Picture Gallery: Audi R8 V10 Plus Coupe

Last weekend, I had the privilege to drive the Jaguar F-type R Coupe. And guess what? This week I got to drive the beast, Audi R8 V10 Plus in Mumbai. This model was earlier unveiled at the Geneva motor show 2015. The exterior of the Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé is very sporty. The characteristic side blades, low front spoiler and the rear diffuser are made of carbon.

The twin-seater car has a displacement of 5204cc. The V10 petrol engine with direct fuel injection churns out a maximum power of 542 BHP @ 8,700 rpm. The torque curve of the V10 power unit reaches a maximum value of a full 540 Nm. It reaches 100 km in less than a record 4 seconds and can reach maximum speed of 314km. 

The 'Sport' button in the R8 V10 Plus does the trick for you. Accelerate it and the V10 engine goes full out and maximum. All you need is a highway or better still, a race circuit. The car gets a very good grip on the road with its fat tyres. The cost of the R8 V10 Plus is Rs. 2.32 crores (ex-showroom Mumbai) and yes, I would definitely love to own one. Here are a few pictures I would like to share.

Picture Gallery: Jaguar F-type R Coupe

What an amazing weekend! I had the privilege to drive the beast, Jaguar F-type R Coupe and no doubt it was one hell of an experience. The 5.0 liter supercharged V8 engine produces a whopping 550 BHP with an acceleration of 0-100kmph in less than 5 seconds. It costs Rs 2.44 crores (ex-Mumbai showroom). Sharing a few pictures.

Shahan Ali Mohsin, Akash Gowda and Ricky Donison crowned the 2015 JK Tyre-FMSCI National Karting Champions

Nikhil Bohra from Bangalore (Team Meco Racing), Mohhamed Nallwalla from Mumbai (Team Rayo Racing) and Bangalore boy Ricky Donison (Team BPC Racing) emerged champions in the Micro Max, Junior Max & Senior Max categories in Round 5 of the 12th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Karting Championship which concluded at the Meco Kartopia here on Sunday.

Junior Max Winners

At the end of the five round championship, Shahan Ali Mohsin lifted up the trophy of the overall champion in the Micro Max category, Akash Gowda was declared overall champion in the Junior Max category & Ricky Donison became the 2015 JK Tyre National Karting champion in the Senior Max category. 

Micro Max Winners

Ricky Donison bagged two more trophies for securing the maximum number of wins and also for the maximum number of pole positions. Mohd Zain Ali bagged the Best Newcomer of the year award, Shahan Ali Mohsin was awarded the Best Driver of the Year award, Nirmal Umashanker got the Akbar Ebrahim trophy for the Most Improved Driver of the Year and Mira Erda bagged the Most Promising Female Driver of the year award. 

Senior Max Winners

In the final race of the Junior Max, Mohammed Nallwala was back in his form and sealed his leadership position by taking away the chequered flag ahead of everyone. Nirmal Umashanker, Akash Gowda, Manav Sharma and Yash Aradhya fought bumper to bumper for the second and third place finish. It was a clean race with no DNFs (did not finish) and at the end, Nirmal finished second and following him closely was Akash Gowda. With this third place finish, Akash Gowda sealed his championship title in the Junior Max category. As he lifted the trophy, he received a huge applause from his friends from his school who had come all the way to cheer for him. 

The final race was filled with action as the young lads fought it out. Ricky was leading the race since the beginning. The real fight was between Vishnu, Nayan, Krishnaraj and Ameya who were battling it out on the track. Ricky maintaining his dominance finished the race first. Vishnu Prasad was back in his form and managed to retain his place at the second position throughout the race and clocked the second best time. Ameya who was in the third place as the race began eventually fell behind as Nayan took over and crossing the finish line third. 

The overall champion of the Junior Max & Senior Max from here will now move to participate in the World Karting finals to be held in Portugal this year. The top three overall champions in the Junior Max & Senior Max category will be seen driving the JKFB02 cars in the JK Tyre Racing Championship 2016. 

