Hindustan Times
The stars at Frankfurt Motor Show
At a time when the global automotive industry is witnessing uncertain times, what with the deepening Euro zone crisis, a still sluggish US economy and to top it all a China that has at last begun to look out of breath, the who’s who of the industry congregated at Frankfurt in the world’s biggest automotive extravaganza. The sole aim of the expo was a singular one: to showcase the best that one had to help dwarf the clouds of a recession and promise a better future. As many as 89 superlative cars were showcased either as production ready models or as concepts that gave consumers a peek at what future would look like.
It is not an easy task to narrow that list down to single digits. But I am using my own discretion to present 7 of them that to me were really head turners or would make an impact that would be long standing.
Maserati Kubang
The Italian firm is almost 100 years old, but its Indian presence is merely 4 month long. It is known worldwide for its styling (not surprisingly since its belongs to the house of Fiat), dynamism and character. Kubang will be its first SUV and is already eagerly awaited. If they can do a job even half as good as what they do with their convertibles and sportscars, the Germans would be running for cover.
Skoda Mission L
The Czech carmaker’s turn to make use of the Volkswagen Vento platform and make an entry level sedan for the emerging markets. Globally this car may have a nominal presence, and even in Frankfurt it was tucked in neatly into one corner in a way that was easy to miss. It is still a concept car but one that does not look like one. Infact if the panoramic roof is discounted, it looks almost ready for production. The reason why I have put this car into the list is that it will be globally launched in India and hence is of very high relevance to us. It would come with all the engine options that Vento has, but at a price lower than the former. And in India, you would not have to wait that long either. Bring it on.
VW Up
Europe’s largest carmaker Volkswagen’s biggest bet yet. Ironical as it may sound, it is their smallest car till date but that only goes to show which way the world is headed. As such, though this is still a European car, there will be a derivative of it that will make its way into India, pretty soon. It is still very small and I had problems getting into the rear seat of the 5-door concept version that they had. But they have the option to expand the wheelbase and make it more comfortable and without doubt they will do it. What makes the UP even more interesting is that there could be two and not one versions of it in India. The other one developed by Skoda. Now that the VW Suzuki tie up looking as good as over, VW would do better to take Maruti head on in India and UP is one way to do it. Expect it to come to India by 2013.
Land Rover Defender
To many, a Land Rover is the first word in off roaders. To the rest, it is the last word. While the world awaits the cheapest and smallest land rover ever– the Evoque, at Frankfurt, the British SUV giant managed to surprise all enthusiasts all over again. Defender is one of their oldest products (1948), but one look at it and you would be hard pressed to spot any wrinkles. It is loaded with gadgets as well and a hybrid and plug in versions are also part of the promise. For all the SUV lovers, this car is reason enough to start saving money, all over again.
Jaguar CX 16
Ever since, erstwhile owners Ford decided to club Jaguar and Land Rover together, the former has been the lesser mortal. In a world that now shuns extravaganze and values practicality and economy more, Jaguar found itself out of place and out of sync. Under Tata Motors though, times have changed and Jaguar has found new confidence. Sales are growing again and R&D is back in the reckoning. An apt result is the CX 16 concept, Jaguar’s attempt at belling the cat that goes by a name of a certain Porsche 911. Purists may call this ridiculous, but if anybody can or hope to, it is a Jag. Unbelievably good looking (you may spot glimpses of Aston Martin in it) and with features that would make a Maybach owner think twice, this Jag is ready to roar. And sprint as well.
Ferrari 458
There arent enough adjectives left in the English dictionary to describe a Ferrari anymore, so I would not even attempt it. The sweeping lines, humongous wheels, and vast bonnet look astonishing. Under the bodywork sits a 4.5-litre V8 engine that propels this hard-core racer from 0-100km/h in about 3.4 seconds. Faster than a Boeing?
The Ferrari 458 Spider has some extra touches to complement its performance. It has a fully-retractable aluminium hardtop roof, for example. This is a world first for a mid- rear-engined two-seater. But the biggest draw of all, the prancing horse at the front.
Lamborghini Elemento Sesto
Ahh, this car left me speechless. And now wordless. A lambo is a lambo is a lambo is a lambo. Period. Drool over it.
(12 votes, average: 4.58 out of 5)
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Dear learned author,kindly clarify what was his role in PARTITION OF INDIA. WHY THIS GREAT SOUL DIDNOT FAST UNTO DEATH AT PARTITION,?WHILE THIS WAS HIS COMMON TOOL AFTER PUBLIC STATEMENT THAT PARTITION WILL TAKE PLACE ON HIS DEAD BODY.
