END OF STORY

Does everything actually happen for a reason? Or is it the other way around?

- Kartik Ware

The beginnings and ends of some stories are the same. Or at least, the beginning of a car and the end of another one, in this case — the Honda Brio you see here once rear-ended the Maruti Suzuki Esteem, and that’s the reason why they are what they are today. You see, two friends, Ashad Pasha in the Esteem and Ismail Khan in the Brio were heading to the Hampi Autocross in 2020, when on a single-lane road a sudden speed breaker caused the former to brake hard and the latter couldn’t do the same. I suspect they’re quite the optimists, since they made the most of that particular misfortune and turned these cars into more than they were meant to be.

It wasn’t what Pasha had imagined when his rearview mirror was filling up with the Brio, though, especially given that it was his mother’s car that was bearing down on him. I bet he invoked that most revered prayer of sons everywhere: ‘It wasn’t me!’ Now, how many of us got 130 bhp as an outcome of that situation? Lucky guy. Since the Brio’s front end was a write-off, Pasha thought what any normal person would: ‘I wonder if a more powerful engine will fit into this space’.

And he didn’t have to look far; the Honda City’s 1.5-litre unit was a straight fit, this one from a 2013 model, and that’s why I choose to call it Bigheart. Still, obviously, that wasn’t enough. So, in went an aftermarket air filter, an engine remap, an RDP racing exhaust, Brembo brake rotors, and 15-inch wheels with Yokohama tyres. End result? Said 130 bhp and a 0-100 kph time of under 10 seconds. Mom must be proud. Or at least we all hope so.