The winners of Round 5 were awarded in the podium ceremony held after the races. The overall champions of the 12th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship were awarded in a glittering ceremony later in the evening. The 2015 season of JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship witnessed a lot of action and excitement and will be back next year for the 13th season of the championship. 

Final race results:

Micro Max (15 laps):-
Nikhil Bohra – 14:59.428
Shahan Ali Mohsin – 15:02.508
Ruhaan Alva – 15:02.832

Junior Max (18 laps):-
Mohammed Nallwala – 16:18.543
Nirmal Umashanker – 16:19.821
Akash Gowda – 16:25.426

Senior Max (20 laps):-
Ricky Donison – 18:09.290
Vishnu Prasad – 18:17.966
Nayan Chatterjee – 18:22.488

Fiat Chrysler India announces attractive festive offers for its customers

With festive seasons arund the corner, FCA India has announced lucrative offers on their current product line-up. Expect your festive season to be delightful, filled with firecrackers and loaded with happiness as FCA India entices prospective buyers with unavoidable festive offers.

The offers provided on cars from FCA India’s stable are as follows: 

Avventura : Benefits upto 80,000 + Double Dhamaka** 

Linea Classic : Benefits upto 40,000 + Double Dhamaka**

Linea FL : Benefits upto 1,10,000 + Double Dhamaka**

Punto Evo : Benefits upto 70,000 + Double Dhamaka**

Suresh Rana dominates at 17th Maruti Suzuki Raid-de-Himalaya

Suresh Rana was leading on day one of the action of Maruti Suzuki Raid-de-Himalaya which culminated in Manali today. The competitors were on the way to Manali for the end of the leg on Day One.

The beautiful route that passes through Shimla to Manali just added to the thrill for the drivers. The roads got slimmer and the green hills were a cherry on the cake from Shimla to Baldeyan. The drivers rode in full pass while at the same time ensured that the safety precautions were adhered to. 

The spectacular S Cross model made its debut in the rallying terrain, grabbing eyeballs and finished at the second position in the adventure category. Manali Man Suresh Rana driving his Grand Vitara manoeuvred the challenging tracks to lead pack in the Xtreme (4x4) category with a time score of 1:45:48 hours followed closely by Raj Singh Rathore 1:47:12 hours. 

In the adventure category, we had Jag meet Gill along with his co-driver finishing first with a penalty time of 1 minute 45 seconds, followed by Rajesh Chalana and his co-driver Yogesh Gupta. Amongst the bikers we had the iconic Arvind KP leading with an overall timescore of 1:39 hours followed by Natraj R 1:40:30 and Ashish Saurabh 1:41:22 hours.  

On the first day of the excitement, the rallyists paced through a distance of 300 kilometres from Shimla to Manali. The rally now moves to Dalhousie to cover another 400 km in the second leg of Raid-de-Himalaya.

Day 1 Results :

Cars Extreme 
1. Suresh Rana – 1.45.48
2. Raj Singh Rathore- 1:47:12
3. Harpreet Bawa- 1:48:00

Bikes Extreme
1. Arvind KP- 1:39:10
2. Natraj R- 1.40.30
3. Ashish Saurabh Moudhghil – 1:41:22

Adventure Trial 
1. Jagmeet Gill & Chandana Sen- 1 minute 45 seconds
2. Rajesh Chalana & Yogesh Gupta – 1 minutes 46 seconds
3. Subir Roy & Nirav Mehta –1 minute 51 seconds

Grand finale of the 12th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship Commences this weekend at Bengaluru

The grand finale (fifth and final round) of the 12th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship will be hosted at Bengaluru. After seeing a great contest and action packed rounds across tracks in Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Bangalore, the grand finals will return to Meco Kartopia on October 10-11, 2015. The qualifying and the heat races will be held on Saturday and the pre-finals and finals will be held on Sunday followed by the championship prize distribution.  

