Before the jeepney-style multi-cab body was built onto its basic truck chassis for the Philippine people-mover version (see the related story–Riding the Elephant: Tata’s surprising Ace micro-truck), the passenger variant of the Tata Ace in India had been the Magic. Though it hasn’t yet been introduced in the Philippines, Tata has brought in a Magic for market testing, and I got to drive it for a few days, and for a good cause.
Rugged beauty
Rugged and bohemian at the same time, the Magic is all about utility, and that’s what makes it, well, rather sleek. The tarpaulin covering at the rear actually hides a light but strong-sounding sheet-metal roof atop a frame of big-bore steel tubes—a roll-cage extending over what would’ve been its cargo bay. The body sitting atop the robust frame is fused into a single structure, there being no seams between the front cabin and rear bay, with all body panels having been stamped into shape for a refined, curved-edges finish. The inside is a single cabin space, no partition between the front and the back except for a horizontal frame member behind the driver and shotgun seats.
In addition to the side-swinging tailgate, there are vestigial side doors that made sense with the front and rear facing benches that had originally been installed (like the seating arrangements in stage-coach and hansom-cab horse carriages). But the version they brought here already featured the side facing benches made familiar by public utility jeepneys. The bench on the left is one single fold-down piece, negating the use of the door on that side. The bench on the right is made up of two segments—a fold-down rearmost segment and a fixed foremost part—bridged by a fold-down section that can be stowed to clear the doorway on that side.
Grilled on a gig
So, even with the Magic being an India-specific configuration, its modification with jeepney-style benches expands its capacity, from the 6 who could sit on the original front and rear facing benches, to the 8 to 10 who’d fit on the side-facing benches in back. Most importantly, the foldable side facing benches could be stowed individually to create large, contiguous areas for cargo. It was this cargo-hauling feature that proved all-important on the real world mission that Tata let me take their Magic on.
On June 12, a hot Independence Day Friday, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the RockEd volunteer group held a concert to launch Batang Malaya, their campaign to raise awareness for just how wrong child labor is despite the family needs that seem to justify it. And, to add color to the occasion, the RockEd volunteers of The Raya School in Quezon City, had built a giant pinwheel to liven up the stage set in Luneta, Manila.
Micro-truck that could
The pinwheel itself measured more than four feet across, and the pole on which it was to be mounted, eight feet tall. The installation had to be transported knocked down, with three of its creators coming along to assemble it into final form at the concert venue. That made it four people including me, the driver, and oversized cargo that otherwise might have to be carried in a two-seat, single-cab pick-up truck. Not a good scenario, not with our climate-changed weather.
So, enter the Magic. The giant pinwheel and its pole fit nicely on the left with the single-piece bench folded up on that side. And, with all the bench segments on the opposite side unfolded and set up, there were enough seats front and back for at least half a dozen volunteers, let alone the mere four of us.
Bring it
At the event, among the rocker dudes milling about, a surfer friend came up to me and gave testament to how good the Ace looks. He sized up the micro-truck and very frankly asked if and when we can take it to Baler for some days of sun and surf, the truck serving as home to gnarly blokes and their waxed up boards.
Market testing is done, in my book, and Tata should bring the Magic here to become an overnight classic. Weighing in at just 1,000kg and powered by an amazing 2-cylinder 16hp diesel engine, the Magic comes across with tons of character.
The only thing I’d want to add to the micro-truck is a loose mesh wall to cage up the front of the cabin. This, to have some part of the Magic that can be locked up, some place for gear and gadgets that surfers and the adventurous may want to leave behind on dry ground. After all, it looks good enough to take on safari, sure, but it’s also so elegantly frugal on fuel and on frivolities that even city-slickers are sure to want a Magic for roughing it on urban pavement.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
The Brio is the smallest Honda currently on offer, the smallest vehicle you can get with the carmaker’s much vaunted VTEC variable valve lift and timing technology that turns efficient, low-emission powerplants into high-performance engines, and vice-versa. And here, all Brio variants feature the larger 98hp 1.3liter engine that was introduced in the RS variant for Indonesia back in 2013.
The Brio is small but it’s a micro on a mission. With its mass packed into a rigid shape atop a squat wheelbase, the Brio corners like it’s on rails. No mincing words here: this micro-hatch feels like a go-kart going through turns … hence the impulse to pull G’s, going all Sport, all the time.
The new engine design is so compact that, quite predictably, they thought of putting the 1.3 liter engine that had been an option on bigger past-generation Jazz and City sub-compacts, into the engine compartment of the micro Brio. So, instead of the 87hp 1198cc L12B i-VTEC with CVT automatic that came out on the Brio when it was first launched in 2011, we get the 98hp 1339cc L13Z1 i-VTEC engine (a plus 1.3 liter that sometimes gets tagged as a 1.4 lin other markets) with a conventional, and sturdier, torque converter AT.
