Car of the future: Tesla P100D

Tesla is an American electric car company. In their early days they used to modify standard production cars and convert them into electric cars. In the year 2008 they launched the Tesla P85, which changed everything. Before this car people never used to associate electric cars with performance or mileage or even reliable. Tesla made it possible, under the expertise of Elon Musk. 

         

                                    

The P85 starts at 70 thousand pounds while the P100D starts at 130 thousand pounds. Which is a lot of money. The P100D has dual motors, hence the "D", which helps it to have 611 bhp over the standard 420. These are incredible numbers for an electric car. And because it's an electric car the throttle response is instant, because electric motors produce their maximum torque at zero rpm. This helps the P100D to hit 0-100 kmph in 2.5 seconds which is mind boggling, it is in supercar territory. It has the same 0-100 time as the 2 million dollar car, Buggati Veyron super sports. 

                                     

Inside the car has enough leather and wood to be worth 70 thousand pounds but 130 thousand, absolutely not. It falls short there. However the dashboard is very minimalist and there are no buttons on the centre console, everything is substituted by a huge iPad like display, which is very smooth and intuitive to operate. If you jump into the  back there is enough space for 3 adults because of its flat foot well however people above 6 feet might struggle for headroom. 

                                    

The P100D is again a great car from Tesla fast, practical, eco friendly and luxurious. The price might be a bit of a letdown but the car more than makes up for it. Tesla is still the car of the future that you can own now.

The Porsche 918 Spyder

The holy trinity, which includes the McLaren P1, the Ferrari Laferrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder. Costing millions of dollars to own. These cars are the future available right now, and the Porsche 918 is regarded as the best of the best. Jeremy Clarkson's show The grand tour showed that the 918 is the fastest around the race track and proved that Porsche's engineering is the best.

                                     

So how exactly did they pull this off? Porsche has a reputation of doing what's impossible, sticking to something that others might run from. Porsche did this with the 911 and now they have done same with the 918. The 918 has a 4.8 litre V8 and two electric motors producing a combined power of 875 Bhp and it weighs 1650 kgs, in both the cases the numbers are the worst among the three, still the Porsche manages to be the fastest among them.

                                     

The 918 is four when drive and has rear wheel steering which helps the car to be agile in the corners. It is the first production car in the world to lap the nurburgringring in less than 7 min, 6 minutes and 57 seconds to be precise, no other production car has ever managed to do that. And even after all this the Porsche can still just run on its electric motors and hit a top speed of 100 mph. It is supposed to be a race car but it has shown the world that the hyper cars are not necessarily harmful to the environment. It just gives out 90 gm/km of carbon dioxide, which is less than a family hatchback and can give nearly 90 miles to the gallon. These are unimaginable figures. 

                                  

Porsche hasn't just made a new, fast, expensive car it has showed us how the future would look like with cars getting electric power plants. It showed us that if used properly we can have fun as well as save the environment. What it has given us is HOPE. 

Mercedes Benz S class

Mercedes Benz S class, a car that has been used by many presidents all around the world as their daily drivers, choice of many movie stars, even princess Diana had one. The Mercedes Benz S class is a cult car. It has millions of loyalists all around the world. In India people know that any car carrying three pointed star is special and the S class is the big daddy. 

                                    

In year 2015 Mercedes launched the newest generation S class and it took the world by storm. It sold like hot cakes in India. In the United States the sales of the S class were more than Audi A8, BMW 7 series and Jaguar XJ sales combined. The S class is and always has been a very beautiful and a very well thought out car and it is the king of its class dominating it by large sales numbers. 

                                      

In India the S class is known for its presence and its magical ride quality. The new generation S class has a very familiar face to its older generation car, the main change is in the inside. The interior of this car is simply beautiful. Unmatched by its competitors in terms of its design, build quality and ambiance. The dash of the car is minimalist with each and every button in the car being unique to the S class. The S class has a 15 lakh option of having executive seats behind and it's worth every single penny. They are unbelievably comfortable with massaging and soft neck pillows. The ambient lighting which runs across the whole cabin has 72 different colors in it. The tech list of offer is huge as well including two 12 inch screens, night vision, emergency braking and the list goes on. The newest feature on the S class was the magic ride control. It has sensors and camera in front of the car which predicts the bumps intensity and adjusts the shock absorbers to deal with it. It works wonders. This car was also awarded the luxury car of the year by many international magazines fir being absolutely brilliant. 

                                   

The Mercedes S class always bring along innovation, new technology, great styling which always trickles down the line and helps the other cars in the company's car range. The S class truly is and always will be an icon

Bugatti Chiron

In the year 2005 Bugatti released a car that would change the car world forever. Bugatti had a been promising a car that would break all records, they unveiled it in the 2005 and it did break all the top speed production car records. It reached 253 mph, which made it the fastest production car, beating the McLaren F1. After a few year however it's record was broken by an American car called the SSC Ultimate Aero which reached a top speed of 256 Mph. 

                                  

Desperate to regain their title they went back to the drawing board and in the year 2009 they came out with the Bugatti very super sports. This car again broke all the records by every hyper car, it made more than 1200 bhp, which is insane. 

                                  

Its been 12 long years with the Bugatti Veryron and finally the replacement has arrived, it's called the Chiron. The design language is quite similar to the Veyron but the aerodynamic kit on the car is much more pronounced now. It sits lower to the ground than the Veryron. 

