Helmet Safety Ride , by FirstRide.in – Bengaluru .

FirstRide.in and the youth of Bangalore aid the city’s Traffic Police to spread the message of road safety through the ‘Helmet Safety Ride’

 

Helmet safety ride

 

FirstRide.in,a Bangalore based company , in association with Radio Mirchi , National Road Safety Organization and 30+ biker clubs is organising a ‘Helmet Safety Ride’ in Bangalore on 28th September, 2014. The event is being held to assist the city’s Traffic Police in its constant endeavour to make roads safer. The initiative is driven by the core message: ‘Safety isn’t a slogan, it’s a way of life’, which clearly states the company’s objective of positively impacting the lives of people by helping them inculcate ‘Safe Riding’ as a habit. The event will be held at Cubbon Park from 10 am to 2 pm, by FirstRide.in, the complete solution provider for all car-related requirements which is also working relentlessly in the area of road and commuter safety.

The ride will see more than 1,200 bikers supporting the cause by riding for about 15 to 20 km across the city and making people conscious of the importance of helmet usage and road safety. Over 30 biker clubs and youth from various colleges will join this event. There will also be pillion drivers carrying placards with slogans related to the use of helmet and safety measures imprinted on them.

One of the participants will aim to create a national record by solving 30 Rubik’s cubes while riding a bicycle non-stop at the venue . 

Winfred, one of the participants sponsored by FirstRide , will add an interesting element to the event by endeavoring to solve a minimum of 30 Rubik’s cubes of 3X3X3 while relentlessly riding his bicycle without a break. Through this unprecedented attempt, Winfred will try to find entry into the India Book of Records . He is also soon attempting for Guinness world record attempt at Test Drive Festival 2014 , Bangalore to be organized by FirstRide.in soon .

Vijay Kumar Reddy ,CEO, FirstRide.in said, “FirstRide.in’s mission is to constantly enhance the riding and driving experience on Indian roads and this initiative is in perfect consonance with our core value proposition. We plan to take the event to the next level by spreading the message in other cities of India as well. As an automotive company, our concern doesn’t end with the ownership of a vehicle. We are also focused on making the driving/riding experience in India safer and better through activities like the ‘Helmet Safety Ride’. We consider educating people on every aspect of road safety our social responsibility and we will constantly make efforts to do our bit in this social sphere.”

    

 

Sri. M.N.B.R. Prasad DCP(East – Traffic), Mr.Ramesh Babu – The Billionaire barber who owns a Rolls Royce ,NRSO President Satya Paul and M Srinivas (Moto port Seena) will grace the event as Chief Guests. R Chakravarthy- Veteran biker of India and the senior member of RD350 club . And Roshni Sharma, India’s first female rider who rode solo from Kanyakumari to Leh on motorbike , will also join the event to show their support .

 The event organizers also hope that the ‘Helmet Safety Ride’ will find a place in the India Book of Records for getting together the highest number of participants for a social cause. The current record is of 1,180 bikers participating in a rally which the event will try to break with its 1,200 riders. Post the event, the biker clubs will be honored with Certificates of Participation bearing the logo of India Book of Records as a memento for supporting the social cause.

R Chakra Varthy

Through this initiative, FirstRide.in wishes to awaken people to the imperative need of using helmets while biking and guarding themselves against accidents. The youth of Bangalore and FirstRide.in aim to support the city’s Traffic Police in creating a safer road scenario for all citizens of the city.

Venue :
Cubbon Park,
28-09-2014 , Sunday .
10am – 2 pm
Route map : https://bitly.com/1r4zUdK
Registration link : http://www.firstride.in/helmet-safety-ride
Join event in Facebook : http://on.fb.me/1wKVMLJ
About FirstRide.in:
FirstRide.in, a one stop shop for all your car needs, was registered as FirstRide Auto Private Limited on September 24th, 2013. Founded by the young and sprightly, Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy and Mr. Prasoon Agrawal, the company aims to provide buyers with a seamless and hassle-free experience while buying cars. Headquartered in Bangalore and operating in cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, it takes care of the holistic needs of buyers while buying a car from arranging a test drive, getting car loans sanctioned to assisting them in insurance and post-sales services.

Test Drive Festival (TDF)- 2014 , Bangalore .

What makes TDF unique?

Auto experts believe that the best way to judge a car is by test-driving it. We believe the same. 

For the first time in India, we FirstRide bring together all car brands for Test Drives at a single venue. Customers may not just Test Drive cars of all brands in a particular segment but rejoice in testing any number of variants of any number of brands till they tire! 
      

