Automotive

A GAMBLE WORTH TAKING AND AN EXPERIMENT GONE RIGHT

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Joseph Campbell once said, “Passion will move men beyond themselves, beyond their shortcomings, beyond their failures” and this very passion has helped Dilip Chhabria and Shahid Haq reach the pinnacle and make a mark in not just the Indian automotive industry, but beyond as well.

Dilip Chhhabria, founder of DC Designs Private Limited, is a prestigious name in the automotive industry and is the best visible automotive designer that India has yielded till date. Chhabria was a commerce graduate who was intrigued by an advertisement in the newspaper that read- “Do you want to be a car designer?” and decided to apply to the Art Center College of Design where he majored in transportation design. Chhabria, as a child had doodled cars on every surface at his house and this was the probably the best means that Chhabria could have culminated his childhood hobby and love for cars into a successful career.

Shahid Haq, the CEO and Design Chief at Motormind Automotive Designs, was born in Kerala and brought up in Bengaluru. Haq after attaining his degree in M.Sc. Automotive Engineering felt incomplete and lacking something, which propelled him to pursue higher studies from Coventry School of Art and Design, United Kingdom, which satisfied him that he is now equipped with a complete package of knowledge to design with functionality. Haq has had an ardent passion for cars since a very young age and with time, he realized that styling them attracted his interest more than anything else and that’s when he founded the values and ground on which his company is largely based today.

There’s a difference between the timelines of both, yet the achievements and progress are comparable to a certain extent.

DC Designs was founded in 1993 and initially produced body kits for only Indian cars and designed motorcycles as well. DC got its biggest break and made its first mark on the world map in 2003, when they were approached by Aston Martin to make the show car that previewed the British manufacturer’s V8 Vantage sports car. After a lot of hard work, the prototype was completed and displayed in the Detroit International Motor Show and was eventually launched in 2005. 2010 saw DC make yet another mark by starting the DYPDC Center for Automotive Research and Studies in Pune with the D.Y. Patil group, which is an automotive design institute that ranks amongst the top institutes of its kind in India.

In 2015, his long list of achievements reached new heights when DC launched the Avanti, which is considered India’s first sports car, on the Indian roads. The seeds for DC Avanti were sown in the 2008 Auto Expo at Delhi, after which through effective groundwork, studies and research about the feasibility and market, a drawing board version of the envisioned sports car was achieved. The first pre- production was showcased at the 2014 Auto Expo as the final version of the original 2012 concept and after clearing all the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) tests, it finally hit the roads in 2015. With a cost price of 35.93 lakhs and an aerodynamically sound design, the DC Avanti was designed keeping in mind the youth.

Motormind Automotive Designs is Haq’s brainchild that took off in 2010. It specializes in automotive styling kits, body and paint, car foil, customization, concept designing & 3-D modeling, design consultancy and prototyping. It’s more than a decade and a half younger to DC.

What makes the company and Shahid Haq worth knowing, is the fact that India’s very first roadster- Hyperion1- took birth in the Motormind garage, through Haq’s years of perseverance, passion and dedicated labor.

Haq feels that the emotions of his creation, reflect a lot of intangible aspects of himself and brings out a part of himself that isn't evident.

“Hyperion1 was my attempt at showcasing skill set and abilities, in a cost- effective manner and making people realize that one can attain world- class design in this country too. Also, beautiful things don’t have to be costly.”, says Shahid, speaking of his creation.

Hyperion1 is an entirely hand-crafted prototype is built by a team of 5 to 6 people with home- grown resources and Haq’s personal savings. The effective duration of building the car was just one year. Haq’s work is aimed at contributing substantially to the automotive industry of India, which, according to him, lacks taste.

Hyperion1 was displayed in the Delhi Auto Expo, 2016 where it garnered tremendous admiration and the fact that this is an entirely Indian production left the audience awestruck.

Both DC Avanti and Hyperion1 are have made a mark in the automotive industry, with DC’s presence well established in India as well as abroad (59 Avantis sold in India and 1 in London as of 2015), while the young Hyperion1, which has received critical acclamation and working on the feedback and the procurement of the investors, will be starting with the production by early 2018. It plans to produce 10- 15 track cars (not road legal) and sell it on invitation and then further expand the production base and achieve the tag of a “car manufacturing company”.

Stories like these, especially the ones that end up with people becoming prominent figures in automobile industry, are hardly found in a country such as ours. The amount of hard-work that both Haq and Chhabria have put in to reach where they are, is commendable, but the contributions that they have made to the industry are just as meritorious. And as the country looks forward to a brighter future in the automobile industry, Haq and Chhabria are the pioneers.