084 JULY 2019 →TOPGEAR.COM
here’s been much discussion about the
Hy undai Venue for quite some time
now. There have been various events,
from unveiling to launch, in several
phases, that Hy undai has undertaken
to arrive in a segment hitherto unexplored by the
company here. Of course, the proof here is in the
driving, and we finally got to do that in the northeast.
The things I was looking for ward to most about
driving in that part of the countr y included the weather
(pretty much ever y where else is burning up in heat
waves right now), scarce traffic and the mountainous
landscape covered in green.
Setting out of Guwahati early in the afternoon,
the skies were overcast but holding back on the rain.
Rajeev, the lensman, waxed eloquent about the light for
quite some time and I took him seriously because back
in Mumbai, I’ve never seen him happy with conditions
between 7 am and 6 : 30 pm. The variant of the Venue
we’d been given charge of was the one powered by
the 1. 0 -litre GDi turbopetrol. The six-speed manualgearbox was typically well behaved and quite a pleasure
to use. Having gotten past the little traffic we had
to face getting out of the city, the 1. 0 -litre unit sang
in full flow. The turbo comes in pretty quickly after
2000 rpm and the transition is smooth with no sudden
surge in power. You can wring it all the way to the near-
6500 rpm redline and it sounds fairly decent across
the range. That’s one thing to be mentioned about this
engine, if anything, it’s refined in this guise. Job well
done with a three-cylinder.
As we got further away from Guwahati and further
into Meghalaya, the sights along the road got even
better, as did the twisties. There was a dominant theme
of lush green to the landscape, which was a refreshing
change for most of us. With not much space to shoot
along the highway, we decided to venture into some of
the villages that we came across. It was at these little
stretches, with rural traffic choking up the way, that I
discovered the tractability of the 1. 0 -litre unit, a great
feature for most of us driving in the chaotic stop-go,
urban conditions.“THE VENUE IS ONE OF THE
BETTER HANDLING HYUNDAIS.
AND THAT RIDE IS OUTSTANDING”
T