The Tata Super Ace mini truck is narrow enough, with a long wheelbase, to be an easy drive in tight city streets while remaining stable in middling fast turns.
She’s compact enough to make navigation in tight spaces a breeze.
Category: Tata
Quick note: 18-seater Super Ace
The Tata Super Ace “Big Boy” with it’s air-conditioned jeepney-style rear body can seat 16 in back and 2 in front. That 18 pax capacity and the over two tons of gross weight is all the more remarkable given the mini truck’s diminutive yet robust 1.4L turbo diesel that’s smaller even than that on a Hyundai Accent sedan.
Yet the powertrain delivers with a 5-speed manual gearbox that puts torque through extra deep 1st and 2nd gear ratios.
The Tata Indigo, a gem of unfashionable overengineering
Built thick and rigid, and powered by a truck’s turbodiesel, the Tata Indigo subcompact sedan is the heaviest in its class. She sounds like a minibus gone throaty, but she’s fast, and she’s nimble. Her undercarriage engineering harks back to when front-wheel-drive was still a new, premium layout–something to make the most of with independent suspension in front, and in back. She’s what you’d look for when robustness matters more than mere refinement.
Tata Motors at MIAS 2016
At the recently concluded Manila International Auto Show (MIAS), Tata Motors Philippines was intent on setting the record straight.
Sounding exotic enough to be typecast as oriental—as originating from East or Southeast Asia—Tata has often been mistaken as coming from South Korea, Malaysia or China. But last April 7, at their MIAS opening day press show, they reached every corner of the large World Trade Center exhibit hall with the sound, if not the scenes, of their audio-visual presentation that declared Tata as a brand from India. Tata is the biggest local automotive manufacturer in India with sales of 494,000 units in 2015. Put in perspective, that number is 64% over and above the 300,000 vehicles sold in the Philippines last year.
Tata Motors Philippines exhibited nine vehicles at MIAS: six commercial vehicles and three passenger cars. Ironically, the mix reflects Tata’s automotive sales structure in India, their trucks/buses volumes outnumbering their passenger cars sales more than two to one. Of their nearly half million sales in 2015, 360,000 were in commercial vehicles and 134,000 in passenger cars—so, a truck maker, among the biggest in the world, and more recently a passenger car manufacturer.
From small to large, the six trucks showcased were several variants each of Tata’s Ace micro- and Super Ace light-trucks, their Xenon 4×4 pick-up, and their Prima heavy duty truck in tipper configuration. These surrounded the three passenger cars arrayed in the center of their MIAS pavilion: the compact Manza Aura sedan and Vista Ignis hatchback, both with newly developed body kits that could soon be introduced here, and the sub-compact Indigo sedan in taxi-cab livery.
This is the third consecutive year that Tata Motors has participated in MIAS. Referring to the Ace micro- and Super Ace light-truck offerings, in particular, Tata Motors Head of International Business for Commercial Vehicles Mr. Rudrarup Maitra said: “MIAS 2016 is an excellent platform for Tata Motors to showcase our extensive line-up of offerings which have been specially designed keeping the Filipino customer in mind. The products on display today, offer maximum value for its customers and are built based on extensive customer feedback. With new-generation products like the currently showcased Prima and Super Ace, we at Tata Motors are geared to cater to the evolving needs of the Filipino customer. “
Exhibited were Ace micro-trucks in rescue and food truck configurations. The Ace Rescue Boy was developed to be a first responder vehicle featuring a patented roof boat system atop a passenger structure kept light with mostly aluminum components. In contrast, the Ace Food Truck’s rear body is constructed of rust-resistant stainless-steel that unfolds/expands into a spacious kitchen counter for secure transport and quick deployment into safe, stationary service. The variants are built with Ace cabs and chassis brought in direct from India and featuring a remarkable 702cc two-cylinder diesel engine that delivers 16hp through a rugged 4-speed manual gearbox.
The larger Super Ace light-truck offerings featured passenger rear bodies built by Centro to Tata Motors specifications. There was the passenger van, a high-riding, dual AC transport with jeepney-style side-facing seats that could accommodate 14 people in the rear, and the Ace in school bus configuration with a rear body featuring mandated front-facing seats and a curb-side door. The Super Ace light-truck is more of a mainstream inter-town transport with a rugged 1.4L turbodiesel with conventional yet also more reliable indirect fuel injection.
