7th Anniversary Special! India exclusive of Porsche’s GT cars and Audi’s finest headline the epic stories
evo India turns seven! And to celebrate, we got our hands on the first and only 718 Cayman GT4 in India along with exclusive access — on a runway at that! — to every single Porsche GT road car sold in India. And that’s just the first of many firsts. We are the first to bring the A8, Q8 and RS Q8 together; are the first to get back to road tripping with a drive down to Goa; are the first to return to the race track with a trio of Tatas; are also the first to hit the karting track with the new Polo GT TSI; score another first hitting the off-road trails with the MG Gloster; and much, much more! Pre-order your copy now!
Porsche GT special
The 718 Cayman GT4 has just landed in India and thanks to our friends at SpeedFest Track Days we are the first and only publication to get our hands on it. But this being our anniversary issue, we had to go one better to pull the most epic cover story India has ever seen. Five GT Porsches on a runway with no speed limits and no rules! The 718 GT4 gets with the best manual gearbox in the world and along side we have the 981 Cayman GT4 to set context. The 911 GT3 blends road and track performance along with the more hardcore track-focused GT3 RS. And the monster GT2 RS brings a race-derived chassis, steel uniball suspension and shattering performance from the blown flat-six to turns our brains to pulp. We had a hard time believing we pulled this off ourselves!
Audi A8, Q8 and RS Q8
What is the Power of Eight? We bring together Audi India’s flagships to understand exactly that. The A8 defines the direction for Audi when it comes to luxury. The Q8 (now sensibly priced at under a crore of rupees) marries the luxury of the 8 in the SUV package that people can’t seem to get enough off. And of course we are left breathless by the incredible performance of the fastest SUV around the Nurburgring, the RS Q8.
SUV Coupes: GLE 53 AMG and new X6
Mercedes has launched the GLE 53 AMG Coupe, debuting the 53 badge in India and building on its already mighty AMG line-up. Meanwhile the third-generation X6 carries forward BMW’s legacy, of being the very first of this breed. This is not a comparison test, rather a celebration of two epic physics-defying behemoths!
MG Gloster
The newest rival to the Toyota Fortuner undercuts it on pricing and outscores it on equipment. We put the MG Gloster through the ultimate on-road and off-road test — mud, slush, water crossings, rocks and once down we cleaned it up and took it for a thorough on-road test focusing on highway performance, checking out the autonomous features, getting it to park itself in the city, and of course throwing it round a few bends in the hills.
Thrill of Diesel
With all the talk of turbo-petrols, have we forgotten how much fun diesels can be? We take the Tata Altroz, Nexon and Harrier from Pune to Chennai on a massive road-trip culminating at the home of Indian motorsport, the MMRT. From their long-distance ability to the thrills they deliver on track, this story is about rediscovering the joys a diesel can bring!
Kia Sonet
Is Kia on to another winner with its new Compact SUV? We definitely think so after having tested the turbo-petrol as well as the diesel with the new automatic gearbox. We even take a deep-dive into its styling, ingenious design and packaging
VW Polo GT TSI
How good is the new 6-speed torque converter in the Polo GT TSI? We took it to the go-kart track and discovered, we don’t miss the DSG! We were so intrigued we did another story with the Vento automatic, to understand why VW made the switch, while also breaking down the technology and understanding its benefits.
The outdoors with the Xpluse 200
With no travel over the past few months we’ve used our time to get off the beaten track and discover off-road trails — and views! — around our home base.
A week and three tasks for the XL 100 moped
The Fast Bikes India section is headlined by the TVS XL 100 Comfort going on an adventure unlike anything it has ever been put through — wheelie-ing round a karting track, on a timed run to deliver a freshly baked cake to the other side of town, and even jumping a few craters as a support vehicle for our road test team. Can it survive?
Toyota Hybrids
We celebrate Toyota Gazoo Racing’s third victory at Le Mans with the hybrid TS050 and look at how race wins translate to faster, more efficient and more reliable road cars.
TUNED
Exiting stuff in our go-faster section focused on after-market parts, mods and culture. This month Race Concepts brought down their Innova Crysta to demonstrate the significant improvements in ride as well as handling that their new coil-over suspension delivers. We check out a souped-up Polo running a 1.8 TSI engine. There’s a deep-drive into the different types of ECU mods you can get for your car and bike. And we close it off with a lovely, lightly modded, Fiat Palio S10.
Hyundai Venue iMT
In this story, we put Vidula, a driving enthusiast, in the Hyundai Venue iMT. The catch? Vidula only drives automatics! She’s left intrigued by the new technology from Hyundai that allows her to shift gears without worrying about the clutch. She can finally enjoy the sort of control a manual gives, without needing to worry about stalling the car!
Lake tour with the WR-V
The Honda WR-V is a capable car — one that is willing to take you off the beaten path. We drive it to the Mulshi and Pavana lakes near our HQ in Pune — two hard-to-access spots that make for some brilliant visuals. But you need a car that will go that extra mile!
Trippin’ with Lemon Tree
This was the first, proper, road trip we took post the lockdown! Along with Lemon Tree hotels, we chaperoned a bunch of road-trippers from Mumbai to Goa. This is a route that is done to death, yes, but it was a great was to stretch our legs and we tell you how you too can — and should! — road trip in the new normal.
