Dilip Chhabria, who will roll out the first desi sports car -Avanti -next year, reveals the anxiety, sweat and megabucks that went into designing it.
ET Bureau
Dilip Chhabria says that nowadays he is often pre occupied with worry and frustration, but when ETPanache met him in his office in Andheri, MIDC, there was excitement in the air. After four years of planning, three years of execution and a delay of one-and-a-half year, his company -DC Designs -is all set to roll out the first made-in-India super car, Avanti. Priced at Rs 40 lakh approximately, the company will start delivering cars to customers from March 2015. "There is a saying that although you want to buy a sports car when you are young, you can only afford it when you are old. This is a sports car which will be the third or fourth car in the family and probably, a father's gift to his son when he comes of age," says Chhabria. Designed for the Indian road, Avanti comes with a ground clearance of 170 mm. Chhabria says, "There is no way a speed breaker can stop this car".
From the looks of it, the car could easily be mistaken for a Lamborghini or Ferrari. "Except," says Chhabria, "The price of this car would barely amount to the tax component of any other international sports car. It also doesn't have that kind of raw horse power (500 bhp). Primarily because, you don't need that in India."
However, the car's 260 bhp engine is quite powerful and comes from Renault Sport in France. About 12 such cars have been loaned out already to leading auto publications and car-enthusiasts for review.
Chhabria is producing about 500 cars this year from the company's facility in Pune and expects to take this number to 2,000 in the next four years. The company has received bookings for 450 cars, of which 300 are export orders.
The three-year journey to rolling out this car wasn't as easy as it appears to be. "As a company and family, we had taken a huge risk. I have risked all that I have on this supercar. As we speak, we have already pumped in Rs 125 crore into the project," says Chhabria, who agrees that the delay was bound to raise questions about his company's credibility.
"These delays are common in the industry. However, in your head, it is a question of your credibility. But you got to do what is right for the product's longevity," he says.
The company might have been too ambitious in giving out an early launch date, but given that this was a first-of-its-kind Indian car, it obviously needed time. "We were creating a whole new segment. Getting a contract with Renault, France, was difficult. Every company wanted to know who they were dealing with," says Chhabria.
Thanks to DC Designs' goodwill in auto designing and engineering, the contract was attained and the ball was set in motion. Now Chhabria only hopes that Avanti's performance on Indian roads will set all other doubts to rest.
ET Bureau
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