The Tata Xenon XT 4×4 mid-size pick-up was exhibited with an aftermarket sports bar and roof mounted fog lamps to highlight how the solid utility vehicle may readily be rendered more aggressive, more sporty. To be launched this year is their Prima heavy truck in construction dump-truck configuration but which, in tractor-truck form, also figures in Tata’s T1 truck races in India.
Gracing the opening of the Tata Motors pavilion on day one of MIAS was Kim “Kuya Kim” Atienza who underscored how the carmaker’s history in rugged utility vehicles pervades even their newer, lighter truck and passenger car models. In his words, an equation: “Tibay, tiwala, Tata.”
Finessing stick and throttle on the Tata Vista Ini 75PS 1.4L
The Tata Vista Ini, gasoline fuelled base-variant of the larger successor to their popular Indica diesel mini-hatch, delivers an interesting torque curve that could be driven diesel-like with fuel-saving short-shifting, or strong and conventional to get it throaty and zippy in city traffic. You just have to decide which way you want to go on roll-out, and stick to it.
Driving the Tata Vista Ini 1.4L, my expectations were not high. For a base variant, the Visa Ini is well appointed: power windows and locks, hydraulic-assist steering, adjustable steering wheel, the usual adjustments on the driver’s seat plus an extra one for lumbar support, and all-important folding rear seats to expand the cargo capacity from 232 liters to over 600 and turn the hatchback into a flexible hauler. But I had misgivings about the engine.
The Vista Ini mounts a 75PS petrol engine (that PS stands for metric horsepower, equivalent to 99% of imperial horsepower, the familiar kind). It seems to have replaced the 65PS 1.2L engine that had been the base variant’s engine in other markets, but the 75PS still delivers 15PS less than does the 90PS engine that’s an option for the hatchback, also in other markets.
The Vista Ini is the most basic of four hatchback and sedan variants, the four Vista and Manza variants available in the Philippine market. Here, there’s the Vista Ini base variant mounting a 75ps 1.4L Safire gasoline burner, and the top-end Vista Ignis with its 75ps 1.3L Quadrajet diesel. The Manza sedan has similar distinctions between a base and a top-end variant: the Manza Ini with 90ps 1.4L Safire gasoline engine, the Manza Aura with 90ps 1.3L Quadrajet diesel. See the table, Vista & Manza Variants, Philippine Market: put together, the four specific variants, combinations of hatchback/sedan types and gasoline/diesel engine options, describe a swinging price ladder (Vista to Manza to Vista to Manza) from P565K all the way up to P738K.
I had driven the Manza Ini and the 90PS 1.4L on the Vista’s sedan counterpart felt just right, pushing it along in fast enough, stately-but-strong fashion. So, on the Vista that’s just 50kg lighter than the Manza sedan, I expected that disproportionately large 17% reduction in power to result in sluggish performance, and this in contrast with the hatchback’s sportier silhouette. I was wrong, should’ve known better.
Enough power, and then some
A conventional shift schedule—up-shifts at 20, 40, 60 and 80 km/h, shifts happening with the engine usually turning at above 2000rpm, to get from 1st to 5th gear—makes the Vista a smart mover. This, even with five people on board. It’ll rev up so easily on a conventional shift schedule, those 3000 will quickly turn into 4000rpm, or even more, when you’re in 1st or 2nd gear.
When I tried it, 2nd gear got me to nearly 60km/h, the tachymeter peaking near 5000rpm. Get to a 100km/h cruise and that stint in 5th gear won’t feel like the end of the road. Cruise will be at 2500 to 3000rpm and, if you’re looking to stay under a speed limit, you’d then have to finesse the throttle because there’s enough torque working through the gearbox to still accelerate smartly. So, apparently, there’s more to those 75PS of the Vista Ini.
8-valve Safire
All engine options are sourced from Fiat. The Vista’s gasoline fuelled Safires and diesel Quadrajets are from Fiat India Automobile, a joint venture between Tata Motors and the Italian company that has been more successful, so far, at supplying car and SUV engines in India rather than marketing the Fiat brand there. The Safire name is a derivative of Fiat’s original FIRE trademark which stands for “Fully Integrated Roboticized Engine.”
