Tata Motors brings 'HEXACITEMENT' to B'luruexhilarating
Last Updated IST
DH PHOTO BY KISHOR KUMAR BOLAR
Take a deep breath! Both hands on the steering wheel and concentrate as the margin of error is less. Welcome to Tata Motors’ first-hand experience to test the Hexa’s prowess on and off the road. The only car manufacturer which allowed the customers to drive and feel the car much before its launch.
This event will be one of the toughest moments for us to surpass with inclines, declines, side slopes, axle twisters and alternate rumblers, which is designed to test the power, stability and the driving experience of the Hexa.
Powered by an advanced next-gen 2.2-litre Varicor 400 diesel engine, the Tata Hexa delivers class leading 400 Nm torque and 156 PS power. The Hexa manual transmission variant, boasts first-in-segment super drive modes allowing the driver to seamlessly switch between the four different driving modes — auto, comfort, dynamic, and rough road, for enhanced ride comfort and stability over different terrains.
The auto mode is used on a day-to-day basis to drive in the city. Comfort is when you would basically want to get more mileage out of the vehicle. For example, if you’re driving on a highway and doing greater distances, then you will get more mileage with the comfort mode. Dynamic is also two-wheel drive, but in this, you would get a very aggressive acceleration.
It’s two-wheel drive, but with aggressive acceleration, you can show off a little bit, which means that you can basically take the car and do a kind of drifting and donut drifts. In the dynamic mode, though the acceleration is aggressive, the ESP of the vehicle kicks in a lot later. What that allows you to do is the moment you start sliding your car and the moment it senses that you are overdoing it, the ESP or the electronic stability programme of the vehicle will kick in. It will cut power from your vehicle and bring you in a straight line. It will not allow you to overdo it and be in a tight situation, or go and crash your car.
So that’s how the dynamic mode works. Then you have rough road, which is a four wheel drive mode. In this, the torque on demand is working at its most aggressive nature. Even with a slight throttle input, you are able to generate a lot more torque. The 400 NM of torque that the Hexa has is there just for you to use right at the slight input of the throttle. And in this, the traction control is also working very aggressively.
Articulation rams
In articulation rams, the vehicle is going to articulate, once it starts climbing, you will see that the vehicle is only a traction on two wheels. That’s when the traction control kicks in. You will see the wheel is spinning, and the moment it senses that it will automatically break that particular wheel and transfer the drive to the wheels that have traction and take you forward.
To get more torque, one has to shift from auto to rough road mode to go through this obstacle much more smoother without making the car struggle.
Honestly, as a driver, you can’t see anything. How do you judge that you are right in the correct position? It just comes by experience. As a passenger, you will pray, when this obstacle will be over. The tough part here is that the SUV is standing only on two wheels, which would create an imbalance and fear among passengers.
200-mm ground clearance
The Hexa has very good ground clearance of 200 mm. A set of rubber tubes were lined up, which we won’t come across daily, but it’s just to show you that you don’t have to come with great speed or you don’t have to build up momentum. We are just basically cruising through it.
One can notice the suspension of the vehicle, even though we are going through such kind of an obstacle, there is no struggle with the suspension. It’s much smoother and refined as well.
A set of rollers
The moment we start driving here, the rollers begin to roll, with the wheels free-wheeling over them. There is no traction. That’s when the traction control will kick in and transfer all the drive from the left-side wheels to the right-side wheels, and that’s how you go up. Otherwise, you’ll just be remain stationery, and won’t be able to go forward because they are rolling against your flow.
So here also, likewise, ground clearance plus the torque on demand that the vehicle has is the reason why we are able to go over this. Also, when you are off-roading, you should always be at a very gradual speed. There is no need for you to be fast.
The only reason for that is, when you go over obstacles, and if you are going to be at a higher speed, then the chances of hitting your under-body are even more because the suspension travel increases. But in this kind of a surface, it is all about play between — I mean the control that you have over the throttle and the clutch. Because it’s a manual, if you are not in the correct mode or your throttle control and clutch control are not right, the vehicle would stall.
12 feet at the top
The biggest obstacle we faced is climbing 12 feet high with the angle in the middle being 31 degrees; that’s the maximum this car can climb. This also comes with another feature which is known as hill-hold. For example, in a normal car, if you are in this situation, the moment you leave the brake, the car would roll back.
But this has hill-hold, which means the moment you leave the brake, the car will stay in this position for three seconds, and only then start rolling back. I will leave the brake now... 1, 2, 3... and then it starts going back.
This acts as a safety feature, giving you enough time to move your feet from the brake to the throttle. So now, we are doing this steep climb, and when I start climbing, you should just look up straight only then will you be able to experience it more.