THOUSAND OF PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE THEY TRUSTED HIM.
DID HE TRY TO CONVINCE JINNAH THAT PARTITION SHOULD BE ACCEPTED.?
WHY OUR GREAT MAHATMA MADE SUBHASH TO QUIT AFTER BEING ELECTED 2ND TIME CONGRESS PRESIDENT AGAINST HIS SECRETARY?
WHY HE CHOSE TO VISIT BENGAL IN1947 WHILE BLOODSHED WAS MORE SEVERE IN PUNJAB?
WHY THIS APOSTLE OF TRUTH CHOSE NEHRU OVER PATEL AS PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA.?
WHAT WERE THE CONSIDERATION.?
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the biggest secret this exponent of truth hid and which has affected indias pOlity for the last 60 years . —he was instrumental in giving social recognition and his name to one mr firoz khan who married indira gandhi in london . INDIRAS NAME WAS CHANGED TO MAMOUN BEGUM . aFTER OPPOSITION BY KAMALA AND NEHRU THIS COUPLE BACK IN INDIA UNDERWENT A VEDIC FORM OFMARRIAGE FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION BY VEDIC RITES AS NERHRU THOUGHT THAT OTHERWISE BOTH HIS AND INDIRAS POLITICAL FUTURE WOULD BE IN JEOPARDY . GANDHI SOLVED TE PROBLEM BY DECLARING FIROZ TO BE HIS ADOPTED SON AND HENCE GAVE HIM THE NAME GANDHI
THE REST IS HISTORY AND A DYNASTY WAS IMPOSED ON THE COUNTRY —-
ONE WISHES THAT THIS APOSTLE OF TRUTH ETC WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE TRUTHFUL IN THIS MATTER AND MENTIONED HIS ROLE IN ALL THIS — TRUTH CAN BE TAILORED TO SUIT ONESELF AND ONES OPINIONS
READERS CAN GOOGLE WIKIPEDIA FOR MORE DETAILS
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It is definitely true that there is nothing above than the truth. And if one speak truth for entire life then he/she does not have any kind of guilty through the life. And through the truth one can win the any kind of race whether it is of life. Even Mr. Gandhi spoke lie once during his life journey. And he has mention all the deeds which he has done ,in his book that is “Experiments of Truth”.
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Good – as long as the USA is in our neighborhood, we must keep up this dignified, state-to-state talks. No need to be cowed down by China, as maintaining of peace is in everybody’s interest, not just of India & Indians.
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When I say the new Chief of Air Staff, N. A. K. Browne, is a CIA-RAW man, I mean he literally sits at CIA-supplied terminals to participate in crimes against India. More than a thousand Indian Air Force aircraft have crashed since 1970, the vast majority of the crashes caused by microwaves from U. S. satellites which can hack into and operate any digital equipment. In his first week in office as Chief of Air Staff, Browne caused two Indian Air Force fighter planes to crash with microwaves from satellites, to give a boost to his bid to buy worse than worthless foreign aircraft for several tens of billions of dollars of which he will get a hefty cut along with the Defence Minister and the Italian woman who gets the largest cut. The Sukhoi crash on Dec. 13 ‘11 and the grounding of the Sukhoi fleet has been caused 2 days ahead of the purchase decision as the purchase was made impossible by my opposition to it. See IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom . //I said on October 11 ‘11 ( GaddafiCrimeDOTblogspotDOTcom ) that the ’suicide’ of the chief test pilot Baldev Singh was murder, to facilitate the claim of the fraudulent ‘delay’ in inducting the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, being used to justify the worse than worthless purchase abroad. India builds Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft from raw materials; why do you need to buy fighter aircraft from abroad? [At this, A. K. Antony said on November 23 '11 that the Sukhoi-30 MKI assembly line can only make 16 aircraft per year. Why couldn't you set up another assembly line? As soon as I asked this question, the report in Deccan Herald was changed by RAW to eliminate the reference to assembly line limitation and a reference to a Sukhoi-30MKI crash in April '09 -- its first ever -- was inserted instead, having him say that the Indian Air Force will continue to use the Sukhoi-30MKI despite the crash along with the new aircraft to be bought from abroad and the Light Combat aircraft. The Sukhoi crash on Dec. 13 '11 has been caused 2 days ahead of the purchase decision as the purchase was made impossible by my opposition to it.] N. A. K. Browne, A. K. Antony and the Italian woman should be booked for the murder of Baldev Singh along with the head of RAW. All former heads of RAW should be booked for the murders of hundreds of Indian Air Force pilots. //Integrated Circuit chips made in the United States are required to provide for access to the United States National Security Agency so it can monitor and take control of their operations at will. Components and electronic equipment from the United States should be absolutely “haram”; far from lamenting ‘technology denial’, equipment from the United States should be rejected even if it is offered on a platter and free of charge as I have said. India’s bought-up Defence, Atomic Energy, Space and other officials deliberately close their eyes to this threat. This also applies to U. S.