[meta]

Hello Folks

I was born and brought up in Delhi, but California has been my home since the 1990s.

I've completely lost connection with India as I do not have any family there—the last I made a brief visit was over a decade ago. I cherish my childhood memories and feel deeply nostalgic every once in a while. It was during one such bout of nostalgia that I Googled around for the current car scene in India. That's how I came across Team-BHP as an online community with beyond-extreme focus on content quality. I am bemused and impressed with the lengths to which you guys go to ensure that.

Reading through some threads on Team-BHP, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how far along India has come in terms of the cars available. During "my time", it was really just two categories of cars one saw: the old guard (Ambassador, Premier Padmini, the occasional Hindustan Contessa) and Maruti, the new kid on the block. My childhood was happy and content, but it was sans cars—the only vehicle we had in the family was a Bajaj scooter. Nevertheless, I was always drawn to machinery, and cars in particular have always intrigued me. I still remember being in awe of the Maruti 1000 when it was introduced—it looked so much cooler than the Maruti 800!

As I grew up, I focused entirely and solely on work and kept my automotive passion in check until I could actually afford some bucket list cars. Once that happened though, I did get seriously into all things automotive. I have been fortunate in eventually having the time and the means to acquire and experience some of the greatest cars ever created. Today, I'm a customer of several iconic brands, including "mainstream" supercar brands such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini, and some not-so-usual suspects such as Bugatti, Koenigsegg, and Pagani.

I thought of reaching out to Team-BHP primarily because it feels like a great way to rekindle my connection with India using cars as subject matter. My personal experiences with unusual cars means I could share some unique perspectives with this community. As some of these cars are incredibly rare no matter where you are in the world, a lot of what people "know" is what the collective internet tells them, which in turn is often distorted or just plain wrong. It grinds my gears (pun unintended) to see misinformation perpetuate in a domain I care about. I'd be happy to clear the air in cases where I can. Finally, it would be meaningful for me to interact with enthusiasts across the globe with whom I share not just a hobby but also the Indian connection that I have lost over the years.

I hope to be able to add some value to this community.

Thank you.

[voldemort]

Welcome to Team-BHP!

Originally Posted by meta

Today, I'm a customer of several iconic brands, including "mainstream" supercar brands such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini, and some not-so-usual suspects such as Bugatti, Koenigsegg, and Pagani.

You got a Koenigsegg?!

Awesome collection of cars by the way .
Looking forward to your ownership experiences.

[SS-Traveller]

Wow... the centre console of a Pagani Huayra with the Team-BHP logo on it, is a heck of a way to introduce yourself!

Welcome to the Indian automotive scene, and have fun telling us about your cars. We would certainly look forward to those exotic ownership reviews.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by meta

I was born and brought up in Delhi, but California has been my home since the 1990s.
Today, I'm a customer of several iconic brands, including "mainstream" supercar brands such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini, and some not-so-usual suspects such as Bugatti, Koenigsegg, and Pagani.

Rule nos 1 after an introduction is to post a fresh thread with the cars in your life - Either you are in the auto business in some way or you are Bill Gates - II. Welcome to T-BHP.

[meta]

Thanks for the welcome.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Wow... the centre console of a Pagani Huayra with the Team-BHP logo on it, is a heck of a way to introduce yourself!

I thought people might find it cool.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Rule nos 1 after an introduction is to post a fresh thread with the cars in your life -

Yes, I'll start such a thread. We could discuss a lot of brands and cars, so I'll think about how best to approach it so that it's both interesting and useful.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Either you are in the auto business in some way or you are Bill Gates - II. Welcome to T-BHP.

Heh, no, not in any automotive business. By "a customer of" I just meant I've bought cars from these manufacturers. I did want to be precise because in some cases, especially with ultra-low-volume boutique manufacturers such as Koenigsegg and Pagani, the duration between becoming a customer (you pay for the car, usually in part, but can still be a substantial fraction of the final price) and receiving the car can be inordinately long. For example, my Pagani Huayra Roadster took almost exactly 30 months to arrive. I expect my Koenigsegg Jesko, which I ordered ~14 months ago, to take at least as long. These pursuits require gargantuan patience in addition to the expenditure! Here is one of my Jesko pictures from the Geneva Motor Show.

