Honda’s CBR250R is big; in terms of power, technology, specification. The CBR250R from Honda is the biggest and the most ‘wanna have’ in terms of Indian manufactured two-wheeled machinery among the super-sports rider fraternity. We at Motor had for long been awaiting with open-mouthed expectation the arrival of Honda’s CBR250R on the local motorcycling scene. Stafford Motor Company (Pvt) Limited, ...
Bavarian Cruiser - BMW 320i Convertible For BMW, the 3 series line is nothing less than its lifeblood. Over the last 30 years this line of compact executive cars has been one of the cornerstones of BMW’s business plan, going from strength to strength not only because more and more buyers want to own a BMW but also because they ...
CENTRE MEDIAN – WHAT’S THE RATIONALE ON NARROW TWO LANED ROADS? Whilst HLR [High Level Road] starting from Nugegoda, moving east towards Maharagama and beyond to Kottawa is being widened at long last, some roads being rehabilitated in Colombo area such as Havelock Road in the vicinity of Police Park and even the widened but still narrow Thimbirigasyaya Road is ...
Dyan: I first heard your name when you got a podium finish at last year’s and first ever night race in Colombo. Sithara, would you please share with us this unique experience? Sithara: It was a unique experience all right! As someone who had earlier done mainly Go-Karting and some McLaren Formula racing at Pannala it was a totally different ...
In the early 1930’s Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche started design work on the “people’s tractor” right along with the design work of the “people’s car”. Eventually, both designs materialized into historical products that are still enjoyed by thousands of people many decades later. This very early and unbelievable unique design for the tractor from day one (1934) already included a ...
Dominic Ang couldn’t have given himself a better 23rd birthday gift than the victory of the 2012 Malaysia Merdeka Endurance Race (MMER). Driving for the PETRONAS Syntium Team in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, Dominic successfully defended the title with team-mates Nobuteru Taniguchi and Masataka Yanagida, both Japanese GT champions. Bringing back the same two SLS AMG GT3s that the ...
Those of you fortunate to have visited the Motor Show at the BMICH recently would have been stunned with the drop dead gorgeous looks of the all New Ford Ranger. I certainly was! And so it was such a pleasure to have been invited to test drive this vehicle. The New Ranger is the latest – it’s not just a ...
Volvo’s S60 of the previous generation, was always a car that was something of an “in between” in its market positioning, rather like its bigger brother the S80. Introduced as a 2000 Model, it was just a little bit bigger and more spacious than the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 etc that it was priced against and offered a slightly ...
What is a Caravelle? It’s a rather massive Multi Purpose Vehicle by VW which is based on its Transporter commercial van. The range of Vans/MPVs were launched in 2005, and this is the post-2009 facelifted version where the golf like design face of VW has been transplanted. It’s rather large isn’t it? Yes, at 5.3m in length and almost 2m ...
Anyone who has watched even a little bit of Cable TV in Sri Lanka will probably have noticed the commercial (aired on Indian channels) that advertises the Mahindra Xylo. Entitled “Happy Legs”, it showcases a day in the life of fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar and 5 of his incredibly tall female models. The point of the ad of course is ...
The most commonly asked question I get these days from my friends and readers is: “Which part of the world are you in now?” My first reaction is to smile, as they go on to comment how they find it hard to keep up with my schedule. Some friends, most of them actually, simply turn to my blog and Facebook ...
What is it? This is Peugeot’s budget family sedan entry. It is a compact, booted four door in the same vein as the Renault’s Dacia Logan where it features simple, robust materials and design to be both cheap to manufacture and low cost to maintain in emerging markets. In the local market it intends to compete with the likes of ...
For the last 20 years or so, Nissan’s products have been known for great engineering, practicality and reliability, some of them have even been extremely good fun to drive. But can you call to mind a mainstream Nissan product of recent times that has been visually striking? Go on, think about it for a bit… Nothing comes to mind does ...
Body design is a very important aspect of vehicle design. It is something that looks to be so simple, but is extremely complicated. In order to have the optimum design, the following requirements must be met in interior and exterior designs: Mechanical functions (lowering of side windows, opening of hood, trunk lid, and sliding roof, positions of lamps are some ...
Dyan: During the last few months I have been busy interviewing some talented young, emerging motor racing stars of Sri Lanka such as Kaushalya Samarasinghe, Praveen Madugalle and now you. Both Kaulshalya & Praveen had their different motives and catalysts that sparked off their passion to race cars. What triggered off your racing craze? Emdad: It was five years ago ...
It’s not very often that we at Motor get to try out a full-on military grade vehicle, but for today’s test drive we got exactly that opportunity. The first thing you imagine is that it is a product of America’s most excessive brand, HUMMER. But no dear reader, thankfully that particular purveyor of tank sized road crushers that performed like ...
There was a joke doing the rounds some years ago when mobile phones were proliferating in the market as to the similarity between a mobile phone and an orifice we use for our ablutions(xxxx hole), and quite hilariously the answer was that everyone’s got one. I guess the same analogy now applies to compact SUVs and to go further, not ...
In the spring of 1982 historic grand prix competitor and engineer, Chris Smith decided to design and build a replica of one of his all-time favourite race cars, the gorgeous 1956 Lotus XI Le Mans car. Such was the accuracy and beauty of the car he produced in his home garage at Westfield House, Armitage, he was immediately inundated with ...
Being a racing driver is more than just sitting at the wheel and trying to take the car round the track as fast as possible. There’s a whole process behind that. Called driver development, it entails an entire host of elements such as physical, mental, nutritional, commercial, technical and more. I’ve competed in some karting races before, but it was ...
PREAMBLE When most Sri Lankan motorists hear the name ‘Sunny’ – they visualize Nissan! Can’t blame them: as Nissan Sunny and earlier Datsun Sunny have been dominating our roads along with Toyota Corolla from the mid sixties – both iconic brands; the Sunny edging out both the Corolla and Honda Civic by proving its fuel efficiency. In fact when Nissan ...