Newly launched IRIZAR-TVS iT09 Redefining Luxury Bus concept

Coinciding with the inauguration of the new plant, Irizar-TVS launched the all-new iT09 luxury coach for inter-city transportation. The iT09 has been designed by Irizar-TVS with very strong support from Irizar and Ashok Leyland, says Mr. Seshasayee, AL Managing Director.

From its very look and attractive interior, the iT09 would compare well with any of the top end luxury buses sold in India today. But the positioning of the bus is not against the Volvo’s or the Mercedes. Interestingly the iT09 is targeted at the customer who typically buys a chassis from Ashok Leyland and does the body building at one of the private bus body building units for inter-city application. The idea is to provide a fully-built solution to the customer instead of having to deal with multiple entities.
The iT09 is a 12-metre inter-city coach on Ashok Leyland chassis with both AC and non-AC options. The bus comes fitted with the 180 hp, H series AL engines with seating capacity of 40 for the AC version and 36 for non-AC. It has luggage space of nearly 8 cubic metres. The rigid structure complies to the new regulation of roll-over norm for safety expected to be mandated in India in the near future. The bus is priced at Rs. 22 lakhs plus taxes for bus body building, excluding the cost of the chassis.

Analysing the luxury bus segment in India, we have the top-end dominated by Volvo, with Mercedes making an entry. Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors have also launched products with similar features. The Luxura from Ashok Leyland and the Hispano from Tata Motors are pitted against the Volvo’s and Mercedes but at a lesser price point. But the top-end luxury segment is still limited in numbers. The market size is expected to be around 500 to 600 units per annum.


The larger numbers still remain in the mass market luxury bus segment, which is expected to be around 25,000 to 30,000 units per annum. Customers in this segment still continue to buy chassis from the manufacturer and build the bus bodies at an independent body building unit. It is this segment that AL and Irizar-TVS are targeting.

Instead of having to deal with multiple vendors, customers will now have a single point of contact for sales, service and spares. Also typically the time taken from buying the chassis to putting it on road is around 2 months and this is a very unproductive time for the customer. With a fully built bus, the customer can buy the vehicle and start operating from day 1. It makes more business sense.

Both AL and Irizar-TVS plan to further enlarge the luxury coach range and expect the iT09 to create a niche for itself in the segment.ccc

M&M Launches XUV500 SUVStarting At 10.8 lacs

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), India's leading manufacturer of utility vehicles has launched its new global sport utility vehicle XUV 500 at a starting price of Rs 10.80 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi). M&M will position the XUV 500 between the Scorpio and the premium SUV range which comprises of the  Fortuner, Chevrolet Captiva, Mitubishi Outlander, Honda CR-V and the likes.
The reports mentioned that the XUV 500 will be available in both 4x2 and 4x4 variants. The vehicle will be launched in South Africa tomorrow. The reports quoted M&M President (Automotive and Farm Equipment) Pawan Goenka as saying “In the next six months, it will be launched in Australia, South and Central America, Western Europe and SAARC countries."
According to the report, in the domestic market, it will be first available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. It will be pitched against the likes of General Motors' Captiva and the Toyota Fortuner, which are priced at around Rs 19-20 lakh. The reports also quoted M&M Chief of Operations (Automotive Sector) Rajesh Jejurikar as saying that the price of the XUV500 could be revised after three months, depending on commodity prices and other input costs.
It was mentioned that stating that the new vehicle is a reflection of the firm's ever-growing global aspirations, M&M Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said: "XUV500 is much more than a car. It will be another cult vehicle, as Scorpio was." Goenka said the XUV500, on which M&M spent Rs 650 crore to develop, is the first product from its Chennai research and development centre. It will be produced at the Chakan plant. He said the new vehicle would "redefine M&M as the Scorpio did nine years back".
According to reports,while the company did not specify sales targets for the new vehicle, officials said M&M has made arrangements for an initial production capacity of 2,000 units a month. The auto giant will manufacture the new SUV at its Chakan plant near Pune. Designed entirely at Mahindra's R&D centre in Chennai, the XUV promises a lot of firsts for Mahindra. The XUV 500 is the country's first indigenously developed monocoque SUV and also the first to offer a transverse engine layout. Since the XUV 500 is a global vehicle, it was conceived and designed with global standards of quality, technology, testing norms, regulations and emissions right from the very beginning.
It was reported that the XUV500 is powered by a 2.2-litre M-Hawk engine which is now in an east-west layout as against a north-south placement in other Mahindra vehicles. This engine develops 140bhp but more importantly has 330Nm of torque. Mated to this engine is another first for an all Indian vehicle - a six-speed manual gearbox, developed in-house by Mahindra itself as is the front wheel drive transfer case. Base models will be front wheel drive while another version will have an all wheel drive layout with a torque on demand mechanism also delivering drive to the rear wheels. The grille of the XUV 500 is different while the front end treatment with projector headlamps, LED day-time running lights, large front bumper with streaked air dam and recessed fog lamps make for a menacing look. The car has disc brakes abound on all four wheels and in addition there is ABS, EBD plus ESP to ensure safety. There are driver and front passenger air bags, start/stop is standard equipment and there is also hill descent control for the top line offering.