[NAVREVV]

Originally Posted by meta

I'm a customer of several iconic brands, including "mainstream" supercar brands such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini, and some not-so-usual suspects such as Bugatti, Koenigsegg, and Pagani.

Man O Man, You definitely look like a silicon valley business magnet.

I would be interested to have a look at your Bugatti and Pagani (Is it Huayra or Zonda?)

Can you line them up and post a photograph of your awesome car collection?

[meta]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

I would be interested to have a look at your Bugatti and Pagani (Is it Huayra or Zonda?)

Can you line them up and post a photograph of your awesome car collection?

"Lining them up" only works if the cars are all housed literally under one roof. I'm only being partially facetious, but depending on where you live, it is almost more difficult to come up with storage space for (a large number of) cars than to acquire the cars themselves. I currently have cars in multiple locations, including in Europe. I am actively working on changing that and should have a single, unified garage at my place in the not so distant future.

Here are a couple of pictures of two of my garages that are close to where I live. One shows a Pagani Huayra Roadster, a Ferrari 812superfast, and a Lamborghini Huracán Performante. The other shows a Type 35B and another Pagani.

[samaspire]

Hey Meta,
Nice to see an enthusiast here who has the cars and wants to share it with us (not literally for course . PS: would you ).

A very warm welcome to this big, crazy family. There are few supercar owners here - hope you can get them out of closet to share their stories as well.

Do share pictures of your vintage collection as well (caught a glimpse of one in the pictures).

Sam

[Rehaan]

Welcome aboard meta!

Your first picture does suit your handle well. A picture of Team-BHP on a Pagani on Team-BHP

Originally Posted by meta

...a lot of what people "know" is what the collective internet tells them, which in turn is often distorted or just plain wrong.

Keen to hear more about this...

- R

[AlphaKilo]

Hi Meta,

welcome to the Forum. Seeing your car collections, makes me think you surely have access to some exclusive private jets (if not already owning a few...)

So would be keen to know and understand about them in detail and may be a one of its kind TBHP first, private jet ownership thread would be greatly appreciated too!

P.S: How do you manage to find time to use all the toys you have? I am sure your work must be keeping you really busy too! Glad to get to know you!

[meta]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Welcome aboard meta!

Your first picture does suit your handle well. A picture of Team-BHP on a Pagani on Team-BHP

Thank you. Glad that you noticed the meta aspect!

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Seeing your car collections, makes me think you surely have access to some exclusive private jets (if not already owning a few...)


P.S: How do you manage to find time to use all the toys you have? I am sure your work must be keeping you really busy too! Glad to get to know you!

Nah, I'm not into planes, or boats for that matter. (Perhaps I should say "not ... yet", as one should never say never!)

Seriously though, aircraft ownership doesn't make financial sense for most people, even if they are ultra wealthy. There is a narrow range of use cases and ownership scenarios, especially when you can run the ownership through a business, when it may make sense. Otherwise, it's way too much money for some theater and drama. Now, I fully sense the apparent hypocrisy in that statement because one could say the same thing about multi-million-dollar cars

However, commercial air travel works well enough most of the time that you can pay for business or first class, get most of the comfort and convenience benefits, and still come out way ahead compared to the hassle and cost of owning or time-sharing a jet.

That discipline is applicable to all material objects, actually, be it a house or a car or whatever: you initially spend money to acquire them, but then it's a relationship. They continue to be a liability because you need to maintain them, pay taxes on them, insure them, be responsible for their whereabouts and well being, and so on. Therefore, I tend to only indulge in the set of things I truly am passionate about lest it should be a bad relationship. Not that I haven't chatted with jet companies occasionally

As for time management, it is a feedback loop. The best thing success can buy you is not material objects, but intellectual independence. For me, that independence doesn't mean retirement or freedom from work—it just means I can work on things I really want to work on and conversely, I'm not forced to work on things I don't care about. Of course, a secondary benefit is the ability to indulge in material interests such as performance cars. As you acquire more cars and undertake responsibility for them, you need a bigger budget. That means you need to work better/harder, the encouragement and stimulation for which comes from the fact that cars make you happy. Hence the feedback loop.