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Ferrari sent two 612 Scagliettis to India for the Magic India Discovery tour. The 12-stage event starts and ends in Mumbai, covering 7,000 miles of the subcontinent along the way, kicking off on February 25 and ending on May 8. The video and pics are from the launch at the Taj Palace.

Pics from the event

After much speculation Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors, unveiled the Tata Nano, the most inexpensive car in the world at USD 2500. The idea for the USD 2500 car was conceived 5 years ago when commodity prices for things such as steel were much cheaper but Ratan Tata said “a promise is a promise” and Tata kept to it.

There are many pictures of the car floating on the web, but the picture shown is exactly the target audience the Nano is going after. The family whose primary transportation is a scooter or a 2nd car for a family that lives in an urban setting.

The minute the car was announced in India, Indian’s could understand why people would buy this car and could end up changing the game on the worldwide automotive scene. However, when reading comments from several of the int’l car blogs, it was clear some people don’t get it:

“..this car sucks! 0-60? how many hours? ”

“…This is disaster for the world, and India and China… smog dispensing, CO2 emitting legions of tiny, polluting microcars”

The Nano is a rear-wheel drive, 2-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 hp engine. Engine is rear mounted. Tailpipe emission performance exceeds current regulatory requirements, and the Nano has a lower overall pollution level than two-wheelers made in India.

This car is NOT for:
- someone looking for performance
- someone looking to impress
- someone wanting a car for Sunday speed trials
- someone looking for a car to take on long drives

But instead…for a family of 6 on a scooter – as shown above.

The Indian car scene these days is down right exciting for a car guy. Unfortunately, it’s not about the horsepower or hotness of the cars but instead the business side of it. Everything from clean energy to low priced cars. Just 20 years ago you had two options if you wanted to buy a car: an Ambassador or Fiat.

It’s the night before the big announcement in Delhi from Tata Motors about their new USD 2500 vehicle, the world’s cheapest car (even cheaper then the Yugo from 1986 when factoring in inflation). If you’ve been to India and have seen 3-5 people on a scooter then you’ll know who this car is targeted at.

The NY Times has a great article on the new car. One of the most notable things I picked up from the article was that most carmakers buy no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of parts electronically however this car has about 30 percent to 40 percent sourced electronically.

The new Tata car is only one of many news stories around the Indian car scene:

- Bajaj introduced their low priced concept car in Delhi on Tuesday. The majority of Indians travel via two wheelers and the king of the hill in that segment is Bajaj. It’s their first attempt at a four wheel vehicle.

- Ford announced a USD 500 million investment into India, to source parts and expand it’s operations.

- Tata Motors in addition to the low end segment is also looking at the luxury segment. It’s currently in a bidding war for Jaguar and Land Rover.

- Clean energy cars are currently being made in India by Reva. They may not look as sexy as the Telsa, but for city use the Reva is the smarter option. (SIDENOTE: it is me, or do you hum the song Signs every time you here the word Tesla?)

That’s a status check on the Indian automotive scene.  If the US is headed for a recession, I’m assuming there will be even more deals announced which means more options for the Indian consumer.

What a birthday present for me, after watching patiently for over 6 months while the the new Porsche Centre Mumbai was being put together it’s now open. Their grand opening was tonight and the pics are from the event after most of the people had cleared out so I could get some pics without some lame Harry Potter fan getting in the way. The showroom/dealer is located at Kemps Corner in South Bombay. This is the 2nd showroom for Porsche in India, the first one was opened in Delhi last year. I had expected them to have a couple Cayenne’s and 911 Carrera’s but I had no clue they would pull out the big daddy Carrera GT. Around 1200 GT’s were made and sold for around USD 500,000 a piece. This particular GT is on loan from the Porsche Museum located in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, it will be making it’s way back home in a couple weeks.

Pics of the GT

It’s been awhile since I posted some pics of cars I’ve seen around Bombay and other cities. I’ve moved my new pics over to the Facebook platform. Just click on the car images to open up the album for each car.

Some pics of cars I’ve seen around Mumbai. The gray Bentley and maroon S class were seen around Peddar Road. The black Bentley and Cayenne Turbo were seen near the Mahalaxmi Racecourse. The 911 was parked at the Hyatt in Kalina.

I went to Hong Kong last week for the first time and I was blown away by the city. It happened to be the 10 year anniversary of the handover back to China, so as you can imagine a lot of festivities around that. It also happened to be the 10 year anniversary of the Asian Financial Crisis that started with Thailand.

It was tough to not draw comparisons between HK and Mumbai.  Both are financial hubs and many people live in both cities.  But, that is where the similarity ends, HK has the infrastructure that Bombay only dreams about.   Getting around the financial district was as easy as walking around the elevated walkways to shield you from the rain and the traffic down below. People were very helpful and the city was full of energy. The city is geared towards business and it shows, I can only imagine what mainland China is like.

People told me that HK has the highest number of Rolls Royce’s per capita in the world, they forgot to tell me the streets are littered with 7-series Beamer’s and S-class Benzo’s.

Saw this near Pedder Road.

Saw this beauty at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Bombay.

For the past several weeks I’ve noticed some work being done to a building near Kemps Corner. I figured it would be another lame clothing store but today I drove by and saw them putting up the signage for Porsche. The last letter “e” was put up first, I’ll take some pics next week and post them to the blog. The picture at the top is an artists rendering of what it’s supposed to look like. If you are familiar with the area the showroom is on the same street as the Crossword bookstore and right next to the Maruti showroom. Ironic that one of the best looking sports car brands in the world is being sold alongside some of the crappiest cars in the world.