See the table, Tata Vista Safire Options, Global. In other markets, Tata’s home market of India included, the Vista’s gasoline powered variants mount a 65ps 1.2L, the 75ps 1.4L, or a 90ps 1.4L Safire engine. These renamed FIRE engines are designed to be modular, configurable for assembly on completely automated assembly lines. All Vista Safire engines have the same 72mm diameter bore, with the 65ps 1.2L engine having a shorter stroke of 72mm compared to the 84mm of the 75ps and 90ps 1.4L engines. This is how displacement is varied on the different FIRE engine variants, at least from 1172cc on the 1.2L to 1368cc on the 1.4L, by varying stroke lengths through what could be a common sized cylinder block. Modular, as you can see.The 75PS 1.4L shares some characteristics with either the smaller 65PS 1.2L, or the more powerful 90ps 1.4L Safire. It takes the cylinder head with the SOHC 8 valve valvetrain of the 65ps 1.2L and puts it atop the cylinder block and crankcase of the 90ps 1.4L Safire. The effect of using an 8-valve valvetrain on the middle engine is to make torque peak early, and linger there, from 3000 to 3500rpm.
So, what Tata did was give the Vista hatchback better city car torque by swapping out the DOHC 16-valve cylinder head and replacing it with an SOHC 8-valve. With peak torque numbers virtually equal at 84lb-ft on the 75PS and 85lb-ft on the 90, the seemingly less powerful engine actually has the better street-going profile with torque peaking much earlier and staying there from 3000 to 3500rpm. Ideal for stop-and-go city driving, even for driving on rough roads between cities, and, ultimately, for cruising with as little revs as possible. It’s an elegant way to tune the Manza sedan’s 1.4L 4-pot engine to be more responsive for the Vista hatchback. But others have thought the 75PS to be underpowered, and I know why.
Drive it like a diesel
The Vista Ini rolls out with hardly any pressure on the throttle. In fact, you could manage to roll off with zero throttle, conserving revs and letting these dip ever so slightly below idle by feathering the clutch to get the car moving. This seemingly abundant torque lets you drive the Vista like a diesel, easing in the clutch before initially stepping on the gas at roll-out, or when again giving it some throttle after an up-shift, and the Vista can be short-shifted at 15, 30, 45 and 60km/h, the engine not even reaching 2000rpm before shifts, to get from 1st all the way up to 5th gear. 
It takes practice, timing throttle action an instant after letting in the clutch to put load on the engine before revving up, but this analog of a diesel drive might actually have been intended by Tata since the Vista supersedes their Indica hatchback which gained popularity with its compact size and diesel engine combination. Done right on the Vista Ini’s gasoline engine, short-shifting will deliver a reported 12.5km/l in city traffic or 21.2km/l on the highway.
The tricky part is that your own muscle memory could fool you into mistaking that strong roll-out pull to mean a gasoline engine with over generous low-end torque, enough torque to shift early for aggressive acceleration (instead of that laid-back short shift climb to cruise). There’s so much torque in 1st gear on roll-out that you’ll be tempted to go to 2nd gear too early with the fractional momentum you’ve built up, and then punch the gas. This early up shift, if you’re looking to punch it, it’s what causes the Vista to stumble.
The Vista’s C 549 5-speed gearbox has an unusually deep gear ratio on 1st (4.273 instead of the typical 3.830) but a typical one on 2nd (2.238 which is close enough to the usual 2.200). So, when you shift to 2nd early, counting on that torque to be there to offset momentum not yet built-up, things will go off the rails a bit. There’ll be a shudder, the engine flirting with a stall, the moment you let the clutch back in and step on the gas. There’s just too big a spread between those 1st and 2nd gear ratios.
This or that
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=josJWHHjbUY&w=500&align=right]
Shift early to 2nd, no problem, but stay the course and stay relaxed with diesel-like short shifting with 15km/h increments all the way to 5th gear. Otherwise, if it’s smart acceleration you’re looking to get from the Vista’s gasoline engine, stay on a conventional shift-schedule, 20km/h stages, and fall back on familiar, simultaneous rev-up and clutching as you go through the gears.
Just make the decision as you roll-out though. If it’s conventional you want, smart and consistent gas-engine acceleration all the way on a run, there’s this rule of twos you could use as a mantra: don’t hit 2nd gear until you’re at around 20km/h or have about 2000rpm.
I can’t blame you if you’d want to go strong most of the time. Despite excellent fuel-economy with short-shifting, there lingers this compelling reason to still go conventional, after all. Get those revs up near 3000rpm and the 75PS 1.4L Safire will start to show its Fiat origins, sounding satisfying, throaty, and Italian.
