The Tata Magic Iris is the Tata Motors Ltd that answered a simple question — how much car can this badge carry? — with 10.84 hp from 0.6 L diesel Single. It was built from 2010, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market.
How it came about
The Tata Magic Iris is a 3-door, 4- or 5-seater cabover microvan/minivan (MPV) manufactured by the Indian automaker Tata Motors. Powered by a 600cc one-cylinder diesel engine, it is intended to compete with auto-rickshaws. With its engine delivering 11 hp (8 kW) and 31 Nm of torque, the vehicle has a top speed of just 34 mph (55 km/h).
The Magic Iris is made using an all steel body and frame – reinforced by reverse hat section chassis rails and beams, welded under its floor. The vehicle features all-around independent suspension with coil springs – MacPherson struts in the front, and semi-trailing arms in the rear. It uses a cabover design, meaning the driver seating on top of the front axle and the engine mounted at the rear, and with a vehicle length 1 cm shorter than the 1957 Fiat 500, the Magic Iris is one of the shortest four-seater cars ever produced — however its limited top speed would prohibit actually registering it as a car in many countries.
The hardware
Power comes from 0.6 L diesel Single; 10.84 hp is the published figure. It weighs 685 kg. Work it out per tonne and you get about 16 horsepower — leisurely, which for a car of its age and purpose is the point. It shifts through a 4-speed TA59 manual transaxle. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 1650 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Pune, India. Its Tata Motors Ltd stablemates include the TaMo Racemo and the Tata 407.