Ford Freestyle goes off-road at CBC Ford Fest in Mavelikkara, Kerala

Have you heard of a new segment CUV ? Ford has a answer for that. Christened as Compact Utility Vehicle (CUV), Ford recently launched the Freestyle in India which is essentially the rugged, cross-hatch version of the Figo.



But I'm not going to get into the details of the Freestyle here. I am going to share my drive experience at the CBC Ford Fest . The event was organised in Mavelikkara, Kerala by India’s one of the youngest off-road racer Athira Murali  in association with CBC Ford Thumpoly, Alappuzha .





It was an honour to be a part of this event and was one of the best platform to explore the Freestyle's off-road capability. The 2-day event, 24th - 25th May, 2018, saw participation of potential customers and enthusiasts experience the Ford Freestyle.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPM0-ScIwIg[/embed]

 

The adventure track was customised to showcase the vehicle’s capabilities. The rains in Kerala added its flavour to the off-road experience to some extent. The ground clearance was displayed through high humps across the track manoeuvrability was highlighted through a serpentine course and angled ditches to experience the smooth suspension of the vehicle. Also on the track were slush pits & cambered angles for proving the capabilities of the Freestyle.

[caption id="attachment_25208" align="aligncenter" width="640"] L-R: Suchith Arvind, Athira Murali & Rony Peniel[/caption]

Athira & team claims that such type of event is the first in the region for a car of this category.

"Through this initiative, we aim to bring the thrill of off-roading within reach of enthusiasts. The track was designed keeping in mind both for hatchback upgraders and customers using soft-offroaders", says Athira.

Athira Murali, has the unique distinction of being India’s one of the youngest upcoming woman off-road racer. She was also honoured in the India Book of Records and Universal Record Forum for being the youngest person to hold the most number of vehicle licenses.



About Ford Freestyle:

The Freestyle is available in four trims – Ambiente, Trend, Titanium, and Titanium+ – with the option of a petrol and a diesel engine. Prices range between Rs 5.09 lakh and Rs 6.94 lakh for the petrol and Rs 6.09  to 7.89 lakh for the diesel.

The petrol engine is the new 1.2-litre three-cylinder Dragon unit that churns out 96hp and 120Nm of peak torque, making it the most powerful petrol in its segment. The diesel Freestyle carries forward Ford’s tried-and-tested 1.5-litre, four-cylinder TDCi engine that produces 100hp and 215Nm of peak torque.

Both engines are mated to a new Getrag-sourced five-speed manual gearbox, which is more refined and lighter than the unit it replaces. In turn, it also uses 40 percent less gear oil.

Based on the Figo hatch, the Freestyle has its ride height increased by 16mm to 190mm (unladen) and gets larger 15-inch alloys. It also comes with the expected off-road bits like body cladding, skid plates and functional roof rails.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCU67-r-Bm0[/embed]

Some more action of the Freestyle at the venue

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Story by: The Editor

Kia gifts the Stinger to Rafael Nadal - the world's number one tennis player

Kia Motors has delivered a new Kia Stinger to Rafael Nadal, the world's number one tennis player and global ambassador for Kia. Nadal started his relationship with Kia Motors in Spain in 2004, in the early stages of his professional tennis career. 



President of Kia Motors Iberia Yangseop Gihl, Managing Director Emilio Herrera, and Marketing and Communications Director Ricardo de Diego handed the car over to the tennis star at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Manacor, Majorca – Nadal’s home town.

Emilio Herrera commented: “Nadal is the best ambassador a brand could dream of, and we have had the privilege of having grown together. Rafa represents consistency, effort, modesty and passion. These are values we have in common. We are honoured to hand him the keys to a new Stinger, the most surprising and thrilling of our models.”

The new Kia Stinger will go on sale in Europe during Q4. The highest-performance production Kia ever, the Stinger channels the spirit of the historic gran turismo – powerful, elegant, and capable of moving owners in style and at speed.

The Stinger will be available with a choice of three engines in Europe: a 2.0-litre turbo gasoline engine, a powerful 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6, and a 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine.



 

Kia and Rafael Nadal

Nadal started his relationship with Kia Motors in Spain in 2004, in the early stages of his professional tennis career. He became Kia’s brand ambassador in Spain, and two years later he was appointed as a global ambassador for the brand.

Nadal is one of the most crowned and admired sportsmen ever. He started in the world of tennis in 2001 at the age of 15. Before he turned 20, he had already won ten professional Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) titles. To his name, Nadal has 16 Grand Slam titles, two Olympic medals, four Davis Cup wins and 75 ATP titles, among other awards and prizes. Winning more than 60 matches so far in 2017, Nadal continues to strengthen his position at the top of the ATP rankings.

Kia Motors Iberia actively collaborates with the Rafael Nadal Foundation on a number of projects and has an agreement with the Rafael Nadal Academy by Movistar as official vehicle supplier. Kia has supported the children's tennis tournament, ‘Rafael Nadal Tour’, for a number of years.

