[rd_maverick]

Hi Guys!!

I have been a lurker on this forum for as long as i remember with the occasional comment.I love going through the forums late at night and the iPad app has made it so much more easier

A brief background about me, after my MBA in India and working for a year, i moved to Dubai in 2010.

Got my first car here in 2010 Dec, a pre loved BMW 320i, with 40K kms on the odo. Got married and as we both are working we needed/wanted 2 cars , and the hunt started.

I wanted a 4X4, and i love the Range Rover. Thought it was too much too early in life for me to go for a new RR and stretch my finances in its maintenance. My wife was against a used car and i was also vary of the exorbitant maintenance bills on these.

Checked out other options like the Toyota Land Cruiser , VW Touareg and the Nissan Patrol (love it !!)

Wife wanted the VW and me the Patrol. This argument went for a month and to ease the situation we both gave in and decided to go for a new sedan.

Now, again got back to my fav past time, TD cars, drove the A6, E class and the BMW. Was deciding on the E, with a decent balance of features and performance.

This is when, i decided to check out an "Indian' car. The Jag XF.

Both of us absolutely fell in love with the looks of the car. the interiors were definitely better than the Germans and the rotating air con vents and the gear selector were brilliant!!TD the V6 version and it was decent. Decided to TD the V8 and had a grin plastered to our face , we just could not stop smiling and the V8 was around 30K US$ cheaper than the Germans so it was a no brainer.

We decided on a black car with black interiors with the 3 year service package and the 5 yr warranty and got the delivery on our Wedding anniversary.

Its been a 15 months with the Jag and we love driving it. the rush of 375 horses is amazing. Its very diff from the 320i which has a more sharper handling and is a fun car in corners.

Apologies for the long post. Have added a few pics, kndly excuse the quality.

Also had the fortune to Keep the yellow 458 in the pictures below for a day and that is a different beast altogether

Cheers

[GTO]

Lucky you! The pic of the 3 beasts had me drool. Hope to read more on your experience with the yellow beast.

Originally Posted by rd_maverick

This is when, i decided to check out an "Indian' car. The Jag XF.

Good one and so true! V8 =

Welcome...

[Loud]

Hi rd_maverick! A long due "Welcome to T-BHP" to you. Have a great stay here.

Glad that I opened this thread to have a look! The Jag looks incredible, waiting for an ownership report of that, and other cars also. Hoping to see you participating actively now in the forum and its activities.

As said by GTO, I was also drooling at the second pic, with my jaws dropped and eyes W-I-D-E open! The rims of the Italia look SUPER!

The 458 Italia for 1 day? I couldn't understand.

[rd_maverick]

Thank you so much guys.

Definitely look forward to a lot more active participation in the forum.

As for the 458 Italia, well I was working with the main distributor for Xbox in the Middle East and being a Product manager had its benefits

This was last year October when we launched Microsoft's racing game "Forza Horizon" in the Middle East.

The launch involved getting together a group of 50-60 journalists/gamers and driving from Microsoft HQ to a popular desort resort , 50-60 kms from Dubai.

Me & a car minded colleague got the enviable job of choosing the cars and renting it. Well, the list we came up was :

1. Ferrari 458 Italia (Yellow)
2. Ferrari 458 Italia (Red)
3. Lamborghini Gallordo.
4. Mercedes SLS AMG.
5. Bentley Continental GT.
6. Mercedes G63 AMG.
7. BMW X6 Hamman.

and a few others like and a 612 Scalgetti, Chargers. Camaro, 370z, S2000, GTI , BMW 840i among others.We also had a lot of SUV's and trucks like the Raptor, Patrol etc.

We also had an Aventador for display ( No driving allowed !!)

The journalists had all the fun while going to the event, i was shotgun in a friend's 370Z. The car did not impress me much.

At the destination when all these guys got busy with the virtual gaming we got a chance to drive all these beauties on speed camera free roads

We had a blast for the next few hours just taking turns to drive all the exotics. The 458 just does not misbehave on the roads no matter how much one pushes it while the Lambo lives up to its reputation and needs minimum effort to go sideways.

The most popular car was definitely the SLS and it deserved to be. A beautiful car and drives like a dream.

The G63 is a mean SUV which can crush anything its path and is fassst for its size. It actually never had too much trouble keeping up with the others.

The Bentley was a obviously very luxurious and comfortable to drive. Am not too fond of the X6 but it was pretty fast.

Well, by evening me and a friend managed to speak to our desi friend in the car rental company and talked him into (after some chai-paani money) letting us keep 2 cars till the next afternoon.

I got to keep the 458 (yellow) as the red was having a few problems with some hard driving throughout the day and my friend kept the SLS.

Drove the 458 home and decided to take the missus out for a fancy dinner. Obviously got one of the prime valet spots at the hotel.

Took it to a few camera free roads and had a blast till wee hours of the morning. It was very tough to get the car to go sideways, it almost never did. Have decided that someday soon a Ferrari will have to be a part of my garage. They are impeccable.

I am posting a link to the Facebook photos of an open group. Hope it is not an issue.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0689731&type=3