Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Audi A8

Limooooo

Bentley Arnage

Hummer "safest car in the world"

2005 Maybach Brabus SV 12

Maybach Brabus SV 12

2005 Maybach Brabus SV 12

Year 2005

Make Maybach

Model SV 12

Tuner Brabus

Engine Location Front

Drive Type Rear Wheel

Performance

0-60 mph 4.9 seconds.

Top Speed 195 mph 313.8 km/h

Engine

Engine Configuration V

Cylinders 12

Aspiration Bi-Turbo

Displacement 6300.00 cc 384.4 cu in. 6.3 L.

Horsepower 640.00 BHP (471 KW) @ 5100.00 RPM

Torque 757.00 Ft-Lbs (1026.5 NM) @ 1750.00 RPM

HP / Liter 101.6 BHP / Liter

Complied by Suresh

Indian icon reaches 50, Ambassador

In the introduction to his beguiling book, A Way into India, Raghubir Singh describes the Ambassador as “an organic part of bird shit- and cow dung-coated India.” “In its imperfection,” Singh writes, “[the Ambassador] is truly an Indian automobile”. For many decades, buying a car meant buying an Ambassador. But times have changed. The Amby is nowhere as ubiquitous as it once used to be. But it has reached its half-century of continuous production. That in itself seems like a bit of a miracle. And that is part of its mythology. The Ambassador may be thought to be quintessentially Indian but its origins aren’t. It is a direct descendant of the British Morris Oxford Series II and III. In 1954, the Landmaster – the first made-in-India Oxford – was produced. It was rebranded as the Ambassador in 1957. It isn’t quite the car that you would choose to drive these days. Says journalist, writer and old India hand, Sir Mark Tully: “Its relevance in India is as a relic of the past. And people would buy it more as a statement and less as a car. However, I have driven thousands of miles in an Amby and it got through floods and potholed roads, where other cars struggled. It’s a beautiful car, very simple and any mechanic on the roadside could set it right. I have fond memories of it.” Fond memories are what most people have of it. Says artist Riyaz Komu, who last year bought the 2004-launched Ambassador Avigo, “My dad bought an Amby in Kerala in 1968 and we still use it in our family home there. It leaves you with this elderly, veteran feel when you travel in its comfortable back seat. I bought an Avigo just for the sentimental value.” Sentimental value, though, won’t be enough to keep this icon thriving. Experts believe that the car has little relevance in a country like India, where the choice is wider and much better than it used to be. Hormazd Sorabjee, editor, Autocar India magazine, has the distinction of driving an Ambassador from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. “I have cut my teeth with this car and changing from second to third with that steering-column mounted gearshift is an art in itself,” he says. Were it not for sentimental values, he says, the Amby would have been dead and buried long ago. “It just doesn’t make the cut as far as today’s safety and technology standards go.” The Amby just about pants its way past 100 kmph. It isn’t what you’d call fuel-efficient. Then there’s that leaf-spring suspension at the rear, which is better than that of, er, a bullock cart. However, while modern inde pendent suspensions may offer you with a better ride, they just can’t take the beating that Indian potholes render them with. The Amby’s leaf spring, crude as it may be, is simple, longer lasting, and doesn’t cost a fortune to repair. That’s something but clearly not everything. There are doubts about how long the car can go on. As Srinivas Krishnan, assistant editor of the Business Standard motoring magazine says, “It was a good car and has served people well, but it’s time for it to drive into the sunset.” But don’t write it off yet. People have been predicting the death of the Ambassador for years now. And although it is no longer the colossus it once was, 15,000-odd cars continue to roll out from the Hindustan Motors factory in Uttarpara, a short train ride away from Kolkata, every year even now. The Central and state governments are said to account for a quarter of the sales. For all you know, this Indian icon will still be around to celebrate another important landmark in its eventful journey. Metaphor for Mother India F or thirty years I have traveled in hired Ambassador cars. As I journeyed all over India I came to understand that if one thing can be singled out to stand for the past fifty years of India… it has to be the Ambassador. … It has become a metaphor for Mother India, for Independent India. Lizard-like, it has shed its colonial coating of Morris Oxford to don Hindustani colours. Unlike the Oxford don, tweed, thick-cut marmalade and an English breakfast of kippers and herring, it was never a British monument, but it is an Indian one. It is the Hindustan Ambassador. …It is now a part of India’s long journey. It is an organic part of bird shit- and cowdung-coated India. It is the good and bad of India. It is a solid part of that India that moves on, even as it falls apart, or lags behind. In its imperfection, it is truly an Indian automobile. Source www.hindustantimes.com by Suresh

Collection of Cars

History of Cars

The birth of the car as we know it today occurred over a period of years. It was only in 1885 that the first real car rolled down on to the streets. The earlier attempts, though successful, were steam powered road-vehicles.

The first self-propelled car was built by Nicolas Cugnot in 1769 which could attain speeds of upto 6 kms/hour. In 1771 he again designed another steam-driven engine which ran so fast that it rammed into a wall, recording the world’s first accident.

In 1807 Francois Isaac de Rivaz designed the first internal combustion engine.This was subsequently used by him to develop the world’s first vehicle to run on such an engine, one that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy.

This spawned the birth of a number of designs based on the internal combustion engine in the early nineteenth century with little or no degree of commercial success. In 1860 thereafter, Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir built the first successful two-stroke gas driven engine. In 1862 he again built an experimental vehicle driven by his gas-engine, which ran at a speed of 3 kms/hour. These cars became popular and by 1865 could be frequently espied on the roads.

The next major leap forward occurred in 1885 when the four stroke engine was devised. Gottileb Damlier and Nicolas Otto worked together on the mission till they fell apart. Daimler created his own engines which he used both for cars and for the first four wheel horseless carriage. In the meanwhile, unknown to them, Karl Benz, was in the process of creating his own advanced tri-cycle which proved to be the first true car. This car first saw the light of the day in 1886.