According to the reports, the Ex-showroom Delhi prices of Mahindra XUV 500 W8 four wheel drive is Rs 10.80 lakhs and Mahindra XUV 500 W8 two wheel drive would be Rs 11.95 lakhs.

Red Bull racing makes History With The First F1 Car On Buddh International Circuit

Red Bull Racing at BIC Track Opening

After thrilling Formula One fans with an exhilarating performance at New Delhi's Rajpath and breaking records at 18,380 feet with a run along the world's highest motorable road in Khardung La, Red Bull Racing has become the first Formula One car to go on track, ahead of the Inaugural Indian Grand Prix, at the Buddh International Circuit.Fresh from Khardung La and buckled up in the cockpit was Red Bull driver Neel Jani. One of the fastest circuits of the season with a mix of slow turns and high speed straights, the elevation of the Buddh International Circuit increased the challenge for Neel Jani, as he sought to push the car to its limits. "For me, India is as good as coming home. Setting two records in one week with Red Bull Racing in India is a fantastic feeling. Getting to open the track with my Indian roots is a big honour for me and to being doing that with the 2011 World Champions Red Bull Racing is an added honour. I'm sure, come race weekend, that Seb and Mark will push their RB7s on this extremely exciting and fast track," said Neel Jani. As the lights turned green, the car sped onto turn 1, braking hard,and once again speeding up past turn 2 to the elevated blind corner of turn 3.
Rocketing down the 1.2 KM straight towards turn 4 where there are a lot of overtaking opportunities, Neel quickly downshifted before revving up once again down the 1 KM straight leading up to turn 5. Quick braking and gear changes from turn 5 through to turn 9 led onto the elevated section of the track at turns 10 and 11. With a series of bends and straights from turn 11 to turn 16 and past the pits, Neel recorded the first ever lap in a Formula One car at the 5.14 KM Buddh International Circuit and now holds the lap record. With two weeks to go to the Indian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing have defended their titles and have tied up both the Drivers' World Championship and the Constructors' World Championship for the second year in a row. Red Bull Racing is relishing the chance of fighting for victory when RB7 arrives at the Buddh International Circuit

