Another week has come and gone here in The Garage and that means another Sunday morning sifting through submissions for the Carnival of Wheels. It is interesting to note that 4 out of 5 of this week’s submissions are on the same topic. Obviously the auto industry has some big changes coming and a lot of bloggers are interested. First off, let’s head to one of our long time contributors.
Brian Vermette from RaceDriven is getting all in a tizzy waiting for the 2008 Barrett-Jackson auction to start next week. I must admit that it is exciting watching all the characters have at each other over a hot ride, not to mention the bidder helpers. Who’s gonna win, will it be the hottie or the screamer? What is going to bring the most outrageous number when the dust settles? Will it be Carroll Shelby’s GT500 convertible, or John Schneider’s General Lee? We’ll just have to tune in and watch for ourselves.
So what is the big news this week? Here in my little corner of the automotive universe, I saw the $2,500 car from Tata as an interesting sideline. After all, this little disposable car is on the other side of the world, it will never have any impact here in North America. Or will it?
We have quite a number of CoW contributors who either live in India Or surrounding countries, or who originally called that area of the world home. It has become quite clear to me that the Tata announcement is far more significant to them & that maybe I should get my head out of the sand!
Is there money at the bottom of the pyramid? Vishal Gupta from The People’s Car points out that may be right, as Toyota, Nissan and Suzuki are also working to build cars that will challenge the Nano for the king of the cheap seats.
Not everyone thinks that cheap cars are a good thing for India. Many think that fueling the personal transportation generation is wrong on many levels and Vinu Shankar points out just a few of the negatives. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot and staff it with suicidal traffic cops!
I had heard that there are some political factions in India that aren’t so happy with the fact that the Tata is coming from a certain region. That seems to be the case with Aishwish from Autocars Blog, although I’m not quite sure.
It’s interesting to note that with 4 submissions about the Tata Nano, only one of them actually addresses the car rather than the social climate surrounding it.
Sagar from Breaking News Online has actually listed a few details about the Nano. Smaller than the competing Maruti 800, the Nano boasts more interior space, meets emissions standards and has AC. Cool. A quick glance at the Maruti web site shows a bit of motorsports interest, so can it be long before we see an Indian single make racing series with these little 2 strokes? 30 Nano’s buzzing their way around the track would certainly be fun to watch!
That’s it for another week’s lap around the auto blogs. Be sure to swing back next Sunday for another visit. Bloggers, be sure to get your submissions in before midnight on Saturday to be included.
Just a small correction –
so can it be long before we see an Indian single make racing series with these little 2 strokes?
The nano has a 4-stroke engine (thus the lower emissions than the 2-stroke engine motorbikes and scooters currently running on Indian roads)
So much for my reading comprehension! I made the assumption that an engine that tiny was a 2 stroke.