Tata Indigo sedan now offered in LX Variant with ABS and dual airbags
Tata Motors Philippines now offers the new LX variant of their Indigo sub-compact sedan which features an anti-lock brake system and dual airbags up front. Apparently, what they first introduced as a possible fleet vehicle contender with their DLE variant is now being trimmed up to take on family car duties with the option for GrabCar and Uber side jobs as well, and for good reason.
With tall seating in a passenger box with low shoulders, big headspace and lots of visibility through generous window glazing, the Indigo is an easy sedan to drive or ride, board or disembark from. And, the uncompromisingly large trunk space (which could even fit a wheelchair) is enough for long vacations as well as daily carpool commutes to school and office.
The most visible change is in the dashboard where the passenger side airbag goes into a modular enclosure resting atop the deep-sunken dash ledge but which is also kept flush with the windshield line. Not really obtrusive, the enclosure serves as excellent reminder not to let young children, much less infants in booster seats, sit up front.
Unchanged are the model’s unique powertrain, large-rimmed 14” wheels, robust yet supple suspension and, consequently, its surprisingly good handling. The 1.4L 475 TCIC turbodiesel is the newest, most powerful engine offered on this model globally, and is tuned to the same 70ps (69hp) @ 4500rpm and 135nm (100lb-ft) @ 2500rpm power specifications as the engine on Tata’s workhorse Super Ace light truck (see our full story review, The Tata Super Ace passenger prototype on a real world mission).
Very telling is the engine’s 5.5L oil capacity. The relatively large lubricant store (compared to 3.2L for the FIAT based engines on Tata’s newer sedan model, the Manza) is indicative of the kind of mileage this engine is engineered to endure. All told, this makes the Indigo the only sub-compact sedan in the market powered by a commercial vehicle grade turbodiesel.
The 14” rimmed wheels—large for a utilitarian microsedan—handle potholes and rough roads particularly well as these are sprung on a fully independent suspension system front and back, and which features McPherson struts all-around, on all four wheel assemblies. With firm shock dampeners to mitigate roll, the independent suspension goes a long way towards keeping all wheels firmly planted even on uneven surfaces or through G-pulling turns.
SRP for the Indigo LX is now PhP535,000, up by PhP10,000 or just 2% from last year’s PhP525,000 price tag for the older DLE variant without the new safety features. Evaluated against the new ABS and airbag features, that PhP10,000 price up-tick looks like a bargain.
The Indigo’s design dates back to when its hatchback basis, the Indica, was introduced in 1998. Looked at another way, with a history going that far back, its elegant mix of robust engine, dynamic suspension and extremely rigid body construction does explain its longevity. And this, along with the addition of modern safety features, certainly gives it the substance to overshadow the aging look of its design aesthetics.
RWD Note: Check in next week when we update this story with a video of our Indigo test drive, and again next month for our full review story where we report how to make this fuel-efficient sub-compact sedan zoom through overtakes.
Tata goes into full production of Super Ace passenger variants
Tata Motors Philippines has rolled out the production variants of their Super Ace light truck with passenger bodies. Prior to this, Super Ace cab and chassis offerings were for cargo vehicles with either a drop side load body or an aluminum cargo van box.
Now, Tata adds two passenger van variants with side-seating in the rear, and a school service variant with front-facing seats and a curb-side door. The Super Ace line now includes six variants—a base chassis, two for cargo and three for passengers. Notably, Super Ace offerings are not limited to these six variants. Tata accepts orders for the light truck chassis fitted out with custom-built rear bodies.
| Tata Super Ace Variants | SRP |
| Super Ace cab and chassis | Php550,000 |
| Super Ace drop-side cargo flat-bed | Php625,000 |
| Super Ace aluminum cargo van box | Php632,000 |
| Super Ace “Big Boy” passenger van with single AC | Php683,000 |
| Super Ace “Big Boy” passenger van with dual AC | Php725,000 |
| Super Ace school service van with dual AC | Php834,000 |
See our review of the pre-production Super Ace “Big Boy” prototype with passenger body that featured a dual AC setup which we reported as blowing amply cooled air through a full-length duct in the rear cabin. We also reported that the small though modern 1.4ltr turbodiesel of the Super Ace stands up well against the larger displacement 2.5ltr conventional diesel of market-leader Mitsubishi’s L300 chassis fitted with passenger bodies.