- made civilian aircraft, for example. There are two hundred thousand Indian engineers and scientists working in Research & Development for foreign companies in India but instead of putting its money in Research & Development ( in my letter dated January 5, 2004 to the press — see my blog — I had suggested one million Research & Development workers in India in government-sponsored projects), India’s CIA-RAW government buys foreign equipment in all fields to keep India poor, weak and enslaved. India’s government lends hundreds of billions of dollars to the U. S. government in exchange for worthless U. S. paper but seeks foreign investment and World Bank loans for projects in India, giving ownership and control of India to India’s enemies, despite the unlimited capital available to India by simply printing the money; see ‘How India’s Economy Can Grow 30% Per Year Or More’ in my blog; as is described there, the United States has been applying my proposal about money by stealth and now also openly but Manmohan Singh refuses to do so because this bugger — a CIA appointee — does what serves the United States’, not India’s, interests. //When Atal Behari Vajpayee was prime minister, he had once gone to Bombay and spoken to the stock exchange about applying my proposal about money to India’s economy, after which he had to abort his flight back to Delhi for fear his plane will crash. The murders of several politicians by air crash have been accomplished by microwaves from satellites. A recent example was the murder of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister by air crash. In my blog I have described how Indira Gandhi when prime minister in 1980 went to her kitchen with the then U. S. Vice President and former CIA Director, George Herbert Walker Bush, to arrange for the murder by air crash of her son Sanjay Gandhi who had taken to slapping her in the presence of others under my influence and the then CIA Director, Frank Carlucci, publicly claimed credit for that air crash via a letter that appeared in National Review. //In a press release dated January 10, 2011 I said: Stealth or no-stealth, 5th generation or 4th generation, fighter aircraft are as obsolete for India’s defence as bows and arrows. They can be used against neighbors such as Pakistan and China but the United States is EVERYBODY’S neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent. I am India’s expert in strategic defence, the father of India’s strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and the world’s greatest scientist (my biography is in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, 2011 and earlier editions). The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India; see my blog titled ‘Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.’, which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, for what India needs to do. Russia and other white countries are U.S. allies. These are the enemies to destroy. All other enemies will be taken care of automatically. Conventional arms are worthless for destroying the United States. Nuclear arms to destroy the United States with a FIRST STRIKE — this is the key — are cheap and easy to produce with technology India already has. All the money earmarked for fighter aircraft etc., and more, must be pumped into research, development and production of missiles able to deliver India’s nuclear warheads — in the thousands — to the continental United States. India’s missile scientists & engineers should have tested such missiles to their full range decades ago — everything else, including short and intermediate range missiles and missile defence, is secondary and tertiary — but have not done that because of prohibitions by India’s C.I.A.-controlled governments. This must be done on a war footing; the first step is to destroy RAW through which the C.I.A. rules India; see my blog. Producing such weapons in the thousands and very quickly is important. This means that the vast majority of them must be land-based, including road and rail-mobile, missiles rather than submarine-based which take a long time to produce.
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RajX Reply:
December 21st, 2011 at 7:50 pm
It looks like the CIA has fried your brain with a Satellite based microwave terminal. Hahahaha..funny guy.
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Who paid Hindustan Times to retain the likes of Menon to write for it on very imortant issues such as what ought to be our foreign policy vis a vis China? And how much?
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Oops ,I meant ‘important’. in my earlier comment..
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One of Bengal’s premier satirist once wrote about the difference between Indian Brains and Western Brains. In that essay, he wrote that Indian brains are very “fine” compared to the Western Brains which are “thick”. From this article I find that Shiv Shanker’s brain is so “fine” that none, including the crafty Chinese fails to divine that.
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Mallu and Punjabi hybrid…Extreme cunningness fused..nice breed.
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Unlikely. I think the method of even compiling a selection committee should be revamped. After, all everything is to be earned on merit and not given to them because they played cricket earlier.
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i was thinking it too.let make kohli captain
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Given his behavioural pattern Down Under,
isn’t it a scary idea to have Kohli as skipper?
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dhoni should not be blamed for it he cant go and bat for the whole playing 11 alone.its the batsman fault not dhoni .
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” Ibtdai Ishq hai rota hai kiya , aage aage dekhiye hota hai kiya “. This is just the beginning. Many such exposures should be there if we see the past trend of the year.
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