Hyundai Creta 1.4 diesel or 1.6 petrol

The GLE could be driven as the ‘crow’ or rather plane flies.

Straight roads and clear skies allow us to eke the most out of these big toys for big boys.

The GLE displaces sand by the tractor load as we corner around desert shrubs.

The three-pointed star shines bright in the wilderness.

Splendour among ruins: The GLE 450 AMG Coupe rests by the remnants of what was once a grand palace.

A bird’s eye view of what we do.

The uncluttered tail announces the car’s credentials.

Harrier: A slow forward flight motion, the harrier involves positioning the nose high at about 45 degrees. This is executed by constantly balancing the throttle and the lift against headwinds.

Prop-hang: One of the toughest aerobatic manoeuvres to pull off. The pilot balances the throttle against gravity to suspend the airplane mid-air, vertically – it is almost like flying the airplane like a helicopter, with the propeller serving as the blades.

Knife-edge: Involves flying the airplane on its side with its body perpendicular to the ground. The difficulty with this manoeuvre lies in the tendency of the airplane to turn when banked on its side and in losing altitude.

Inverted flight: The pilot rolls the plane around so that it is flying inverted. Essentially, everything is reversed, making this manoeuvre much harder than it seems to be. It gets more complicated the closer the airplane is taken to the ground.

The young pilot flies his plane from the car’s cockpit.

The wooden propeller is carefully screwed on to the engine before every flight with a dozen screws.

The balsa-wood body of the airplane holds several servos, a gyroscope, the fuel tank and batteries.

The complex remote control has multi-directional joysticks, kill switches and a tidy display.

Lights, camera and action: Neeraj, our director of photography, with the Arri Alexa film camera.

Behind the scenes: Our video team hard at work.

The walls of this church in Dhanushkodi still stand, 52 years after the rest of it was ravaged by a cyclone.

Ethanol blended fuels are fast emerging as an alternative to pure petrol. ARAI is conducting tests with some Maruti Suzuki cars including the Swift.

A WagonR, part of Maruti's six CNG models, gets a dose of gas at a fuel station in Mumbai. The hatchback delivers fuel efficiency of 26.6km/kg.

The original car is stripped down to its shell.

Armour is then welded on from the bottom up, starting with the quarter panels and the floor.

An exit hatch is put into the rear before the upholstery and glass is replaced.

Spot the difference: the finished fully-armoured Fortuner (L) looks identical to the regular SUV (R).

At highest level of protection, the glass can withstand fire from a sniper rifle.

Run flats can carry the car 60km away if the wheel deflates.

Exhaust pipe cover a small but vital security detail.

Stock hinges are replaced to deal with the added weight of armoured doors.

900kg of additional weightcalls for beefed-up suspension.

Protective shell around fuel tank is defense against IED and grenade attacks.

Armour is tested to withstand 350 rounds from an AK47.

Standard tyres are swapped for run flats. The rims also get a composite ring to keep you moving, should the tyres completely deflate.