BIKE OF THE YEAR
SUZUKI GIXXER
BLOOMBERG TV-AUTOCAR INDIA AWARDS.
How do you decide one motorcycle is better than the other? A quick look at the methodology of choosing a winner.
‘AUTOCAR AWARDS ARE BASED ON IRREFUTABLE FACTS AND FIGURES ACQUIRED USING ADVANCED DATA-ACQUISITION EQUIPMENT.’
Come January and the award machineries go into overdrive to put on the most prestigious and spectacular show. The motoring fraternity gets busy, dusting out their suits and preparing their speeches. Then, after an evening of wining and dining, the awards are locked away in their showcases.
So are awards irrelevant? Look at it this way. If a film wins an Oscar, ticket sales go up. Booker Prize winners sell more books. Emmy winners get more viewership. We admit the vehicles did not sell because they won the Bloomberg TV-Autocar India awards. They sell because they are excellent cars and bikes, like an Oscar winning film is an excellent film and Booker Prize winning book is an excellent book.
But what is excellence? Excellence is not subjective. It is objective. It is measurable. It is quantifiable. The jury’s decision is not only a subjective decision. It is objective and measurable. Autocar Awards are based on cold, hard, irrefutable facts and figures. The data used by the judges is acquired using Autocar India’s top-of-the-line data-acquisition equipment that measure numerous parameters of a car’s performance, that’s accurate up to hundredths of a second. This ensures pinpoint accuracy.
Our methodology is analyses of an exhaustive list of parameters with the objective of picking a single decisive winner. Each of our jury members is an expert and has a vast amount of experience with a wide range of vehicles. They are Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India; Shapur Kotwal, deputy editor of Autocar India; Renuka Kirpalani, editor of the Autocar Show; Narain Karthikeyan, the race driver who needs no introduction and renowned automotive historian Manvendra Singh. The Bike of the Year jury consisted of Rishad Cooper, two-wheeler editor of Autocar India along with Kartikeya Singhee, consulting associate editor of the Autocar Show and champion motocross rider CS Santosh.
After driving the cars, each member of the jury rates the vehicles on various parameters like fitness for purpose, design, performance, ride and handling, driving pleasure, fuel efficiency, safety, ownership experience and relevance to the market. After the jury has rated them, the score sheets are handed over to auditors PWC who ensured a watertight methodology both in terms of eligibility and judging criteria.
The business of judging isn’t as simple as shooting off an opinion. It needs expertise and experience. Behind the Autocar awards is over 40 years of learning. Autocar UK, our sister publication has been part of the European Car of the Year Awards that was established in 1964.
No wonder, on a stage overloaded with a plethora of automobile awards, this award is the most coveted in the Indian automobile industry. Now, ladies and gentlemen, here’s what you have been waiting all year for. The winners of the 2014 BloombergTV-Autocar India awards, the best of the best. The award for the Bike of the Year goes to ...
