Vahan Yatra, literally translated mean “A carnival of vehicles”. That’s the name the ongoing Auto Expo is known by in Bangalore. Having started on the 14th of August 2003 at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, the expo will run right up until the 17th of August 2003. Many Auto majors like Suzuki, Hyundai, TVS, LML and Kinetic have stalls in the expo. But taking into consideration the obvious absence of majors like Yamaha, Bajaj-Kawasaki, and Honda made the expo feel a bit incomplete.
More than the vehicles it was the stalls of the accessories vendors that were attracting a lot of attention. Individual set-ups offering competitive prices and financing, leather, interiors, car cleaning solutions, polish, mag-wheels made up the majority.
The Kinetic stand featured the entire range from the scooterettes that the company manufactures to the Rs.1,50,000.00 Aquila. The Kinetic Lazer with its twin headlamps is something that people have not seen many on the roads, but attracted a lot of attention from people.
The LML stands had the colourful LML-Freedom motorcycles that the company has made available in 6 different colours and graphics that one can choose. Nothing else has been changed in the motorcycle other than that.
The TVS stand was present with the new FieroF2 and the Victor.
The Enfield stand had the new Machismo on display with the Thunderbird. The Electra and the Standard bullet were sent to the back. The new Machismo is a bike that you’ll either love or hate. Spring coiled split seats, polycarbonate windscreen, lavish doses of Chrome, and a 5-speed gearbox that you can shift on the “right” side (left). I like it!
Another stall that attracted a lot of attention was a stall of a Indian car company known as Chinkara Cars. Made to look like the Super7 series cars, these cars were custom built, to specification. The chassis has beencalculated and designed by a German automobile engineer and runs 1800cc Isuzu engines and weighs in at 620kgs. With a Maximum output of 88/5000rpm and a maximum torque of 135/3000rpm, it boasts of a 0-100kmph of 7.6 seconds and a top-end whack of 187kmph. The car comes with complete flexibility with regards to interiors, wheels, upholstery, headlights and colour to suit varied tastes. The car is priced at 6.72 lakhs as a base price. More details can be had from Shama and Guido Bothe, the couple who run the company. They can be contacted over email at chinkaracars @ rediffmail . com
Attracting more attention than all the official manufacturers was the stall of local mechanic Joe (Joe’s Automobile Engineers). The stall, advertising for performance tuning of 100cc vehicles and repairs and service of imported motorcycles had a host of imported bikes lined up for people to see. R6, Hayabusa, Fireblade, VFR and a Harley occupied centre stage.
Chameleon cars, a customising shop had a couple of highly customised cars on display. The car shown below is a customised Lancer. Competition to DC?
| Entry | Amount |
| Adults | Rs.50.00 |
| Kids <12years | Free entry |
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Overall the expo is good to just go in a group and hang out for sometime. If you are expecting seriousness from the participating companies or an insight into their future plans/ releases, you will be disappointed.