The Tata Super Ace passenger prototype on a real world mission
I again went to Tata Philippines, to see if they’d help out on an outreach drive. They got back to me within minutes. Sure! How many passengers on this drive did you say?
The mission: get teaching volunteers to a school in the countryside and get them there fresh and ready to show kids the fun, the wonders, the fulfilment of reading. It was another drive for the Barangay Early Literacy Program (BELP) of Adarna Group Foundation, Inc. (AGFI), this one to St. Joseph Elementary School in Macabaklay, Gapan City, Nueva Ecija. For this drive, two AGFI point persons were being joined by 13 members of UP PreP—the University of the Philippines Preschool Practitioners student organization. Add me and this brought the total loadout to sixteen, for a 110km trip each way through NLEX, a stretch of Pan-Philippine Highway, and over kilometers of rough rural roads that would take us to the outskirts of Gapan.
Pre-production transport
For these load, distance and expected road conditions, Tata volunteered a demonstrator, a pre-production unit of their Super Ace light truck with a passenger body built by Centro and featuring its own Cirrus air-conditioning system. The Super Ace is a further development of the small hauler concept that Tata had started with the Ace micro-truck (see our story on the Ace). And, like on the smaller Ace, going into production with a locally fabricated passenger body on the Super Ace would turn this into the light truck’s biggest and heaviest variant in any of its markets to date.
| TATA | MITSUBISHI | |||
| Super Ace | L300 Exceed | |||
| 16-seat body | 14-seat body | |||
| Dimensions | ||||
| – | Length | mm | 4640 | 4640 |
| – | Width | mm | 1565 | 1695 |
| – | Height | mm | 2090 | 1965 |
| – | Wheelbase | mm | 2380 | 2350 |
| – | Front tread | mm | 1340 | 1440 |
| – | Rear tread | mm | 1320 | 1380 |
| – | Clearance | mm | 160 | 190 |
| Weights | ||||
| – | Curb weight | kg | 1550 | 1540 |
| – | Gross vehicle weight | kg | 2260 | 2345 |
| – | Nominal payload | kg | 730 | 825 |
| Powertrain | ||||
| – | Engine | code | Tata 475 IDI TCIC | Mitsubishi 4D56 |
| – | Fuel | Diesel | Diesel | |
| – | Displacement | cc | 1,405 | 2,477 |
| – | Induction | intercooled turbo | normal | |
| – | Bore x stroke | mm x mm | 75.0 x 79.5 | 91.1 x 95 |
| – | Compression ratio | 21 : 1 | 21 : 1 | |
| – | Peak power | hp@rpm | 70@4500 | 69@4200 |
| – | Peak torque | lb-ft@rpm | 99.6@2500 | 103.3@2500 |
| – | Emission standard | Euro III | Euro II | |
| – | Transmission | type | 5-speed manual | 5-speed manual |
| – | Gear ratios | 1st | 5.070 | 4.330 |
| 2nd | 2.400 | 2.355 | ||
| 3rd | 1.410 | 1.509 | ||
| 4th | 1.000 | 1.000 | ||
| 5th | 0.790 | 0.827 | ||
| Reverse | 3.980 | 4.142 | ||
| Final | 4.110 | 4.625 | ||
| Running gear | ||||
| – | Suspension | front | McPherson struts | Independent wishbones |
| rear | semi-ellip.leaf spring | semi-ellip.leaf spring | ||
| – | Brakes | front | ventilated discs | ventilated discs |
| rear | drums with LCRV | drums | ||
The passenger body adds about 300kg to the curb weight and 300mm to the overall length of the Super Ace’s flatbed drop-side truck variant. Weighing 1550kg dry as I reckon it and measuring 4,640mm in length, the Super Ace with passenger body is at par with the popular Mitsubishi L300 FB Exceed light truck which weighs in at 1,540kg and measures 4,640mm long with its extended rear passenger body. The Super Ace is more compact, with shoulders narrower by 130mm, and yet has a shallower front cabin that let Centro squeeze in 16 seats in the rear cabin—two more than the L300 Exceed’s 14 while still matching its overall length.