Surviving' Death:My Own Experince

The Sky Was Quite Clear,When We Chalked Out Our Monsoon Safari Plan on the 24th.Finally in Ranthambore, Our Gypsy Came to Pick us Up From Our Safari Lodge.As Soon As We Entered The Forest Check Post,Dark Awful Clouds Emerge From Nowhere.We Started To Expect Rain "Its gonna rain Heavily",As Soon As I Said This ,My Wish Come True,and The Shower Started,Our Driver And guide Decided to Wait For Sometime For The Rain To Stop,Outside The Zone-4 Gate.Other Cars Started to Go Inside Knowing That There Was no sighting today Unless your "Superlucky".And Finally After About Half An hour Our Driver And guide  Decided to Go Inn to Try Our Luck.The Monsoon Was Still Onn And In Full Swing With No Signs Of  Stopping.I Was Hoping to See Machli(Old tigress In Ranthnambore,Formerly known "Queen of Ranthambore") In Zone-4...Keep Machli Aside,because Of Heavy rains I Was not Able to See The Road Ahead,As We Zoomed Into Deep of Zone-4.The Monsoon showed Its Dark Side.I Just Glared At The Sky And The View Was Ridiculous,The Sky Had Lost its Blue Color And Was Full With Dark Clouds.Our Driver Said In A Painfull Voice "We Should return Back Now".We All Agreed .We took A big U-turn.The Water we Crossed earlier Was Overflowing and There was no Chance Of our Gypsy to Pass.So Our Driver suggested An Idea,That We Should go To Zone 3 from Zone 4.There was A Small Rift of some 5 ft.We Decided to Build A Small bridge Of Some rocks.We Started to built it And It Came to Action.And it Was time for Practicals.Our Driver Was ready  To go Through the Small Bridge.He Shifted "4WD" Gear And Started And Crossed It easily.I must it Was Because Of  the Car..!! With No More time We Were in Zone 3,We had broken The Forest Rules And Entered Zone 3.The Driver Zoomed into Zone 3.After a short Stretch.The View was Insane.Streams Hailing From Nowhere Gathered And Formed A Big river Like Water Body.We Decided to Cross It Knowing That Something's gonna be Wrong.In No Time We Crossed it.The Guide Was totally confused.He Was Not Able to MAke out The Road in It..!!! He Decided to Turn Back So That We Could Find Some Other Cars In Zone-4 Which Were Behind Us.But As Soon As Our Driver Started To turn The Gypsy On 4WD.He Couldn't Make Out The road And The Stream,And he Finally Ended Up In Water.In no time Water Gushed into Our Car And Smoke Came Out Of The Engine.All Hell Broke Loose And Water entered Our Car Like Mad.Firstly we were standing in our car,Coz Of The bloody water,We Were In No Time Standing On our Car's Seat And the Driver And The guide Standing on The Bonnet of The Car.All Living daylights Were Freaked Out..The Water Level Was rising Like as Someone Was intending to Do So..The Water Level Kept Rising.It went Above The dashboard.There was a Chance of our Gypsy Flowing With the Stream,and There were Crocs Waiting For Us Down The Stream.So It Was Decided That either We Could Camp on a tree or walk.Walking Was the Right option I Guess....It Was Risky Either,Zone 3 was the Territory Of  T17(one of The Aggressive Tigress In Rathambore) The Freaky Rain Was Unstoppable,After Sometime Around 5 pm in The Evening It Slowed Down,And The Water level Slowly Began to Decrease,We made A chain And Got Out of the Mess.As Soon as we got Out All of Us Were Relaxed..!! He Began Our Journey towards The Forest Entrance,we Crossed Rajbagh Lake and Saw Some Crocs Basking There,after 2 hours of walking we reached the entrance of zone-3,we Spotted a forest Gypsy Coming towards us,They said that Clear off the Forest fast,coz he Had Confirmed T17's movement On The Wireless Around Us,We Were Still hoping to see A tiger there..we then Decided to Walk To The Main Entrance of The Forest,which was 6 kilometres From Here,there were No Chances Of Help reaching Here,All Streams were Flooded And overflowing ,many Cars Were Stranded Inside,We Decided to reach There Before Dark,finally we reached the main entrance Of The Forest by 8,Another Gyspsy Was Waiting for Us There,Our Hotel Was 5 Km From There,Finally We reached the  Around 8.30 All wet.everyone Was Freaked out  and Decided to Take some Hot Drinks..!!! our Thrilling Journey Ended Here With Lifetime memories...!!!! I am Surely Gonna go Again In October..!!!

MSRTC Launches 'Ashwamedh' Volvo B9R Multi-Axel Bus.

PUNE: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) recently introduced two 'Ashwamedh' buses on the Pune-Dadar route. The jumbo multi-axle Volvo buses will provide business class travel to passengers with more comfortable seats and legroom, say state transport officials. The buses have electronically controlled air-suspension, an electronic braking system and an integral hydraulic power-assisted steering system.

