The Cobra

Carroll was born on January 11th, 1923, in Texas. He suffered from heart valve leakage problem by the age of 7 and spend most of his childhood in bed. By the age of 14 his health improved and he was declared to have outgrown his health problem. But he had dealt with health issues throughout his life.

Carroll honed his driving skills with his Willys Automobile. Later, starting out as an amateur, he initially raced a friend's MG TC. He soon became driver for Cad-Allard, Aston Martin and Maserati teams during the '50s. He was sports illustrated driver of the year in 1956 and 1957. He competed in F1 from 1958 to 1959, participated in total 8 world championship races and several non championship races. He took nitroglycerine pills when he was racing because of his heart. The highlight of his race driving career came in 1959, when he co drove an Aston Martin DBR1 to victory in 24 hours of LeMan. During this race he noted the performance of an English GT car built by AC cars, known as Ace. He soon had to  retire from racing for health reasons. He later opened a high performance driving school and the Shelby American Company.

AC cars were then going through a difficult time to find an engine for their race cars. AC had designed at Shelby's request by fiting a ford V8 to the popular AC Ace sports car, in place of its standard engine. The car came out and became one of the legendary cars ever build, the AC Cobra.

Shelby remained influential with Ford, manufacturing cars, that became iconic and much celebrated in the American Automobile history. Daytona Coupe, GT40, the Mustang based Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500

After parting with Ford, Shelby moved on to help develop performance cars with two other of the Big 3 american companies, Dodge and Oldsmobile.

In 2003, Ford Motor Co. and Carroll Shelby mended ties again and he became the technical advisor to the Ford GT project. In the same year, he formed Carroll Shelby International Inc. based in Nevada.

He had a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. Carroll Hall Shelby passed away on May 10, 2012 at the age of 89. He was inducted into the International Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992. He was also inducted into SCCA Hall of Fame in March 2, 2013.

A trully inspiring automobile designer, racing driver and entrepreneur.

Honda NSX

To target Ferrari 328, Honda came up with an ambitious mid-engine sports car which they called HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental), a prototype  which they later put into production with the name NS-X (New Sports car eXperimental). It was launched in late ’89. It showcased impressive technologies and used what were then unconventional materials, like extruded aluminum for chassis and titanium for its connecting rod, for its construction. It also became one of the finest handling cars ever made. Honda offered NSX a variety of configurations during its 15-years. Only 18,000 were ever build and is so one of the rarest car. It had 270hp and later 290hp V-6 engine.

     

Owning a second generation NSX will soon be a reality. The all new supercar will feature around 550hp using a twin turbocharged V6 and also electric motors that will manage torque at each corner. The new 75-degree six cylinders will be mounted longitudinally and therefore, the car gets a SH-AWD configuration. The power will be transmitted to the wheels via a 9-speed, dual clutch gearbox. A whole lot of carbon fiber will also be added to the car. 

Jaguar XE

Lets now move on from the Bentley SUV and topless Evoque because the biggest stir of 2015 was the Jaguar XE. The Jaguar didn't just moved a head in the competition, kicking down Audi, BMW and Mercedes in the company car stakes but they also produced a car that everyone would want based on it merits rather than its British roots.

The rivals for the new car will be the BMW 3 series, Audi A4, Mercedes C-class, Lexus IS, Audi A3 saloon. And so the Jaguar takes key ingredients from its rivals and adds style, sex appeal and a real world wow factor. Overall its a stunning looking, real good to drive. The brand is offering a large number of personalisation options for the XE. There are a large number of exterior, interior and wheel choices.

Engine: XE is powered by a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder, turbo-diesel producing 178bhp.

Running cost: 9kpl( Average)

Price:  ₹30 lac-  ₹50 lac

The interior looks almost similar to that of its big brother, XF. There are a lot of optional extras for interior, as I mentioned earlier. You can have a Jet/Mid night blue leather, etched aluminium veneers, ambient interior lighting( all no cost) and if you pay extra you can have parking pack, 10x10 ways electric front seat, Wi-Fi hotspot, InControl secure.

All in all the Jaguar XE is an exciting car. This car deserves top to be on the wishlist as it is stylish, well equipped and is good to drive. All it need is to hit the Indian shores and can't wait to see how it performs here.