Overall champion in the Junior & Senior Max categories will represent India in the World Karting finals scheduled in Portugal this year. In addition to this, the overall top three winners in the Junior & Senior max categories will get a fully sponsored drive in the JK Racing India Series in the 2016 season of the JK Tyre Racing Championship.

With few point differences among the top three contenders in each category, the weekend promises to be high on adrenaline. In the micro max category, 11 year old Shahan Ali Mohsin from Agra (Team Meco Racing) is leads the championship table with 350 points. In the Junior Max, Akash Gowda from Bangalore (Team Meco Racing) is on the lead with 330 points and Ricky Donison from Bangalore (Team BPC Racing) in Senior Max category with 335 points is leading in the overall championship points table. 

It’s going to be a fight to the finish in the Junior Max category as the top three contenders are just few points behind each other. Round four turned the tables for Mohammed Nallwalla who was leading the championship until Round three but a turn of events in the penultimate round and Akash Gowda managed to climb up the chart. However, the championship is still open as there a difference of just 7 points between Akash and Mrinal Chatterjee from Rayo Racing who is currently in second place. 

In the Senior Max category, Ricky is currently leading the pack and has dominated in the category round after round. It will be interesting to see how Vishnu, Ameya, Nayan and Dhruv battle it out in this ultimate round. 

The six teams participating in the Championship are Rayo Racing from Mumbai, Meco Racing from Chennai, Mohite’s Racing from Kolhapur, BPC Racing from Bangalore, Erda Racing from Baroda, Indian Karting from Kolhapur and Dark Don Racing from Chennai.For the coveted Overall team trophy, Team Meco Racing, Team Rayo Racing, Team Mohite’ s Racing and Team BPC Racing are vying for the top honour across the three categories. 

The races will be webcasted live on www.jktyremotorsport.com

Jehan Daruvala bags podium finish at NEC Series

17 year old Jehan Daruvala, Sahara Force India Academy Racer bagged a podium finish at the Hockenheim Circuit in Germany. The former Indian, Asian and British Karting Champion also added another 'Best Rookie' Trophy as he continued his successful maiden season in Formula cars.

Jehan entered the last round lying sixth in the championship standings. He struggled with a ninth and eighth place in the two practice sessions, before finding the right setup in qualifying. The young Mumbaikar qualified third for Race One, sixth for Race Two and a very encouraging second for Race Three.

Race One: Despite a bad start from third on the grid  that saw him immediately lose a position, by the end of lap one Daruvala lunged down the inside of Kevin Jorg from two car lengths' behind and managed to make his move stick in spite of locking up his tyres. Jehan looked comfortable in third and a brief safety car period resulted in no changes at the top. The race was won by Louis Deletraz ahead of Ukyo Sasahara and Jehan in third. Jehan also won a trophy as the best rookie of the race.

Race Two: The race started behind the safety car due to the copious rain falling at the circuit. It was Jehan’s first proper race in cars in wet conditions and the track was extremely challenging for most drivers. The Indian racer, alongside many other drivers, visited the gravel trap immediately after the safety car pulled off. A few laps later, once Jehan had settled in at fourteenth position, misfortune suddenly struck him. A warning light showed up on Jehan’s dashboard and he had to retire from the race. It was later found to be water that had affected his car’s electrical system.

Race Three: Starting second on the grid, Jehan jumped the start which caused his car to bog down and he lost further ground. He was issued a drive through penalty which saw him fall all the way down to eighteenth. The determined youngster, however, did not give up: he fought hard and worked his way up to eleventh position at the end of the race, which was won by Deletraz.

Jehan thus completed the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series with three podiums in addition to five 'Best Rookie' Trophies. He eventually finished fifth overall in the highly competitive series which saw 43 different drivers participate at various stages of the seven-round series. Louis Deletraz won the series ahead of Kevin Jorg and Ukyo Sasahara. In the official Rookie Standings, he was a respectable second.