Test Drive events have been conducted before. But only for one single brand. We provide all popular brands at a single venue during the festival. This is remarkable because it is easy for customers to compare cars and decide between brands, variants and even segments. After test driving and consulting the expert panel buyer can make more educated decision clearing off all his doubts and buying the car sooner.
We expecting to set a new  Record with TDF: 5,000 Test drives, 20 brands, 80 models, 9 days, 3 metros , One event – Test Drive Festival . 

TDF event website  : http://www.tdf2014.in/
TDF Bangalore updates  : http://on.fb.me/XdCPWe

FirstRide website  : http://www.firstride.in/
FirstRide Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/Firstride.in
FirstRide Auto Expo 2013 @ Chennai- http://on.fb.me/1nJzbIF

For details, contact :

organiser@tdf2014.in 
Prasoon – 9663 11 8750 

Tata Motors plans to launch two New vehicles every year till 2020

Tata Motors plans to launch two vehicles every year till 2020 as the company looks to ramp up its product portfolio in the competitive Indian car market.

The company, which today launched its compact sedan Zest in the NCR, priced between Rs 4.64 lakh and Rs 6.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), is also working to upgrade its sales and service network.
“We launched 8 variants across five brands last year. We are looking to launch two new vehicles every year till 2020. Zest is the first model launch this year and will be followed up by compact model Bolt soon,” Tata Motors President, Passenger Vehicles, Ranjit Yadav told reporters here.
The company will also be launching two models next year, he added.
When asked about the segments company is planning to target with the new launches, Yadav said: “We showed our compact sports utility vehicle Nexon during the Auto Expo earlier this year. So the compact SUV segment is one of the areas which we are interested in.”

Source :
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/automobiles/tata-motors-to-launch-two-car-models-every-year-till-2020/articleshow/40506426.cms

Team FirstRide

Next Coming Cars In India : 2014

We look ahead at the upcoming cars in India in the year 2014. The Indian automobile market may have slowed down in 2013, but it is still a new and immature market which has lots of potential if car-manufacturers can get things right. Lots of companies are eyeing for the largest market share in the respective automobile segments, while Maruti is trying to move upmarket through the crossover and MPV markets, lots of companies like Nissan, Volkswagen, Ford etc are trying to get a better hold of the small-car / hatchback market of which Maruti is still king. The popularity of crossovers is unquestionable, Indians dig a smallish vehicle with the looks of an SUV, the space of an MPV and the driving dynamics of a automobile.They look briefly of what cars might grace out shores this year.

Mahindra Scorpio facelift:

When?: August 2014

Details: Mahindra has made it clear that it will not launch any new vehicles in light of the slow Indian automotive market, but it has to remain competitive and it will be updating it’s existing range. The Mahindra Scorpio is a pretty good SUV, even though the basic design has not changed for some years, the facelift will a refresh inside will bring it in line with the competition. Expect the Scorpio to get features that make it one of the most value-for-money buys in the segment.

Jaguar XE:

When?: Late 2014

Details: Jaguar’s answer to the entry level luxury saloons which have been dominated by the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series. This will be the smallest sedan in the company’s arsenal when launched. Jaguar has indicated that they will ensure that the XE stands out from the crowd, and they’ll do it by ensuring that the XE delivers both in terms of luxury and performance from the get go. Will the car be able to give the stalwarts of this segment a run for their money? We will have to wait and see.

Hyundai Elantra facelift:

When?: End 2014

Details:The Hyundai Elantra topped the segment when it was launched in 2012, beating the Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Cruze and Skoda Octavia due to it’s aggressive styling, a lot of equipment for the money and extensive service network. The launch of the new Skoda Octavia and the threat of the upcoming Toyota Corolla has made Hyundai a bit jittery though, and it will bring a facelift of the car to hold the fort till an all new car is launched sometime later in 2015.

Audi A3:

When?: July 2014

Details: The smallest and the cheapest Audi on offer in India when launched, the Audi A3 will take on competition like the Mercedes-Benz CLA. Its arrival will certainly hot up the small-but-luxurious car category that Mercedes-Benz has been dominating with the help of the A-Class and the B-Class. Expect it to be be powered by a 2.0-litre TDI engine delivering 150 BHP / 320 Nm and 1.8-litre TSI engine delivering 180 BHP / 250 Nm.

BMW i8:

When?: End 2014

Details: The flagship of BMW’s ‘i’ division of environment friendly vehicles, the i8 is a plug-in hybrid sports car. A technology showcase on wheels, the car benefits from use of lightweight materials all around, which limits to weight to about 1500 Kg. BMW’s new hybrid system which consists of a 1.5-litre 228 BHP / 320 Nm petrol motor combined with a 129 BHP / 260 Nm electric motor which lends the car a 0-1– KMPH time of 4.4 seconds while delivering a fuel-efficiency of about 33 KMPL, total range of the car will be about 500 Kms.

