The Maruti Suzuki Swift is the country’s most popular hatchback, offering a sporty ride at a very affordable price, so much so that it is referred to as the “budget Mini Cooper.” The more aggressive and sportier version of our beloved Swift was spied lately on two occasions, one on top of a flatbed which made us assume it was a private import, but another on the roads of Pune with a sticker on the back saying “On test by ARAI.” With strong hints towards this Europe spec hot hatch ready to make its India debut, let’s see what all will be on offer by it!
Sportier Exterior
The Suzuki Swift Sport is based on the same HEARTECT platform as the current Swift. The testing unit showcased much sharper and sportier exteriors, featuring a larger & more pronounced grille towards the front and a mid-size spoiler and large dual-bore exhausts towards the rear. The car also rests on much larger 17-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels with a different design than both the India spec and Euro-spec Swift.
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Beefier Turbo Petrol Engine
The heart of the Swift Sport which gives it its sportier charisma is a 1.4-litre BoosterJet Turbo Petrol engine that outputs a whopping 140PS of power and 235Nm of torque, paired with either a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic gearbox. Just to put it in perspective, this engine is 50PS more powerful and 122Nm torquier than the current 1.2-liter DualJet petrol engine. The BoosterJet engine also comes equipped with a 48V mild-hybrid system which gives it the idle start-stop tech similar to the current Swift. Suzuki claims a top speed of 210 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of 9.1 sec.
Interior follows the same Sportier Theme
On the inside, the sporty theme follows with multiple changes making it feel like a racecar. With a red and black theme flowing throughout the cabin with red inserts on the dashboard, sportier upholstered seats with red stitching, metal pedals, and boost & oil temp gauges on the speedometer and tachometer. Apart from this, the Suzuki Swift Sport shares similar design cues to the current Swift with a flat-bottom steering wheel, a 7-inch infotainment screen, and climate control.
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Suspension and Dimensions
On the Euro-spec version, the suspension is much stiffer to offer greater handling, and the car is also much lower to the ground. Both these changes are unlikely to come owing to Indian road conditions, but we can expect slight tuning to the suspension to have some added driving dynamics to the Sport version.
Safety
The Suzuki Swift Sport internationally comes equipped with ADAS (Suzuki Safety Support) with the help of a powerful monocular camera placed at the top of the front windshield (similar to the Honda City e:HEV), which gives it advanced safety features like lane departure warning, lane departure prevention, collision mitigation braking, adaptive cruise control, weaving alert (if you’re driving is erratic at high speeds) and high beam assist.
It is again unlikely that the Indian spec unit will come with these features in order to curb cost, and risk making this another flop similar to the Polo GT.
Price
The standard Maruti Suzuki Swift is offered at a price point between Rs 5.92 Lakhs – Rs 8.85 lakh (ex-showroom). With various new design elements and a significantly powerful engine, expect a hefty premium of Rs 1 lakh+ for the Suzuki Swift Sport above the top-of-the-line ZXi+ variant.