Drivers standing:

Louis Deletraz: 378 points
Kevin Jorg: 305 points
Ukyo Sasahara: 296 points
Defourny: 218 points
Daruvala: 194.5 points

Podium finish for Gautam Singhania at the Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship 2015

Gautam Singhania bagged a double podium finish as he stood 2nd in both races at the Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship 2015 held at Valencia, Spain. He had a good qualifying session and secured 2nd position on the grid for both races. Gautam has secured nine podiums in this championship and has a total of 144 points. With a fantastic run, Gautam is placed 2nd overall in the championship. 

The Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship 2015 started in April 2015 at Monza, Italy where Singhania secured a double podium finish followed by another podium finishes at Hungary, France and Italy in June, July and September respectively. He is representing India and is endorsed by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).

Commenting on his historic win, Gautam Hari Singhania said "I am thrilled to finish this race as successfully as others through the year and it is yet another proud moment for me at the sixth round of the Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship at Valencia, SPAIN. It has been a great season for me so far and I am looking forward for a great performance in finale in November as well."

The entire season comprised of in total 15 races with two races a weekend, spread over six weekends mainly at Monza (ITALY), Imola (ITALY), Mugello (ITALY), Le Castellet (FRANCE), Valencia (SPAIN) and Budapest (HUNGARY). This culminates into to the world finals, consisting of three races in November 2015, where one race is together with the other two regions of Asia and North America. The grid will consist of about 40-50 cars like last year and there's sure to be some competitive racing that promises to be a great experience. 

Gautam Hari Singhania raced with the renowned Swiss Team named Kessel Racing that has registered numerous wins and an exhaustive experience under its belt. Former F1 driver and current GT driver Andrea Motermini is his coach for the entire season. 

The finale race takes place next month at Mugello, Italy. 

BMW Launches the M6 Gran Coupe in India at Rs 1,71,00,000

BMW has launched the stylish M6 Gran Coupe in India at a whopping price of Rs 1,71,00,000. The design of the new BMW M6 Gran Coupé is visible from every angle. 

The exterior features signature M design characteristics such as the eye-catching front apron with large air intakes, new Adaptive LED headlights and M-specific double-bar kidney grille. The sporty look is rounded off by a rear apron with integrated diffuser insert, two sets of M-specific twin tailpipes and the M6 logo on the boot lid. 

Another exclusive M feature is the ultra-lightweight contoured carbon roof, which also helps to lower the vehicle’s centre of gravity visually.The high-performance and luxurious essence of BMW M also shines through the interior of the new BMW M6 Gran Coupé. Every detail exudes impeccable craftsmanship. The door sill finisher with M logo, the perfectly contoured seats, the bespoke colour combinations of upholstery, the premium ambiance; all captivate the exclusivity of the interior. 

Everything in the BMW M6 Gran Coupé is geared towards one thing: the driver. The latest M cockpit technology has features such as multifunction M leather steering wheel, the M centre console which is inclined slightly towards the driver and has controls for different M driving dynamics systems and the instrument cluster display.A 60-40 split folding rear seat back further provide for everyday usability.

The M Twinpower Turbo 8-cylinder petrol engine is the crowning glory of the M power units.It has a enormous power of 560hp and 680 Nm, available at all times thanks to Twin Scroll turbo charging concept. These make an average fuel consumption of 10.10kms per litre. The sprint from 0 to 100km/h takes 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 250km/h. The engine's power is transferred to the rear wheels via a seven speed M Double Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic.

It also features two M Drive buttons on the steering wheel for pre-programmed configurations for either a sporty or a comfortable drive. In terms of safety, it has six air bags, Active M Differential, M compund brakes.

The BMW M6 Gran Coupe has driver assist systems such as touch controller, BMW navigation professional with 25.9 cm color display wth 3D maps, high end surorund system from Bang & Olufsen, full color BMS head-up display with M-specific views views. Park Distance Control rear and front along with rear view camera com as standard.

Picture Gallery: DSK Collection

Location: Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel