I love cars. Well this could be the most cliched statement to start a new blog!
Who does not love cars??? Everyone worth his salt does. I am no different.
My earliest childhood memories about the car my dad owned is of a Fiat Station Wagon. It was known as the Safari. We had a white color one and my dad had modified it quiet nicely. I remember him taking me to the seaside in that car.
In the mid-eighties Maruti 800 was launched and we were lucky enough to own one. I remember going with my dad to ABT for taking the delivery of Maruti 800.Our car was one among first 20 cars to hit the roads of Madras(Chennai now). So obviously it was the cynosure of all eyes.The Maruti 800 was the first modern car of India as previously it was just the Ambi and Fiat which were available in the market.
This white Maruti 800 was also the car which I learnt to drive, if my memory serves me right I was in my 5th standard then. Don't run your imagination wild ,I use to drive it inside the compound walls of my house!
From this time onwards it was the Maruti Suzuki's which my family bought for maybe the next 5-6 years. There was the new Model Maruti 800 then the Maruti Omni which was the first car I drove it on the city roads when I was in 9th.Its still etched in my mind the first time I drove the car in traffic. It was a Saturday I navigated the traffic pretty well and was adept in shifting gears too. My driver was sitting besides me, to be frank I was quiet good as I had 4 years of experience driving inside the compound walls of my home!
This Maruti Omni was also the first car I self-drove to school in 10th standard. Whenever the driver used to come late or he was on leave I use to take the Omni myself. It was green in color and as usual my dad had nicely done up the van with a lot of extra-fittings.
I use to feel proud of my self whenever I got a chance to take the car to school. I would drop off my bro at MCC and head to DB.Had to get permission from the HM to park the car inside the campus.
Around that time we also had the NE 118(peculiar name). It was a boxy car but quiet comfy which we used for long distance drives. This car became very popular among our community as almost every relation of ours had one NE 118!
There was this senior in school who used to have drags with me on our way back home.He had the NE 118 and me in my Maruti Omni. Once he overtook my car just before the undercarriage near my house and put his hand out and gestured towards me with his middle finger as if to say F*** You. Unfortunately I was being chauffeur driven that day. So I kept my emotions under control and waited for my turn. It did come after 15-20 days. I was returning from a dinner and spotted this guy driving in front of me. Now I thought this is my best chance to get the better of him. I overtook him, but he sped past me, finally near a sharp turn I overtook him again rolled the windows down and gestured him with my middle finger not once but thrice!!! What a thrilling moment it was. Now if I look back at that incident it looks silly but then I was about 16 at that time and such things were the most exciting to do.
Once I was in 11th class I used to regularly drive the car to school(M800). There were a lot of benefits of going self drive to school. I would be sent out on school work thus skipping the classes which I used to enjoy. I would be asked to take the teachers here and there and also given a lot of social work.All this because I had the car at my disposal.
For one of our cultural's our school had invited this Girl who was Miss Chennai at that time, to Judge a competition. She was a student of Ethiraj. Pretty looking(obviously as she was Miss Chennai).I was asked to drop her back to Ethiraj once the cultural's were over. I was elated to do the job. Took her in my car and dropped her back in her collage. I dint want to go alone so I picked up my buddy Yasir to accompany me in this endeavor, he was also delighted. Just because of this event we were the envy of many students in our School.
The first luxury car we owned was the Maruti Esteem. Now this car was a pleasure to drive. It was a 1300CC delivering 100BHP which at that time was phenomenal for Indian Roads. I experienced the thrill of speed in this car for the first time in my life. The initial pick-up was amazing and I use to clock 130KMPH in third gear!
Ten years back Spur Tank Road had very less traffic and I use to take the esteem for thrilling rides on this stretch.This was like a testing track with the road really straight.
One afternoon just after school hours I took the esteem from home went back to school(I was not allowed to self drive this car to school) to show off my prized possession. A few classmates were there playing basket ball. I picked them up and went on a drive. We started from DB on Casa major road through Pantheon road and then reached College road. Good Shepperd is located here and one of the guys in the car Manish asked me to take the car inside the Goodshe campus. I was like noways. He wanted to show off to his sister's friends!!!But me being the goody goody types said no way am driving it inside the girls school.
Incidentally my daughter is studying at Good Shepperd now and I go there often to drop n pick her :-)
The Esteem was the car in which I achieved my top speed of 150KMPH at that time. I have bettered that now by a big margin, read on to find out.
A year later we bought the Fiat UNO Petrol. This was the first European car we owned. European cars are built really strong and completely different from the Japanese ones.Though the UNO was a small car it gave me the feeling as If I'm driving a saloon. The Road grip was excellent and I used to feel really confident driving this car on the highways. The braking and power steering were very responsive.Top Speed 160KMPH.
Once I had a drag with a Merc C class. Me in my UNO!
The story goes like this. One night I was on my way to airport to pick up dad. Just after St.Thomas Mount a Merc overtook me. Now this stretch of GST Road from Mount to the Airport is a double lane one and neatly laid out. There was traffic and this worked to my advantage as on a straight line drag the Merc would leave my UNO behind 10 out of 10 times. But in traffic its a completely different story. Apparently the Merc was driven by a chauffeur who was also going to Airport to pick up his Boss.(I presumed).I really gave him a tough time as I could wiggle into small gaps too. But the Merc driver was also careless and drove very rashly.I did manage to keep the lead till we reached the airport. That really gave me a high.
After a year we traded the petrol UNO for a diesel one. This was also a good car with excellent mileage.This was the first car in which I fitted the Alloy Wheels. Pretty expensive then. I pestered my dad to get them from Srilanka.I had clocked nearly 50,000KMS before we sold this car.I was in my 2y BCOM then, though the UNO was not my personal car (I had the M800 new one of course)whenever my dad was out of city I would take this car to coll. I remember one day we bunked the college and went to ECR up to Mahabs. Kaf, Abiyaz, Mir, Faisal and Myself.(no long drives with girl friends for me,I told you earlier I was goody goody two shoes types :-).
On my 21st birthday we bought a Tata Indica Deisel Metallic Blue Color. I personally took the delivery of this car from VST Motors on Nov 18th my birthday. Birthday Gift Right? Wrong!
It so happened that it was just a coincidence that I took this car on the same day as my birthday.Just to make it spicy I started this para on those lines!!!!
The Tata Indica was a spacious car but not a pleasure to drive as the ride quality was not as good as the UNO.In fact it was very poor.Later on my bro modified this car like a Merc M class.He used to take it to Loyola.
The next luxury car was the Deawoo Cielo. This was a fuel guzzler.Very spacious and comfy.I wasn't a big fan of this car though.
My next car was the Skoda Octavia which I got as a gift in my wedding.Post-Wedding apart from my wife the best thing to happen to me is this car! I have clocked one hundred and twelve thousand kilometers in it. Have done innumerable drives criss crossing south India.Hyderabad Bangalore Mysore Coorg Ooty Kodai Munnar Palghat Bandipur Salem Coimbatore are some of the places which I have driven to from Chennai.The Top speed I have achieved is 190KMPH.I have driven countinously for 18 hours at a stretch, and once throughout the night too, which I shall elaborate in my next travel blog.
Hope you enjoyed reading.
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