Post by talk2santosh on Mar 15, 2004 0:19:43 GMT -5
At Motoring, there is always an air of expectation that builds up every time a new car has to be driven or tested -- whether it be the new Maini G-Wiz (aka Reva) or a priceless Jaguar XK150.
It is not unusual for some of us to endure agonising nights before the photo session and drive. My routine involves psyching out everyone around me, at home, office, and if possible, the neighbourhood.
On such mornings, I wake up pretty early, make my own coffee and leave before the sun is up. But the excitement was missing the night before the Maybach drive. Allow me to explain.
The only thing that was luring me to make the trip to the Pimpri factory of DaimlerChrysler was our mode of transport.
We had a prospective Maybach customer -- the son of a Maharaja to be precise -- coming with us to Pune, and he had brought along a very powerful American sports car for the trip. Now that was reason enough to get excited and not the Maybach.
Seriously, after all that hype and price shock, I was in no mood to drive the Maybach and I was pretty confident that the only real outcome of the drive would be to casually boast to various people that I have driven the Rs 5.5 crore (Rs 55 million) car.
Seriously, there are times when a car maker decides the opinions of motoring journalists do not really count.
Especially so, when they are re-inventing luxury automobiles and are busy reincarnating dead brands. Two years ago, I was at the Geneva Motor Show, trying to get the first peek of the Maybach 62, an ultra-luxury sedan that DaimlerChrysler decided to build for the stupendously rich and dangerously powerful people in this world.
The car, sorry, automobile, was on display all right, but some smart-alec had decided to put it in a glass house, to give it that elusive-hence-exclusive aura.
Not satisfied with just that, they gave an extremely dark tint to the glass walls, so that those who really wanted to see the car had to press their noses and cheeks to the glass and peep.
Occasionally, they would let in a shimmer of light to allow poor scribes, ranging from Road & Track editors to the Pick-Up Magazine reporter from Lithuania, struggle hard to see its silhouette. It looked like a large car and I could just about make out the twin-tone colour scheme of it.
Around me, journalists were pleading to rather proud DaimlerChrysler employees to part with their Double-M coat-pin that signified the rebirth of the Maybach brand.
And another group fought for the press kit in English, something that would fetch them a great deal, say ten years down the line. I fought off the stout challenge from a stubborn French journalist and managed to get a French edition.
The kit was just short of a gilt-edged affair and had real pictures of the Maybach -- making the above-mentioned dark-glass aquarium stunt quite a pointless exercise.
In a way, DC was telling the world, 'whatever you have to say, dear scribe, we really don't care. This is the mightiest, most expensive automobile of them all and you will never be able to influence its prospective buyers with your comments -- because they are too busy to read you.'
And there, I buried my hope of driving one in this lifetime and walked away to ogle at Alfa Romeos with beautiful women all over them at Giugiaro's pavilion. At least the subjects were better lit.
Later I came to know that DaimlerChrysler India was homologating the Maybach for India and was seriously surprised to see a right-hand drive version on display at the Auto Expo in Delhi.
A shocker price tag of Rs 5.5 crore meant the otherwise lukewarm Expo had a real star and people thronged to get a glimpse of the Maybach.
Trust me, I really didn't know how many zeroes were there in Rs 5.5 crore and even then didn't harbour any hopes of getting behind the wheel of one.
After showing off the only Maybach in the subcontinent at various golf tournaments (wrong people, DC, catch those who have 19 holes in their backyard instead), the firm called motoring journalists -- yes! -- to have a go.
That is why we were at Pimpri on this scorcher of a day when the merciless sun was in a mood to bake us inside out. The 430 bhp supercharged Chevrolet Camaro that we drove to Pune was amazing -- and that topless red missile made sure that the journey was pretty short and incredible fun. Once at the DCI plant, we made the customary phone calls and waited at the reception.
in.rediff.com/money/2004/mar/13motoring.htm