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It takes courage to change a winning combination. The Mahindra Adventure Super XUV500s driven by Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif and Amittrajit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik had been dominating the Indian National Rally Championship for quite some time now. So why change? The simple answer is ‘because we could’. The concept of the Super XUV300 to replace the Super XUV500 in INRC was taken to prove the sportiness of the new car beyond doubt. We pushed the envelope further by developing a petrol and a diesel version each for this year. While the petrol car engine is developed to the FIA R2C spec, the diesel relies on a remapped stock motor. As in the past, the Super XUV300 has been developed for Mahindra Adventure by Arka Motorsports, headed by multiple time national rally/racing champion, Leela Krishnan.
After a quick shake down at Coimbatore, the Super XUV300s were given the first chance to prove their mettle at the first round of INRC 2019, the South India Rally at Chennai. The rally weekend saw fluctuating fortunes for the new kid on the rally stage. When you develop a rally car from scratch some technical issues can be expected but towards the end of the rally both cars and their drivers had found their rhythm. Gaurav Gill belted stage wins after stage wins and put the Super XUV300 R2C on podium. Commendable achievement for a new born. Amittrajit also posted stage wins before component failure resulted in DNF.
But valuable lessons have been learnt and course correction, where it is required, will be made. One thing is sure, there is huge potential and we won’t be surprised if the Super XUV300 goes on to scale more wins than its predecessor in Indian motorsport.
Watch this space!
“Okay convoy we will all be driving on the right side of the road, please be careful while overtaking and do not trust you co-driver.” – instructions on the in-car radios, as 20 Mahindra Adventure SUVs crossed over from India to Myanmar on Mahindra Adventure’s India Myanmar Thailand expedition
It all began in the parking lot. 98 Mahindra 4x4 SUVs which included modified and stock Thars, Scorpios, Bolero’s and XUVs were parked in a (what we thought to be huge) ground, which looked packed with all the vehicles, what a sight.
The year was 1996; Mahindra organized the first ‘Great Escape’ in Goa.
