Dilip Chhabria (DC) is perhaps India’s best-known car designer and the creator of the country’s first home-grown sports car, the Avanti. While some of his cars, like the Avanti, have been built from scratch, his design studio, DC Designs also offers some rather interesting styling kits for many popular car models on sale in India. In this post, we take a look at how some of these cars look in real life compared to their original design spec seen as design drawing or at an Auto Show.
Maruti Vitara Brezza
The Maruti Vitara Brezza is the most popular SUV currently on sale in India, today, thanks to its rather safe design, which allowed it to appeal to a larger audience.
DC Design’s take on the Vitara Brezza though is nothing like the original SUV, with a very bold grille and front bumper design that can be seen from a long way away. The loud yellow paint job is carried over into the trim on the inside. Thankfully, in real life, the kit is little less brash than it first looked in the design image.
Toyota Innova
The previous-gen Toyota Innova was the most popular MPV around when it was on sale in India. DC gave the Innova a styling makeover by giving it new bumpers, headlamps, grille and alloy wheels. The car has been given body cladding all around along with new side skirts and a new roof carrier. In the real world, the only word to describe the DC Design Innova is different.
Tata Nano
When the Tata Nano was first launched, it had a price tag of Rs. 1 lakh. However, the low price tag and cutesy looks of the Nano didn’t stop DC from building a sporty kit for it and giving it a two-tone paint job. The front end features a very aggressive front bumper with a large air dam. The sides feature flared wheel arches that play host to 5-spoke alloy wheels, side skirts and air intakes for the rear mounted engine. The rear bumper too is new and taillight design has been updated as well. This modified Nano is as scary in real life as it was on the design image.
Toyota Fortuner
The previous-gen Toyota Fortuner was known for its no-nonsense approach to car design. Its simple yet butch design appealed to everyone from politicians to the common man. However, DC’s version of the Fortuner looks like its ready to gobble you down for lunch thanks to the gaping front bumper and grille. The new headlights though are quite a fine touch.
In real life, the DC-design Fortuner’s front end looks more gaping than any drawing could ever make it and seems rather odd. DC also offers the Fortuner with a lounge-like interior.
Mahindra XUV500
The Mahindra XUV500 is another popular SUV that has been given the DC design treatment. The wire mesh grille and more aggressive bumper add to the original design of the SUV and actually looks quite nice in real life. The XUV500 is another SUV that DC Design offers with a lounge style interior with captain seats, two large LCD displays, and ambient lighting among many other options.
DC Avanti
The DC Avanti is the first ever sports car to come out of India. It is a mix of sharp lines and curves that make it look rather unique even in the world of outlandish exotics. The DC Avanti is powered by a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine from Renault that outputs 250 Bhp and 340 Nm and is paired to a manual gearbox. A more powerful version with 350 Bhp is offered with an AMT gearbox. The DC Avanti is quite popular among sports car enthusiasts in India and is easily among the more popular cars by Dilip Chhabria.
DC Tarzan
The DC Tarzan was the star of the 2004 Bollywood flick Taarzan: The Wonder Car. When it debuted in the movie, the Tarzan looked quite futuristic. Unfortunately, because the movie flopped at the box office and the car was priced at a crazy Rs. 2 crore price tag, the Tarzan was never sold. Even a price cut to Rs. 35 lakh in 2004, didn’t help sell this movie car, based on the Toyota MR2. The last anyone saw of the Tarzan, was one left rusting and in a pretty bad shape, somewhere in Mumbai.
DC Infidel
The DC Infidel is the sports car concept that gave birth to the Tarzan movie car. Like Tarzan, the Infidel too was based on the Toyota MR2. However, reports suggest that MR2’s engine on both the Infidel and Tarzan received major power upgrades, with the latter said to have around 650 Bhp on tap.
DC Go
The DC Go was another sports car prototype that owed its existence to the Infidel. However, unlike the Infidel, the Go made use of the chassis and engine from the Noble M12 GTO-3, which produced 352 Bhp and 475 Nm of torque from a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 from Ford. The design too evolved for the GO and it is one of the less outlandish creations from DC Design.
DC Black Ruby Rolls Royce Coupe
What happens when you combine a Nissan 350Z sports car with the design of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. The answer to that question is the DC Black Ruby Rolls Royce Coupe. This rather oddball Roller-inspired sports car was created by a client who wanted a Rolls-Royce that would shock everyone who looked at it. Even the interiors of the Black Ruby have been given the Roller touch and are more opulent while offering extra features.
