Porsches, Jaguars, Volvos and Abarths gleam on the left. A Bentley, the Avanti, the monstrous M cars from BMW and the Spirit of Ecstasy herself, greet you on the right. And this was just as soon as you stepped into the venue of the Autocar Performance Show 2015. This year’s APS marked the tenth anniversary of Mumbai’s biggest automotive exhibitions. As the previous years, the hottest set of wheels were brought out on the MMRDA grounds for a good four days, from October 29 to November 1, 2015. You could find everything from Ferraris to Moto Guzzis, all under one roof. What more could you have asked for?
How about an all-out Autocross battle in true gymkhana style? Maruti had that covered too, right in the backyard. To add to the off-road attractions, Toyota organised a 4x4 challenge to showcase the capabilities of its Fortuner. This year, APS also played host to Mercedes’ Mumbai leg of the ‘Safe Roads’ initiative.
Besides all the hot wheels showcased, the show, as per tradition, housed all that you needed to keep your automobile spic, span and shiny; be it car care products, or chromed- out bits to add that extra bling to your ride. And how could anyone forget the Stuff Gadget show 2015? In its fourth year now, the electronics exhibition has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2012.
Here are all the brands stood proud and tall at APS 2015.
Cars:
Rolls-Royce
Starting with the big guns, the Rolls-Royce Wraith was the first car to welcome every guest to the show. Despite being the only display vehicle in its stand, its opulence was enough to bring in a horde of admirers.
DC
Next in line was Dilip Chhabria’s Avanti, two of them, one orange and the other in gray, was on display at the DC floor. The homegrown two-door, mid-engined sports car is the first of its kind from India meant for mass production.
Porsche
Porsche’s line-up included the 400bhp Macan Turbo, the fantastic looking Boxster GTS, the blood-red Cayenne GTS and the iconic 911 Turbo S.
Jaguar and Land Rover
The two British marques shared a common floor, with the XJ from Jaguar and the Discovery Sport from the Land Rover stable standing on either side of the top-of-the-line, navy blue Range Rover Sport SVR, which led the power race with all of its supercharged 542bhp.
Bentley
Bentley chose to bring in its new Flying Spur to the 2015 APS for the second time in a row. Needless to say, the five-plus metre luxury limo made quite a statement at the APS entrance.
Mercedes-AMG
Mercedes had already chosen APS as their venue of choice to put their latest safety tech on display through the ‘Safe Roads’ initiative. So they let the latest AMGs steal the show at the stand. And boy, did the S 63, the C63 S and the crazily colored G63 steal the show in all their V8 biturbo glory!
Volvo
Safety, build quality and reliability. That’s what every car from the Scandinavian brand epitomises. And to put these qualities into perspective across its range of cars available here in India, Volvo chose to display the V40 hatchback, the S60 sedan and a pearl white XC90 SUV with Thor’s Hammer.
BMW
Bang in front of the Scandinavians, stood the brutish Bavarians. And to represent all their grunt, they put up the M3, the M4, the brawny new X6 M and the sleek and stylish Z4 convertible.
Mini
The British small car specialist kept it simple as always with its three-door and five-door diesel hatchbacks. Both cars come powered by a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder, twin-power turbocharged engine from BMW.
Audi
The only German left from the trio was the one from Ingolstadt. And by no means did it disappoint. With the RS7, the R8 V10+ and the latest entrant into the India line-up, the S5, how could they? True, the new S5 does not have a gurgling 444bhp V8 like the one on the RS5. But the ‘S’ badge goes a long way to make it sexier than the conventional ‘A’ range of sedans. Mind you, it still packs in a respectable 328bhp under the hood.
Maruti
As big a space the APS occupied, it would have never been big enough to hold all of Maruti’s offerings. Simple solution? The company brought in two of their latest premium cars in true-blue style, namely the S-Cross and the all-new Baleno. And not for an instant did the two cars, more so the Baleno, fail to attract onlookers.
Fiat
When all of Europe was there at the APS, how could the Italians stay behind? No points for guessing their showstopper. It was the white hot Abarth Punto. The Avventura too stood by in all its Abarth-powered 140bhp, accompanied by the sporty looking Punto Evo Sportivo.
