[sreeharipv]

Well, too many things! I wish thoughts came in order!

The Coincidence!

I was using my friend's Classic 350 from January first week when I came back from US after an year because he came to US when I left. Ha landed back on this Monday morning and I had to give it back to him and had to take a get dropped at home.

While having dinner I decided that it's now or never that I get my first car (officially!) for two reasons. One, I hate summers and I couldn't imagine myself sitting/hanging from the side of the driver seat in a share auto exposed to the obnoxious diesel smoke from passing buses and trucks in scorching heat. Now that I don't have a ride and if I'm to spend money on a car it's worth more if I spend it now rather than letting the summer pass. Two, to me car is a basic necessity of life which I've denied myself (for different reasons). It's like a second home, wherever you go with it, you have place of your own. Go to the mall, you don't have to carry the helmet around. Go for shopping, you don't have to prepare for it. Go for badminton game, your non marking shoes and racket is always there in the boot. Show up at an important occasion and your face and shirt is not covered in muck. So, car's a necessity of an active lifestyle, at least for me.

After the aforementioned dinner, I called the owner of the Chevy Optra listing that I've been eyeing (and had test driven on saturday) and confirmed the availability of the car and said I might show up to discuss. Grabbed my cheque book, asked my friend to drive me there. My plan was to give them the cheque and wait for them to cash it to take the possession of the car. My friend said that we will convince them to give the car trusting us. But, I was not convinced!

Went up there, discussed the terms and convinced them to give us the car against the check. The whole thing got over at 1 am. No one in office had a clue that I would drive in Tuesday morning the car I said was interested in only the previous day!

Tuesday night I was searching for stuff for my car and Team-bhp showed up a lot of times. That's when I remembered I was not reading team-bhp for a year or so. I was all over Tesla Motors forums the whole time. I thought I'll give it a shot after couple of years and it worked technically the same day I got my first car! Coincidence!

The Me!

I and my younger brother were born as car enthusiasts. We had cars in our family from 1930s (my great grand father's driving licence from 1931 is with my grand father, still!) until 90s when I was a little kid. Then there was a gap. There's been countless instances in my life where I missed having a car in family and for myself later.

I and my brother learned driving in a 1970 Premier Padmini which my uncle got in place of 20000 bucks someone had to pay him and it was stocked in our house and was barely drivable. Good thing for me and my brother, it had an LPG kit. We would sneak out the LPG cylinder from kitchen when mom was away and go for a ride in the good old Padmini. We both learned driving by just driving it ourselves. It was just instinctive, no one looked over, no one had to tell us a thing. He drove first. Oh that car, that was famous in our place. It didn't have one thing that was working properly. It explains if I say we used to park the car only on slopes so that we can start it even if the battery drained (in the ten minutes that we were away!) That was quite an epic. We sold it for scrap value some time in 2006-07

We decided we'll trade used cars while I was in my third year of Engineering (NIT Calicut). We ended up buying a M800, an Ambassodor, a Jeep and a Cielo (yes, a Daewoo Cielo) in my third year summer break. Oh boy, we lost a lot of money there and the Cielo stuck on. No one wanted to buy that. It was sold for scrap later when we bought a new Ritz in 2010. But that gave the feeling of a full sized car for the first time. That thing used to give 3 km to a liter. Epic!

All I wanted to do after my Engineering was design cars. I used worship Mercedes Benz and used to think Stuttgart was where I wanted to be. Later ended up designing Subsea Wellheads in an International Oil and Gas supplier company in 2009. Worked in Hyderabad, France, Singapore and USA. I like technical, understand how stuff work and like to reason things.

Car shows, I like CNET on cars by Brian Cooley. I like his style. And the obvious TopGear.

Now, Tesla is my favorite car company and to me the only one that matters. And Elon Musk is my role model, the only one.

Nice to be here and love the quality of discussions!

[a4anurag]

Welcome Onboard, Nice intro.

