Tata Safari Storme Launch - Just Around the Corner

After the whooping increase of 47 percent in the net profits for the fourth quarter of fiscal year, Tata Motors is in news again with the nearing launch of Tata Safari Storme. Sources suggest that the second iteration of Tata Safari is going to hit the market by the end of June or early July 2012. The official curtain raiser of this newfangled car was the 2012 Auto Expo that was held in New Delhi, which revealed that the new Safari Storme is lighter and larger than the current version of the car. Tata Motors has a lot planned for the Safari series, on one hand the existing Safari will continue to be on sale and on the other Tata Motors is planning on pricing the top-end variants of Safari Storme and lower variants of Tata Aria side by side.

This strategy will ensure that Tata Motors has something to offer at every step between Rs. 7-7.5 lakh to Rs. 16-17 lakh. Based on the Tata Aria platform, the Safari Storme also boasts of a hydroformed body-on-ladder chassis with the same length and wheelbase like the existing version. However, the turn radius will be shortened to 5.4 meters from the original 6 meters, which will make the manoeuvring of the car easy in tight spaces and off-roading.  Tata Safari Storme will support both the two wheel and four wheel drive architecture; the FWD guise will be affixed with a Borg Warner shift-on-the-fly system.

This neoteric version of the classic Safari is high on handling with a wider track on the front end and double wishbones in place of the torsion beam. The insides of the car have also been upgraded to a great extent which boasts of plastic trim that goes well with the plush fittings and panel gaps that have smaller tolerances. The seating arrangement is still the same with two jump seats at the rear, which makes the car capable of easily seating 7 adults.  On the outside, the new Tata safari will no longer sport the spare wheel on the tail gate; the spare wheel would rather be under it. The engine doing duty in the Safari Storme is the 2.2-liter DiCOR motor that powers the Tata Aria as well; the speciality of the same is that it produces more torque and is more reined than the regular 2.2-liter engine.

Capable of churning out a peak power of 140BHP at 4000 RPM and a peak torque of 32.6 kgm at 1700-2700 RPM, the Tata Safari Storme is sure to take on the likes of Mahindra Scorpio 2.2 mHawk. The DiCOR motor also has slicker shifting which is G-76 gearbox’s newer iteration. The pricing of the car is pretty aggressive as it would fall in the bracket of Rs. 9 to 12 lakh and the current version would be shifted to the Rs. 7 to 9 lakh range. The car is expected to face strong competition from the upcoming Renault Duster.

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