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Bikers ride to retrace story of the man behind 'The White Revolution in India'

Motorcyclists loaded with full of energy and enthusiasm are geared up to embark on a 1600 km journey from Kozhikode in Kerala to Anand in Gujarat on their Royal Enfields. The purpose of the journey to retrace the life and work of the nation’s beloved Father of the White Revolution in India; Dr. Verghese Kurien.



 

Bikers Arun, Surjit, Rex Sulu, Athira & Hisham who initiated the #IntroducingDrKurien will be joined by other bikers from the cities of Kozhikode, Mangalore, Goa, Kolhapur, Pune, Mumbai and Vadodara.

[caption id="attachment_23890" align="aligncenter" width="960"] L-R: Bikers Surjit, Rex Sulu, Arun, Athira & Hisham who initiated the #IntroducingDrKurien ride[/caption]

The ride was flagged off at Milma Dairy, Kozhikode on November 20, 2017. The event was graced with the presence of Shri P T Gopal Kurup (Chairman, MILMA) and Shri K M Jhala (Chief Operating Officer, AMUL).

The bikers will be reaching Anand on November 26, 2017 which is celebrated as The National Milk Day to mark birth anniversary of  Dr.Verghese Kurien,



For details, visit: www.drkurien.com/nationalmilkday

About Dr. Verghese Kurien

• Dr Verghese Kurien- is synonymous with the word milk in India, who led the country to become the largest producer of milk and milk products, who formed what is one of the most popular and endearing Indian brands, Amul.


• He was a social entrepreneur who had started billion-litre idea-Operation Flood which was the world’s largest agricultural development programme. This operation had helped to transform India from a milk-deficit country into the world’s largest milk producer.


• He was founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and pioneer in establishment and success of the Amul brand of dairy products.


• Under his chairmanship, Amul achieved key invention of milk powder processed from buffalo milk.


• Awards and Honours: Ramon Magsaysay Award (1963), World Food Prize (1989), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Economic Times award for Corporate Excellence (2001) etc.

Electric vehicles can cause job loss at workshops? Here's why

It takes people to make cars: to lift and install parts, check quality, test-drive them after assembly, and so forth. Automation has eliminated many of the jobs performed by humans a century ago and now the electric cars may pose a new threat: they will require even fewer workers to build.

"EV’s maintenance cost to be 1% of ICE vehicles; can cause job loss at workshops", Abhay Firodia, President of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM)

[embed]https://youtu.be/uVmCxcRUBss[/embed]

Source: http://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com

A simple calculation: a battery-electric car has fewer than 200 moving parts, while a vehicle with a modern, turbocharged, multi-valve engine and nine-speed transmission (and perhaps all-wheel drive) has 10 to 30 times that number.

EVs are much easier and cheaper to build than vehicles with internal combustion engines. 40 percent of a conventional car's manufacturing cost is made up of its engine, transmission, axles and driveshafts, engine cooling and air-conditioning systems, fuel tank and plumbing, and exhaust and emission after treatment systems.

In EVs, instead of engines, the computers, sensors, regulators and controllers make it all work.

Battery-electric cars dispense with all those parts, and the replacement components are far less complex. Worse yet, they may not be assembled by automakers at all. Battery cells and packs, which contain hundreds of lithium-ion cells (each of which has its own components) plus connectors, sensors, wiring, and the rest, aren't necessarily made in-house.

And this is just the beginning. The shift from producing vehicles with internal combustion engines to EVs will take place over the years. So it won’t be sudden. But it’s going to happen faster than the shift to automation, which began in the early 1900s and happened in small increments, starting at some plants, followed by others. As the decades passed, automation became ever more sophisticated and replaced more and more jobs – a process that continues to this day.

Lets wait and watch the negotiations among auto manufacturers, automotive associations, their employees, their suppliers, and national politicians over where those jobs end up, and why?.

 

 

 

Richard Hammond survives crash while filming ' The Grand Tour' driving show

Richard Hammond, the former Top Gear presenter, was involved in a harrowing crash where his car burst into flames today. Hammond, who was filming scenes for 'The Grand Tour' series for Amazon.

Richard Hammond was driving the $1m Rimac Concept One electric super car then went off the road and slid down the hillside, where it later caught fire. He escaped serious injury and was airlifted to hospital after climbing out of the car on his own.

It was Hammond’s second crash in three months while filming The Grand Tour series for Amazon. In March, he was knocked unconscious after falling off a motorbike in Mozambique.



 

The Rimac Concept One, made in Croatia, costs nearly $1 million and was designed to help promote the zero-emission Formula E motor sport. The car is capable of doing 0-100 kmph in 2.5 seconds. The electric motor produces 1224 hp and 1600 Nm of torque, propelling it to a top speed of 355 kmph.

The cause of the crash is being investigated.



Image: Amazon

Helmet comes off the secret STIG !!

As car fans around the world prepare for the eagerly anticipated new series of hit BBC TV show Top Gear, Nissan has removed the helmet of its top European test driver for the first time to reveal his identity.

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