Powertrain punch
The Super Ace truck chassis was developed to go slightly up-market of its small, micro-truck predecessor, the Ace, which makes the most of a surprisingly diminutive 16hp 2-cylinder 702cc diesel engine. In comparison to the Ace’s engine, the Super Ace’s 1,405cc turbodiesel does seem large, but it’s still somewhat downsized compared to the 2.5L conventional and normally aspirated diesel mounted by the iconic Mitsubishi L300 multi-cab. This said, the intercooled turbocharger on the Tata makes it so you wouldn’t notice the difference. The 1,405cc Tata 475 IDI TCIC intercooled turbodiesel delivers peak power and torque of 70hp at 4500rpm and 100lb-ft at 2500rpm, respectively. Those numbers are a near match to the 69hp at 4200rpm and 103lb-ft at 2500rpm of the 2.5liter conventional diesel of the famous Mitsubishi L300.
Unladen, the Super Ace submits easily to the kind of short-shifting possible with a diesel’s trademark low-end torque. The micro-truck rolls easily even with your foot barely touching the gas pedal. Then, while putting moderate pressure on the accelerator, you’ll do up-shifts as the tachymeter hits 2000rpm, at 15km/h for the shift up to 2nd, 30km/h for the one to 3rd, 45km/h for 4th, and 60km/h to get you finally into 5th. This should make for good fuel consumption on ferry trips, the truck empty and en-route to its next pick-up, even while in traffic where 60km/h is the highest speed you can expect to reach on city cruise.
Heavily loaded as it was on the Gapan trip, and with the engine burdened by a big compressor working full bore to feed a dual aircon package, the Super Ace gracefully falls back on a conventional up-shift schedule with 20km/h increments. It’s still possible to roll-out without stepping on the gas—just working with extra-gentle let-off on the clutch pedal to keep the engine from stalling—but the up-shifts are best done when the tachymeter hits 2500rpm, triggering up-shifts at 20km/h for going to 2nd, 40km/h for the shift to 3rd, 60km/h for 4th, and finally 80km/h for settling into 5th.
A truck’s transmission
Having been engineered as a compact truck from the start, unlike the L300 which started out as this market’s iconic Versavan people-mover of the 1980’s, the Super Ace has a hauler’s transmission with deeper ratios on 1st (5.070:1) and 2nd (2.400:1) gear. This explains the smooth roll out even with little if any throttle, and indicates that 2nd is the workhorse gear until you approach cruise speed. On the Gapan trip, the Super Ace with heavy load, overtakes through small-town traffic saw us camping out on 2nd gear to accelerate from under to 40km/h up to 60km/h, revs peaking at 3750rpm.
Ratios start getting tall and engine revs settle down once you transition through 3rd (1.410:1) and 4th (as expected, a direct drive 1.000:1). The 5th gear is exceptionally tall (0.790:1), consequently making up for high RPMs during acceleration with a low-rev cruise. Top speed for the dropside flatbed truck variant is reported to be 125km/h. We didn’t go near this figure with the passenger body Super Ace but did achieve a 100km/h cruise on SLEX, 16 souls on board, with the engine in 5th gear and turning at 2750rpm.
Surprising handling
The Super Ace feels solid at speed, both on straight highway tarmac and, within reason, through fast curves or turns. The engine is mounted low and mid-front behind the line of the front wheels, delivering better balance nearer to the middle of the long wheelbase that acts like a dense keel. Together, long wheelbase and middle mounted engine add force to keeping the Super Ace upright. There’s body roll, of course, but not as much as you’d expect on a tall, narrow truck.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8srxdgeM7k&w=480&align=right]
And, that long wheelbase again, this time in concert with the independent front suspension sprung on McPherson struts, made for excellent control on rough countryside roads with cracked or non-existent pavement. The exceptional road visibility and space efficiency of a cab-over design typically comes with the trade-off of a jittery driving position atop a front wheel. But on the Super Ace, that wheel top hot seat felt steadier, a good stable position on which to pilot the truck around or over road obstacles. It all really comes together: see the video of the drive through NLEX and over rough-roads at Gapan’s outskirts.
Dual-type A/C
The Super Ace is a comfortable ride made better by cool cabins in front as well as at the back. For its dual-type A/C, the pre-production rear passenger body featured a large novel duct running the full length of the cabin, with return flow taken up by the condenser in a compact housing at the front end of the duct. Cooling with more than a dozen passengers in back was sufficient, even causing condensation on the windows on numerous occasions.