The middle angle is about 31 degrees, and when we go up right at the top, we are going to slow the car down, and then we are going to descend the other way. Remember, one has to keep the power band up. The only reason for that is if the car stalls in between, then one has to come down all the way because the restart capability is 24 degrees and we are at 31 degrees. To compensate it, one will have to come all the way down. We failed twice as it needs good amount of experience to judge the amount of acceleration to tap.
This event will be one of the toughest moments for us to surpass with inclines, declines, side slopes, axle twisters and alternate rumblers, which is designed to test the power, stability and the driving experience of the Hexa.
Powered by an advanced next-gen 2.2-litre Varicor 400 diesel engine, the Tata Hexa delivers class leading 400 Nm torque and 156 PS power. The Hexa manual transmission variant, boasts first-in-segment super drive modes allowing the driver to seamlessly switch between the four different driving modes — auto, comfort, dynamic, and rough road, for enhanced ride comfort and stability over different terrains.
The auto mode is used on a day-to-day basis to drive in the city. Comfort is when you would basically want to get more mileage out of the vehicle. For example, if you’re driving on a highway and doing greater distances, then you will get more mileage with the comfort mode. Dynamic is also two-wheel drive, but in this, you would get a very aggressive acceleration.
It’s two-wheel drive, but with aggressive acceleration, you can show off a little bit, which means that you can basically take the car and do a kind of drifting and donut drifts. In the dynamic mode, though the acceleration is aggressive, the ESP of the vehicle kicks in a lot later. What that allows you to do is the moment you start sliding your car and the moment it senses that you are overdoing it, the ESP or the electronic stability programme of the vehicle will kick in. It will cut power from your vehicle and bring you in a straight line. It will not allow you to overdo it and be in a tight situation, or go and crash your car.
So that’s how the dynamic mode works. Then you have rough road, which is a four wheel drive mode. In this, the torque on demand is working at its most aggressive nature. Even with a slight throttle input, you are able to generate a lot more torque. The 400 NM of torque that the Hexa has is there just for you to use right at the slight input of the throttle. And in this, the traction control is also working very aggressively.
Articulation rams
In articulation rams, the vehicle is going to articulate, once it starts climbing, you will see that the vehicle is only a traction on two wheels. That’s when the traction control kicks in. You will see the wheel is spinning, and the moment it senses that it will automatically break that particular wheel and transfer the drive to the wheels that have traction and take you forward.
To get more torque, one has to shift from auto to rough road mode to go through this obstacle much more smoother without making the car struggle.
Honestly, as a driver, you can’t see anything. How do you judge that you are right in the correct position? It just comes by experience. As a passenger, you will pray, when this obstacle will be over. The tough part here is that the SUV is standing only on two wheels, which would create an imbalance and fear among passengers.
200-mm ground clearance
The Hexa has very good ground clearance of 200 mm. A set of rubber tubes were lined up, which we won’t come across daily, but it’s just to show you that you don’t have to come with great speed or you don’t have to build up momentum. We are just basically cruising through it.
One can notice the suspension of the vehicle, even though we are going through such kind of an obstacle, there is no struggle with the suspension. It’s much smoother and refined as well.
A set of rollers
The moment we start driving here, the rollers begin to roll, with the wheels free-wheeling over them. There is no traction. That’s when the traction control will kick in and transfer all the drive from the left-side wheels to the right-side wheels, and that’s how you go up. Otherwise, you’ll just be remain stationery, and won’t be able to go forward because they are rolling against your flow.
So here also, likewise, ground clearance plus the torque on demand that the vehicle has is the reason why we are able to go over this. Also, when you are off-roading, you should always be at a very gradual speed. There is no need for you to be fast.
The only reason for that is, when you go over obstacles, and if you are going to be at a higher speed, then the chances of hitting your under-body are even more because the suspension travel increases. But in this kind of a surface, it is all about play between — I mean the control that you have over the throttle and the clutch. Because it’s a manual, if you are not in the correct mode or your throttle control and clutch control are not right, the vehicle would stall.
12 feet at the top
The biggest obstacle we faced is climbing 12 feet high with the angle in the middle being 31 degrees; that’s the maximum this car can climb. This also comes with another feature which is known as hill-hold. For example, in a normal car, if you are in this situation, the moment you leave the brake, the car would roll back.
But this has hill-hold, which means the moment you leave the brake, the car will stay in this position for three seconds, and only then start rolling back. I will leave the brake now... 1, 2, 3... and then it starts going back.
This acts as a safety feature, giving you enough time to move your feet from the brake to the throttle. So now, we are doing this steep climb, and when I start climbing, you should just look up straight only then will you be able to experience it more.
The middle angle is about 31 degrees, and when we go up right at the top, we are going to slow the car down, and then we are going to descend the other way. Remember, one has to keep the power band up. The only reason for that is if the car stalls in between, then one has to come down all the way because the restart capability is 24 degrees and we are at 31 degrees. To compensate it, one will have to come all the way down. We failed twice as it needs good amount of experience to judge the amount of acceleration to tap.