Turbo Desi
Part two.
In the late eighteenth century, in Mysore, Tippu Sultan took a foreign invention and tweaked it to bring down the British. A fifteen minute walk from my flat brings you to the Royal Artillery Museum where two of Tippu Sultan’s rockets are displayed. He is credited with being the first to use iron rockets in warfare and so prolific was his manufacture that a the part of town dedicated to fabricating these primitive combustion engines was called Taramandal Pet, or the ‘Galaxy Market’.
The internal combustion engine has changed over the years but Tippu Sultan’s scattered countrymen still enjoy tinkering with it. I am a sad cliché that spends much of his free time underneath his car looking for a few extra horses. My latest car has brought me to several American websites and fora for advice. I was a little confused to see literally legions of petrolheads raving about having the power of Vishnu in the car or how cool Shiv (often referred to as ‘a god’) is. Had I unwittingly bought a Hindoo car?
Vishnu Performance Systems is in fact one of the premier auto tuners in the States, based in Union City, California. The founder and CEO, Shiv Pathak, shares more than one similarity with Dilip Chhabria, in that he previously worked for GM (amongst others) before setting up his own business. Bringing the desi into design, he is a software engineer by profession, carries a laptop not a wrench and can boost your car’s performance without even seeing it.
Outside the tuning world, not many people realise that a car’s ECU (cf. CPU) can be sent via mail, re-mapped with new software that takes myriad variables into account and returned to the owner of a now faster car. Pathak offers the same service via email. Custom-built air inlets, exhaust manifolds and drivetrain mods are also on offer.
One of his big sellers at the moment is the Vishnu PROcede Tuning Computer (above) which is finding popularity in engine bays alongside the legendary N54 BMW engine in 135is, 335is and 535is. BMW sells far more cars in the US than Japanese marques, which have long enjoyed their favour amongst tuners. A new market is opening up and Vishnu is leading the way; I have honestly never seen praise more fawning and devotional than that dedicated to Shiv and Vishnu, in or outside a temple.
Previously: Hindustan Motors, Nano-Tech
on Friday, July 11th, 2008, 12:20 pm in Cars, Technology, Vishnu › 
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Dude, nice find. The multiarmed tuning computer lets you wittingly buy a Hindoo car. Brown Menace: Attack of the Tuners. The Fast and the Furious 4: Tata Drift.
Union City has been keeping it desi for about a century now, but when’re you going to give the Yay Area some love and do a post on our specialty: dashboard Ganeshs and rear-window Khandas?
In case anyone wants to know what the Yay Area is all about. Manish, this should bring back memories.
That’s a great idea DJ…I might have to take a trip to Southall for a thorough write-up.
Maybe the understudy could even ask the bossman for trip out to the States. All business, of course. Just make sure you’re a little bit more careful in your research than this dumb macaca.
Mate that’s nuts, I’d never heard of ghostriding before. Well, the type not involving Nicolas Cage. The more I think about it, the more material there is concerning brownz and their rides. I’m really struggling to find a picture of the exact gold-lattice and red faux velvet tissue box holder for the parcel shelf though.
London has so many ancient and historical Indian artefacts and art and historical objects its not even funny. Half of this stuff is straight out and out plunder. But then the museums are full of things looted from Europe too, the Elgin Marbles from Greece, for example.