This means that a lion’s share of that impressive torque is already available even when the car is just rolling out. In fact, at its 800rpm idle, the engine already delivers around 70lb-ft or 75% of peak torque. Pop the selector into D on level ground and quickly taking your foot completely off the brake pedal will make the Brio 1.3 AT fairly lunge off its marks. There’s enough push to accelerate the Brio, foot off the gas pedal, to the 15km/h that triggers an upshift that shallows up the gear reduction on the drivetrain, increasing torque demand, and slows down the car—elegantly governing the speed of what otherwise could’ve become a runaway vehicle.
By all indications, Honda also kept the same automatic transmission that had been mounted on the previous generation 1.3liter Jazz. The Brio has an electronically-controlled 5-speed gearbox with lock-up clutch. And the abundance of torque as well as the reduction introduced by slippage in the torque converter allowed them to go with a fairly tall set of ratios. Gearing starts at 2.995 in first gear, 1.678 in second, a near direct drive 1.066 in third, and an overdrive 0.760 in fourth complimented by an even taller 0.551 in fifth.
On a full burn, you’ll notice the Brio staying in its nearly-direct-drive third gear as you zoom past 100km/h. It’ll stay in third as long as it can before hitting redline at 6500rpm when it’ll then up-shift and shallow up the reduction with a tall fourth gear overdrive.
What works out well on the Brio is how much its D3, D2 and D1 drive modes are analogous to third, second and first gears on a manual transmission. If your stick instincts are good, simply watch your revs, make sure these are between 1000 and 2000rpm after your firm braking, and you’re okay to shift down a click for that turning descent.
The revelation is that working with the VTEC engine’s strengths, even while it’s paired with a conventional automatic transmission, could bring out the Brio’s economy car alter-ego. If driven right, the Brio automatic is a credibly efficient city commuter, saving on both driver and fossil fuel energy during those weekdays between out-of-town weekend drives to stretch the legs both, again, of driver and of hatchback.
The decision to keep the tires at 28psi proved fortunate when, at Real and already on the seaside road, the concrete pavement gave way to a long stretch undergoing upgrade. The bare ground still being tamped down had apparently been reshaped by heavy rain, the terrain turned into mounds and valleys.
While the lack of powered features may sound unappealing, the manually operated controls are all simpler to maintain and keep expensive motors, wiring and switches off the list of parts that’ll probably need replacing during the useful life of the taxi sedan. Good news for fleet operators.
On the return trip, after the Marifanta Highway (labelled “Marcos Highway” on some maps), we eventually hit traffic where I strove to conserve fuel by short-shifting, emulating what veteran cabbies do whenever they can get away with it, and I discovered that the F3 could short-shift with the best of them.
The answer is in the engine’s output. While the engine’s 107hp at 5600rpm and 107lb-ft at 4800rpm seem unimpressive, its power contour is another thing altogether. The F3’s 1.5liter inline-4 already produces 70% of peak torque while still just idling at 800rpm . That’s 72lb-ft of torque coming off the engine even before you step on the gas. (In fact, you can roll-out with the engine at idle. Put her in first gear and then slowly let up on the clutch pedal without stepping on the gas. You’ll roll out past a slight engine shudder and accelerate to 8km/h—enough speed to gently roll over speed bumps—even with a full passenger load.)
Step on the gas and the engine quickly reaches 84lb-ft, or 82% of peak torque, at just 1200rpm, and surges up to 93% at 2400. Beyond that, torque levels off while horsepower keeps climbing due mainly to the increased revolutions. Then, torque resurges to 97% at 4000, goes through 99.6% at 4400, and reaches peak at 4800rpm.
It took a second look at the F3’s technology package to discover that it has the equivalent of Honda’s legendary VTEC system under the hood. The F3’s BYD473QE engine features VVL, not just VVT, that last letter signifying it could vary not only valve timing but valve lift as well. On the fly adjustment of both lift and timing gives the F3 a wide range of settings to optimize either power or efficiency depending on the car’s load and speed. It’s like having two kinds of powerplants doing the pushing—a booster for lift-off and an endurance engine for cruise, so to speak.
Cruise into the approach of a tight downhill turn, brake strong before the turn-in point to get the speed down smartly, downshift for engine braking (and for keeping revs spooled up), then ease-off the brakes at the turn in. Foot off the gas until the apex, then power out the back end of the turn. Give it a few shakes, wait till we’re back on a bit of a straight, then shift back up to ease off on the gearbox. The balance between braking and downshifting was good enough that when I checked the wheels at a rest stop, the brakes were just normal hot, never coming close to overheating into uselessness.
