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Tata Nano: Behavioural Traits
Thanks to it being light in weight, the steering gear is unassisted rack and pinion and the smallish steering wheel only needs slightly more effort than you would have wanted. Of course in future we would get electronically assisted power steering but for now even the direct version is more than adequate and spot on in its efficacy. The car does have a tendency to roll when you come hot into corners and if you are on the outside witnessing it, you can see the Nano adopt crazy roll angles, almost akin to Herbie goes bananas. However, behind the wheel doing it, there isn't the same heart-in-the-mouth stuff you experience.
Adopting a principle again from high performance sports cars, the Nano has differently sized wheels front to rear. The smallish track (1325mm front and 1315mm rear) for the given wheelbase and the rather tallish (1652mm) vehicle needed good traction, especially under acceleration while coming out of corners and in such a case arresting the tendency to understeer is paramount. The Tata ride and handling team has equipped the Nano with 135/70-R12 radials up front while at the rear the tyres are both wider and of a lower profile than those up front, measuring 155/65-R12. The specially developed MRF ZEC tubeless radials grip brilliantly and also deliver a finely cushioned ride without breaking away when things tend to get a bit over enthusiastic. It might not be F1-apparent but the differently sized rubber front to rear does indeed work yet so unobtrusively that 99 per cent of users would only crib about the spare. This is the exact sized used on the front wheels but which can be pressed into service as an emergency measure at the rear.
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