Maruti Suzuki Celerio Diesel May Return Close To 30 KMPL!

Maruti is diligently working on the diesel variant of the popular Celerio hatchback. The Maruti Suzuki Celerio Diesel will be launched by April 2015 according to reports & will sport a 0.8-litre diesel engine. The Celerio has already become a big hit for the company, the availability of an automatic hatchback below the Rs. five Lakh mark has made people flock towards it. The addition of the diesel engine is definite to make the automobile even more popular.

The diesel engine which will power the Celerio will be first tested on Marutiâ is upcoming LCV, codenamed the Y9T. The Y9T will go up against the likes of the Tata Ace & the Mahindra Maxximo & will help Maruti engineers adjust the engine for NVH before the engine is used in the company’s passenger cars.

GM India Introduces New My Chevrolet India Smart Phone App

General Motors India has launched a smartphone application called a myChevrolet India for its customers. The application is said to feature tools, which will aid customers, post the acquisition of their vehicles.
Using myChevrolet India, owners can contact the company & schedule a service appointment at your preferred dealer, whose knowledge is stored by the application. In case a customer is on the road, the application will locate & contact the nearest dealer, using the touch-to-call feature.

The application has a parking reminder, which lets a customer store parking details by taking pics & making notes. In case the customer forgets where they has parked his automobile, application makes use of the stored knowledge & guides him back to his automobile assisted by Google Maps.

Additionally,Chevrolet India also provides the customer with a complete owners manual of his automobile. The application is available free of cost on Android & iOS platforms & can be downloaded from Google Play Store & Apple App Store.

Customers will be offered:
1)Chevrolet vehicles under Extended Warranty.
2)In addition to the standard best-in-class warranty of 1,00,000 kilometers/3 years, customers can extend the warranty of their vehicle by up to two more years or up till 150,000 kilometers at a nominal cost.
3)Apart from the standard and extended warranty for the vehicle, customers will now also be offered warranty on Spare Parts and Accessories for the first year or 20,000 kilometers whichever is earlier.
4)Free round-the-clock 24/7 Roadside Assistance will be provided to Chevrolet customers in the event of vehicle breakdown or accident for a period of 3 years from the date of purchase of new cars.

Mahindra Reva to review Tesla’s free patents

Earlier this month, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, announced that the company is making its electric vehicle expertise patents free in the spirit of open source management & for the advancement of electrical vehicle expertise.

The world class entrepreneur said that Tesla Motors would not press patent lawsuits against someone who makes use of its technologies in good faith. Tesla move to make its patent basically available to other electric vehicle makers worldwide has been applauded by Mr. Chetan Maini, CEO of Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.

Dr.Pawan Goenka, Executive Director and President, Mahindra & Mahindra (automotive & farm equipment sector) said that applicability of Tesla’s patented technologies to Mahindra Reva’s future EV products would be determined after the review.

Tesla Motors currently sells Model S electric sedan which is positioned as a premium zero emission vehicle. A fully electric SUV called the Model X is in the works & so is an affordable compact car to serve as an entry-level offering. A media document said that Tesla was planning an Indian foray next year.

What is a CVT?

Well, even before Maruti brought in the AMT in the Celerio, Nissan had introduced the CVT technology in the Nissan Sunny. This didn’t catch up media attention as much as the Celerio because it wasn’t being offered at the price of peanuts! But the technology does have the potential to revolutionize ease of driving and fuel efficiency. Let’s see how it works. In essence, the moped that you drive with just your wrist action has exactly the same technology, only a little less complex. Nissan has its own patented Toroidal CVT in its cars, which is a slight modification of the basic design. http://world.honda.com/automobile-technology/CVT/images/2_1.swf A CVT is a replacement for the gearbox. Well, you can select among 4 or 5 gear ratios from your manual gearbox, according to the engine speed. So every gear has a particular ratio, which can provide a particular range of speed, for which it will give maximum torque at minimum fuel consumption. Well, in a CVT you get infinite number of gear ratios. How? Look at the image below!

                  That’s a simple CVT arrangement. The cones on one side are connected to the engine output shaft. The cones on the other side are connected to the wheels through a differential. A high friction belt runs over these two sets of cones so that revolutions from one side can be transferred to the other.  Now, when you accelerate the engine revs go up and the cones near the engine move apart, at the same time the cones near the wheel move near each other. This way more torque is applied to the wheels and but less speed. This is similar to the range on the first gear. Well, when you’re cruising and the throttle isn’t being pressed much, the engine side cones come near and the wheel side cones go apart. Now for less number of engine revolutions there are more number of wheel revs, so speed is more but torque transfer is less.

