4th place overall and first in P1. Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello were the drivers. Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller finished 7th in the other AG R10/TDI.

German auto giant Porsche has reportedly decided to launch their ultra cool sports coupe Cayman S in India after it is launched globally in November this year. The arrival date for the Indian market is expected to be early January 2006. The delay of two months is expected to complete the formalities required by the Indian government to launch any externally manufactured vehicle.

Cayman S is a two seat sports car and it would be targeted towards the higher end customer. The car comes with a maximum speed of 275 kmph and has an amazing acceleration figure of zero to 100 km/h in 5.4 seconds.

The all new Jazzed up Honda

Honda enters the Indian small car segment in 2009 with Jazz. The car will be Honda’s answer to Swift, Getz, Aveo U-VA, Fabia, Indica, Fusion (and by the time Jazz is here, Grande Punto will already be on the roads.) So that’s a lot of competition!

Pricing of the car remains a question. Honda is a premium name; hence the pricing has to be in keeping with the attributes of the brand. We can assume it’ll be a couple of grand more than its rivals. Jazz will be made available in 1.2L petrol engine and though a B-segment car, will be a fairly big hatchback. Read Full Post

The iPod car

What do 4th of July, Dante Giacosa and Fiat have in common? Fiat Cinquecento, of course! The first Cinquecento (or 500 as its known now) was introduced on American Independence Day in 1957.Giacosa engineered this little wonder and it became an immediate hit in the Post-World War II Italy.

Now Fiat has come back with this legendary car to increase its dwindling sales all over the globe. Showcased in Auto Expo this year, the made-in-Poland Cinquecento will be available in India as a CBU from April 2008.

Internationally, 500 has been launched in 1.2L 69bhp, 1.4L 100bhp petrol engines and 1.3L 75bhp multijet diesel engine. Indians will know the flavor of the multijet engine with the introduction of Palio Diesel in February and if rumors be believed, this is what the people hoping to buy Cinquecento will get. Read Full Post

Fiat plans for India

It seems to going to rain Fiat in the months to come. The brand is being re-launched in India with 4 new international models, Linea, Grande Punto, Cinquecento(500) and Bravo.

While Linea and Grande Punto have been heavily localized and are being produced out of Ranjangaon plant near Pune, in technical collaboration with Tata, Cinquecento and Bravo will be imported as Completely-Built-Units.

In the same breath should also be mentioned the new Palio 1.3L multijet diesel engine that’s all ready to be rolled out of Ranjangaon assembly line. All these models are paraded with the new Fiat logo which embodies the synthesis of a distinguished past with a promising future. Read Full Post

Brand Ford’s first global product is ready to go to the assembly line. And guess what has it been named? Ford Fiesta. Yes. But it will be different from the Fiesta we Indians are used to. The new Ford will be launched in Europe somewhere around fall 2008 in 3 and 5 – door hatchback style.

The car is supposed to be introduced to Asia and North America somewhere between 2008 and 2010. The new policy to introduce same cars globally and launch cars in the same platform is a gimmick to save millions spent annually on research and development and manufacturing costs. Read Full Post

The name’s Panamera. Porsche Panamera. The German manufacturer had registered the name at the same time it registered Cayman. After testing the cars under various facades in Nurburgring, Porsche finally seems ready to say hello to the world with Panamera.

Industry sources say that the Porsche will debut the car in Geneva Motor Show in 2009 and will be seen on the roads by April of the same year. The bookings for the car should start within 2-3 months from now and for this purpose Porsche has also spread out its dealer networks to Hyderabad and Bangalore, bringing up the total to 4 in all. Read Full Post

As the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations come on international radar, every major manufacturer in the world seems to be pouncing to offer something special for these countries. When we get down to talk about cars, one point in consideration is that small seems to be cool after the Delhi Auto Expo 2008. Indian engineering and technology has already been bowed down to after Tata Nano made its launch.The biggest and the most flattering acknowledgement of the genius of Tata expertise, however, comes from an unexpected quarter – Volkswagen. By introducing the new concept car Up!, first showcased in 2007 in Frankfurt Motor Show, to the Indian audience and making clear that the model will be launched in India (earliest by 2010) AND flagging down the price of the car from 6000 Euros to about 3.3 Lakhs (you can do the math now), Volkswagen is making a strong statement about its wish to capture the emerging Indian market. Read Full Post

As we entered the Volvo hall to take a look at the cars and meet up with the Managing Director of Volvo India, we could see a parade of exquisitely gorgeous cars between big displays quoting “Scandinavian Design” and “Innovative Safety”. One might soon see these tag-lines in ads as Volvo C70 rolls in, ready to be driven on Indian streets. On enquiring we were told that the gentleman in question had just stepped out for a cigar. So we settled down and munched on candies before Mr. De Voijs, the Managing Director, turned up. Read Full Post

Nano: The car that’s been…

Tata’s Nano has been the bestseller for Delhi Auto Expo 2008. “The Cup spilleth forth”, as they say, in Pragati Maidan this year to see this wee-wonder. The hatchback attracted people from not only national borders but internationally too. The car measures 2928 mm in length, 1417 mm in width and 1512 mm in height. In this the car is smaller than Maruti 800 by 8 percent. This, however, does not undermine the space inside the car because Nano has 21 percent more passenger space than 800.

The makers promise that Nano will provide a mileage of 26 kmpl on the highways and 22 kmpl in the city. The basic model would lighten your pockets by Rs 1.2-1.3 lakhs. That will be sans AC or power windows or seats that can adjust or airbags (but even other entry-level cars amounting to Rs 3-5 lakhs don’t sport this feature. So we are good!) The point in consideration is that even without these features, it’s a “whole” car, complete with steering wheel, braking system, engine, suspension, everything. Tata has produced a four-wheeled vehicle for an amount of money which is little more than people set out for higher-end bikes or little more than an auto-rickshaw costs. Read Full Post