Cars & Bikes at Indian Luxury Expo - Part 1 (Chennai - Tamil Nadu)

Recently The Indian Luxury Expo was showcased in Chennai. I wasn't much interested in visiting, till I saw the list of participants - apart from the wedding, lifestyle, jewelry stalls there were quite a few luxury cars and bikes that put up their best foot forward here. The 2 day extravaganza happened here at ITC Grand Chola.
Here at Chennai Expo, the car brands were of BMW, Mini and Aston Martin. The one that majorly caught my attention was BMW i8. 
My experience with BMW was with my friend's GT which we put in an all ultimate tests: covering abt 350km in 3.5 hrs, 0-200kmph in few seconds on a deserted highway, accommodating 7 adults into it, driving it on a pot holed road which was possibly worse than moon's surface in the middle of a forest. Now, looking at this i8 a much more sophisticated version of BMW, a luxury cum sports vehicle!
BMW i8 is a hybrid vehicle that can fueled with electricity as well petrol. It has 3 cylinders and their combined power is 360. With a torque of 380, the vehicle moves for 0-100 in 4 secs. As the other BMW Luxury vehicles, this too has auto gear and doesn't have a clutch. In the Drive mode we have Comfort, Eco Pro and Sport options. The option to gear shift manually is also available. 
Even at high acceleration, the sound is almost cut off inside the car. The eDrive technology makes the whole driving experience a breeze! With its hybrid engine, complete electrical driving can reach speed upto 120kmph with eDrive. Without eDrive, at about 60-65kmph the combustion engine gets activated.
Camera at the front and back helps parking easier. A unique factor here is that it has a top camera too!!! Sensors are on all sides to ease parking further more. Like all other BMW models this too has a built in owner manual. It also has a voice interference. The way the doors open upwards is just a visual treat! For India, only trouble I guess is the 110mm ground clearance. With all this uber comfort, this is priced at about Rs.2.6 crores!!!
Just beside it was BMW's Mini and it was super duper cute. Kinda reminded me of vintage vehicles! Also another vehicle that caught my attention here was a kid bicycle. I've already known that they make bicycles, esp, MTBs, it was indeed cute to see this little one. This is priced at about Rs.1 lakh.
Over to bikes, the first ones here were Harley Davidson, Binelli, Indian, Triumph, and ofcourse Ducati. Ducati had showcased 2 models here - Diavel & Monster.
The Diavel is 1200cc bike with an engine power of 162 hp @9250rpm at just 210kg this is super light and super fast. Both front and back brakes are ABS disk breaks. The tank capacity is 17lt. and comes with a 6 speed gear box. The wheels are a 14 spoke wheel with the front rim of 3.5x17 while the rear is 8x17. The engine is Testrastretta 11 engine and the tyres are Pirelli tyres. Its looks very very classic and is priced at about Rs.15 lakhs! 
On the other hand, the red colored Monster looks much sportier. Monster is a 821cc bike with an engine power of  112hp @9250rpm at 179kg. On handling this feels slightly heavier than Diavel. Like the luxury cars, Ducati provides 3 different riding modes in this model - Urban, Touring, Sport. In each mode, the machine decides the maximum power utilized. The seat height can be a adjusted from 74cm to 81cm, making it ride-able, no matter what's your height!! This too has a 17lt tank and 6 speed gear box. Here too the brakes are ABS Disc breaks. In both models the speedometer, rpm, time etc are displayed in an LCD panel. With all these features, Monster is priced at about Rs.10 lakhs. 
Coming back with more bikes on the show.. Stay tuned...

Bhushavali

An ardent traveler by passion. Being an ex - Art History Teacher, my area of interest especially lies in Nature and Heritage. Visited 85 UNESCO World Heritage sites as of June 2022. I've been listed among the Top 7 Women Travel Bloggers of India, Top 50 in UK. I have been interviewed in a couple of TV Shows, Radio Channels and Events as well. Read more about me and read the testimonials of different brands

8 comments:

  1. Wow, that BMW is amazing!

    http://ourruins.com

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  2. Wow...some out of this world beauties there..... :)

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  3. Hi Bhusha, the BMW suits you very well.
    Problem with the Ducatis are that they break down more often than not. "Electrics"

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  4. Aren't the so damn sexy! Wish I'd own one of these some time in life!!!
    Thanks for all your encouraging comments! :)

    ReplyDelete

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