TATA NANO SPEC

Editor Review
Cute & Practical
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Colors/Shades
Tata Nano

Summer Blue Champagne Gold

Racing Red Lunar Silver

Ivory White Sunshine Yellow

Exterior Photos
Tata Nano

Interior Photos
Tata Nano

Overview

Finally the time has come – Tata Nano has been launched in Mumbai with much fanfare. Over 100 media persons were present at the launch ceremony with over 1000 guests.

The Nano can be booked at more than 30,000 locations in 1,000 cities across India, including Tata-owned department and electronics stores, with booking forms costing 300 rupees each. It will be available at just Rs. 2,999 down payment.

Owners will be randomly selected from bookings made between April 9 and 25, and their prices will be protected. Initially, just 1 lakh Nanos will be produced. Delivery of the first lot of Nanos will be possible from July first week onwards.

Design & Style

Nano has been designed with a family in mind, has a roomy passenger compartment with generous leg space and head room. It can comfortably seat four persons. Four doors with high seating position make ingress and egress easy.

With a length of 3099mm, width of 1495mm, height of 1652mm and with adequate ground clearance, it can effortlessly manoeuvre on busy roads in cities as well as in rural areas.

It’s mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the powertrain at the rear, enables it to uniquely combine both space and manoeuvrability, which sets a new benchmark among small cars.

The main styling elements of Nano are centre crease on the bonnet, side scoops which not only looks sporty but also helps to keep the rear mounted engine cool.

Tata is also providing some add-ons like alloys, rear spoiler & sunroof to make Nano more stylish & attractive. From the rear it looks more or less like the Indica Vista with vertical tail lamps. The centrally placed exhaust pipe looks very cool.

First look at the Nano may not impress you in terms of dimensions but even though the car looks tiny and miniscule in images but it is only when you come up close to it that you can make out that its virtual length constitutes the very cabin space!

Interiors

Step inside and you will feel like you are entering a proper hatch. Nano has more space inside in comparison to the Maruti 800 and Alto. The top model LX comes with three spoke steering wheel while the base model & CX features rather simple two spoke one.

There are many cost saving factors like the hazard warning light switch has been placed behind the steering wheel. The front power window switches have been placed on the centre console to save the wiring costs.

The dash of Nano has been designed in such a manner that they can easily produce left hand drive models as the instrument cluster is placed in centre of the dash and the design of dash is same on both sides.

The legroom & headroom in Nano is more than sufficient. The rear passengers have plenty of legroom even if the driver & front passengers are six footers.

Engine, Ride & Handling

Nano has a rear mounted , all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 624 cc, multi point fuel injection petrol engine which develops maximum power of 34.5 Bhp at 5250 rpm with maxiumum torque of 48 Nm at 3000 rpm. This is the first time that a two-cylinder petrol engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft.

The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system.

Due to rear mounted engine the luggage space has been pushed to the front. Making the engine closer to the fuel tank has another advantage of increased fuel efficiency.

Rear mounted engine also help in reducing the power loss during transmission. Nano has front disk and rear drum brakes. The company claims mileage of 17 plus kmpl in city and 20 plus kmpl on highway.

Riding on small 12inch wheels and tubeless tyres, the Nano rides surprisingly well. Most bumps are rounded nicely, but as the speeds climb the ride can get a little firm.

The steering has a little vagueness around the centre position, dial in more lock; it feels direct and provides good feedback as well. Grip levels are decent but are limited by the narrow tyres. Straightline stability is also good, you can cruise comfortably at 80-90kph.

Safety

By adhering to the fact that less weight requires less power, Nano is made of light weighing steel. This has made the Tatas come up with a cheap alternative with out compromising on safety and performance.

With an all sheet-metal body, it has a strong passenger compartment, with safety features such as crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body.

Tubeless tyres further enhance safety. It exceeds current regulatory requirements with a strong passenger compartment, crumple zones, intrusion resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorage.

Variants, Shades & Price
Nano is available in following 3 variants (Prices are Ex-Showroom Mumbai):

Nano Base/Standard/Basic – 134000.00
Nano CX – 160000.00
Nano LX – 185000.00
The Base model of Tata Nano features:

Seat Belts.
High mounted Rear Stop lamp.
Only Driver seat adjust-sliding and reclining.
Fixed front passenger seat.
Folding Rear Seats.
2-Spoke Steering wheel.
Grey bumpers and interiors.
Driver side Outside rear view mirror.
In addition to above features the mid variant CX features:

AC.
Tinted glasses.
Metallic paint.
In addition to above features the top variant LX features:

Tripmeter.
Front Power windows.
Central Locking.
Front and Rear fog lamps.
3-Spoke Steering wheel.
Moulded door trim with fabric inserts.
Floor console with glass holder.
Anti-Glare inside rear view mirror.
Sunvisors on both sides.
Click here for comparison of Nano Basic with Nano CX & Nano LX

All the models come with 18 Months or 24,000 kms warranty – whichever is earlier.

