SUV Adventure

Can you get these questions right?

Which was the first Car to be manufactured in India?

A bull killed a famous bull fighter, Felix Guzman in 1943. An automaker named its newest model after the famous Bull. After that, all the cars have been named after the bull. Which automaker is this and which was the first model?

Which car was used in the movie ‘Ghost Busters’?

The Answers:
Hindustan Motors’ Hindustan 10 (Or Morris 10).
Lamborghini Reventón
1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor aka Ecto-1

The most important thing to excel in today’s competitive world is a person’s Intelligent Quotient. But life is too demanding. Inevitably, Cars have become a major part of everyone’s life. It is not enough to just be intelligent. Knowing everything that is auto has also become quintessential. You need to know which is the costliest car in the world, how to repair your car when it breaks down, which is the hottest car in town, which car is a girl-magnet and much more.

Intelligent people have an Intelligence quotient. Auto enthusiasts have Auto Quotient.

For those who are into all things auto, Mahindra and Mahindra have initiated an innovative and exciting platform to share and accelerate their passion - Mahindra Auto Quotient.

The first flag-off in Auto Quotient, is India's first auto quiz. A quiz that will have engineering students from across the country pitted against each other for supremacy of auto knowledge. The stakes to be won are high.

The legacy of Auto Quotient has been passed ahead from Mahindra employees who have been battling it out in an elaborate internal auto quiz for the past three years. Now they have taken the initiative to bring these nail-biting, brain-twisting yet informative quizzes to auto enthusiasts outside Mahindra too.

The entries for this competition are open till 14th September, 2009 for bona fide students of any legitimate engineering college in India.

This is what the winners get: The first prize for the winners of AQ is a ticket to the Geneva Motor Show, annually held in Switzerland. It's a once in a lifetime chance to be amongst the greatest congregation of auto enthusiasts, looking at some of the greatest machines ever made. The first runners-up will get to feel the heat of some serious off-roading. They'll be sent for the exhilarating experience of dune bashing in Dubai. The second and third runners-up will be sent to a thrilling Mahindra Great Escape, India's favourite 4X4 rally, for exciting escapades through some of the most exotic locations across the country.

Interested participants can register at the Mahindra Auto Quotient Website. For everyone else, it is simply a platform to become an ardent auto enthusiast.

Remember Knight Rider’s sentient talking car with artificial intelligence, KITT? Or Batman’s hi-tech Batmobile, Tumbler?

There are many a fantastical things shown in movies and cartoons that have come true. Gone are the days when futuristic cars which could be controlled by pressing buttons and turning some knobs were just fantastical things possible only in movies or in cartoons. Cars that can be controlled by the kind of joysticks kids use to play video computer games are one of them. They are not legal to drive on most of the streets but are now very much existent. The movement of the stick is exactly the movement of the car.

Auto giants like DaimlerChrysler AG and Mercedes-Benz have developed these futuristic ‘sidestick’ cars that challenge every notion of what it means to drive a car. It makes for an intricate combination of high-speed computers with the wheels, engine, steering and brakes.

Drive-by-wire, DbW, by-wire, or x-by-wire technology replaces the traditional mechanical and hydraulic control systems with electronic control systems using electro-mechanical actuators and human-machine interfaces such as pedal and steering feel emulators.

If the word ‘replaces’ in the above definition is substituted with ‘partially replaces’, bits and pieces of drive-by-wire are available in many modern cars in the Indian market.

Central Locking, Power Steering, ABS (Brake-by-wire assist), Electronic Stability Control and in a trivial sense even things like power windows and self starter form a part of the Drive-by-Wire Technology. The electronic throttle, which does away with direct mechanical linkage from accelerator pedal, is now commonplace. Fiat Palio, Swift diesel, SX4, Ford Fiesta, Honda City, Nissan Xtrail are all cars that come with electronic throttle. In UV’s, Mahindra’s Scorpio and Xylo come with a number of toys of the Drive-By-Wire Technology which include brake-by-wire (like in ABS) and throttle-by-wire (Electronic throttle). A fully Drive-by-Wire car essentially encompasses all the aspects of X-by-Wire including brake-by-wire, steer-by-wire, throttle-by-wire etc.

The motivation for drive-by-wire cars lies in the better positioning of the controls and better performance but the use of the technology is still restricted to research vehicles due to regulatory and safety issues.

Mechanical systems degrade over a period of time and one can change the parts that are subject to wear and tear, if the performance of the vehicle is dipping. Electronic systems on the other hand have a tendency to fail without warning. Imagine the joystick of the car conking off at break neck speeds. It could very well be the recipe for an unstoppable disaster.