Features

Ambassador to India

Outside of Kolkata you’d be hard pressed to find a HM Ambassador on an Indian road. Yet, this ubiquitous car remains one of the most evocative of all four-wheelers ever sold in this country.

I don’t know of a single person who grew up as a member of the Indian middle class through the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, who doesn’t have an Ambassador memory. Speak to them and what you’ll get is a plethora of anecdotes from an India that is unrecognizable today. An India that was far…

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ANINDA SARDAR
Hello, Baden-Baden

While experiencing Baden-Baden, Germany, in the iconic VW Camper van, Fareeda Kanga, discovers that the leading car manufacturing country, is green in more ways than one.

Nestled on the fringes of Germany’s famed Black Forest region lies the spa town of Baden-Baden. Its regional, natural beauty, and the fact that it boasts more than 1000 hiking routes, 630km of cycling and mountain bike trails and 10 lakes makes it a magnet for city slickers. For a while in between, it even got…

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FAREEDA KANGA
Culture Club

If you’re a dyed in the wool biker looking for excitement, England of the 1950s and ‘60s is where you’d want to be. Smack in the middle of the cafÃ© racers and the scooters, in the world of the Rockers and the Mods.

Every biker worth his salt would have at some point heard of the Ace CafÃ©. Having been there and spent some time there I can tell you that from a sheer glam perspective, this old school cafÃ© on London’s North Circular Road is quite unremarkable. No fancy baristas, no posh decorations and certainly not the…

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ANINDA SARDAR
In defence of the Defender

Want to know how to add dollops of glam to rugged appeal? Just go get yourself a Land Rover Defender

Most people will tell you Born Free when you ask them which is the first film you’ll associate the Land Rover Defender with, and they’d be wrong. Brand Land Rover did play a crucial role in the movie starring Virginia McKenna as Joy Adamson and Bill Travers as George Adamson, the couple that saved Elsa the lioness.…

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ANINDA SARDAR
For the biker in you

Looking the part is as important to motorcyclists as is the ride. Aninda Sardar tells you how to curate that perfect “Biker Look” for your next ride out.

Ever been to a biker meet? It’s never a simple ride out, is it? You need to dress up for it, because if you don’t, you will feel more out of place than if you were dressed up as Rudolph at a black-tie event. The thing is, and there are many who will vehemently deny…

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ANINDA SARDAR
Fuel for fans

Purchasing your favourite racing team or marque’s merchandise can be the best way of showing your allegiance and owning a piece of an aspirational brand.

No, this isn’t a usual article about a car or a bike and its innards. This is actually about a part of the automotive industry that is often ignored – Merchandise. The year was 2006 and I had been deputed to head for my first ever international assignment. It was a plum assignment too, especially…

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ANINDA SARDAR
Auto Ads: Why should boys have all the fun?

It’s about time that ad filmmakers, along with the auto industry bigwigs, put their heads together to create tasteful ads for vehicles incorporating more of “the second sex.”

Imagine watching an ad for an SUV brand. It starts with the whirring of an engine, the car treading through the bumpy rifts of a picturesque valley in Himachal; captured beautifully through a drone shot. A cool SUV with a sun roof, an immersive audio setup, intuitive temperature control—the features start to get more pronounced.…

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PRERNA LIDHOO
What’s so lifestyle about automobiles anyway?

What you choose to drive or ride isn’t only about what you can afford or what will serve the purpose or what your heart wants. There’s another element that is often ignored- lifestyle

Can you imagine Mr. Bean in a Hummer? Or Arnie jumping off a bridge in The Terminator astride a…wait for it…Vespa? In either case, the ludicrousness of the picture the mind is painting for you at my words is probably making you smile, if not laugh. Now just stop for a second and ask yourself, why. It…

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ANINDA SARDAR
WHEELMAN

Meet Rayomand Banajee, eight-time national karting champion, and the man behind Indian SIM Racing League

Rayomand Banajee, eight-time national karting champion and founder of IR eSports, which runs the Indian SIM Racing League, speaks to TURN OF SPEED about how this platform can be a springboard for young enthusiasts to pursue their motorsport dream and about the future of online racing. Read on. TOS: Tell us about the inception of the Indian SIM Racing League.…

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ARUP DAS
From Virtual Racing to Circuit Racing

Meet Amith Kutti, the winner of The Indian SIM Racing League 3 (ISRL), who talks about his title-winning season

Amith Kutti’s journey from being a gaming enthusiast to being invited to be mentored by India’s first Formula 1 racer, Narain Karthikeyan, and to train and test with Volkswagen Motorsport India, is truly stuff that dreams are made of. After winning the championship, Karthikeyan, went on to call Kutti, “The fastest gamer in India.” At…

WORDS:
ARUP DAS