This is it. After 2022, Lamborghini will focus on electrification plans marking the end of the road for some truly iconic engines. Engines that have fuelled dreams, shared joy, and put smiles on faces. At evo India, we are celebrating these epic engines for the 9th anniversary issue. The cover breaks new ground – featuring an illustration, something that has never been attempted before. And on the inside, we’ve got epic stories featuring all of Lamborghini’s engine lines – the V8, V10 and V12. We let the Urus lose on the Bharatmala road and in the sand dunes of the Thar desert. We let the V10 of the Huracan Evo scream on our favourite driving roads. The Aventador Ultimae represents the last of the V12s, and we get behind the wheel of one of only two Roadsters allocated to India (and the first of 250 worldwide). There’s more Lambo content, including an exclusive interview with Sharad Agarwal, head of Lamborghini India, and a blast from the past featuring icons like the Countach, Diablo, Murcielago and Gallardo.
As is tradition, we have undertaken a massive challenge for this anniversary issue, having attempted to climb Umling La, the highest motorable road in the world in the Tata Nexon EV Max. We have also road tripped to Hampi in the Audi A8 L and to Nashik in the Hyundai i20 N Line. We haven’t forgotten all the new metal that launched this month. We’ve reviewed the Mercedes-Benz EQS 580, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara (spoiler alert, we love the AWD), Mahindra XUV400, Skoda Enyaq Coupe RS iV, Hyundai Venue N Line and Citroen C5 Aircross. On two wheels, we have reviewed the Suzuki Katana, the Moto Morini and Zontes motorcycles, and compared the most popular electric scooters in the country today.
All this and a lot more in the anniversary issue of evo India!
The V12 engine has been the mainstay of Lamborghini for decades, but things are finally coming to an end. The Aventador Ultimae features the last nat-asp V12 that will not have hybrid assistance, marking the end of an era. A special edition, with the Roadsters limited to just 250 units, this is a significant machine. Parveen Agarwal, friend of evo India and member of Club GT Kolkata let us have a go in his Ultimae to pay our final respects to this engine.
Will the V10 continue in Lambo’s hybrid era? That’s a question we don’t quite have an answer to just yet but what we’re certain of is that we wanted one last blast in the Huracan before it is laid to rest. The Huracan Evo brings together years of evolution of this platform, starting right from the days of the Gallardo back in the early 2000s. With the high strung engine from the Performante, along with a road-biased chassis and RWD, this car is proper supercar stuff.
The Urus mixes the best of both worlds, supercar levels of performance with go-anywhere ability. We took it to the only place that allows you to test its abilities to the fullest – the Thar desert. We exploit the Urus’ unhinged performance on the flawless tarmac of the Bharatmala road and the head into the dunes, utilising the off-road ability of this Super-SUV to the fullest. Roads or no roads, nothing stops the Urus!
We take a step back in time, putting older Lamborghinis with iconic engines against each other for an epic story. With legends like the Countach Anniversary, Diablo VT, Murcielago LP640-4 and the Gallardo Superleggera, we trace the evolution of the supercar from the 70s to today: exploring both how the engines have evolved as well as the philosophy around the cars.
Editor Sirish Chandran caught up with Lamborghini India’s bossman to talk about the meteoric rise of the brand in India, something that was unthinkable a decade ago. Sharad Agarwal talks about the work that went into building the brand, the challenges during Covid, the significance of the Urus and the importance of selling an experience. Not a conversation you want to miss!
Can an electric car make it to the highest motorable road in the world? We drove the Tata Nexon EV Max up to the Umling La pass at 19,024 feet, to find out. The high altitude, bitter cold, and the challenges that come with attempting something no one has ever tried before made this one of the most epic challenges we’ve undertaken in recent times.
The EQS 580 is the fastest, most technologically advanced electric car to be assembled in India, marking a major milestone in India’s electrification journey. With 516bhp and 855Nm, it has more than generous performance without compromising on Mercedes’ traditional strengths of luxury and opulence. Is it the S-Class of the EV world? We find out.
With both mild and strong hybrid drivetrains and the first-in-segment AWD, the Grand Vitara has all the makings of another Maruti Suzuki blockbuster. While on-paper figures might not blow you away, the complete package, as you will read in our comprehensive review, has us thoroughly convinced.
Mahindra claimed the XUV400 is the quickest electric car in its class with close to 150bhp ensuring a 0-100kmph time of a mere 8.3 seconds. It arrives to take on the Tata Nexon EV that has already proved to be a massive success with the masses. Can the XUV400 make as big an impact?