Tata Nano is available in following colors:

Nano Base – Ivory White, Racing Red, Summer Blue.
Nano CX – Ivory White, Racing Red, Summer Blue, Champange Gold, Lunar Silver
Nano LX – Sunshine Yellow, Champange Gold, Lunar Silver

visit : http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/

Gambhir, Laxman star in India’s great escape

Napier: Gautam Gambhir batted nearly 11 hours for 137 and VVS Laxman made a stylish 124 not out as India reached 476 for four on Monday to draw the second Test against New Zealand, consolidating a 1-0 series lead.

Gambhir’s innings secured the draw for India, sharing partnerships of 133 for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (62), 97 with Sachin Tendulkar (64) and 96 with Laxman.

He was out in the 160th over of the innings, at 356 for four, having made the match safe for the Indian line-up which was forced to follow on 314 runs behind New Zealand on the first innings.

Laxman’s 14th Test century and his unbroken 120-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh (54 not out) allowed India to build a 162-run lead before their declaration ended the match an hour before scheduled stumps.

Virender Sehwag, captaining India in place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who missed the match with a back injury, praised Gambhir’s stoic contribution.

“I think he’s developing his game really well,” Sehwag said. “He’s playing some good cricket and he’s contributing well in all forms of the game. I think he did fantastically well.”

India were out for 305 in their first innings, replying to New Zealand’s 619-9 declared, allowing New Zealand to enforce the follow on with more than two days of the match remaining.

Gambhir’s marathon stay at the crease allowed India to erase the deficit shortly after tea on Monday while Laxman and Yuvraj guided India to complete safety, a declaration and a draw.

Laxman reached his 14th Test century, to go with his 76 in the first innings, in 238 minutes from 187 balls with 20 fours. Yuvraj then found form with a half-century from 52 balls, punctuated by nine fours.

India had started the day at 252-2, still trailing New Zealand by 62 runs.

New Zealand fast bowler Chris Martin captured the vital wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who resumed at 58, for 64 in only the fifth over of the day but Gambhir, then Laxman batted India steadily, even painstakingly toward safety.

Vexing computer worm to evolve on April Fool’s Day

San Francisco: A tenacious computer worm which has wriggled its way onto machines worldwide is set to evolve on April Fool’s Day, becoming harder to exterminate but not expected to wreak havoc.

A task force assembled by Microsoft has been working to stamp out the worm, referred to as Conficker or DownAdUP, and the US software colossus has placed a bounty of $250,000 on the heads of those responsible for the threat.

The worm is programmed to modify itself on Wednesday to become harder to stop, according to Trend Micro threat researcher Paul Ferguson, who is part of the Conficker task force.

“There is no evidence of it going into attack mode or dropping any particular payload on April 1st,” Ferguson said in an interview.

“What people controlling the botnet are doing is building in survivability because of efforts by the good guys to lessen the harm of this thing.”

The worm, a self-replicating program, takes advantage of networks or computers that haven’t kept up to date with security patches for Windows RPC Server Service.

It can infect machines from the Internet or by hiding on USB memory sticks carrying data from one computer to another.

Once in a computer it digs deep, setting up defenses that make it hard to extract.

Human brain still ahead of most advanced computers

Language and vision are among the areas in which the human brain is ahead of most advanced computers, a neurologist from Kolkata said on Wednesday.

“These (areas) pertain to the means by which we derive meaning from the world, and are perhaps best exemplified by two phenomenal capacities of the human mind,” said Mriganka
Sur, head of department of brain and cognitive sciences, Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Cambridge while addressing a convocation at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

“One of these is language — it is nothing short of a miracle that the sounds I am uttering as a steady stream are being understood by you as conveying some meaning,” explained Mriganka.

“Another is vision – the fact that we can recognise objects and scenes from the pattern of light that comes into our eyes, and that we can often do so in a few tens of milliseconds, at a single glance,” added Mriganka.

When asked as to how the human brain, comprising one kg of matter, possesses these capacities, Sur answered “the answer lies in understanding how the brain is wired. Someone has to wire a computer and programme it. But the brain wires itself”.