B uilding big on the Indica platform is Tata Engineering. Star of the recent Auto Expo, the Tata Sedan is the second of the Project MINT variants due this year. And it is not only about new body styling but is also to do with revamped engines, transmissions, handling and ride plus an overall new perception which Tata Engineering is working on to offer Indian car buyers. OVERDRIVE's Adil Jal Darukhanawala gets to grips with the new car and the changing ethos at India's largest automotive firm.

If you think Tata Engineering is being mighty ambitious with the unveiling of its Sedan, the answer is bothyes and no. Yes, because it is the natural progression of models it will need to make to justify its emerging stature as a full-fledged automobile manufacturer as against being just a truck maker who also used to make UVs and some cars. The answer in the negative is justified because it didn't need the Sedan to show off its ambitious zeal. The Aria sports cabrio and coupe concepts, were far more ambitious than anything else an Indian car maker had ever done.

As such you can therefore safely say that Tata Engineering has got into the swing of things pretty well and has timed its Sedan version to coincide with a thrust in Indica sales which has seen the all-indigenous hatch hit the rev limiter month on month to top sales in its category. The fact that this isn't a flash reading as one would sometimes get on a singleton engine properly blueprinted and put to test on a dyno but it has been replicated every month should mean a great deal to many, both within the company and also to the nation.

But then just resting on the Indica alone will not help and anyway Project MINT was always meant to encapsulate a range of models using the basic floorpan and underpinnings of the Indica. It is an area of endeavour which many have travelled on mainly because it is the only way to go, especially in terms of capital investments, tooling time and safe return on the investments.

The versatility of the Indica platform had already been highlighted by the Aria two-seaters in both coupe and cabrio form. The next logical stage was always going to be either a three-box saloon - as the Sedan has turned out - or an estate version. Fiat India Auto is the car maker which one can take as an example of conjuring up different body style variants using the same platform and underpinnings.

It is just that it was so wary by Tata Engineering's Indica some two years ago that it shelved plans to launch the Palio and instead ushered in the Siena saloon followed by the Siena Weekend. Now with the Indica blazing a new trail at the top of the segment tree and the Palio having just been introduced, battle has been joined, one which will prove to be of great interest and made even more so with the addition of another spoiler - the Tata Sedan.

Positioning the Sedan in the saloon category against the likes of the Maruti Esteem, Ford Ikon, Fiat Siena, Hyundai Accent and the Opel Corsa will mean that it will have to be spot-on in every respect unlike the teething troubles the Indica faced in the very first year. No one will accept anything less than a fully sorted out automobile given the quality of the competition on offer. In this regard there should be no apprehension though because month on month Tata Engineering continues to refine and upgrade the Indica. Nowhere more will these lessons be hammered in than on the Sedan, due later in this calendar year.