Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, August 27, 2013 — 21

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Hybridplansat paceNelson Ireson

FERRARI plans to followthe LaFerrari with morehybrids, but never electriccars.

Hybrids, for a long time,were synonymous witheverything that isn’t funabout driving — commutes,traffic, gas mileage, andpenny pinching. Lately,they’ve taken on a newhigh-performance sheen,perhaps nowhere as muchso as at Ferrari.

The LaFerrari hypercaris, put simply, obscene in itsperversion of hybridtechnology.

We love it. It’s a 708kW,no-all-electric-mode, sub-three-second-to-100km/h,more than 350km/h-top-speed, this-clearly-isn’t-about-saving-the-planethybrid.

But don’t call it an electriccar, or Ferrari chairmanLuca di Montezemolo mightget a bit cross with you.

Why? According toB l o o m b e r g , M r d iMontezemolo doesn’t be-lieve in electric cars.

Presumably, that meanshe finds them unsuitable toFerrari’s mission of exclus-ive performance ratherthan merely unsuitable forreality.

With examples like theMercedes-Benz SLS AMGElectric Drive out settingsub-8-minute Nordschleifelaps, it’s clear EVs can bemade quick, if not quitetruly fast, but then you’dexpect it of a 560kW/1000Nm supercar, whateverfuel delivers that power.

Ferrari is already joinedat the upper end of theexotic hybrid segment withthe McLaren P1 knockingout similar acceleration andtop speed figures, despitesporting just 673kW, and thePorsche 918 Spyder makingdo with 653kW yet stilla c h i e v i n g s i m i l a rperformance.

HSV flexes muscles

with Tata Tuff Truck

The Tata ‘‘Tuff Truck’’ is not likely to make it into production but some of its accessories could

Joshua Dowling

THE new challenger in the bargain-basement end of the ute market,the Indian Tata Xenon ute, hasheralded its arrival with a high-riding concept pick-up styled by thehead of design at Holden SpecialVehicles.

The new Australian distributor ofTata pick-ups has unveiled a one-off show car ahead of the brand’sshowroom debut next month.

The Tata ‘‘Tuff Truck’’ is notlikely to make it into production butsome of the locally-designedaccessories may become a reality.

Tata vehicles are distributed by acompany owned by the Walkinshawfamily, who also happen to repre-sent Holden Special Vehicles, whichis where the design services ofJulian Quincey came in.

The same person who styled thenew HSV GTS had a hand inthe added extras on this TataXenon ute.

‘‘We wanted to create a conceptcar that reflected Australians’ loveof the outdoors and the ruggednessof our landscape,’’ said DarrenBowler, the managing directoro f T a t a d i s t r i b u t o rFusion Automotive.

‘‘By engaging Julian Quincey andthe Walkinshaw Automotive engin-eering and design teams in thedevelopment of the concept vehiclewe have been able to leverage over25 years in vehicle design and styl-ing to produce a concept vehicle.’’

Quincey thinks the ‘‘humblecrew-cab ute’’ has already becomean object of desire in its own right.

‘‘We wanted to show how well theXenon design works when carefullyvisually developed to suit the localmarket.,’’ he said.

The Tata brand will return toAustralia next month but the ve-hicle it is most famous for the tinyNano city runabout, at $2800 thecheapest car in the world will not beamong the models for sale. Tata willrelaunch with a new range of utescalled the Xenon later this yearb e f o r e a d d i n g p a s s e n g e rcars next year.

Prices and model details of the uteare not yet announced but thecompany said the range ‘‘will offer agreater level of value than what iscurrently available in the market’’'.

The prices of Chinese utes startat $17,990.

Tata vehicles have been sold onand off in Australia since 1996 aftera Queensland distributor began im-porting them mainly for farm use.

There are an estimated 2500 Tataheavy-duty pick-ups on Australianroads already.

But there are many more Indian-made cars on Australian roads,albeit with foreign badges.

More than 20,000 Indian-madeHyundai i20 hatchbacks and morethan 14,000 Indian-made SuzukiAlto small cars have been sold inAustralia since 2009.

But other, Indian-branded ve-

hicles have not been so successful.

Australian sales of the Mahindra

range of utes and SUVs have beenso weak the distributor is yet toreport them to the Federal Cham-ber of Automotive Industries.

The original Mahindra ute scoreda poor two stars out of five inindependent crash tests and waslater upgraded to three stars follow-ing engineering changes.

The Mahindra SUV launchedwith a four-star rating at a timewhen most vehicles are awardedfive stars.

There is as yet no star-ratingfor crash safety on the new Tataute range.

However, the new distributor forTata vehicles in Australia believes

the origin of the vehicles will be acompetitive advantage.

‘‘There is no tougher place onEarth to test vehicles than on thetough and demanding roads ofIndia,’’ Darren Bowler, of FusionAutomotive, the newly-appointeddistributor of Tata vehicles inAustralia, said.

Tata Motors, India’s largest auto-mobile company, acquired Jaguarand Land Rover from the FordMotor Company in June 2008, in thegrip of the Global Financial Crisis.

The acquisition gave Tata accessto Jaguar and Land Rover de-signers and engineers but Tata isyet to release an all-new model withtheir input.

The Tata Xenon ute was releasedin 2009 and is also sold in SouthAfrica, Brazil, Thailand, the MiddleEast, Italy and Turkey.

Monaro dreamsJoshua Dowling

A MODERN version of the Holden Monaro(pictured) has gone viral after a secretdesign study was accidentally leaked viasocial media.

The images were meant to appear brieflyon a big screen during the recent 35thanniversary celebrations of the MonaroCar Club SA — and never be seen again.

But the photos have since appeared in themainstream media after they were postedon a Holden designer’s Facebook page.

Holden fans calling for the revival of thehomegrown coupe — almost eight yearsafter the last Monaro rolled down theHolden production line at Elizabeth — havebeen told it will only ever exist on acomputer screen.

The photos look like a real car becausethey were created using the sametechnology that Holden uses to designproduction vehicles.

The image of the modern Monarowas originally used in a Holden designtraining exercise.

Melbourne-based Holden designer DavidKaylor blended existing ‘‘parts’’ from thenew VF Commodore with the Coupe 60concept car that was unveiled in 2008 tocelebrate Holden’s 60th anniversary.

Senior Holden designers Mike Simcoeand Peter Hughes — who were instrumen-tal in the 1998 Commodore Coupe conceptcar that led to the rebirth of the Monaro in2001 — were so impressed they took the

images with them to surprise the SAMonaro Car Club at its anniversary bash inCamden Park.

The 104 guests at the gala event werebriefly shown the images of the cyberMonaro and were told its what the two-doorcoupe version of the VF Commodore wouldhave looked like had it been approved.

The last Holden Monaro ever made wassold at auction six years ago for $188,000 toraise money for charity.

But the last brand-new Monaro in dealerstock was sold only last year.

The burnt orange HSV GTO Coupe withjust 15km on the clock was kept by Holdendealer Alan Mance as a collector’s piece.

But the dealership in the Melbournesuburb of Footscray was urged by Holdento get the car ‘‘off the books’’ because itwas old stock.