As Skoda’s electrification plans firm up for India, we travel to the Czech Republic to see what the electrified future of the RS brand could look like. While the Enyaq is being evaluated for an India launch early next year we got behind the wheel of the high performance Enyaq Coupe RS iV. With big performance, plenty of space, and a generous amount of range could this fill the void left by the Octy RS as the one (enthusiast) car to do it all?
Much like the i20, the Venue has gotten the N-Line treatment with updated styling, tweaked suspension, more steering weight, and a sporty exhaust mirroring the changes made to its hatch sibling. Could the Venue N-Line be tapping into a niche at the compact SUV level that no one has attempted to broach just yet?
Citroen’s flagship gets updated for 2022 with fresh styling and interiors. On the outside, it has shaken off its rounded design language for one that is more sharp and contemporary while the interiors are livened up with a new infotainment screen, gear selector and dash layout. Mechanically, things remain the same with the 2-litre diesel, automatic gearbox and FWD. This refresh comes at the perfect time, keeping the Citroen relevant in the face of the new Hyundai Tucson.
The Mercedes-AMG C 63 has undergone a radical change with this generation, jumping straight from a V8 to a hybrid 4-cylinder. The numbers remain staggering – 670bhp and 1020Nm – from the engine and e-motors combined, and it makes headlines for being the most powerful four-cylinder ever fitted to a production car. We get under the skin of this new C 63 S to understand it better.
Luxury takes on many forms but the most important is the luxury of time. And the Audi A8 L gives you just that. In this story, we take the flagship Audi on a road trip to the forgotten city of Hampi, once the richest in the world. The landscapes and the temples have stood the test of time, and the A8 L looks perfectly at home in their midst. We indulge in the luxury of the Evolve Back, Hampi resort and make the most of our time with the luxury car.
We go back to school, to the Buddh International Circuit, to re-learn driving around a racetrack. Here’s the best part, we got to do this in the entirety of the Porsche’s fleet in India including the mighty GT3 RS.
This instalment of Great Driving Roads finds us discovering some beautiful stretches of tarmac with even more beautiful backdrops near Nashik. The Hyundai i20 N Line made for the perfect driving partner to explore the winding roads in and around the wine capital.
Honda is back for the eleventh generation of the Drive to Discover series. This time around we dumped our luggage in the full-range of sedans in Honda’s line up and motored down from Bengaluru to Kochi on a picturesque road trip through south India.
Resurrected back in 2018, the Katana has finally made its way to Indian shores. This bike retains the ‘out of the box’ looks that we loved the OG Katana for but with modern equipment and kit including the ballistic Gixxer K5 engine. Does this, then, deserve icon status like its bigger sibling, the Hayabusa?
Want to buy an electric scooter and don’t know which one to get? We gathered the latest generation of the best four electric scooters in India – the TVS iQube S, Ather 450X Gen 3, Bajaj Chetak 2413 and Ola S1 Pro and pit them against each other in a series of fun tests – seven to be specific – to help you better decide which EV to go for.
Adishwar Group, the company responsible for getting Benelli and Keeway to India has now brought in the Italian brand Moto Morini and Chinese brand Zontes to India, and we’ve finally gotten our first taste of the bikes from these brands. These include the 650cc, parallel-twin engined X-Cape 650X, Seiemmezzo Scrambler, Seiemmezzo Retro Street from Moto Morini and 350T ADV and 350R from Zontes, both of which rely on a 350cc single-cylinder engine.
Apollo Tyres has launched a new range of tyres, the Tramplr XR and the Tramplr ST with the intention of making quality dual-purpose, enduro style tyres available to the buyers at an affordable price. The XRs are a 70:30 on/off-road tyre which uses a steel-belted radial construction and is available for most 300-400cc motorcycles. The ST is a 80:20 tyre which uses a more basic bias-ply construction and are available for most 150-250cc bikes.
For season two of the Continental GT Cup the GT-R650 gets updates including new clip-ons and rearsets from Harris Performance Parts which not only make the bike more focussed but also that much cooler to look at. Our very unfit correspondent, Karan Ramgopal packed his bags and headed to Kari Motor Speedway to find out just what this bike is like to ride.
Down time is important. Like your internet service provider schedules periodic downtime to service and maintain the connection, it is just as important for athletes to take some time off every now before getting ready for the next season. In this edition of TVS Racing Diaries, we catch up with Rugved Barguje to find out just how important downtime is.