Tata Motors has been on a spree to revamp its cars and image. Over the last year or so, it has been steadily showing the door to its older models and in turn replacing them with newer or updated cars. One of the vehicles that got a significant update in the range was the Safari Storme SUV. It got the cosmetic treatment in May and has now got a retuned engine that produces more power and torque and to handle it all, there’s a new six-speed manual gearbox as well. Dubbed the Varicor400, here’s how it feels on the road.
The Safari Storme got its first major styling facelift in late 2012 and then an update earlier this year. The 2015 changes included some revisions like a new grille as well as a new bumper that have given the SUV a brawnier (than normal) appearance.
In this model there are no external changes to the SUV save for Varicor400 badging at the side and rear. However, our test car came with few additional accessories like a faux air intake on the bonnet and a large black piece of plastic cladding mounted above the grille. It looked like a unibrow on the fascia.
There was a time when you could peek into the cabin of any Tata car and walk away unimpressed. There was resemblance across all vehicles then be it the Safari or the Indica. And that didn’t bode well for the Safari. This was despite the fact that the Safari actually came fully loaded for a vehicle in this part of the automotive woods.
This is pretty much the highlight of this new car. It gets the same 2.2-litre four-cylinder mill but now producing 154bhp and 400Nm of torque (hence the name Varicor400). This is a 6bhp increase in terms of power and a massive 80Nm in terms of torque compared to the ‘standard’ model. This has now been paired to a six-speed manual gearbox. In this state of tune, this engine is also expected to go in to the soon-to-be launched Tata Hexa MPV.
