Me and my Lamborghini

The Chairman and MD of Raymonds has many fast cars, jets and yachts to choose from, but if he had to choose, he’d pick his 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo.

I bought this Gallardo two years back from Lamborghini India’s showroom in New Delhi. I had wanted a Lambo for a really long time, so I went and picked the newest model—the 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo. I’ve been passionate about cars from a very young age. My earliest memories are from the age of four when I went karting. It comes from my uncle—my father’s brother—who loved cars, too. What I love about it is that it can be a pleasant drive during peak hour traffic as well as in the quiet of the night. The suspension, lifting technology and just the experience of the drive has me hooked. Of course, I don’t drive it anywhere. When there are space constraints for parking, I opt for my Honda City.

The Lamborghini is something I save for quiet, evening drives with friends, sometimes in the wee hours of the night, and when I’m attending parties. Once a month, a few friends and I take our cars for a spin within the city. Even going at 40 kmph is fine by me, even though a lot of people are shocked to hear this. I share my cars with my friends who I trust are good drivers. All they have to do is say which car they want on a particular evening and the keys find their way into their hands. One of my favourite drives, however, was when I came close to testing the Gallardo’s maximum speed limit on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The Lambo can hit speeds of over 190 miles/h (over 300 km/h). The Lambo isn’t very demanding either. I used to look after it myself, but lately I’ve been too busy.

For its servicing, the Lamborghini service centre in New Delhi sends over experts to take a look. But I can get meticulous. Recently, I was looking for a particular Lamborghini badge that I wanted to affix on the car. It’s an aftermarket badge that is meant for the side of the car. I went through months of trying to locate it when Lamborghini India located it for me from one of their European showrooms where I could find it, and ensured that it was fixed under my supervision. I get some fascinating reactions in the Lamborghini. People are awestruck by it. Some try to peek inside, some want to touch it or get a picture with it when no one is around.

Once, at Marine Drive, there was almost an accident because other drivers were more interested in looking at my Gallardo than at the road ahead! I don’t mind. I wish more people would aspire to get the best sports car in the world and have Gautam Singhania fuming over why he doesn’t have it yet! That’s why I organised the Super Car Parade 2009 in April. A group of people on a heritage walk just stopped for about 15minutes to admire the “modern” sports cars instead of the heritage structures at Kala Ghoda.