What defines a CVT are those variable-diameter pulleys with slope-sided grooves that widen to let the steel belt sink in lower or gradually narrow to lift the belt up and out—the wider the groove (the further apart the walls), the smaller the pulley diameter, the narrower, the bigger. At roll-out, the driving pulley is set small with a widened groove, the driven pulley set big with a narrower one. Driving a bigger pulley deepens the gear reduction (making more engine revolutions go into each turn of the wheels), driving a smaller pulley makes it shallow. As the car accelerates, gear reduction is made shallower, the driver pulley becomes bigger with a narrowing groove, the driven pulley gets smaller with a widening one.
With the selector in standard D, try pegging your RPM after passing 20km/h and you’ll find that it’s easy to stay at say 2000 (for a gentle climb to cruising speed) or 3000rpm (for a slightly more spirited approach) with very little trimming on your accelerator while your speed climbs steady and smooth. It’s a strangely satisfying sensation seeing the revs exactly where you intend these to be while watching the speedometer needle sweep smoothly up … you just know your milking that MIVEC engine for every bit of torque it squeezes out of each drop of fuel.
You don’t even have to look at your instrument cluster to know when you’re in the zone for a downshift. If you’re cruising while pressing down on the gas pedal by just a fraction and nowhere near the mid-point, you’re good to go. If you had to do a sprint in D to settle in behind a car you plan on overtaking, just ease off the gas first, pause for a moment to bank more momentum with time instead of throttle, and that should settle the revs back down to the vicinity of 2000rpm. And, just like that, you’re ready to pop into B for the overtake.
On the flipside of things, don’t ever brake by just idling the engine and downshifting into B. If you’re coming off a speed run, the effect would be the equivalent of that hot-rod launch we’ve already covered. Engine braking with a pop into B should only be done to sustain drag, not initiate it. Brake first, get the speed down closer to where you want it, then pop into B to get the drag that’ll let you ease off and not ride the brakes.
Even the JATCO innovation of an auxiliary gearbox on the Mirage’s CVT7 transmission was meant to gain engineering efficiencies in terms of size, weight, temperature and noise. But this self-same innovation had added a dimension that elevates the CVT controls above a pop car’s elementary forward and reverse, adding a low speed range with higher torque and engine drag potential that even Mitsubishi has been challenged in labelling properly.
If you’re on level ground, you’d stay in 2nd gear for just a few shakes, just until you reach 25km/h when the mounting revs would tell you its time to shift to 3rd. Reaching 3rd is when you’d settle in and wait half a minute or more for about 75% throttle (yes, this would be the time for a little more gas) to get you up to just under 50km/h. That’s when you’d finally shift into 4th and settle in again, though having to wait less time for the speedometer to reach 60km/h and, yes, even beyond. Opening up the throttle and pushing the pedal to its stops in 4th won’t make the engine revs sound much different but it can accelerate you enough to reach 70km/h on the speedometer, although that’s with you and just one passenger on board, and on flat ground … though I wouldn’t recommend it, more on this later.
Driving around with this load, I could tell that the Ace could’ve taken on two more adults, bringing total load to the full dozen people that would’ve brought us very close to the up-rated 750kg of payload and 1750kg max loaded weight I’ve estimated. Although that ¾ ton payload would’ve meant longer stints at 2nd gear to get us up to cruise while favoring flatter routes, the modified suspension felt beefy enough to take the added weight … in fact, it might’ve even ridden better with a heavier load.
The rudimentary mechanical steering system is positive enough, doesn’t show any slack, but the stiffened rear suspension makes the back end bounce a lot, a bump not having much effect up front but causing these multiple bounces in the rear that artificially make it weightless at repetitive instants. Factor in that jeepney-style body that necessitated the stiffer suspension in the first place and you have a steel box that has a relatively high center of gravity when it is empty (note that the India-spec Ace Magic passenger variant keeps its center of gravity low by using a fabric roof). You can imagine just how unpredictable all that inertia would be at high speed when the empty steel box goes up, becomes momentarily weightless, and then comes back down with the rear tires again biting into the pavement. Any unevenness in the regained traction of the rear wheels could slightly torque the vehicle right or left. It’s like an airplane doing touch-and-go landings all day long.
The driver’s position on the truck’s cab-over layout provides an excellent vantage point, the angle of view making it easy to spot potholes and road ruts either in sunlight or in the headlight wash. The short front overhang kept the truck from digging its nose into sudden slopes, like the ones on the far side of big potholes, while its high 175mm ground clearance kept its transmission and differential clear of mid-line obstacles, particularly those high mounds unearthed by deep ruts on either side.
