Tata’s One Lakh Car - Nano

I looked at my watch. I was annoyed. Very. My hand was on the steering wheel, gripping it hard. I was desperate to move but the chaotic traffic scene just wouldn’t allow. But eventually the mercy gods blessed us and the machines started making rapid movement. It is the 23rd hour of the day when I am penning.. er.. typing this down but will only be able to make it public by the morning and this leaves me annoyed still. Bloody Airtel guys to blame!

Nevertheless, here is what the nation has been waiting for – the Nano. Nano what? It has till now been famously known as Tata’s One Lakh Car. I am sure you have got questions, a lot of them rather. How does the Tata Nano looks like, how are the interiors, so on and so forth. There was human barricading around the car and even the media people were finding it hard to get close to the car. But your man managed somehow and lived to tell the tale! So here goes.

It was a packed house at the launch, and rightly so. Afterall, one of the most talked-about car was getting launched which was kept away from the prying eyes all this while. At the unveiling, Ratan Tata said “I observed families riding on tow-wheelers – the father riding the driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family.” So this idea gave birth to what we see today in form of the Nano. It took four years of development and it must be said, Tata engineers have indeed done a good job, atleast by the looks of it.  We were not allowed to open the doors and click pictures, so excuse us for the quality of the interior photographs. Rest assured, we will try and bring more visuals to you.

The basic architecture of the car is simple – four doors, modest interior space, extremely short overhangs to keep the size, weight and costs in check and tiny tyres. The Tata Nano is stands 1600mm tall while occupying 3100mm of space in length and is 1500mm wide. The engine is located at the rear and delivers 33PS of power through a two-cylinder 623cc engine. The surprising but about the car that left many surprised was the fact that the body-shell is all steel, contrary to the belief that the One Lakh Car would have a plastic body. The emission levels, it was said, will be lower than what is being coughed out by the two-wheelers plying these days.

When you look at it from a distance, you could mistake it for a Zen Estilo, but then you will turn back and gaze at it for a long time since the sheer size of this thing will keep you wondering “how the heck did Estilo become so tiny?” Yes people, this is a small car, very small. But it manages to look attractive. The front is largely occupied by the headlamps which look intimidating on such a small car. And since the bonnet is near vertical, there is nothing like a ‘peeled-back’ look to the ‘eyes’. A near-vertical front end (albeit without an engine!) and a near-vertical headlamp cluster. The rear, to me, has Indica written all over it, which is not a bad thing at all. The tail-lamps are inspired from the elder sister in the portfolio and so is the tail-gate. The emissions pipe peeping out from the middle adds a certain style element to the otherwise plain and played-safe kind of back-side.

Interior, although even the media was not allowed to enter the car to get a better feel of it, looked decent enough and should atleast be of the quality comparable to the good ‘ol Maruti 800. The instrument binnacle is mid-mounted (Spark setting that trend off for small cars) and looks pleasing. The flowing centre console really looks very nice and allows for a good amount of storage space on either sides of the instrument cluster. There are rotary knobs for the air-con and air-direction while space for an audio system is provided just below the knobs. The air-con vents had an up-market look to them. What particularly impressed us was the quarter-glass area which will enhance the visibility all round to no bounds. The seats do not have separate head-restraints and look very much like those on the Hyundai i10. The windscreen is gifted with a centrally placed wash/wiper, but then for a car that is only just 1500mm wide, one is surely enough! The car will be offered in standard and deluxe versions with the latter coming endowed with goodies like power steering and air-con.

A lot of contrivances have been enveloping the development of Tata Nano, and protesters were present at the Auto Expo ’08 as well to voice their livid emotions. From being something that is going to do what Maruti 800 did to the nation over twenty years back, Nano has been a talked-about car for good as well as unpleasant reasons. Many at the Expo spoke their heart out about how all this is politically inclined and that Tata will always have the support of the common man!

So India’s largest automobile company which already has over four million vehicles plying on the roads is about to increase that number multi-fold when the car hits the road later in the year. And when the Nano hits the road, it will hit it with a bang! More on the Nano later today, for now, gotta rush back to the Expo again. Will keep updating you guys.