The DC Avanti is built and sold to exclusively do one job – attract attention. At INR 36 lakh (ex-showrrom), there isn’t anything similarly priced that’d attract as much attention on the road as a DC Avanti. For some Avanti owners however, that attention needs to be translated into respect (from the ignorant), something that the DC badge won’t really earn.
How about a Lamborghini badge then? That’s precisely what one Avanti owner from Pune has done!
Counting on the fact that the Lamborghini badge is held in high esteem amidst India’s hoi polloi, and the Avanti, in some dictionaries, could be mistaken for one, the owner decided to swap badges. All of which still could have been forgiven with a smirk followed by distaste, but disastrously, he misspelled Lamborghini.
Things, including the letter h, got lost in translation. The locally crafted shield on the Avanti’s bonnet reads “Lamborgini”, while the raging bull logo has been replaced by the Shiv Mudra – an ode to Shivaji the Great in Sanskrit. The Indian sports car’s derrière has also been stamped with the Italian supercar manufacturer’s name, but from what we can see (below), spelling mistakes are restricted to the front end.
Built over a lightweight space frame chassis, the DC Avanti, which claims to be India’s first mass produced sports car (can’t argue with that), is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, good for 248 bhp, and mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. 0-100 kph is dispatched in a claimed 6 seconds, while top speed is electronically limited to 180 kph. Know more about the DC Avanti, including a detailed specification and feature list HERE.
Images: Team-BHP
In my Books, The Mitsuoka Orochi, a Chinese car, was the most ugly looking car, in the WMF super car kinda thing. But then this car just knocked it off that coveted pedestal. Now this. Lamborgini is a nice touch. There is no doubt that this car will attract attention. But it wont be the one where it would get appreciated, rather the one where one would feel quite disgusted and have sick coming up his throat.
Please do not compare the DC Avanti with Lamborghini and Ferrari, this is a properly built sports car that should be considered the “Toyota MR2 of India”. That Renault engine has great potential and can be tuned up to make some serious power, it's only a matter of time that the tuners that we have in our country would come up with something incredibly creative for this car. Do not underestimate this car because it is made in India. I should know because my first car was a Renault with a petrol engine and my second car is a Toyota MR2.