The Bugatti Chiron is made by exquisite materials such as magnesium, carbonfibre, titanium and diamonds. Yes, you heard that right, Diamonds. There are diamonds in the speaker system of the Chiron, to enhance the sound quality. The Chiron is powered by a quad turbo 8 litre 16 cylinder engine. If you drive the engine flat out it will consume all the fuel in just 8 minutes. It is a very powerful engine producing nearly 1500 bhp. Bugatti says it is limited to 261 mph, which means it won't be able to break the world record, however when de restricted it can easily hit 288 mph. The tyres can pull nearly 3000 g on the tyres, for reference a man can just pull 9, after that you are dead. 

                                       

Bugatti says it has received more than 200 orders and the average belongings of a person who has a ordered a Chiron is that he has 64 cars, 2 yachts, 2 helicopters. With a  price tag of 1 million pounds, it is not a car for everyone. But I'm sure that like the old Bugatti Veyron it will surely capture the hearts of many school boys and young people. So is this the new fastest car in the world ? ...... Time will tell.

The car that can handle it all

Audi is known for make safe, reliable and boring cars and one such car is the Audi A6, a beautiful car, beautifully made, great mileage, great build quality but a bit boring. This all changed with the introduction of the RS6, it is essentially a faster, tauter version of the A6 and boy this year the car was perfect. 

                                    

Audi first started by putting in the new 4 litre twin turbo charged V8 with the turbo's inside the bank of the V, which helps the turbo's to spool up faster hence removing lag. This engine produces 552 Bhp and 516 pounds feet of torque. This helps the car to hit 0-100 in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 189 Mph as if this was not enough Audi introduced a performance variant with 605 Bhp and 530 pounds feet of torque which helped the car to hit 0-100 in 3.6 seconds and go on to a top speed of nearly 200 mph. There is no doubt that the engine in this car is no short of a masterpiece and with the sports exhaust it sounds amazing as well. 

                                 

What differentiates this car from the others is not the speed but the fact that you can do this while carrying 4 more people inside the car as well as a dog boggles your mind. Underneath it's an A6 hence it is brilliant for carrying 5 people and it's an estate so it has a boot capacity of more than 550 litres and more than a 1000 litres with the seats folded. Inside it is covered with carbon fibre and leather and beautiful quilted seat covers, everything feels high quality to touch. And the security of having a Quattro system just makes the deal even sweeter.

  

                                    

The RS6 is a car that is perfect for every occasion, you can travel with your family in it, go to meetings in it, take a trip away in it and when the time is right you can demolish any super car you want. It is surely the car that can handle it all.

The all new Audi A4

Audi is on a roll, it has introduced 5 new models  this year and plans to introduce more 12 models this year. The first new model to arrive this year is the all new Audi A4. 

Like all Audi's you can instantly recognize it to be an Audi, with the help of its family face. The proportions haven't changed that much compared to the last generation car, however the wheelbase has been increased by 20 mm which helps increasing cabin space. The whole exterior design change of the car is more evolutionary than revolutionary, which is absolutely no bad thing because it's a very handsome looking car.

                                       

The engines of offer are two diesels and one petrol. All the engines on offer are deadly silent, refined and you can hardly hear them inside the cabin. The petrol version is very smooth and gives a decent fuel economy. But the big sellers in India will be the diesels. The 140 Bhp version will be fast enough for most but the 185 Bhp version is brisk and returns excellent fuel economy and is the pick of the bunch. 

                                       

The main change is inside the cabin of the car where it blows its competition out of the water. The build quality is above everyone else, and the fit and finish is top notch. There are soft touch materials used throughout the cabin. The virtual cockpit, which is an optional extra works like a charm and is a must have option on this car. The interior of this car is the best in its class. Moving to the back seat we can see that there is more room than the outgoing generation and even more than any car in its class. The head room and leg room is also in abundance. This is the most comfortable back seat in its class, even the six footers will be comfortable here in the back seat. 

                                        

Audi has again pulled it off, bringing people a car that is technologically and mechanically much more advanced than its competitors. The new Audi A4 sure is the new class benchmark.

Carfection: Mercedes Benz SLS AMG

AMG is the tuning division of Mercedes, its is what M is for BMW. The SLS AMG was the first true AMG division sports car and what a car it was. It took the world by storm the year it was launched. Over the years many different versions were introduced which received great response. The SLS AMG was the defining car for the AMG brand as it strengthened it place in the supercar industry. 

                               

The design of the SLS AMG was a tribute the old and beautiful Mercedes Benz 300SL. The car has a great long bonnet, read wheel drive and the most important style feature, its gull wing doors. It's what made the original 300SL so famous and the gull wing doors gives the car its personality. The SLS is low, wide with a long bonnet and the driver nearly sitting on the rear axle. 

                                

Up front is a 6.3 V8 produced handmade by AMG. It is a 6208cc V8 with 563 bhp in the normal car, 590 bhp in the SLS GT and 622 bhp in the SLS black series. This makes it the most powerful naturally aspirated engine in the whole wide world. It is a gem of an engine with immediate throttle response and it also sounds amazing. It is the last naturally aspirated engine this company will ever make and what a shame. Thanks to that engine the car can hit 1-60mph in less than 4 seconds and in the black series the time was 3.4 seconds which is absolutely fantastic for what is actually a GT car. 

                                 

Inside the cockpit is laid with beautiful touches like the turbine style air vents, and beautiful gauges. The ride is quite firm but this car handles beautifully with its front engine rear wheel drive layout it drifts quite easily and is a very fun car to drive. It's been 3 years Mercedes has stopped making the SLS but its brilliance still blows our mind. We surely miss it.