It appears every season, Formula 1 just gets more safer. While it is still a very risky sport (given the speeds involved), McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen managed to suffer just a minor headache and a stiff neck after what appears to be a McLaren confirmed 140 kmph impact with the tyre wall. He lost consciousness as soon as he hit as you would expect (given he experienced a 29G - 29 times his own body weight impact). The HANS device also played its part. HANS is acronym for Head and neck support device that became mandatory in 2006 for all F1 cars.
But the carbon fiber monocoque of the F1 car stood true to its testimony as track medical team and marshals quickly and safely removed him from the car, shifted him to the track medical center and to the waiting helicopter as Heikki gave a thumbs up sign to indicate he was ok. It brings grim memories of what we saw on 1st May 1994 during the infamous Ayrton Senna death in a Williams car at Imola, Italy.
The F1 car of 2008 is probably the most safest vehicle to drive on the road with the stringent FIA safety standards laid down. Robert Kubica should know better. He escaped a near fatal crash in 2007 June at Montreal, Canada when hardly anything remained on his BMW.
I was chancing to look upon my blog’s readership and it has skyrocketed in last few months. To give you an idea of how much the readership for http://www.ecofin.wordpress.com has gone up by, Alexa rating has shown a consistent rise in my webpage ranking (it currently stands at 755139 worldwide and its India ranking is better at 58137. Furthermore, my year old blog stats shows my blog to have averaged 9999 hits way in May 2007. The current count stands at 77791.
Above means nothing if people don’t read posts. Simple page views/hits serve no value absolutely. The most important indicator that indicates the health status of a blog is its post:comment ratio. My blog’s average post:comment ratio is at about 1:2. This means, for every post I put up, I get double the # of comments. This ratio was about 2:1 last year at about the same time and it had not even reached breakeven. So, it is a satisfaction that my blog is a success in terms of these critical metrics.
Thank you, all for making this blog readable! Its only my readers who can turnaround this blog and I hope to keep you as repeat readers so the value of this blog is enhanced further!
What are the important factors one needs to consider before one begins to blog:
1. First, get over this obsession of Google adsense. 99/100 bloggers I meet first think of making a quick buck on adsense rather than focus on quality of their blogs and its relevance towards the topic(s) chosen! This is really very disturbing statistics. Read the rest of this entry »
She is one of my favorite actors. I like her roles because they show strength of character - especially in Dor. Nice to know she has nerves of steel to steer a Renault F1 car and send it screaming down the straits!
It looks like cars are not new to her when I realized she had featured on a rare Toyota commercial a few years back and I was struck with awe even then: http://www.gulpanag.net/tv/toyota.php
This is the erstwhile Jordan team that itself went through many christening events with being labeled as the Spyker F1 team and prior to which it was the Midland F1 team. Once upon a time, we even had Narain Karthikeyan drive for Jordan F1 a few years back.
Its owned and operated by none other than our patriotic billionnaire, Dr. Vijay Mallya. I like him for his outspokenness and candid nature. I know he will truly make a difference for the future of visibility of F1 and will single handedly take the revenues for F1 multi-fold by bringing in over a billion+ viewers and eyeballs to the F1 circus!
Here are the base specifications of this marvel that has drawn the attention of the 1 billion+ Indian population as also the global CEO’s of automotive companies to emulate this model of low cost production of people’s cars. Remember what Volkswagen (people’s car in German or Folkswagen - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen) did to Germany early in the 1900’s? The Tata’s might just as well repeat that feat multiplied by several factors in the Indian context - given India’s burgeoning population, growing disposable income and more and more looking for an affordable car that serves their needs!
Ratan’s Tata’s dream has become a reality today and almost all global have been full of commendation for this feat by TATA Motors for their latest innovation that currently does not have competitors since it is right now uncontested market space though this segment will hot up in the years to come but till then the Tata’s can count their volume sales in millions!
624cc Petrol engine (Diesel to follow soon as per Ratan Tata)
33BHP
A mileage of 20 kms to a liter and upto 26 kms to a liter on highways
A 30 liter petrol tank
A 4 door, 5-seater passenger capacity
A rear engine and a front boot
A 4 speed manual gear box
The sticker price is expected to be about Rs. 1 lacs but the actual on road price is expected to be in the region of Rs. 1.2 lacs
Front disc brakes and drums for the rear
Euro 4 compliant and has met all crash test norms for frontal impact and side impact to prove the detractors wrong!
A top speed of 90kmph
Best of all, this car has 21% more space than a conventional Maruthi 800!
Ratan Tata has made his dream a reality today! Here are some pictures of this machine that is quipped to change the entire Indian automotive landscape in the years to come!
Official production of this car will start later this year but it is to be seen as to whether the Tata’s will stick to their Sticker price or MSRP of Rs. 1 lacs (excluding taxes etc.) for this car.
Congratulations, Ratan Tata, you have made India proud!
Lets shortly analyze the economics of this deal and to see if the struggling Spyker F1 - http://www.spykerf1.nl/ - can be turned around by Mallya who has invested in this deal in his personal capacity.
Lets also examine if talented Indian drivers such as Narain Karthikeyan get that much needed break to drive for F1 again! Read the rest of this entry »
