A new year usually means new beginnings, but with an OVERDRIVE issue this packed, it can be hard to decide where to begin! So let's start at the top. To celebrate the New Year, Team OVERDRIVE took eight compact SUVs to a land far, far away. We headed to the Orange Festival in Dambuk, Arunachal Pradesh. Along the way lay good and bad roads, impossible scenery and more. And at the end of the road lay a concert where Yngwie Malmsteen, one of the world's top rock guitarists, was to play for us. Read our extensive feature to see which of the compact SUVs likes heavy mettle. January is the month when we look back at the past year and identify the peaks the automotive industry climbed. In this issue you will find all the winners of the 17th CNBC-TV18 OVERDRIVE Awards, the most prestigious and amongst the oldest of the Indian automotive awards.
While we weren't discussing the winners or driving the compact SUVs, other things were afoot. Pradeb tested the new Volvo XC90 T8 Excellence, the plug-in hybrid version of the beautiful Scandinavian SUV. Shumi, meanwhile, had a rather good month too. He got to pit the stunning Ducati 959 Panigale against the iconic and urgent MV Agusta F3, at a racetrack. And he wasn't done. Then he took the heartbreakingly beautiful Triumph Thruxton R out for laps as well. But someone had to test the new Hero Achiever to see where it sits against its peers. Ashok was called upon to test the Achiever against the Honda Unicorn and the Bajaj V15. But as important as this comparison was, Ashok's month is far from over. He also went to experience the new Harley-Davidson Roadster and the Triumph Bonneville Bobber, two motorcycles that are not quite in the mould of what their manufacturers usually do. The car boys were closing out 2016 in style too. You will find them in the Nissan GT-R, the Volkswagen Polo GTI, Mercedes-AMG C 43 and more. Shumi quietly sneaked a drive in the new BMW 5 Series as well. Also in the issue is the 4-cylinder Porsche Macan and a comparison between the CVT versions of the Honda Jazz and the Maruti Suzuki Baleno. And it still isn't over. India's best motorsport coverage opens with a feature of Gaurav Gill that tracks the rally champion's growth from an impulsive young man with skills to a calmer, more methodical driver of great talent and devastating effectiveness. There are also the reports from the Chikmagalur round of the APRC and a report on the Rainforest Challenge Malaysia written while standing in the knee-deep slush of the Malay jungle. All that in one tightly packed issue that will make you laugh, make you wonder and make you go mad with desire. What are you waiting for? Grab your copy now!
