An Ecopsort owner samples the Altroz Racer: 10 frank observations

Altroz Racer is a decent car in isolation, good low end and midrange, decent equipment list, but I don't think its even close to a warmed up car. I

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Did a short test drive of Altroz Racer couple of days back. The test drive was mix of short straight stretch with less traffic, city traffic roads and completely broken roads. Here are my initial impressions, coming from a stage 1 Ecosport TDCI user:

• Good low end and mid range. I hardly noticed any turbo lag.
• Suspension just eats up bad roads. It doesn't have any nervousness at high speeds as well. Though i20 Nline is a LOT more fun in terms of its handling and dynamics
• Pretty well weighted steering. I was expecting more feedback and quicker return to center. The Ecosport has me spoilt there bigtime.
• Non existent top end, its like you hit a wall post ~5k rpm. Was not expecting that.
• The engine didn't sound very refined, it sounded strained past 4k rpm. Exhaust sounded deep, more diesel like, good to listen to below 3k rpm. Exhaust tips look ugly and badly finished compared to the i20 Nline. At high rpm its just the engine noise along with a faint turbo whistle.
• Clutch has longer travel than Ecosport and has an awkward bite point. I completely disliked the clutch and gear shifts for a car named 'racer'. The shifts are very notchy especially if you drive enthusiastically.
• It has lot more space at the rear compared to Ecosport, though the rear seat is too upright for my liking.
• Didn't particularly liked how interior looked and its fit and finish. for e.g. the black fabric used on the front door pads, felt cheap. Loved the black roof liner though.
• I couldn't find a driving position of my taste. I like to sit low and set the steering wheel mostly at the lowest position, but Altroz steering rack wouldn't tilt to the point I liked. So I had to set the driver's seat little high.

Altroz Racer is a decent car in isolation, good low end and midrange, decent equipment list, but I dont think its even close to a warmed up car. I didn't enjoy driving it as much as I thought I would, probably all the marketing and YT review videos had me expecting more. But I definitely disliked the engine character as its almost similar to my remapped Ecosport, with less power and torque. Not that I dislike diesel engine, but not what I was looking from a petrol sort of 'warm hatch'. And yeah, my remapped EcoSport is LOT more fun.

I test drove the racer as we are in the market looking for a sub 15L compact car for my brother. I did test drove the i20 Nline DCT as well and I would just take the Nline any day for its suspension and handling alone. Nline definitely has more grunt than the racer, though here again, I was expecting more top end performance.

Also I wanted to know if the suspension is really retuned in the Racer. As per the initial impression video posted in YT by MotorInc, the part number of suspension components for the Racer and the regular Altroz are the same. But that shouldn't be case if Racer has retuned suspension components, right?

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