Tata Motors has taken the covers off the new Racemo sports coupe at the 87th Geneva Motor Show - the 20th time the company has attended the European show. The car is the first product showcased under Tata's new sub-brand TAMO. Tata Group's new Chairman N Chandrasekaran and Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata were present at the unveiling.
TAMO Racemo Breaks Cover at Geneva
Racemo is a 2-seater sports car that sits under 4 metres in length (3835 mm) and sports a rear-mounted mid-engine. The Racemo is powered by the 1.2 litre turbocharged Revotron aluminium engine and surprisingly has a 6-Speed AMT with paddle shift. Power output is 186 bhp and it has 210 Nm of peak torque. Tata says the Racemo will do 0-100 kmph in under 6 seconds. The car uses a special body that has Tata's MOFlex multi-material sandwich structure. Tata says this is a 'structural technology that enables greater freedom in surface design, efficient large-scale part integration leading to modularity and faster time to market'.
Watch our video of the TAMO Racemo:
Designed at the Tata Motors' Design Studio in Turin, Italy, Racemo does draw on Tata's design language that has elements like the 'Humanity Line', and 'Diamond DLO' that we have seen on recent cars from the Tata stable. See our picture gallery for detailed look at the car. The car's MOFlex body construction takes into account crash protection, and the Racemo sports driver and passenger air bags to meet the updated Indian regulations that will be in place before it launches. The Racemo comes with a ground clearance of 165 mm and this is important as far as Indian road conditions are concerned but it will also come down to what the suspension setup is like on the car and we'll know more when we get a chance to drive it.
TAMO Racemo Rear
Speaking about the unveil of the sports coupe, Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said, "Racemo is the first innovation from TAMO, and our emotional, unexpected leap to the future. Symbolising the change that is taking place at Tata Motors, Racemo is the proving ground of the TAMO family of vehicles and will drive the future of India's connected generation. From styling and design to driver experience and technology, Racemo is an extension of customers' personality, as part of their digital ecosystem and will break the ice with a radical new presence and pique the interest in the parent brand."
TAMO Racemo is Designed in the Company's Design Studio in Turin, Italy
There will be 4 pillars the Racemo strategy will use 4 pillars to take the brand forward - the real world Racemo street car, a more powerful track version called Racemo+, a virtual version that's being introduced in Microsoft's Microsoft's Forza Horizon 3 game - the first Indian car on the Forza gaming platform, and a digital reality experiential plan to introduce the car to non-owners. The Racemo production car will be launched in the Indian market in early 2018. The car will also boast connected car features like navigation, predictive maintenance, remote monitoring and over-the-air updates using Microsoft cloud-based technologies. Tata had recently announced a long-term association with Microsoft for connected car tech, and the Racemo's features as well as its appearance on the XBox platform are the first fruits of that tie-up.
TAMO Racemo Cabin
The TAMO brand had teased the Racemo since the brand's launch in mid-February 2017. TAMO will see more products being unveiled, and are all likely to use the suffix -MO. This is representative of the TAMO brand itself, and also the MOFlex construction that they will employ. Tata's TAMO strategy is to offer small volume, quick-to-market, niche products, and so it is unlikely we will get to see a mass market product from TAMO in the short term. Given that the Racemo is a sub-4 metre car, it will will get excise benefits under the current pre-GST structure. However, considering that the car will be launched next year, we'll have to wait and watch, though the price slab will be on the lower side.
TAMO is expected to introduce its second model at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, on the heels of the Racemo's market launch in India. The parent brand Tata Motors also showed Geneva Editions of its two upcoming production models - Nexon and Tigor at the show.
TAMO Racemo