The movement of the cones keeps increasing and reducing the diameter of the belt on either sides. These diameters could be a combination of any 2 diameters ranging from the minimum and maximum cone diameters. So, you can get an infinite number of gear ratios, unlike the 4 or 5 in your conventional gearbox. Yeah the actual CVT’s being used are much more complex and much more varied in types of belts and cone shapes and so on. But the basic technology remains the same: Just four cones and a belt! That’s how simple this thing is, but isn’t it equally ingenious.

Indian Roads: A long way to go!

The recently launched Mercedes Benz S Class came with another path breaking technology, like every new model of the S class does. This time it was the ‘Magic Body Control’. What this does is, doesn’t let you know about any of the features of the road. All you think while sitting in the cabin is, that you’re gliding over air in a straight line on a level road. And how does it do that? Well, there’s a high speed camera attached at the front on top of the windscreen, (No you won’t be able to find it yourself) which looks ahead on the road for you and prepares the suspension accordingly for the speed and comfort. Very less things in this world are as brilliant… But there was a problem!

However hard Mercedes tried, they couldn’t calibrate the system for Indian roads. So they decided that the new S Class, when it is launched in India, will not have the very feature that is new about it!

So where does the problem lie? Well, if you check the condition of roads in India, you won’t have to think much. But let’s not just talk over public opinion, let’s talk numbers. If you see the government site for India Statistics, you’ll find that only 50% of the Indian roads are paved. Rest all are unsurfaced. Out of the paved ones, most of them are so old and withered; you might as well consider them in the unsurfaced category. Apart from a countable number of city roads in few well to do cities, only the national highways provide quality roads. But seriously, how many times do we actually touch these highways in our cars?

This pathetic condition is augmented by an even pathetic infrastructure for the road signs, markings, guidelines and traffic rule’s implementation. There isn’t even a proper definition of lanes and what kind of vehicle is allowed to plough into which lane! All this irregularity, along with very low quality data collection and data management, makes it impossible for electronic systems for safety and comfort to work on Indian roads. All this is keeping already available technology from reaching us. It’s putting us years behind the rest of the world. So when you’re driving your Hyundai i20 down the countryside and thinking that you made a better choice than that Punto driver who just overtook you, remember, you’re comparing to something very primitive and what you are driving is actually much lower in quality than a lot available in the world!

Yeah, the NHDP and the Twelfth Five Year Plan have planned a lot of roads in the near future, but at less than 4kms available for 1000 people in the population, these plans don’t really seem to be adequate. The roads are an integral part of the development for infrastructure. And if we really want to compete with this fast moving world, we need better roads. Hence the topic, Indian roads have a long way to go indeed.

WHY SHOULD I PAY 40K EXTRA JUST FOR SOME BOOT SPACE??

Well, yeah the only noticeable difference between a hatch and a similar looking compact sedan is the boot! So one might argue that it has extra weight so how the hell do they claim that it gives higher fuel efficiency? And when I go to buy, I’ll also spend some INR 40,000 extra just to get a boot space! So instead of going for a Manza, Dzire, Excent or a Verito, I should rather prefer a Vista, Swift, i10 or Vibe. Okay, I understand you don’t have any memory of anything called ‘Vibe’ but let’s keep that for some other discussion. How does it make sense to buy those compacts?

Well, it does when you look at it through the point of view of aerodynamics! You see the air resistance, the pressure and drag play an important part in deciding the fuel efficiency of your car. Have you ever seen how supercars use their spoilers? At high speeds they use it for increasing the drag, which is needed to keep the car from flying off the road at say 300kph. But at not so high speeds, like in the range of 60 – 100 kph, the drag coefficient, or the Cd value of the car will matter to the fuel efficiency and the confidence to stick the throttle down!

How is that so? Not so easy to explain, but I’ll let you know the idea behind it. The air, hitting the car head – on, flows over it and runs all over the body to the rear. Now, as it is leaving the rear end, it continues to flow in the same horizontal direction. This creates a low pressure region just behind the car. Now if you’re driving a hatchback like the i10, somewhere near 100kph you’ll start feeling that the car might run out of control, because this pressure gap gives rise to some instability, and you’ll hold back on the throttle. But in the case you have an extended boot, like in the Excent, this air, which is leaving the roof end, goes and pushes on to the tail of your car. This builds some pressure towards the ground and the car tends to stick to the road. So you now you can ease on the throttle and move up to some 120 – 130 kph with more confidence!

Plus, this boot – inclusive design is more representative of the streamlined shape and hence offers less air resistance. So you’ll also be benefiting on the fuel efficiency!

Also the added weight isn’t so bad for handling either, because it helps in balancing the weight of the engine in the front, so better weight distribution ensures better handling.

I guess now those extra INR 40,000 seem justified!