Maruti Suzuki is competing in the Desert Storm rally with a 4X4 variant of the Vitara Brezza, the first and only such model in existence in India. Maruti’s Research and Development division has specifically built this one-off model for rallying, and there’s no indication of this variant being offered to buyers in India.
While Maruti is yet to reveal details of what the engine-transmission combination is on the Brezza 4X4, images of the car that have hit the interweb reveal that it has many modifications on it to suit off-road driving. The tyres are all-terrain units while the front bumper has been heavily modified to give the SUV a better approach angle.
Maruti has also mounted auxiliary lights – four of them – on the front with a specially built sub-frame. There are tow-hooks also built into the front of the Brezza 4X4. The vehicle gets a white paint job with blue, silver and yellow GT stripes.
Apart from these changes, the Brezza 4X4 looks quite similar to the stock vehicle. The real action is under the skin, where the 4X4 system comes into play. Suzuki offers an all-wheel drive system on the S-Cross sold in Europe. We believe that it’s the same system on the Vitara Brezza as well. What this also means is the Vitara Brezza 4X4 built for rallying by Maruti Suzuki may use either the 1.4 liter BoosterJet turbo petrol engine or the 1.6 liter Fiat Multijet turbo diesel engine. The latter seems likely given the fact that Maruti has already used this engine on the S-Cross sold here.
The regular version of the Vitara Brezza sold in India uses a 1.3 liter turbo diesel engine with a 5 speed manual gearbox and a front wheel drive layout. The engine produces 89 Bhp of peak power and 200 Nm of peak torque, which while adequate for road use may prove insufficient for hard-core rallying. The 1.6 liter Multijet diesel engine with 120 Bhp and 320 Nm on tap with a four wheel drive layout may just be what the doctor ordered. Pity that Maruti doesn’t offer this combination on the production version of the Brezza.
Via Sirish Chandran on Twitter
Images courtesy Abhishek.Dixit
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