The Coldest WinterIn Turbenthal

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Turbenthal,Switzerland

August 2012.

"Bist du verrückt?" the fans ask.

It means "Are you crazy?" in German.

We hear this phrase over and over again, on the grid and outside our garage. In commentaries and over cups of coffee. At the end of the week since our decision, someone shouting "Bist du verrückt?" is as familiar to us as the smell of grease, metal, and burning rubber.

We hear, but we do not listen

“Bist du verrückt?” because we’ve decided to build a 4 Stroke 250 CC Moto3^TM motorcycle.

From scratch. In five months. In time for the 2013–14 season.

Usually, it takes twelve months.

Usually, it takes more than nine people and one computer.

Usually, it takes more than a 1,000 sq. ft. space in Turbenthal, a hamlet in Switzerland that's twenty-five square kilometres. In a workshop so small that our equipment has to be mounted on the walls for us not to bump into each other. And the lone portable heater.

But these are not usual times

The chill of winter, we tell ourselves, is nothing compared to the bruises of races lost in previous seasons.

We’d rather freeze than lose, we think.

On our first morning in the garage, we’re shivering. From the cold, from the magnitude of work before us, but also from the thought that this can be done. When we look back, we think: we were lucky to have felt this way. It was the chill of what was possible.

And to our winter of discontent, our winter of work begins.

Someone mumbles that it is the longest race of our careers, and he’s spot on.

Building a bike is excruciating. Fulfilling sure, but painful. Each part must be designed and then machined out of raw metal to make the bike a perfect, purring animal. Brake levers. Clutch covers. Cylinder heads. Connecting rods. The chassis. And then the endless testing.

It requires innovation, intuition, patience and perseverance. Doses of luck. And lots of misses. Missed lunches. Missed dinner dates. Missed appointments. And the birth of a child.

“I need to help one child walk before another,” says one of us.

Dawns, mornings, afternoons, evenings, nights all blur into one.

Someone works twenty-two hours. Another brings in a sleeping bag. Merry Christmas, a card reminds us.

There is blood and sweat and tears. Tools and tantrums thrown around. But we build and build and build. Test and test and test. Working sixteen hours a day for five months straight.

January 2013.

Then, without warning, January 2013 and the New Year arrives, and with it the new Moto3^TM season. It’s going to be a good one—we think.

We’re third. Our first podium finish in sunny and wet Malaysia. We set a circuit lap record and three fastest laps. And we finish in the Top 5 ten times.

Crucially, three teams buy our bikes, making it a total of eight bikes on the grid, giving us the data that turbocharges our development as we hum into 2014.

After a rookie season in 2011, to a sophomore season of learning in 2012, we’ve finally arrived.

2014

2014 brings us three podium finishes, including a best ever 2nd place at the iconic Sachsenring circuit in Germany. Six Top 4 finishes. Nine bikes on the grid.

Off the track, our work has paid off too. We’re established contenders, with over 200 million fans from over 200 countries tracking our progress. We also win a clutch of awards in India and the world.

Fans know what a Mahindra motorcycle can do.

We know what perseverance can do.

We understand the power of innovation.

That winter,the coldest we'd know

led to two golden summers with more on the way. Everyone remembers the wins and the finishes, but we nine, we remember that winter each time our motorcycle crosses the finish line.

In building the bike, we find that we’ve built ourselves. In testing the bike, we realize that we’re tested ourselves. In one winter, we turn from teammates to friends, from friends to brothers. It’s a winter for life.

Win or lose, contenders or conquerors, we’ll keep at it. And each time the winter rolls in, that familiar chill will creep into our bones.

That chill of just what’s possible.

Mahindra MGP3O

Under the skin of a Moto3^TM machine

A Moto3^TM bike
can go from

0 - 100

in less than 3 seconds.

Faster than you can finish reading this sentence.

it has a top speed
of over

250km/h

That’s 1km every
14.4 seconds.

Aerodynamic DNA

The bodywork is designed to change shape as it moves through the air at high speed, allowing it to slip through the air with minimum resistance.

Tyre Info

A Moto3^TM motorcycle generates a tremendous amount of horsepower, and has to transfer this to the asphalt through a patch of rubber that’s the size of a credit card.

Now imagine doing that while going through a corner at over 200 kmph.

About the rider

A rider loses up to

1.5kg

in a 40 min race.

Now that's a lot of calories.

0 inches

That’s the distance, between a rider’s knee and elbows from the track during sharp cornering

Extreme Lengths

Moto3^TM riders love going round corners fast! So much that they’re willing to lean up to 60 degrees (from vertical) to ensure this.

Lean and Lithe

The average Moto3^TM rider weighs less than 60 kilos. In a sport where every gram counts, weight could make the difference between winning and losing.

From the Pit-Stop

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