Re: Tallboy Tales: From a Hyundai Santro to a Maruti Ritz VDi ABS It's been a few months since the Ritz came home and I'm yet to get used to its brakes. I find it hard to modulate the brakes. There is only some crude control over how quickly or gradually I wanna stop, especially in city traffic.
The other day, I was in pretty bad bumper-to-bumper traffic. A Ford Ikon was getting impatient behind me and trying to snake his way through the left (on a two lane road). The car in front of me stopped, I tried to stop gradually so as to give the guy behind some time to react, but what I did manage was one second of almost imperceptible braking followed by a hard stop. Bump! The Ford was up my tail-pipe! What an ...! I pulled over and inspected the bumper. Lost a spot of paint in the rear left corner, but no dents. I waved him off. Not worth the trouble of negotiating with him. Bumpers get bumped into. I'd got used to that reality in the last 11 years with the old car. But there it was. My first loss of paint. Quote:
Originally Posted by blue_pulsar Congratulations on the Ritz, SlowRider!
I feel, it is not the engine that is a problem. In 5th gear, the engine pulls cleanly from 80kmph all the way to 140kmph. More than the pull, it is the stability and confidence that the car gives, which is an issue. 120kmph is pretty scary on the Ritz. The lack of surefooted-ness is pretty evident. Not sure about the Santro, but I owned an i10 before. i10 used to feel scary at 100kmph. In that respect, the Ritz is better. |
Thanks blue_pulsar. I'm sure the engine can do a lot more, but I was referring to that sweet spot in the torque curve. After about 110, the accelereration was much milder in comparison to the wholesome push in the seats before. And because you're coming out of such a big torque wave, you feel the car has lost most of its pep.
If you think 120 is scary, I'm sure you have better cars as reference. I don't, so I'd say the Santro's 90 (the speed where you're unsure whether it's safe to accelerate) is Ritz's 120.
Last edited by SlowRider : 16th August 2013 at 15:48.
Reason: Corrected back-to-back posts
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