Thursday 27 March 2008

Cars, Cricket and Flyovers....

TATA has officially taken over Jaguar and The Rover Group. Bare with the technicalities, but what this means for the consumers is a study of its own.

For Indian customers, they can finally have Jaguar's arsenal launched here. The powerful X-Type, the Legendary S-Type and the sporty XKRs and XSs. This is awesome. Those babies have a minimum of 5ltr V6s. That's a huge leap considering the 3ltr 6 cylinder Engines that we have at present here. V6s and V8s are some of the most powerful engines that civil cars can have, while V10s and V12s are Mercedes's Stuff and it strays into the likes of Ferrari, Lambo and Porsche. For the British/European Customers sadly, it is the loss of some very important history. Jaguar and Rover have been Britain's answer to Germany's Merc, Audi, VW and BMW and France's Renault and Citroen (I'm blindly ignoring Peugeot here :D). It's more than just cars for them. Jaguar and Rover are 2 of Britain's finest contributions to the world.

On the rough side though, there are always the Idiots who go about saying India is already cluttered and can't take any more cars and that kinda crap, also exist people who say these cars are too expensive for Indians. Find a Corner and Screw yourself! While they lose their History, The British will lay their hopes on yet another Party to keep their History alive. Some numbers here... Ford had purchased Jaguar way back in the 80s for $2 Billion and Rover in late 90s for around the same amount. And now, after holding the conglomerate for around 8 years, they're selling it to TATA for around $2.3 Billion!! That must give you an Idea of how badly troubled this whole thing is. But what I'm really looking forward to is Top Gear's take on this whole issue. They had already called the Indica a catastrophic tragedy when it was launched under Rover's Badge in 2004 and that definitely leaves them with a bad image about TATA.

Cricket. And SA's mauling India here in Chennai. Unfortunately, I'm not able to go watch the Match as the renovation work in my place is Still going on. But the main news in Cricket this time is Stephen Fleming. New Zealand's most remembered Captain after Martin Crowe is this man who has led the Black Caps to many a famous wins. Critics reckon him to be the Best Captain of recent times. But ill-fated that he is, he was never backed by a team that could execute his Brilliance on the Field. He did have very good players in Cairns, Astle, Harris, McMillan and Parore to name a few, but he needs a whole team, a performing unit. Tactful and Shrewd he might be, he does need his players to take matters into their own hands and do the needy when time questions. Cricket has lost yet another Great to age and He will definitely be Remembered.

The Kodambakkam flyover is Done With!!! Yes, the workmen from AP, Bihar and our own fellows have finished constructing the Kodambakkam Flyover. This is the one that connects Mahalingapuram with North Usman Road and its both ways. Theoretically speaking this Should ease the Horrendous Traffic in that Area. Hopefully that theory should work in reality or else its gna be another useless flyover like the one in front of the Museum. Open date's tentatively fixed as the 30th of this Month provided Mr. Yellow Shawl has the time!

Phew, that was my longest post ever I think!!

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