5 Unusual “Fast” Cars

There are some cars that weren’t really meant to go fast. They were designed to transport families and serve as everyday runabouts. Well, all this is until a certain bunch of madcappers called motorheads take over. Once this bunch of speed hungry enthusiasts get within sniffing distance of making a car go fast, they almost certainly carry out their plans. And once their plans materialize, you have cars such as these.

Tata “Super” Nano

230 Bhp. That’s how much the Tata “Super” Nano’s 1.3 liter-4 cylinder petrol motor puts out. This car is rear wheel driven, with the big difference being that the drive shafts and tyres are meatier than ever. Built by JA Motorsports, the motor sports division run by car tuner J. Anand, this car costs about 25 lakh rupees, or around 25 times that of what the Nano was originally launched at. This can can do a 0-100 Kph run in a blinding 6 seconds, while top speed has been restricted to 160 Kph, and ostensibly so. This is one Nano that’s meant only for the race track.

The 280 Bhp Ambassador

The stately Hindustan Ambassador is no longer produced and the ones around are known more for their wheezy performance. But that’s something that Karan Shah of KS Motorsports won’t agree with, at least when it comes to the Ambassador he’s tuned.

 

How about 280 Bhp on a beautifully painted sleeper of a Hindustan Ambassador. Take away the fatter rubber, neat looking alloys and the fat pipe poking out of the rear, this Ambassador could well be doing taxi duty in Kolkata. Yes, it’s got scaled up equipment to shed speed too, in the form of high performance disc brakes.

Drag-spec Peugeot GLD

[Images courtesy QuarterMile]

A Peugeot 309 GLD for the drag strip? Why not, says Rajasekhar Prabhu of New Mars Enterprises, Hyderabad. Known as the Drag Master, this car is purpose built for the strip. A 2.4 liter Honda Accord engine, with some massaging, puts out about 160 Bhp. This very engine has been shoehorned onto the 309 GLD’s rear. And to make things more blurry, a nitrous injection system has been added to this seriously fast machine. A quartermile run of 13.006 seconds is the result, enough to give plenty of exotic competition a reality check.

Zen GTI

The Maruti Suzuki Zen was “the” car that buyers opted for when they wanted better looks, sharp handling and generally a nicer car than the other Maruti hatchback in town, the 800. Nobody bought the Zen to win races at the drag strip. Wait, we have somebody who’s more of an exception than the norm.

Meet the Zen GTI, a 3 door car that Philippos Mathai of Speed Sport, Delhi, has put together for himself. This car now uses a 1.3 liter twin cam petrol motor with over 100 Bhp and 112 Nm. Racing cams, a free flow exhaust and a RaceDynamics standalone ECU give this car serious legs, and an 8,000 rpm rev limit.

The 300 Bhp Tata Indica

Tata Indica = Cab, for most Indians at least. And most of them obviously don’t know about the Indica Silhouette concept, a car that puts out over 300 Bhp. This Indica has been built around a Renault V6 motor that displaces 3.5 liters and makes 320 Bhp. Yes, that’s right. With the Indica Silhouette concept, it’s the case of the car being built around the engine rather than the other way around. This Indica blazes past the 100 Kph mark from standstill in just 4.5 seconds. Yes, that’s Ferrari and Lamborghini territory. But why not, considering that the Indica Silhouette weighs just 850 kilos, uses a 6 speed sequential gearbox and has a top speed of 270 Kph.