Force Motors' Launches new SUV, Force One

Pune-based auto maker Force Motors launched two new variants of its sports utility vehicle, Force One, here on Wednesday. 

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be the brand ambassador for Pune truck and multi-utility vehicles manufacturer, Force Motors' new SUV, Force One.

The newly launched variants - EX and SX of Force One, are priced between Rs 8.99 lakh and Rs 11.99 lakh (ex-showroom price in Delhi). The company which launched its first personal vehicle, Force One, in August 2011 is now looking to cement its position in the market and is expected to a launch a third version of the same SUV in the coming days.

In the 19 months since the auto maker made its foray in the passenger vehicle segment, it has sold 2,600 units of Force One and aims to sell nearly 2,000 units in the current fiscal. It also hopes to sell 5,000 units of Force One in 2014-15. "We expect the sales to pick up due to our attractive price points, number of offerings and a growing rural market. We expect the sales to grow by 2,000 more vehicles," Firodia said.

In addition to the general slowdown, FM’s single offering in the segment as well as limited dealership network has impacted sales, he said. The company will double its existing 25-dealerships by the end of the fiscal, he added. Many of these will be in tier-II and III cities.

Force Motors had planned capital expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore over a period of three years beginning last year. The power drive for the entire Force One range comes from Mercedes Benz which is made at Pithampur under-licence from the German auto maker. Priced at Rs 11.99 lakh (ex-showroom Pune), the features of the Force One SX include ABS, Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD), progressive cruise control, steering mounted audio controls, reverse parking sensors and leather seats. Its has a 2.2-litre common rail, 16 valves, turbocharged diesel engine developing 141Ps made under licence from Daimler AG Germany. The onboard electronics is audited and validated by Mercedes-Benz Technologies Germany.

The Force One EX is targeted specifically at the “value minded customer” in the Tier-II and III towns. It is priced at Rs 8.99 lakh (ex-showroom, pan-India).

India: The Future of F1?

India has its very own F1 team, the first among Asian countries apart from Japan and also had Narain Karthikeyan as its first and only driver in F1 so far and with the Indian GP expected to join the FIA world championship calendar by 2011 things are looking good for the country.

But all this has not happened in the last few years as Indian Motorsports goes way back in time and it had a humble beginning in the industrial town of Coimbatore often called as the motorsport capital of India. It is in Coimbatore where the first open wheel racing was started in the mid 80’s and originally it had wealthy industrialists customizing their own cars and racing among themselves.

The dream of an Indian GP and India’s first F1 team began in the year 2007 when Vijay Mallya thru' his Kingfisher Airlines decided to sponsor the Toyota F1 team and promised to bring F1 to India.

Though initially there was some talk in 2005 about the potential of either Hyderabad or Bangalore as possible venues, nothing materialised and it was in 2007 that Mallya after his takeover of Spyker F1 along with Bernie Ecclestone had a provincial agreement with the Indian Olympic Association to bring F1 to India and Delhi was chosen as the venue and it is expected to hold its first race by 2011.

2005 was the most important year for the country with relation to F1 as Narain Karthikeyan after years of competing in the British F3 and Formula Nippon series made his debut for the Jordan F1 team.

Though he did nothing spectacular that year as Jordan was in a deep decline and he managed to score points by coming fourth in the controversial USGP as only six cars took the field. He was consistent and proved that he can put some decent performances provided he had a decent car.

Due to various sponsorship issues that happened to be his last year as a driver in F1 as the next two years he spent time testing for the Williams F1 team. Though he was in F1 for only a year he proved that India can also produce F1 drivers and that it is possible for an Indian to compete in the championships.

Though none of the actual fans expected Narain to actually even score points during the 2005 season but the Indian press which at times does show blind patriotism over-hyped his team there and could be one of the factors which led to his decline.

When Vijay Mallya bough the Spyker team and renamed it as Force India, there was a buzz in the paddock that Narain Karthikeyan could well make his comeback with the new Indian team but Mallya felt Narain was too old for the long term future of the team and decided to bring in ex-Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella and young German talent Adrian Sutil for the two seats.

This was the end of Narain Karthikeyan’s F1 dreams and he right now competes in the A1GP and also made his Le Mans debut this year.

Though India is yet to have a proper systemic structure like other counties, it is still able to produce drivers of International quality and currently two of its drivers Karun Chandhok who competes in GP2 series and Armaan Ebrahim who competes in the new launched FIA F2 World Championship are both touted as potential future F1 drivers.

Karun has already tested the Red Bull Racing car and if he manages to have very good 2009 GP2 season, well he could either land a driver’s seat or even a testing role with the Force India or even the STR team.

The future for F1 is looking very good especially with expected Indian GP in 2011 and the Force India F1 team currently on the grid; all it needs is an Indian driver to score points in the Force India team to really have a big boom.

Currently among the global sporting events F1 is the most watched sport after Cricket and the English Premier League. Many cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi have sports pubs which show the races and you can see lot of people in both Ferrari and also McLaren gear. These two apart from Force India are the most popular teams in India and it is very common to see F1 fans discussing who is superior between Ferrari and McLaren.

Things look bright and the media will play a crucial role and currently there is more than enough coverage for F1 but then with Cricket being the only major sport which gets the attention of the nation, F1 may never become the mass sport.

It surely would become the favourite sport among the urban educated Indian people as they belong to the 25 to 35 age bracket and many of these fans even go to Singapore or Malaysia to watch the races. Only an Indian GP will tell the true story of how successful F1 can become in India.

Force India to debut their 2009 season car in March

Force India has announced that they would launch their new car for the 2009 season in March.

They are already pretty late as most other teams have already launched their cars for this season.

Force India technical director James Key said in a statement: “It’s obviously very tight, because of what we’ve had to do. But the plan is to hit the last two official team tests before the season.”

The 2009 Formula-1 season starts on March 29 and they have little time left to get their new car ready.

The team has the same driver lineup for this season: Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and Germany’s Adrian Sutil.

Key added about the progress of the new car: “Some areas of the car matched very well with the new packaging requirements we had, while in other areas it was significantly different.”