UNASSUMINGLY OFF-TRACK

A car and a bike that are both surprisingly dual-purpose? wonder what we could do with that information.

- Keshav Teiva Poumai

What does one do when life gives us a predefined path to tread upon? One can either take it upon oneself to do their best and give the world the finest performance ever seen to date while staying within the lines, or one can break free from the shackles of adhering to the path and forge a new course altogether. Either way, what ensues will surely result in something to be remembered for years to come.

Getting back to the matter at hand, the two vehicles we have with us today come from the stables of two manufacturers that have at certain points come up with extremely capable dual-purpose machines (although one of them withholds from putting them into production). That being said, the Tata Punch has been praised many a time by my colleague Rivan on how surprisingly capable it is. The TVS Ronin itself has seen a fair deal of compliments from my end (none being in the looks department). Going by how TVS decided to brand it as an #Unscripted motorcycle, it only made sense to see how well it would handle spontaneity.

Starting off with the Punch, based on the same ALFA platform as the Altroz, the micro-SUV seems to put that 1.2-litre petrol engine to better use with improved low-end torque. It isn't exactly petite, as one would expect of a micro-SUV, micro being the point of assumption here. For what it is, it does get quite a butch stance, probably cashing in on the SUV DNA from Tata. And with ground clearance figures of 187 mm, it sure seems to have inherited a good deal of the 'fun' genes.