Choosing between a BMW X1 and Audi Q3

St. Mary’s Islands, located off the coast of Malpe, is said to have been formed due to volcanic activity and was once a part of Madagascar.

The Malpe fishing harbour bursts with activity every morning.

A handful of lighthouses dot the islands and coastlines around Malpe.

The sunroof allowed warm sea breeze into our hair.

The ventilated seats in the Verna, a segment-first feature, keep your back cool.

A refined engine, light controls and a comfortable cabin makes the Verna a fantastic car for long drives.

The rocks at St. Mary’s Islands are hexagonal in shape, columnar in form, and made of basalt.

How much you enjoy your driving holiday depends on what you’re driving.

St. Mary’s Islands are one of those hidden gems of India that have not been overrun by tourism.

Steering wheel has been replaced by joystick that activates self-driving mode and also offers manual control.

IMU: Inertial Measuring Unit combines GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer to make car’s position accurate to the last centimetre.

JOYSTICK: Manual override provided by joystick. Throttle, brake and steering controlled by push and pull, left and right movements.

SOFTWARE: Aerodrive has its own patented software for the self-driving Celerio which can be started with a voice command.

CAMERA: Autonomous cars rely on visual data to react to real life situations and, hence, cameras are a critical piece of hardware.

The team behind Project Aerodrive that has created possibly the cheapest self-driving car in the world.

Hundreds of fans blow the dust off you as you walk into Ford’s engine plant.

To prevent pigeons from soiling the shop floor, speakers play a soundtrack of screeching owls.

BLOCK It is related to the EcoBoost but the Dragon’s aluminium block is slightly larger and heavier due to the higher 1,497cc displacement.

CRANK The crank is only placed near the engine before a robot picks it up and installs it in the block. Note how short and compact it is.

SCREEN After every process, a computer-controlled laser checks the accuracy of the assembly.

PISTON Cracked or broached big ends eventually make for stronger connecting rods and pistons. The trend for production cars was started by BMW .

FITTING PISTONS Slotting them in is still a manual operation. And you need the help of a buddy on the other end with a special tool to help locate it properly.

BALANCER The balancer levels out the vagaries of three cylinder combustion.

GASKET Aligning the gasket perfectly before you drop the head on is the only way you can ensure a good fit.

Kit A Bits for the engine come to you in superbly designed crates; everything has its place.

HEAD Not only is the head quite heavy and bulky, it is built tough to take a lot of the stress. Much of it is pre-assembled off line so that you don’t slow down the line.

FRONT PLATE The front plate protects the belt and pulleys and allows the former to run in a bath of oil for smoother, silent running.

CAM COVER First come the fuel injectors and rail and then the plastic cam cover that sits on the top.

TEST PASS I can’t believe it ran; it even passed the hot test. Amazing.

Look ma, I actually built this.