Toyota
Toyota came to APS, all guns blazing. Their line-up of cars on display included the Etios duo, the sedan and the Livo hatchback, the Corolla Altis, the Innova, the Camry and the
all-terrain gobbling Fortuner. Not to forget, Toyota also had all the arrangements in place outside of the shed, to put the Fortuner through its paces.
Nissan and Datsun
The two brands shared stage as always. The cars on their stand included the Go hatchback and Go+ seven-seater MPV from Datsun. The Sunny, Micra and the ever handsome Terrano were roped in from the Nissan stable.
Hyundai
The Korean carmaker’s stand had just three cars, its ever capable Santa Fe, the City- rivalling Verna and their latest hot cake, the Creta .
Honda
Honda put up its trusty City, now in its sixth generation, and its all-new premium hatchback, the Jazz, on display.
Volkswagen
Time for the people’s car. The new variants of the Polo and the Vento – namely the Polo Exquisite and the Vento Highline Plus – stood side by side in all its German simplicity. Also on display was their seven-speed dual-clutch equipped Polo GT hot hatch.
Tata
Tata decorated their stall with the Tata Zest and a heavily accessorised GenX Nano AMT. To add that extra bit of oomph to the stand, they had a kitted-up Bolt, replete with a five-point seatbelt harness, alloy wheels, rally-spec tyres and race livery. Two similarly specced Bolts served as safety cars at the Coimbatore leg of the Indian Rally Championship 2015.
Chevrolet
The Americans brought in their beefy new Trailblazer SUV. Two of these mammoths were more than sufficient to make everything else look small in comparison. Not to forget, the Trailblazer is as fast as it is big. A 0-100kph time of under 10 seconds for a car weighing over two tonnes, that’s quick!
Ford
Parked in Ford’s stand were the Figo duos, the hatchback and Aspire sedan, centred by the updated EcoSport. The EcoSport now gets daytime running lights, a new paint shade and a more powerful 98.6bhp diesel engine that replaces the older 89.7bhp motor.
Skoda
The Czech carmaker’s all-white stall was adorned by the Rapid, the Superb, and the fully loaded Octavia Anniversary Edition, packed with eight airbags and a paddle shifted seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Renault
Renault’s line-up of display cars included the Lodgy, the Pulse, the Scala, the Fluence, and of course, the all-new Kwid, actually two of them, just to show how different the little hatchback looked with and without all of its chromed-out accessories.
Isuzu
The Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer displayed its recently launched MU-7 seven-seater SUV’s automatic variant along with the D-Max pick-up truck
Bikes
Bajaj
The three new Avengers from Bajaj, including the all-new 150cc cruiser are the first bikes that stood out the moment you walked into the two-wheeler section. The other head-turner in the stall was obviously the RS200 Black edition. The stall also featured the new AS200 tourer.
DSK Motors: Benelli, Hyosung
The two brands from DSK stood side by side with their entire range of bikes, namely the TNT range from Benelli, and the GT250, GT650R, GT650N, Aquila 250, Aquila Pro and the ST7 cruiser from Hyosung.
BMW
After heating up the show with their cars, the Bavarians showed their might on two wheels with the S1000 RR sports bike, the K1600 GT tourer and the BMW R1200 GS endurance bike.
Truimph
The brutish British bike maker lined up its Daytona 675R, the Speed Triple, the Tiger, the Rocket III, Thunderbird and their iconic Bonneville T100.
Indian Motorcycles
The American bike specialist had its entire line-up of cruisers including the Scout, the blacked out Chief Dark Horse, the Chief Classic, the Chieftain and the Roadmaster.
Yamaha
The Yamaha stall looked packed with the recently launched YZF R15s, the FZ-S and the Fascino. But it was the racy new YZF-R3 was the one that grabbed the most eyeballs.
Harley-Davidson
The cruiser bike experts from Milwaukee saw more than their fair share of shutterbugs snapping away at their latest Dark Custom Street 750, the Iron 883, the Street Bob and the Fat Bob that were put up on display.
Also see our galleries:
Cars at the Autocar Performance Show 2015
Bikes at the Autocar Performance Show 2015