The buses, which were flagged off recently by minister of state for transport Gulabrao Deokar and MSRTC chairman Sudhakar Paricharak, have a seating capacity of 53, which is eight more than the Shivneri buses. The fare for travelling by theAshwamedh buses will be Rs 270, the same as the fare for Shivneri buses, the officials said.

According to MSRTC officials, the buses, which cost Rs 1 crore each, will be introduced on the Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore route in the near future. MSRTC has also recently added various types of buses like the 31-seater midi buses, Parivartan buses, and air-conditioned Sheetal semi-luxury buses. tnn 

Msrtc To Start New Services

MUMBAI: An unprecedented 38% growth in the number of passengers travelling by air-conditioned (AC) buses from Mumbai to Pune in the past one year has prompted the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to introduce 60 Volvos on the route from next month.

The state road transport body saw an increase in passenger traffic from 24 lakhs to 33 lakhs in the past one year. Managing director Deepak Kapoor said most of the buses were booked well in advance. In comparison, there was a 27% growth in passenger traffic in semi-luxury buses or Asiads.

Kapoor said, "We want to provide more value-added service in AC buses and an on-board catering service (the first of its kind in India) is one of them." He said the Mumbai-Pune route was not only a major revenue earner but it also catered to passengers ranging from middle-class families to those from upmarket areas.

MSRTC plans AC bus services from Mumbai to Bengaluru and resumption of its Volvo service to Panjim in Goa from April, following the Mumbai-Pune route's success. "In 2010, we introduced Sheetal buses, a combination of semi-luxury and AC buses, which were affordable and cheaper by Rs 90, compared to AC Volvos. We tapped a huge market which appreciated our innovative AC buses," he said. MSRTC will also introduce 25 more Sheetal buses this year. He said there was a demand for introducing more AC Volvos from Thane and Borivli to Pune. The new Volvos will be deployed on these routes, he said.

Kapoor said MSRTC planned to get sturdier buses from next month. "Five buses with mild steel bodies will join the fleet next week. We will also have two jumbo AC buses with multi-axles, which will again be deployed on the Mumbai Pune route." The midi-buses will serve rural areas and far-flung suburbs like Mira Road, Panvel an d Vasai-Virar. Buses will be introduced on the Pune-Nashik and Pune-Aurangabad routes too. Around 240 crore passengers travel by over 16,000 MSRTC buses across the state annually. Kapoor said they also plan to recruit 14,000 drivers this year.

An MSRTC PR official said, "Apart from the 60 Volvos, we have ordered 160 semi-luxury buses, 350 midi-buses and 3,000 Parivartan (standard) buses this year." He said the corporation had made huge profits from ticket sales in the past few years and planned to redesign its buses with mild steel. 

Super Car Rally 2011-Mumbai:Full Coverage

Finally, I got Time to Go Attend The Super Car Rally At Vidhan Bhavan.It Was Organised By Mr.Gautam Singhania Chairman Of Raymond(India).It Was Named As 'Parx SuperCar Rally'

Here is a sneak peak at some of the cars that will be participating-
Ferrari F340 Scuderia
Ferrari 458 Italia
Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Ferrari F430
Ferrari 599
Ferrari 348
Lexus SC 450
Lotus Elise
Rolls Royce (Multiple Ghost And Phantom)
Mercedes SL 55 AMG. And some other AMGs
Lamborghini Gallardo (Multiple)
Lamborghini LP 560
Lamborghini LP 640
Honda S2000
Ariel Atom
Nissan GT-R
Porsche  (Multiple including 911 Turbos)
Porsche Panamera
Jaguars (including the 512 BHP XF-R)
Maserati Quattroporte
Audi R8 (Multiple)
BMW M3s & M5s (Multiple)
BMW X3
Bentley Continental GT
Harley Davidson Motrocycles
And, a surprise Supercar!"

And Here Are Some Pics Of Them.The Rally Was Organised By Parx(Raymond).Enjoy The Pics