Do go through the forum rules once.

How is the Ritz doing? Is it still there or sold?

[sreeharipv]

Thanks! The Ritz is still there at home back in Kerala. I live in Hyderabad. By the way, writing this on the way back home on a bus.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

Thanks! The Ritz is still there at home back in Kerala. I live in Hyderabad. By the way, writing this on the way back home on a bus.

Oh yes, I just did notice your 'Location' as I was browsing from the mobile App.

Hope to meet you soon. Have a great stay here and see you around.

[petrolhead_neel]

Welcome onboard. Have a nice stay. That was a nice intro. Ownership reviews awaited.

Good to see that you are a die hard fan of Tesla. They have some uniqueness in their designs.

I will probably take some pointers from you to pursue my aim of becoming a car designer.

Keep revvin'
petrolhead_neel

[Turbo_asd]

Welcome onboard. Hope you have an enjoyable stay here.
Take a glance at the rules before proceeding.

My mom had a Padmini as a child. If she recalls correctly, learning to drive in it was no easy feat! Wonder how you managed it yourself.

It would have been lovely to have a Merc designer on board, but for now I'm joining your cause and rooting for Tesla model S in India. Really ambitious, I know, but what's life without some optimism?

[FINTAIL]

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

Well, too many things! I wish thoughts came in order!

Nice to be here and love the quality of discussions!

To correct you a bit:

The 1970 Premier Padmini never existed. The first Padmini was seen in the second half of 1974. The FIAT 1100 Delight was produced from 1964 (Indian Assembled; CKD) to 1972.

A lesser known car- The Premier President was made from 1973-1974.

And yes- So, your car will be a FIAT 1100D.

We have a 1972 example at home. Epic car- yeah. Everyone recognizes you, no one dares to cross paths...You know the privileges!

But- That day unfortunately, the car was struggling to climb (small) slopes, the motor almost overheated, and me?

**I was roasted!** - This was the great Indian summer, after all!

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. Keeping a car like this. The car's condition isn't that great, half eaten away by rust, but then, people even 'restore' Padmini's these days.

Perhaps scrapping it- and getting a Mercedes will help.

Gawd, I'm a confused fella, wot?

'Neways, REFER to the rules : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/announ...e-posting.html

Cya about!

[sreeharipv]

Thanks everyone! I didn't know about 1100 Delight. I always recognized the body type as Padmini. But now I recall the 1100 D badge on the boot and my brother says he knew all about it back in the day!

I reviewed the rules and am hoping I didn't break any!

[FINTAIL]

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

Thanks everyone! I didn't know about 1100 Delight. I always recognized the body type as Padmini. But now I recall the 1100 D badge on the boot and my brother says he knew all about it back in the day!

Did it look something like this :



'Neways, your comments are solicitated, for this bit of text: What would you do, if :

**I was roasted!** - This was the great Indian summer, after all!

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. Keeping a car like this. The car's condition isn't that great, half eaten away by rust, but then, people even 'restore' Padmini's these days.

Perhaps scrapping it- and getting a Mercedes will help.

The car ain't in a good condition. So- as an (ex) owner, what would you do here?

[sreeharipv]

Oh yes, exactly! Btw, more coincidences. This time a little bitter.

I was driving from Palakkad to my home in the Ritz and met with an accident. A bike rider (18-20 yo kid) who I was passing decided to turn to the right without any indication or looking back. I slammed on the brakes and still hit him on the silencer after a fair bit of tyre screeching. The pillion rider (his dad) fell off and was rushed to the hospital.

A hospital scene and some CT scans later doctors said he is fine. The kid who was driving had only a minor skin scratch on his toe. Thank Goodness!

My dad, brother and I were wearing seat belts and were spared of the brake slamming trauma. No one ever from now is sitting in my car without seat belts on, not that I let people before.

Anyways, one more reason to get a dash cam.