Though the airconditioning was challenged by the sun’s glare at high noon on the Gapan trip, this is easily remedied by drapes or medium to dark tinting on the windows. Additionally, while the long duct did much to get some cool air up to the very end of the cabin, some load balancing can be done with the adjustable vents—making openings progressively smaller, restricting air-flow, as these get nearer to the blower. The objective, of course, is to make sure there’s sufficient pressure to push the air up to the furthest point from the blower, up to the very end of the air-duct.
Fuel economy
The 220km round trip for Gapan, though with around 80km of the distance covered on SLEX, turned out to be more of a mixed mode test case with us averaging just 40km/h while negotiating slow traffic in the many towns on the approach to Gapan. The lighter dropside variant of the Super Ace turned in a 14km/l mixed mileage score in India. In comparison, with its heavier passenger body and the additional mechanical load of the a dual A/C’s belt-driven compressor(s), the Super Ace still managed a good showing of 10km/l even with the vehicle tipping the scales at about two and a half tons with 16 people and baggage on board.
I’ve no doubt that I could improve on this figure with practice, making the most of the Super Ace’s inclination to a diesel’s trademark short-shifting regimen. Dynamically increasing the engine’s displacement with rammed air, the intercooled turbocharger spools up to high boost at around 2000rpm. So, staying at or under this threshold should result in more acceptable fuel economy in crawling city traffic.
Third-world difference
The product of India’s relatively young auto-industry, the Super Ace seems to pitch third-world sensibilities to a global market. It’s a study in doing things a little differently, and making it work—making it work well enough to be adapted into the multi-cab jeepney-style people-carrier / heavy-hauler that’s popular in our market.
Here’s a multi-cab with a smaller turbodiesel, introducing the benefits of variable displacement as it were, and confidently assuming that our veteran drivers will find the right mix of throttle and stick to reap its fuel-eco benefits as they have in India. The traditional cab-over design has been improved, albeit very subtly and by way of a fortunate combination of engineering decisions.
The cockpit offers less extraneous bounce and a better weld to the driver’s back and behind. Instead of obsessing on a tighter turning radius, the light truck goes vertical to keep the truck’s frontage narrow enough to negotiate tightly packed city streets, and with a long stable wheelbase that makes those inevitable and numerous turns easier on the inner ears of driver and passengers alike. High headroom in the passenger body not only compensates for the narrower cabin but makes the people space more hospitable with upright straight-shinned seating.
And, while its dimensions make it look like a downsized commuter for the inner city, out in the countryside where multi-cabs roam aplenty is where the Super Ace really comes home. The long and cushiony wheelbase sprung on a rugged suspension makes it an easy drive on rough roads forgotten between election campaigns. The Super Ace seemed easy on the eyes for those hardy motorists we passed, unassuming and small enough to be downright sociable among tricycles that carry more people than a sedan could, and among other multi-cabs expected to ferry entire clans.
Is it good enough to carry precious cargo? After the Gapan trip which ended in smiles all around, we volunteered to drive several grade-school classes on their community visits day. What do the young experts say? Tito, after this, can you be our regular school bus?
Editor’s note, 03Nov15: The subject of this test drive, done last September, was a pre-production version of the Super Ace “Big Boy” passenger van with dual AC. This November, Tata Motors Philippines has started producing this and other passenger variants in commercial numbers. See the related story, Tata Super Ace rolls out production variants with passenger bodies, for a report on their pricing.
Driving the Tata Vista Ini with its 75ps 1.4L SAFIRE engine
On the Tata Vista Ini with its 75ps 1.4L SAFIRE petrol burner, we discover that the engine from FIAT delivers rich torque at the low end (as expected on an 8-valve SOHC) but stands following the Rule of Twos, to address the wide ratio gap between first and second gears: get past the 20km/h and 2000rpm threshold for that up-shift into 2nd gear and you’ll be off to a smart, conventional climb to cruising speed.
For the how and why, see our full write-up.
The Tata Super Ace chassis with passenger body: a tough 18-seater truck with a van’s suspension
We drive the Tata Super Ace chassis with passenger body, taking the compact, city-sized truck into the countryside to bring a busload of teaching volunteers on an outreach mission. Stable at speed and packing a heavy payload, she can easily reach beyond 100km/h on the highway. But where she really shines is on unpaved country roads where her capacity, and suspension, make the Super Ace a very neighborly hauler.